MediaPortal Wiki 
MediaPortal WebEPG
What is WebEPG
WebEPG is a Electronic Program Guide grabbing application. There are several other programs that do what WebEPG does, but not as easily and not as well integrated with MediaPortal.
WebEPG advantages
One of the big problems of a general EPG grabbing application, like XMLTV, in MediaPortal is that channel names don't match the names used in MediaPortal, causing the TV guide data not to be imported properly. This is what WebEPG aims to address. WebEPG uses the channels created by MediaPortal and with the user's input, maps that to the channel from the TV Guide site. It doesn't require the user to change any channel names.
When downloading EPG data from DVB, you only get data for the next 48 hours. With online TV Guide grabbers like WebEPG you may get up to 14 days!
Using WebEPG
Overview
There are three basic steps in using WebEPG:
Configure WebEPG to associate channels from your TV card with program data on the internet.
Download program data from the internet, either manually or scheduled using the WebEPG grabber plugin.
Open MediaPortal and the program data should be automatically imported into the program guide.
WebEPG Configuration
When using a TV card, make sure you have set the TV channels either in the original integrated TV engine (TVE2) or the newer stand-alone TV server (TVE3).
Open your MediaPortal program files folder and start WebEPG-conf.exe.
First, import the channel information from MediaPortal. Do this by selecting either MediaPortal or TV Server in the Source dropdown list in the Import Channel Data box. Then, click on the Import button. Note that the channels may not be in the order you defined in your TV setup, but this has no influence on the display order in your program guide inside MediaPortal.
If you don't want to receive program data for some of the channels, you can remove them by highlighting the channel and clicking the Remove button. You may be able to add additional channels manually using the New Channel box, but for me these don't show up in the program guide.
You can try the Auto Mapping feature to automatically configure your channels based on the channel names. Select your country in the Country dropdown list, and then click the Auto Map button. When several data sources are found for a channel, the first one will be used.
To manually assign data sources to a channel, select a channel to configure and click the ... (browse) button behind the Channel textbox on the right side of the window. A Selection dialog will show up now. Fold out the Web Sites item, and then fold out your country item.
Choose one of the available data sources, and select the channel from this list. If the channel is not available in the list, it may be available in one of the other data sources, or else underneath one of the other countries, if it is a foreign channel. If you still cannot find your channel listed, you may need to edit or create a new Site Configuration/Grabber File. See customizing WebEPG for details. Click the Select button to assign the data source to the channel. You do not need to close the selection window yet. Just move it to the side a bit, and click one of the other channels in the underlying WebEPG Config window. Then repeat the previous procedure to assign a data source to this channel. After you've assign all channels, you can Close the window.
Some channels show more than one TV station, switching halfway the day from one station to the other. To configure these channels, click the Multiple (Merged) button. Then click the Add button to start defining the day sections. The Merged Channel Details window will show up now.
As with normal channels, click the ... (browse) button again to assign a data source. But now you also need to enter a starting and an ending time for the part of the day on which this station shows. Note: there is currently a bug in WebEPG which drops the first item that starts exactly at the switching time. To work around this bug, just set the starting time one minute earlier. If the switch happens as 19:00, just enter 18:59 as the starting time. You don't have to do this for the ending time.
Press Ok to close the window, and repeat this process for each TV station that shows on this channel.
Finally, you can define the number of days you want to download program data for. Specify this number in the Grab Days box. Be aware that you can not download more days than your data sources provide (you can see this amount in the Guide Days box for each channel), and that specifying more days means an increase in the amount of time it takes to download your whole guide.
Now click Save and close the application with the X button in the top right corner of the window. (There is not proper exit function.)
Downloading EPG Data
Manual downloading
Open your MediaPortal program files folder and start WebEPG.exe. The WebEPG program has no interface. This means you will not see anything happening, and you will not get a notification when it's finished downloading. However you can have a look at the xmltv folder inside the MediaPortal application data folder. While WebEPG is downloading data you will see a TVguide-writing.XML file, when it's finished it will be renamed to TVguide.XML.
Scheduled downloading
With the WebEPG grabber plugin you can schedule automatic updates of WebEPG.
Customizing WebEPG
WebEPG can be customized by editing existing site configuration (to add new channels, remove old ones, get extra data, etc), or by creating new configuration files for sites not currently listed.
For details see: Customizing WebEPG
Troubleshooting
- When assigning data source to channels in WebEPG configuration, the data source does not list your channel.
- Not every data source has information on all channels. Try another data source, or even another country if it is a foreign channel.
If you still cannot find your channel listed, you may need to edit or create a new Site Configuration/Grabber File. See customizing WebEPG
- No program data is showing up.
Make sure there is a TVguide.xml file in the xmltv folder inside the MediaPortal application data folder.
Make sure that the path to the tvguide.xml file is correct in MediaPortal Configuration > Television > XMLTV (integrated TV engine v0.2) or TV-Server Configuration > Plugins > XMLTV (stand-alone TV server v0.3).
- Manually added channels don't show up in the program guide.
- Only channels whose name exactly matches a channel in your TV setup, will show up in the program guide.
- Some programs are missing on merged channels.
- This is a known bug; set the starting time of the station switch one minute earlier.
- No program data available after midnight on merged channels.
- No solution is known.
- Other
Check webEPG.log inside the MediaPortal log files folder for details.
Consult the forums.
Going further
To beef up your EPG, why not add some nice TV channel logos?