Overview

How to get EPG (Electronic Program Guide) data for your TV Guide in MediaPortal 

Methods

The Electronic Program Guide (EPG) is one of the most important parts of the MediaPortal TV system. Having a reliable EPG makes your TV experience more like a commercial set top box (e.g. Sky Digibox).  

There are many different ways to populate your EPG (via internet data and data received by your TV tuner).The best method depends on your TV Card. region, Service Provider and the quality of data available.

This guide presents the main methods plus several different Setup tutorials, with examples for specific regions/countries:

DVB

if you have a DVB TV Card and your TV broadcaster includes good EPG data this is the easiest method to use:

• DVB EPG Data

However, often DVB sources provide data only for the next 48 hours, which is not very useful for scheduling recordings.

XMLTV 

XMLTV is an XML based file format for describing TV listings. There are a number of software tools that you can use to download your EPG data and import it into MediaPortal using the included XmlTV plugin - see TV Guide > EPG > XMLTV for some of the more popular tools.

This guide includes the following Setup Tutorials:

• XMLTV mc2xml - using the XmlTv plugin and mc2xml program to download TV Listings from Windows Media Center (MSN/Micosoft), TitanTV, or Schedules Direct, - works for most countries including Canada and the US.
• XMLTV GUI - especially for the UK (Radio Times, Bleb.org, Digiguide), North America (Schedules Direct), Denmakre (ONTV) and Israel (AZTV), with Lua scripting support for other sources
• WebGrab+Plus - more than 130 TV-guide sites worldwide.(see the supported sites)

Note: Not all sources of XMLTV EPG data are free. Some require subscription or membership fees on the website.

WebEPG

WebEPG is a plugin provided with MediaPortal. It actually uses XMLTV format, but was designed by and for MediaPortal. It can grab data from about 100 different websites from over 30 different countries, with 'grabbers' added regularly. You can even create your own grabber for your preferred TV Listings website.

One of the big advantages of WebEPG is that your channel names will automatically match the TV Channels you scan into MediaPortal. WebEPG uses the channels created by MediaPortal and let's you easily map them to the channel from the TV Guide site. In addition with WebEPG you may get up to 14 days EPG data!

• WebEPG - includes details on using IMDb grabber for US locations.

SchedulesDirect Plugin

If you are in the USA, Canada or Mexico, you may also try the SchedulesDirect Guide Importer TV-Server plugin. It includes the ability to "enrich" your guide data with SxxExx (season/episode) information for upcoming recordings from thetvdb.com (similar to the MP-TVSeries plugin)

See the Configuration Guide for setup information.

TV Movie EPG Import Plugin

If you are in Germany, you can use the TV Movie EPG Import TV-Server plugin included in MediaPortal. The plugin maps data for German TV channels from the TV Movie Clickfinder Database to your MediaPortal TV channels.

The TV Movie EPG import++ extension offers a replacement for the standard plugin included in MediaPortal with many more features, and additional data which can be used with the Clickfinder ProgramGuide extension.

Digital Television

There are several different broadcast standards throughout the world. The method you choose to get EPG data depends on the standard used in your region:

For example, you will only get EPG data from DVB Sources in countries that support it.

Related

TopicsXMLTV WebGrab Plus

NOTE: Instructions for the tvguide.com option no longer work. Do not try to use these setup instructions. The WebGrab++ site/forum may have some suggestions/options for USA EPG download.
 
How to get EPG data for your TV Guide using the XmlTv plugin and WebGrab+Plus program.Tutorials

• DVB EPG Data (Beginner)
• WebEPG (Intermediate)
• XMLTV GUI (Intermediate)
• XMLTV mc2xml (Intermediate)