[TheGame1986]

^^^ Great work on this @primaeval

[mendes]

I am using Kodi 17.4 on Windows 10 and I cannot figure out how to reapply already defined channel mappings to TV Guide Fullscreen. This is the situation:

I have an EPG xml created with Webgrab+ with around 70 channels and I assigned streams to each channel manually via Stream Setup > Browse, selecting live channels in various video addons. With these channel mappings automatically saved in custom_stream_urls_autosave.ini I thought I had everything under control and could reapply the channel mappings at any time, especially after backing up custom_stream_urls_autosave.ini to another folder. But after a reset I find it impossible to import or apply the channel mappings to TV Guide Fullscreen.

• If I put my backed up custom_stream_urls_autosave.ini into C:\Users\myusername\AppData\Roaming\Kodi\userdata\addon_data\script.tvguide.fullscreen and start TVGF it is overwritten and replaced with an empty custom_stream_urls_autosave.ini.
  
• If I instead try to import the mappings from custom_stream_urls_autosave.ini via Settings > Backup > Import Channel Mappings, following the instructions in this post, I get a message saying Imported channel mappings but no channel mappings are actually applied.
  

I have also tried to import the information in custom_stream_urls_autosave.ini via Settings > Optional > Import mapping.ini without success. The import process runs forever trying to load data and has to be aborted manually. I cannot find any detailed instructions regarding how to use mapping.ini, addons.ini and channels.ini, or sample files showing the syntax, so I don't even know if the information in custom_stream_urls_autosave.ini can be reused in other ini files.

I realise that I should have exported the manual channel mappings after defining them the first time, but I thought they were in the right place in custom_stream_urls_autosave.ini.

[primaeval]

I am using Kodi 17.4 on Windows 10 and I cannot figure out how to reapply already defined channel mappings to TV Guide Fullscreen. This is the situation:

I have an EPG xml created with Webgrab+ with around 70 channels and I assigned streams to each channel manually via Stream Setup > Browse, selecting live channels in various video addons. With these channel mappings automatically saved in custom_stream_urls_autosave.ini I thought I had everything under control and could reapply the channel mappings at any time, especially after backing up custom_stream_urls_autosave.ini to another folder. But after a reset I find it impossible to import or apply the channel mappings to TV Guide Fullscreen.

• If I put my backed up custom_stream_urls_autosave.ini into C:\Users\myusername\AppData\Roaming\Kodi\userdata\addon_data\script.tvguide.fullscreen and start TVGF it is overwritten and replaced with an empty custom_stream_urls_autosave.ini.
  
• If I instead try to import the mappings from custom_stream_urls_autosave.ini via Settings > Backup > Import Channel Mappings, following the instructions in this post, I get a message saying Imported channel mappings but no channel mappings are actually applied.
  

I have also tried to import the information in custom_stream_urls_autosave.ini via Settings > Optional > Import mapping.ini without success. The import process runs forever trying to load data and has to be aborted manually. I cannot find any detailed instructions regarding how to use mapping.ini, addons.ini and channels.ini, or sample files showing the syntax, so I don't even know if the information in custom_stream_urls_autosave.ini can be reused in other ini files.

I realise that I should have exported the manual channel mappings after defining them the first time, but I thought they were in the right place in custom_stream_urls_autosave.ini.

I just checked it on Win7 Jarvis 16.1 and it still works ok.

This is what you need to do.

When you exit the guide your last channel mappings are saved as:
userdata\addon_data\script.tvguide.fullscreen\custom_stream_urls_autosave.ini

When you do "Settings\Backup\Export Channel Mappings" it makes a file called:
userdata\addon_data\script.tvguide.fullscreen\custom_stream_urls.ini

When you do "Settings\Backup\Import Channel Mappings" it uses that same file:
userdata\addon_data\script.tvguide.fullscreen\custom_stream_urls.ini

Import, Export and Clear Channel Mappings should popup a background notification to say they have finished.
It should be almost instantaneous.

If you want to Import the Autosave that you backed up earlier copy it to:
userdata\addon_data\script.tvguide.fullscreen\custom_stream_urls.ini
and
"Settings\Backup\Import Channel Mappings"

If that doesn't work there might be a bug. There are frequently unicode problems that need to be fixed.


Make sure you have turned off "Settings\Source\Reset on Start" or it might reset your channel mappings.

You should be able to use the autosave file in "Settings\Optional\Import mapping.ini" but make sure it isn't one of the files mentioned above or it might try and read and write the files at the same time.

If you get stuck zip up your addon_data folder and pm me a link.

[MikeKL]

@primaeval Just a heads up that I am again using TVGF with latest LibreELEC nightly builds of Leia for rpi2 with no major usage issues (jumped from build #0603 to approx #0824 and currently running #0831) and it appears that issue with maintaining addon users TVFG settings during move up-to latest Leia builds may be resolved etc

With latest nightlies there is also an ability to check each addons "addon dependencies" from within kodi GUI and I have noted that script.module.pil is currently unavailable.



I am currently not noticing any issues with use of TV Guide Fullscreen with this missing addon dependency. (basic skin)
Post purely for your overall information as I have no understanding how pil being "temp" unavailable impacts typical usage of TVGF

[primaeval]

@primaeval Just a heads up that I am again using TVGF with latest LibreELEC nightly builds of Leia for rpi2 with no major usage issues (jumped from build #0603 to approx #0824 and currently running #0831) and it appears that issue with maintaining addon users TVFG settings during move up-to latest Leia builds may be resolved etc

With latest nightlies there is also an ability to check each addons "addon dependencies" from within kodi GUI and I have noted that script.module.pil is currently unavailable.


I am currently not noticing any issues with use of TV Guide Fullscreen with this missing addon dependency. (basic skin)
Post purely for your overall information as I have no understanding how pil being "temp" unavailable impacts typical usage of TVGF

Thanks for the info.

I was hoping the pil module would be fixed by now. It is used for scaling the channel images from TheLogoDb. I've put in some code in Krypton that just bypasses it but the logos can look a bit crappy without proper rescaling via pil. I'll have a look at it some time. If anyone wants to scale their TheLogoDb channel images it should still work in Jarvis.

Did you come across the error that josegerez came across in LibreELEC 8.1.0 ?

[MikeKL]

Did you come across the error that josegerez came across in LibreELEC 8.1.0 ?

Possibly, you know the recent code you added to enable modification of timezone of xmltv data on the fly (whilst retaining orginal source xmltv), after playing around with that recent added option in TVGF I did notice an occasional issue with EPG never loading again where I think GUI errror message may/was similar... (never investigated further, just reset TVGF DB's as I personally had no need to modify timezone of my webgrabplus created/prepared xmltv)

Perhaps switching this option on and off can cause corruption somehow/somewhere on an rpi running latest versions of LibreELEC?

[primaeval]

Did you come across the error that josegerez came across in LibreELEC 8.1.0 ?

Possibly, you know the recent code you added to enable modification of timezone of xmltv data on the fly (whilst retaining orginal source xmltv), after playing around with that recent added option in TVGF I did notice an occasional issue with EPG never loading again where I think GUI errror message may/was similar... (never investigated further, just reset TVGF DB's as I personally had no need to modify timezone of my webgrabplus created/prepared xmltv)

Perhaps switching this option on and off can cause corruption somehow/somewhere on an rpi running latest versions of LibreELEC?

Thanks. Maybe it was an uninitialized variable. It's difficult to tell from just one error report. It was this post:
https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid...pid2635988

[mendes]

I am using Kodi 17.4 on Windows 10 and I cannot figure out how to reapply already defined channel mappings to TV Guide Fullscreen. This is the situation:

I have an EPG xml created with Webgrab+ with around 70 channels and I assigned streams to each channel manually via Stream Setup > Browse, selecting live channels in various video addons. With these channel mappings automatically saved in custom_stream_urls_autosave.ini I thought I had everything under control and could reapply the channel mappings at any time, especially after backing up custom_stream_urls_autosave.ini to another folder. But after a reset I find it impossible to import or apply the channel mappings to TV Guide Fullscreen.

• If I put my backed up custom_stream_urls_autosave.ini into C:\Users\myusername\AppData\Roaming\Kodi\userdata\addon_data\script.tvguide.fullscreen and start TVGF it is overwritten and replaced with an empty custom_stream_urls_autosave.ini.
  
• If I instead try to import the mappings from custom_stream_urls_autosave.ini via Settings > Backup > Import Channel Mappings, following the instructions in this post, I get a message saying Imported channel mappings but no channel mappings are actually applied.
  

I have also tried to import the information in custom_stream_urls_autosave.ini via Settings > Optional > Import mapping.ini without success. The import process runs forever trying to load data and has to be aborted manually. I cannot find any detailed instructions regarding how to use mapping.ini, addons.ini and channels.ini, or sample files showing the syntax, so I don't even know if the information in custom_stream_urls_autosave.ini can be reused in other ini files.

I realise that I should have exported the manual channel mappings after defining them the first time, but I thought they were in the right place in custom_stream_urls_autosave.ini.

I just checked it on Win7 Jarvis 16.1 and it still works ok.

This is what you need to do.

When you exit the guide your last channel mappings are saved as:
userdata\addon_data\script.tvguide.fullscreen\custom_stream_urls_autosave.ini

When you do "Settings\Backup\Export Channel Mappings" it makes a file called:
userdata\addon_data\script.tvguide.fullscreen\custom_stream_urls.ini

When you do "Settings\Backup\Import Channel Mappings" it uses that same file:
userdata\addon_data\script.tvguide.fullscreen\custom_stream_urls.ini

Import, Export and Clear Channel Mappings should popup a background notification to say they have finished.
It should be almost instantaneous.

If you want to Import the Autosave that you backed up earlier copy it to:
userdata\addon_data\script.tvguide.fullscreen\custom_stream_urls.ini
and
"Settings\Backup\Import Channel Mappings"

If that doesn't work there might be a bug. There are frequently unicode problems that need to be fixed.


Make sure you have turned off "Settings\Source\Reset on Start" or it might reset your channel mappings.

You should be able to use the autosave file in "Settings\Optional\Import mapping.ini" but make sure it isn't one of the files mentioned above or it might try and read and write the files at the same time.

If you get stuck zip up your addon_data folder and pm me a link.

Your reply clarified things, e.g. that the file name should be custom_stream_urls.ini when importing channel mappings, and what you said about unicode got me on the right track with the problem solving. In kodi.log I found this error:
ERROR: Database.eventLoop() >>>>>>>>>> exception! You must not use 8-bit bytestrings unless you use a text_factory that can interpret 8-bit bytestrings (like text_factory = str). It is highly recommended that you instead just switch your application to Unicode strings. = _setCustomStreamUrls

Removing the Portuguese channels with "non-standard" characters in their channel IDs, like "RTP Açores", "RTP África" and "SIC Notícias", from custom_stream_urls.ini solved the problem. After that the import worked flawlessly. I also changed the encoding of custom_stream_urls.ini from UTF-8 to Ansi based on the error message, but I'm not sure that was necessary.

I ran into a similar problem before with the channel logos of these Portuguese channels. To be able to display the channel logos I had to rename these channels to e.g. "RTP Acores", "SIC Noticias" etc., stripping out the "problem" characters. However, I kept the "xmltv_id" for the channels unchanged ("RTP Açores", "SIC Notícias" etc.), and that is what came back to bite me this time. I thought the xmltv_id had to be left unchanged to enable grabbing in Webgrab+, but I am not sure that is the case. I will try to remove/change all strange characters in WebGrab++.config.xml and see how it works out.

Thanks for helping out!

[primaeval]

^^^

Thanks for the report. I'll see if I can add a fix to handle the unicode channel names today or tomorrow. It is always a problem as there are many different translations going on in the software.

[primaeval]

version 0.0.364
- Playback\Catchup Channel can be Meta style or Direct addon style (thanks RayW1986)
- unicode channel import fix

@mendes I think this should fix the import and mapping.ini problems. I tested it with RTP Açores.

There is a new way of using the Catchup Channel by using an addon directly instead of via Meta thanks to RayW1986.
It makes a .strm file of all the following programs in a channel and tries to play that with the direct catchup addon.
Look for "def catchup_direct" in gui.py for the gory details.

[EDIT] 0.0.363 had a bug.

[mendes]

You are really quick to fix things. I discovered that I can change the xmltv_id strings to anything I like, so I just exchanged the problem characters to normal ones before you released this update. Great though that TVGF can handle non-standard characters now.

[yhs4260]

Hey Primaeval,

Thanks for creating forking and continuing this guide, it has come a long way!

I have just taken the rather large leap from Kodi 14.2 to 17.4!

And unfortunately I am having some issues with the TV Guide now.

To keep things simple, I have not migrated any settings. The only thing that remains the same at present is I am still pointing at the same XML config file I create for channel information.

I have setup just two channel from BBC iPlayer WWW addon. I have added BBC1 and BBC2.

If I open BBC 1, it opens ok, but then if I press SELECT and then DOWN and SELECT to choose BBC from my the banner style EPG I have a problem whereby all I can see is the backround image of the skin, and intermittently I can hear the audio of BBC2.

However.... If I press SELECT again, the channel is displayed! And in some cases, unfortunately the channel does not load at all, but still leaves me with the backround image of the EPG.

I am using an osmc build of Kodi 17.4 on a Raspberry Pi2. And using Xperience1080 skin.

Any ideas?

Do you want any particular logs, would that help?

Thanks in advance.

[primaeval]

Hey Primaeval,

Thanks for creating forking and continuing this guide, it has come a long way!

I have just taken the rather large leap from Kodi 14.2 to 17.4!

And unfortunately I am having some issues with the TV Guide now.

To keep things simple, I have not migrated any settings. The only thing that remains the same at present is I am still pointing at the same XML config file I create for channel information.

I have setup just two channel from BBC iPlayer WWW addon. I have added BBC1 and BBC2.

If I open BBC 1, it opens ok, but then if I press SELECT and then DOWN and SELECT to choose BBC from my the banner style EPG I have a problem whereby all I can see is the backround image of the skin, and intermittently I can hear the audio of BBC2.

However.... If I press SELECT again, the channel is displayed! And in some cases, unfortunately the channel does not load at all, but still leaves me with the backround image of the EPG.

I am using an osmc build of Kodi 17.4 on a Raspberry Pi2. And using Xperience1080 skin.

Any ideas?

Do you want any particular logs, would that help?

Thanks in advance.

Usually things to do with missing backgrounds are due to the MediaSurface Codec settings in Kodi\System\Video\Acceleration.
Try turning them off.

Check if you get the same problem with Confluence or Estuary.

Have you set the Alternative Streaming Method for either of the channels or in the Settings\Playback section?

If you still have the problem It would probably be helpful with some screenshots and your settings.xml file.

[eric859]

Is there a way to use the PVR WMC Client in TVGuide Fullscreen? I mainly use WMC for my cable channels and PVR

[primaeval]

Is there a way to use the PVR WMC Client in TVGuide Fullscreen? I mainly use WMC for my cable channels and PVR

Sort of. You can import all your PVR channels in "Menu\Stream Setup\Import PVR". They are then added to the addons.ini file under the script.tvguide.fullscreen group. You can use them like normal addon channels but when they launch they will have the Kodi PVR OSDs. You can still get back to the guide with the Back button.

Is there some kind of playlist for WMC? Then you can add it in as a Playlist directly. I've never used it myself.