This is a "plugin" for the Video Disk Recorder (VDR). Written by: Frank Schmirler <vdrdev@schmirler.de> Project's homepage: http://vdr.schmirler.de/ Latest version available at: http://vdr.schmirler.de/ See the file COPYING for license information. Description: ------------ With this plugin you can import the EPG of a remote VDR. It can either use SVDRP or streamdev's VTP to download the EPG. Requirements: ------------- - plugin svdrpservice >= 0.0.2 (available via http://vdr.schmirler.de) Known issues: ------------ 1) VTP does not always deliver the expected events for "LSTE now" and "LSTE next". 2) In VDR 1.3.39 up to 1.4.1-2 there's an issue when adding EPG to a channel which had no EPG previously. The new EPG entries won't show up whenever they are internally addressed "by channel". The complete EPG dump contains all entries, so they will become available after the next VDR restart. Usually this problem will affect only those of you who start with an empty epg.data and whenever you have added a new channel. In the patches subdirectory you will find a fix for this problem. Installation: ------------- - cd VDR/PLUGINS/src - tar xzf vdr-epgsync-<VERSION>.tgz - ln -sf epgsync-<VERSION> epgsync If you didn't do that already (otherwise svdrpservice.h is missing): - tar xzf vdr-svdrpservice-<VERSION>.tgz - ln -sf svdrpservice-<VERSION> svdrpservice Now compile and install epgsync (and svdrpservice) as usual and add both plugins to the script starting your VDR (e.g. runvdr). No options required, so simply append: -Pepgsync -Psvdrpservice Check the svdrphosts.conf (or streamdevhosts.conf) file on the remote VDR: The IP of the VDR running epgsync must be listed or otherwise the connection will be refused. Configuration: -------------- Before you can connect you have to configure the IP address of the remote VDR. So you have to enter the plugin's setup menu first. It offers the following options: - Hide mainmenu entry: The mainmenu entry of epgsync allows you to trigger an epgsync at any time. If you don't need this or if you are using a keymakro to call the mainmenu entry you can hide it with this option. - Server IP: Enter the IP of the remote VDR - Server port: Defaults to 2001 (SVDRP). If you prefer VTP, its default port is 2004 - Connection attempts: Defines how often epgsync will try to establish the connection to the server. For most users the default 1 should be sufficient. However if e.g. the client uses WOL to wake the server it might not be available immediately. The first retry will be after 1 second. The delay will be doubled after each attempt. - Update "now" and "next" first: Enable this option if you want to import the "What's on now/next" entries first. It uses the SVDRP commands "LSTE now" and "LSTE next". Especially useful for those who start with an empty epg.data file. - Sync channel by channel: Determines how the EPG is downloaded. See notes below. - EPG sync on startup: Start syncing when the plugin is started. - Map channels by: mode "ID", the default, simply copies the EPG data it receives, effectively mapping channels by their channel ID. In "ID, Name" mode, if no local channel corresponds to a channel ID from EPG, an attempt is made to find the channel by name. Finally in "Name, ID" mode, epgsync searches for a channel by name, prefering channels with a different ID. You can use this mode to copy EPG to analogue channels. Note: When looking up a channel by name, case is ignored. Both, the long and the short channel names are considered. - Target channels: Restrict the EPG import to certain channel types. Recommended settings -------------------- The quick answer for the impatient: Use "Sync channel by channel: no" if - you connect to VTP port - or need to be fast Use "Sync channel by channel: yes" if - you connect to SVDRP port - or encounter bandwidth related problems with "no" - or want to share the SVDRP connection with other local plugins Use "Update now and next first: yes" if - you start VDR with an empty epg.data - or you selected "Sync channel by channel: yes" Use "Update now and next first: no" otherwise The long answer: With "Sync channel by channel: no", epgsync will issue "LSTE" without any arguments. The complete EPG information of the remote VDR will be downloaded in one piece. This is fast, so the remote SVDRP port won't be blocked too long. On the other hand it will temporarily allocate quite a bit of memory. Besides it will request a dedicated svdrpservice connection. This is ok for VTP as the VTP server can handle multiple connections at a time. With SVDRP it might be an issue if there are more local plugins which want to connect to the same SVDRP server. As the SVDRP server processes only one connection, either epgsync or the other plugins will win - which ever is first. The other might timeout. "Sync channel by channel: yes" is the "economy mode". It takes considerably longer but the connection can be shared with other local plugins. I had no problem running e.g. remoteosd at the same time. In this mode, epgsync loops through all channels starting with the first. If a schedule is available for a channel "LSTE <channel id>" is sent, the reply is processed and the thread sleeps for a few millis. Note that in this mode epgsync won't import the EPG of a channel which does not have a local schedule. To always get the EPG of all channels you should configure "Update now and next first: yes". This will import the results of "LSTE now" and "LSTE next" beforehand.