WikiPage Configuration modified by John Saunders

John Saunders — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 11:25:09 -0000

The configuration is stored as an XML file. The structure is very simple
and should be easy to understand. Everything is contained with within
<config></config> root node. The non-channel related configuration is
contained within the <connection></connection> node, and this is what
I will explain first.

<config>
  <connection>
    <cache-path>/etc/mythtv/.xmltv/tvguide_cache</cache-path>

Specify the full path to a place where the guide data will be cached.
This directory must be able to be written to by the user that runs the
mythfilldatabase periodically, usually mythtv.

    <base-url>http://www.oztivo.net/xmltv/</base-url>
    <base-url>http://xml.oztivo.net/xmltv/</base-url>

The basic list of mirrors to fetch guide data from. This list is only used
to fetch the initial channel list. The channel list specifies the mirrors
to use to fetch the guide data.

    <channels>channels.xml.gz</channels>
    <datalist>datalist.xml.gz</datalist>

The names of the list of channels and datalist that is initially fetched
to start the process. Currently we don't use channels, but may do in the
future. Only datalist contains the list of available guide data, and that
is what we are interested in.

    <username>PLACE_USERNAME_HERE</username>
    <password>PLACE_PASSWORD_HERE</password>

This is where your oztivo login details go. If you need to keep the login
details safe, ensure the config file is only readable by the user that runs
mythfilldatabase. I considered encrypting the password, however this would
give people a sense of security that didn't exist. By leaving the password
as plain-text people make an effort to ensure the permissions are correct.

  </connection>

Next comes the node which contains the list of
channels configured for this file.

  <channelmap>
    <channel oztivoid="Nine-Syd"/>

The most basic channel simply specifies the id used by oztivo for the
channel. This causes the channel id in the generated file to be the same
as the oztivo id, and the display-name to be pulled from the oztivo channel
info.

    <channel id="NINE.syd.freeview.au" oztivoid="Nine-Syd"/>

Next it is possible to specify what channel id to be used in the generated
file. XMLTV validation utilities enforce a DNS style dotted name, so here
I have specified a name for the Sydney freeview channel 9. By using a
consistent id your MythTV channels are isolated from your source of guide
data. Tomorrow I could use tv_grab_au_reg to source guide data from IceTv
and not need to edit my MythTV channels.

    <channel id="NINE.syd.freeview.au" oztivoid="Nine-Syd">
      <display-name>Nine</display-name>
    </channel>

It is possible to change the display-name of a channel if you don't like
the name given by oztivo, or the name is too long to be displayed by your
PVR.

    <channel id="NINE.syd.freeview.au" oztivoid="Nine-Syd">
      <display-name>Nine</display-name>
      <lcn>9</lcn>
    </channel>

It is also possible to specify the channel number using the
node. For channels that get created by MythTV using a TV tuner to scan
for channels, the channel number specified here doesn't get used. However
if you need to create a ton of channels for a Foxtel config, this is a
great help as the channel will be automatically created the first time
mythfilldatabase is run.

    <channel id="NINE.syd.freeview.au" oztivoid="Nine-Syd">
      <display-name>Nine</display-name>
      <lcn>9</lcn>
      <icon src="http://www.lyngsat-logo.com/icon/tv/num/9network.gif"/>
    </channel>

Furthermore it is possible to install an image for each channel. By
providing the URL where the image is located, MythTV will download and use
that image. The sample configs use the lyngsat-logo icon set, although you
are free to use any.

    <channel id="NINEHD.syd.freeview.au" oztivoid="NineHD" fillinid="Nine-Syd" quality="HDTV">
      <display-name>Nine HD</display-name>
      <lcn>5</lcn>
      <icon src="http://www.lyngsat-logo.com/icon/tv/num/9network_hd.gif"/>
    </channel>

Also it is possible to fill-in holes in the guide data with programs
from another channel. Currently the SevenHD and NineHD oztivo channels only
provide programs for the differences between the HD and SD channel. While
this is useful to prevent recording up-scaled programs (more storage
required without any better quality) it is not useful when watching TV live
and you want to know what program is running. By setting the fillinid
attribute to the id of the SD companion channel, any holes in the day will
be filled in with these programs. Note the quality attribute, this is for
future use. Some programs are marked as HDTV in oztivo yet are only listed
in the SD guide data because they air on both the HD and SD channel. I
intend to unmark these programs unless the HDTV quality attribute is set on
the channel they are included in. This will have the effect of giving the
program the HDTV quality only for the airing on the HD channel.

    <channel id="FOX8p2.foxtel.au" oztivoid="FOX8" timeoffset="+7200"/>

Finally it is possible to apply a per-channel time offset to each program.
Where the --timezone option keeps the localtime the same and changes the
timezone offset, this offsets the start and stop times for each program by
the specified number of seconds.

  </channelmap>
</config>

Finally the channelmap and config are closed off.

Recent changes to Configuration

WikiPage Configuration modified by John Saunders