Any better guides available?

General Discussions Plex Features
1

My TiVo gave up the ghost, so I got an HDHomeRun and am trying to decide what to use for a DVR, the HDHomeRun DVR server, Plex or Emby. So far, I’ve tried Plex and Emby, and both of them have been quite disappointing.

For example, in Plex, looking at upcoming shows, all it displays for KOMO 4 at 10a on Saturday is a generic “College Football.” Going to TitanTV, however, shows the opponents. Is there a better listings guide for Plex, or are you locked into the bundled guide? Any other advice?

Thanks.

Andrew

2

You are locked into the bundled guide for most platforms. Apparently guide are hard to do or something.

What streaming hardware are you using? Channels DVR might work if you have an Apple TV, Android TV, or Amazon Fire TV.

Alternatively for Roku, if you are still within the return window of the HDHomeRun, you could try a Tablo DVR.

3

Thanks for the response. The main reason I got the HDHomeRun is for their new premium package. Basically, the only things I ever want to record are OTA channels and ESPN, but I really want to be able to record ESPN so that I can skim through things - I don’t just want to be able to stream it. I’ll check out Channels DVR (I do have a Fire TV).

Andrew

4

You can provide Plex a XMLTV file to use for the guide if that is what you would desire.

xit4hyjyrt0h
xit4hyjyrt0h.png697×556 15 KB

Did you try clicking on the show in the guide to get an expanded view?

2018-09-06_8-54-21
2018-09-06_8-54-21.jpg1220×207 39 KB

5

Getting a good XMLTV file is the hard part in that work around.

6

It will probably not be for free

7

There are ongoing (streaming and recording) quality issues with Plex and the new HDHomeRun PremiumTV channels – much stuttering/dropouts. I’m trying out Channels and so far, so good. I get all my channels (locals and PremiumTV) in their guide.

8

Yes -

image

Andrew

9

Check out this thread:

Can get listings from TV Guide and Zap2it using a script.

10

Using Zap2it is quite flexible i’ve been using it for sometime now and it’s been great. If you have any questions, just let me know

1 Like
11

Can you post details on how to do this and how to get the info from Zap2it?
TIA

12

Something like this to create the XMLTV file and then you delete and re-add your DVR to Plex and choose the file.

http://zap2xml.awardspace.info/

13

Can you post details on how to do this and how to get the info from Zap2it?

Sure, just given me a few day and i should be able to document the steps for this

14

Thanks for the help.

15

Btw, what platform is your Plex Media Server on?

16

Here is my .bat file script, I run it on a PC using scheduler to run once a day that puts the files on my NAS where I have Plex running:

cd C:\XMLTV
#rmdir /S /Q milwaukee
#rmdir /S /Q madison
#TVGuideListings
zap2xml -z -a -I -T -d 14 -D -u userid@gmail.com -p password -c milwaukee -o milwaukee.xml
zap2xml -z -a -I -T -d 14 -D -u userid@kc.rr.com -p password -c madison -J milwaukee.xml

#Zap Listings
#zap2xml -a -I -T -d 14 -D -u userid@gmail.com -p password -c milwaukee -i icons -o milwaukee.xml
#zap2xml -a -I -T -d 14 -D -u userid@kc.rr.com -p password -c madison -i icons -J milwaukee.xml

del milwaukee.xml
del /q \\nas\files\Plex\xmltv.xml
move C:\XMLTV\xmltv.xml \\nas\files\Plex\xmltv.xml

#where files are on NAS
#/volume1/Files/Plex/xmltv.xml

17

Can you post details on how to do this and how to get the info from Zap2it?
TIA

Hey @bobivey, i just created a how to as requested. check it out here How to use zap2xml for Plex EPG & combining multiple EPG sources

Hope it helps

18

Thanks for the “how to”. I will go over it very soon.

19

This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.