Server Version#: Version 1.18.6.2350
Player Version#: Version 4.28.3
Tuner Make/Model: HD Homerun quattro
Guide/Lineup name:
Using XMLTV?: trying to
Channel number/Name:
I have an XMLTV file that is created on my PC for another program, James River Media Center. I would like to use that output to enhance my Plex DVR guide data. How do I get the the file data over to my Plex server which resides on a Western Digital My Cloud Home? When Plex lived on my PC, it mapped just fine using the Browse in the DVR set up. I have moved Plex to a NAS so my computer does not have to be on all the time, but now I can not get the server (in the NAS) to be able to read the XMLTV file data on the PC.
I am a computer user, not a computer programmer. I found a couple of posts that talked a bit about this, but they were too far over my head to even know if they were addressing my problem or not. A solution in common language would be enormously appreciated.
Thanks, Steve
I use EPG123 to create an XMLTV file. I subscribe to Schedules Direct for the data that EPG123 then puts into a program that generates an XMLTV file. I first used EPG123 back when I was using Windows Media Center and they went to Rovi data.
It worked very well then and it works well in James River. I simply can not get James River to make good recordings yet. Plex makes beautiful recordings
You should be able to get XMLTV from Schedules Direct directly. I’m not entirely familar with how their system works, but I’d assume they provide a download URL that you are then able to paste into Plex.
This should get you a xmltv.xml file which you can then feed into the Plex DVR setup. Note you need to delete any previous DVR you have defined to do this.
currently my user:pass to schedules direct has started failing as invalid, I don’t know why it worked yesterday. maybe I ran it too many times This is all flaky as hell.
considering going back to my dedicated mythtv box where PVR things were simpler and just worked and could be otherwise ignored.
When you set up your DVR in Plex and you select xmltv file (not a postcode/zip for Plex’s own mess) you need to give it a URL or the location of the xmltv file.
Can your NAS “see” your PC? Your NAS needs to be able to see it in order for you to select the XMLTV file’s location. I use a QNAP and am not sure how you map a PC drive to your WD - but I imagine you find it somewhere in WD’s file manager.
Thanks for the replies. I contacted WD and they assured me that the NAS could indeed “see the computer”. I think that my problem is in making the path statement. I copied the path from my James River media program but that program lives in the same computer that the EPG123 program lives in. (C:\ProgramData\GaRyan2\epg123\output\epg123.xmltv)
Plex lives in the NAS. I need to tell the NAS to look in my computer named “DESKTOP-XPS”. I have never understood the significance of colons versus backslashes or other notations in defining a path. What would a proper path statement be for this situation, looking in computer “DESKTOP-XPS” for file “C:\ProgramData\GaRyan2\epg123\output\epg123.xmltv”?
Thanks, Steve
Thank you for responding. Hopefully some engineer from plex will see this and respond also. Is there a way to bring these posts up to the attention of those folks?
I notice that ratings (rotten tomatos) show up AFTER an old movie is recorded. If I recall, when XMLT guide data was enabled, we could see this information right in the EPG. Now that I have moved my server over to a NAS, I can not get that information. I am sure that I am not the only one that is using a NAS as a server and wants quality guide data. how do I get the information from my XMLTV file on my computer into the Plex installation on my NAS???
That is precisely the problem. DVR settings do not include the ‘Enhanced Guide’ option within the Plex embedded “zip code” generated guide. In order to get to the ‘Enhanced Guide’, as far as I know, one has to use the XMLTV guide option when setting up the DVR. I do have an XMLTV file that is generated on my PC. My Plex server is installed in my NAS (because it is always on). When configuring the XMLTV option for the DVR guide data one needs to tell plex where to find the XMLTV file. I do not know how to tell it (make a path) to look on my PC .
Alternatively, I could generate the file on the NAS, but Western Digital did not know how to do that. Or perhaps I could move the output of that file somehow to the NAS, but I do not know how to do that either
Are you able to use some sort of schedulding program to transfer the guide from your PC to your NAS? If you’ve got those drives mapped, it should just be a copy and paste job. You could then point Plex to the area on the NAS where the guide is
Hi - I’m confused. Have you given you try g to use the XMLTV guide? The enhanced guide now only works with XMLTV (since a couple of revs of the PMS software).
I do not seem to have an ‘area on my NAS where the guide is’. I am using a WD MyCloud Home which is supposed to be designed to make this sort of thing easy. Perhaps that is the problem. They may have hidden all of the complicated stuff that allows consumers to manipulate the files. I am not familiar enough with NAS’s to know if a normal one has a file architecture similar to a PC that one can map. I certainly can not find one here.
I would like to know if ANYONE has successfully used an XMLTV guide on a Plex installed on a NAS.
What I meant was, I’d imagine you’ve got a network drive (let’s say a movies drive). If you mapped this on your Windows PC (e.g. to M:) you could then copy the file from your Windows PC to your NAS drive.
For the file path, if you look into your Library settings there should be a file path:
In my example, I’ve got a drive called ‘movies’ that has the subfolder ‘Movies’, which is where I store my movies. So, if I pasted my XMLTV file to the root of my movies drive, it would have the path /media/movies/xmltv.xml, if that makes sense?
If you aren’t sure, if you would be able to post a screenshot of what the ‘Add Folders’ screen looks like for one of your libraries, then I might be able to help.
Yes, it works fine. But you are confusing me with talk about both XMLTV and Plex’s own solution.
It seems to me that your NAS cannot see your PC. On my NAS (QNAP) you have to specifically “remote mount” the PC’s drive to the NAS first. Have you done this?
Shea9832, I could not find the screen that you showed. When I go to my current ‘edit movies’ box, (in my NAS application) there is no ‘Add folders’ item anymore like there was when I had my Plex server on my PC. Now it goes right from “General” to “Advanced”. Never the less, I copied and pasted the XMLTV file from my PC into a new folder named EPG123 in my Plex folder in my NAS. I then opened up DVR setup and tried to guess a path to it but failed. There is no “Browse to” box. The menus are quite different in a NAS server setupI believe.
J Henderson, I believe that you may have hit on the issue. I have a My Cloud Home, the “home” denoting “easy enough for the wife and kids”. It appears to be lacking a lot of functionality like SSH (necessary for HD Homerun DVR to run). Based on your response four days ago, I contacted WD and asked them if their NAS could See my PC. They assured me that it could. I have never had the opportunity during setup to “Remote Mount”. Perhaps if I had that functionality there would be a “browse to” in the DVR setup and an “Add Folder” in the Edit Movies.
I added a NAS for the server so that I would not have to have my computer always on. I have a two year old Dell XPS. Last month I tried leaving it on all night to see how recording with Plex would work. The next morning I awoke to a malware infected mess. I had all the normal Windows protections in place, but no third party ones. Obviously there is a reason that there are third party solutions. I could not remove the infection so I had to reinstall Windows. If I had any idea how many hours I would burn up attempting this, I would have just bought a huge hard drive and a subscription to the leading Security software.
Thank you both for your input. I do not know how to attract the attention of a Plex engineer that could definitively address this specific issue. because of that I suspect that Plex will eventually end up in the dust bin.
This is all flaky as hell.
