I have switched from using Plex Guide to using Schedules Direct to generate an xml file. Since I have done this I am finding that my live tv channels no longer show up in the various categories in Plex Live TV Guide. Does anyone know if Schedules Direct has categories for tv programmes and what format they need to be in for Plex to be able to pick them up and categorise each programme? It’s a real pain when my sports channels don’t show up under Sports categories etc
I have a similar issue which is driving me crazy. I finally thought I cracked it, my channels now appear in the correct category BUT this is only temporary and depends on what is being played on the channel at that time - which is crazy. So if BBC One is playing the News, it goes to the News category, then the News finishes, and there’s a football match on, it’ll go to the Sports Category. I wish I could fix this.
That’s how it works. It categorises the individual programmes so that it makes it easier to find for example a football match that is on by selecting the sport category. Will only show you chammels that are showing a sporting event. How did you manage to get it to that point?
There is a good example of the xml (I will refer to as nz.xml in following) in the forum.
the forum post is a little too long, in short sentence, I guess the xml you’re using miss some data field:
-
<category>News</category>,categoryfield is used for the tv guide filter. -
<keyword>series</keyword>,keywordfield is used for saving to tv or movie library. There’s only three keyword innz.xml,event,movie,series,(theeventI’m not sure of the usage.)
fyi, here’s an example piece from the nz.xml:
<programme start="20230419173500 +0000" stop="20230419180000 +0000" channel="1">
<title>Te Karere</title>
<sub-title>Te Karere</sub-title>
<desc>Te Karere brings you key events and stories of interest to Māori as well as bringing a Māori perspective to the day's news and current affairs.</desc>
<date></date>
<category>News And Factual</category>
<category>News</category>
<keyword>series</keyword>
<icon src="https://i.imgur.com/4e1OipQ.jpg" />
<country>New Zealand</country>
<episode-num system="dd_seriesid">1035480</episode-num>
<episode-num system="dd_progid">10681640</episode-num>
<episode-num system="freeviewnz.tv">episode/4773282a-6490-4b49-88c7-d251efe58568</episode-num>
<episode-num system="freeviewnz.tv">show/6911b4fc-acd1-4a0f-b4e1-55a8f0bb41a4</episode-num>
<episode-num system="original-air-date">2023-04-19 16:00:00</episode-num>
<episode-num system="themoviedb.com">tv/1657</episode-num>
<episode-num system="xmltv_ns">2022.72.0</episode-num>
<episode-num system="tvnz.co.nz">show/ibms+show:325</episode-num>
<video>
<present>yes</present>
<colour>yes</colour>
<aspect>16:9</aspect>
<quality>768x576</quality>
</video>
<audio>
<present>yes</present>
<stereo>stereo</stereo>
</audio>
<previously-shown />
<star-rating system="themoviedb.org">
<value>0/10</value>
</star-rating>
<series-desc>Te Karere brings a fresh Māori perspective to the day's news.</series-desc>
</programme>
No I have categories and keywords fields in my xml but none of the channels from my live tv get sorted intot he plex categories tabs. Only the stuff from Plex itself go in there. Was working fine when i was using Plex Guides for the tv guide info but isnt working using xml guide. I am wondering if Plex just hasnt implimented category matching within tv guide for xml tv guides?
Does anyone actually have categories working when using XML?
Just to add…
If you turn off the Plex content as a source for live tv then all the categories disappear so its not reading categories from any channel in the XML guide.
I’ve noticed that all of my category tages are in the form
Would this make a difference to Plex? does it only detect on rather than ??
I’m not in nz, browsing the nz thread, no one complained, suppose it must be working well. But after tickling with a few open source iptv proxy, tried a few different xmls, I too still couldn’t get the system work: no channel visible, no movie/tv difference, all into movies.
Last few days been busy working out how to crawl the epg data, a little tired of this subject. Maybe next time I can directly use the nz xml, just match it with a random stream, see the difference.
This isn’t quite true, NZXMLTV just has that for anyone else that wants to use the data. Plex completely ignores it.
Plex actually determines it based off of the “original-air-date”. For example, here’s a movie from NZXMLTV:
<programme start="20230422104000 +0000" stop="20230422122500 +0000" channel="1">
<title>A Love Yarn</title>
<sub-title>A Love Yarn</sub-title>
<desc>
A small-town wool shop owner finds herself at a crossroads, when her business is threatened by a handsome American auditor. Starring Anna Hutchison. (2021)
</desc>
<date>2021</date>
<category>Drama</category>
<category>Features</category>
<category>Feature</category>
<keyword>movie</keyword>
<icon src="https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/edWC6OvT96SgE3uqSoUTbIY6jK1.jpg"/>
<episode-num system="dd_progid">10606540</episode-num>
<episode-num system="freeviewnz.tv">episode/28055c7a-a4a9-4549-a4a0-2f7f43a1485e</episode-num>
<episode-num system="themoviedb.com">movie/812173</episode-num>
<video>
<present>yes</present>
<colour>yes</colour>
<aspect>16:9</aspect>
<quality>HDTV</quality>
</video>
<audio>
<present>yes</present>
<stereo>stereo</stereo>
</audio>
<previously-shown/>
<subtitles type="teletext">
<language lang="en_NZ">English (NZ)</language>
</subtitles>
<rating system="New Zealand">
<value>G</value>
</rating>
<star-rating system="themoviedb.org">
<value>7/10</value>
</star-rating>
<series-desc>
The owner of a quaint New Zealand yarn shop, Sophie Dale, gets her world flipped upside down after learning her top supplier of yarn, King Farms, is stopping production. Much to her surprise, the charming yet stuck-in-his-ways Samuel King has traveled all the way from New York to audit the business model of the farm. Desperate to keep her shop going, Sophie convinces Samuel to give her two weeks to learn the ropes of yarn spinning and raise enough money to buy the mill herself.
</series-desc>
<audio-description lang="en_NZ"/>
</programme>
and then a TV show:
<programme start="20230422122500 +0000" stop="20230422132000 +0000" channel="1">
<title>Smother</title>
<sub-title>Smother</sub-title>
<desc>
With Calum missing, the Aherns question his recent violent behaviour and whereabouts on the night of Denis' death. S1 E4
</desc>
<date>2021</date>
<category>Drama</category>
<keyword>series</keyword>
<icon src="https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/liE0KylYp5uzqONbDT07bVUUNUa.jpg"/>
<country>Ireland</country>
<episode-num system="dd_seriesid">1033427</episode-num>
<episode-num system="dd_progid">10633306</episode-num>
<episode-num system="freeviewnz.tv">episode/1a7a8128-bb13-4a92-ace0-a9281f38bd1e</episode-num>
<episode-num system="freeviewnz.tv">show/a50bb8a0-0c5c-4eef-afb8-41c6f5bb2e5d</episode-num>
<episode-num system="original-air-date">2023-04-23 00:25:00</episode-num>
<episode-num system="xmltv_ns">0.3.0</episode-num>
<episode-num system="themoviedb.com">tv/120835</episode-num>
<episode-num system="thetvdb.com">series/398172</episode-num>
<episode-num system="tvnz.co.nz">show/ibms+show:7341</episode-num>
<video>
<present>yes</present>
<colour>yes</colour>
<aspect>16:9</aspect>
<quality>HDTV</quality>
</video>
<audio>
<present>yes</present>
<stereo>dolby</stereo>
</audio>
<previously-shown/>
<subtitles type="teletext">
<language lang="en_NZ">English (NZ)</language>
</subtitles>
<rating system="New Zealand">
<value>M</value>
</rating>
<star-rating system="themoviedb.org">
<value>7/10</value>
</star-rating>
<series-desc>
On the rugged coast of County Clare, Val Ahern's husband is found dead at the foot of a cliff the morning after a family party. The matriarch starts to dig into the family's secrets to find out who might be responsible.
</series-desc>
</programme>
Basically as far as Plex is concerned, it only checks whether the line <episode-num system="original-air-date">2023-04-23 00:25:00</episode-num> exists in the TV show. If it does, then it’s a TV show, otherwise it’s a movie.
For the other categories, just using the default categories of “kids” for childrens shows, “news” for news and “sports” for sports works fine (although that list can be configured in Plex settings). For sports, you can also add some extra fields to indicate what sports are being played and what teams are playing, e.g.:
<sport>Rugby Union</sport>
<team>Moana Pasifika</team>
<team>Rebels</team>
WOW, thanks, now we know the direction to work towards.
I guess this original-air-date is channel dependant, useful if it’s a rerun programme.
Theoretically, it’s not supposed to be channel dependant, it’s just the first time that piece of media was ever aired, as Plex uses it for numbering when there’s no season/episode number. Re-reruns are determined based on whether there’s a <previously-shown/> tag, as when that’s present, the ‘new’ tag in Plex disappears.
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