Classic GUI
If you disabled the Wizard you should see the classig gui of the importer :
You can access here to all parameters of the wizard and more :
- Choose your XMLTV Source in the drop down list (a source is an XMLTV file, if you have only one XMLTV file you don't need to use this parameter). You can add or remove source by using the "+" and "-" buttons.
- Locate the path of your XMLTV file, click on the folder button to browse your disk. Warning : if your XMLTV file makes reference to its schema, don't forget to put the DTD file in the same directory of your XMLTV file (download the XMLTV DTD version 1.27)
Then you must indicate some properties relative to your XMLTV data. Suppose that your XMLTV looks like the figure below:
You must precise:
- The time difference between start and stop time of the shows in the XMLTV file from universal time (GMT / UTC).
In the example, the time difference is two hours compared to universal time (meant by the +0200), to find universal time it will be necessary to indicate -2 to our importer in the "Time offset" field.
If you want that the importer handle DST automatically, then check "use daylight saving time"
- Choose a detection method for similar programs, you can choose a method:
- based on episode title : All shows with the same episode title are identicals
- based on episode title and airing date : All shows with the same episode title and aired the same day are identicals
- based on episode title and description : All shows with the same episode title and description are identicals
The following files are not dependent on the XMLTV source.
- Locate the path of the settings directory where the importer will create and read the files : channels.xml, lineups.xml and lookup.xml. You can leave the default value.
- Locate the path to the Beyond TV configuration folder, usually C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\SnapStream\Beyond TV
- The keywords which will make it possible to our importer to differentiate a movie from a series.
In the example above, the category of the show is "Emission jeunesse". Locate in your file what is used for a movie and a series, choose the keyword accordingly and type these keywords in the appropriate fields of our importer.
For instance in English, the keyword for movies would probably be "movie" and the keyword for series would probably be "sitcom" (use lower case).
You can use multiple keywords in each field seperated by a comma (,)
- The prefixes used for episode numbering. For instance : Season 1 - Episode 4 - Part 1. Type the prefix you want to use for the season number, then the episode number and the part number.
Edit Lineups and Channels
You can change the mapping between the channels in your XMLTV file and Beyond TV. To do so, click on the "Edit Channels" button, and the channel editor will be opened as on the figure below:
In this editor you can create or edit your lineups. A lineup is a collection of channels that are on the same video source (the tuner, the composite input).
This editor displays the list of the channels that the importer found in your XMLTV file. For each channel listed in the editor you must provide:
- The name of the channel as it will be displayed in Beyond TV (mostly in Web Admin)
- The call sign of the channel as it will be displayed in Beyond TV (mostly in fullscreen or windowed mode)
- The channel number, that is the number used to tune the channel
- The lineup number you choose the channel to be.
If you want you can add additionnal channels to your lineups, to do so you have to specify:
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A channel ID (similar to those of your XMLTV File)
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A channel name and call-sign
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The channel number
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The lineup you want to put the new channel
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If the channel is the same as an existing one (copying all programs)
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A time offset (in hours) to create "+1" channels
If you duplicate a channel to be present on multiple lienups and want to Beyond TV treats these channels as the same one (to see only one channel in the guide), all these duplicated channels must have the same ID and channel number.
When all channels are done, click on the "Update" button and the lineups and channel mappings will be saved, you will the return to the importer's main screen.
Edit Categories
You can also edit the categories found in your XMLTV file. To do this click on the "Categories" button to open the Category Editor. The purpose of the Category Editor is to reduce the numbers of categories. The Editor will already contains the recommended top level categories (Movie, Series, Sport, News etc...) you cannot delete them, but you can ignore them (except Movies and Series) and create some new top level categories.
When you edit a category you can specify :
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The Name : this is the internal name it is only used by the Importer, you cannot change it for predefined categories. It is not used outside of the Importer.
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The Display Name : this is the name that will be displayed in Beyond TV.
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The keywords : you can type here many keywords separated by a comma, whenever the Importer found the corresponding keyword in one of your XMLTV categories, it will then match it to the category your are editing.
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The excluding keywords : those are the keywords (coma separated list), that will prevent a XMLTV category to be matched to the category your are editing when it match the preceding keywords list
After editing the keywords and excluding keywords list click on the "Test" button to view the result of the filter. This way you can tune your keywords filter easily.
You will notice that you cannot edit the keywords lists for the "Other" category. This is because this category is designed to receive all the XMLTV categories that doesn't match any of your categories. You can as well click on the "Test" button to view all the XMLTV categories that cannot be classified. This will help you to create the missing categories and adjust the keywords lists of your categories.
You can add / remove sub categories, this way you can create any number of levels. But don't forget that Beyond TV only understand a category and a sub category, so it is advisable that you limit your tree to two level : main category and sub category. Also to be more efficient try to use the same sub category names for Movies and Series (and other main category if you can).
Note: After each Import, the Importer will log Information event in the Windows Event Viewer that list precisely the categories that couldn't be mapped to one your categories. There are tow events : one for categories that cannot be matched to a top level categories and one for categories that can be matched to a top level category but cannot be matched to a sub category.
Importing
Launch the import by clicking on the "Import" button. If you click on the close button, your parameters are saved, and you will be able to launch the importation at a later time. Note : Beyond TV 3.5 must be launched for the import to be successful.
During the importation the progress bars will show you the state of the importation, you should even see the name of the channel being imported. Our importer is currently converting your XMLTV files in three new XML files (or more if you have more than one lineup) that will be saved in the Beyond TV configuration folder (in sub folder "3rdPartyGuideData").
At the end of the conversion, our importer will ask Beyond TV to load these new XML files that contains program data and your line-up.
At the end of the importation the message "Import done" will be displayed above the overall progress bar. You can the close the importer; your data are imported in Beyond TV. You can check that Beyond TV has loaded program data by looking in the Beyond TV logs, you should see entries like these in the logs:
Update Only
If you wish that Beyond TV load some data that were previously converted by our importer, you can click on the "Update Beyond TV" button, this will only ask Beyond TV to load data, but our importer will not perform the conversion. This is useful when you upgrade Beyond TV and you want your program data loaded without waiting after the conversion.
If you wish to automate the importation thereafter, you can call the importer with the /silent parameter.
For instance:
"C:\Program Files\LM Gestion\Beyond TV XMLTV Importer\BTVXMLTVImport.exe" /silent
You can also add the /update parameter after /silent (separated by a space) for updating only Beyond TV with previously generated data (on another computer for instance).
Note : /silent and /update are only available to our donators
If you have some problems, you can read the FAQ.