Overview. ========= The 4 modules in this directory are designed to allow vdr timer programming via the http://tvtv.de web EPG (Electronic Program Guide). Once you have these modules properly configured and installed, you should be able to simply click on the things you want vdr to record in the http://tvtv.de web EPG and be done with it. Everything else can be handled automatically. Module description. =================== The http://tvtv.de web EPG creates a so-called "merkliste" ("a list of items to remember") containing all the broadcasts you selected. 1. The perl script "get_merkliste.pl" transfers this "merkliste" from the http://tvtv.de web site to a local file "merkliste.html". 2. The C++ program "epg2timers" converts this HTML file into vdr's timers.conf format. 3. The perl script "loadvdr.pl" pumps these new timer entries into a running vdr using telnet and the SVDRP protocol. 4. The shell script "update_timers" implements the overall control of the entire process. It retrieves the latest merkliste from http://tvtv.de, converts it to timers.conf format and sends the timer entries to vdr. Configuration. ============== get_merkliste.pl requires configuration of the "files_to_fetch" variable preset. Log in to your http://tvtv.de account and click on the "Bookmark" item in the "Setup" submenu of the "Mein Programm" side bar menu. This will open a window with a URL in the location field that ends with an ID value. Replace the xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx in the "files_to_fetch" variable preset with your ID value. If you are using an HTTP proxy, uncomment the line containing the $ua->proxy call and put your proxy details in. epg2timers.cxx allows various items to be configured, but it should work out of the box. See "tvtv.de channel names" below. update_timers must know where to find the get_merkliste.pl perl script and the compiled epg2timers binary. Both must be in a directory pointed to by the TOOLDIR variable. update_timers also must know where to find vdr's current channels.conf file. Put that into the CHANPATH. Depending on the price of your internet access, you may want to run update_timers more or less frequently. It may also be a good idea to run it at times where it is unlikely to interfere with your current use of vdr. Configure a crontab entry according to these personal preferences. Here is the entry I use: 1 2 * * * /home/cko/bin/update_timers It runs update_timers only once a night at 02:01 a.m. Installation. ============= Create your TOOLDIR directory if it does not already exist. Copy get_merkliste.pl and loadvdr.pl into it, compile epg2timers.cxx with the command: g++ epg2timers.cxx -o epg2timers and move the epg2timers binary into the TOOLDIR directory. The get_merkliste.pl script requires certain packages to run. Besides of course perl, install perl-libwww-perl (at least that's the name on SuSE 7.2, it may have a different name in your distribution). If you have problems with SVDRP and loadvdr.pl, you may want to try out the update_timers.old script, which replaces the timers.conf file directly and kills vdr (assuming that it will be restarted by the runvdr script) to make vdr reload the timers.conf file. tvtv.de channel names. ====================== The file epg_channel_names contains the names of all channels currently (as of September 9, 2001) supported by the tvtv.de web EPG. The variable "channel_map" in epg2timers.cxx maps these names into PNRs (aka Service IDs). I have initialized this table with provider names converted from a d-box channel scan of Astra 19.2E, so the PNRs should be correct for that satellite, but most of the names propably aren't yet- I simply had not enough time yet to go through epg_channel_names and insert all its channel names at the proper places in the channel map. Consider the map supplied an example. ;-) If you fix any of the entries, please send me a patch. For my own humble purposes, the table works well as it is. Of course, your channels.conf must contain the matching PNRs (last field in each line). To Do. ====== These are just ideas. They MAY get implemented. If you want them to happen, contribute a patch. ;-) * Support vdr hierarchical directories (after vdr does) by mapping the http://tvtv.de genre texts into directory names. * start_time_safety_margin for epg2timers. Authors. ======== Carsten Koch: epg2timers.cxx, update_timers, this README file. Axel Gruber and Rolf Hakenes: get_merkliste.pl Peter Ahlert: loadvdr.pl Credits. ======== I am grateful (in chronological order) to * Klaus Schmidinger for his excellent vdr program and for keeping an open mind in all directions. * Suse (my wife, not the Linux distributor ;-) for encouraging me to write epg2timers in June 2000 and for her constant patience and support. * Andreas Steinhauser for periodically criticizing the epg2timers "manual mode" until I came up with the idea to fully automatize it and for contributing ideas. * Axel Gruber for reminding me half a year later, for pushing the idea until it got implemented, for asking for new features all the time and for contributing ideas. * Axel Gruber and Rolf Hakenes for contributing the get_merkliste.pl perl script. * Peter Ahlert for contributing the loadvdr.pl perl script. Carsten, September 2001.