Bladerunner Pro/TVxb setup for |
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Setup MCE, Bladerunner Pro, and TVxb
TVxb and Bladerunner work together to provide a TV guide for for those countries without an official Microsoft MCE guide.
TVxb is provided and supported through this website.
Bladerunner Pro is based on BJReplay's QuickGuide and supported through the http://www.xpmediacentre.com.au/ website.
These instructions are for Media Center Edition. If you are running Vista Media Center then use these instructions instead.
Step 1
If you are using a set-top box, then run MCE "Setup TV" and
configure the IR blaster. Do not setup the Guide or any channels
yet.
If you are using Antenna, then you can tune the channels now, or at a later time.
Step 2
Install .NET Framework V2.0 (if you haven't done so already.) Then
download and install the latest .NET updates using Windows Update.
Step 3
Install, test run, and configure TVxb
using these instructions.
Do not run TVxb with your customized TVxb.ini configuration file yet.
Step 4
Install and configure Bladerunner Pro v3.5
using these instructions.
Do not run BladeRunner yet.
Step
5
Manually run TVxb by
double-clicking the TVxb.exe file in the \TVxb\bin\ folder.
A TVxb console window should open and the listings should
download. If you have configured many channels, or full
descriptions downloads, then this could take a while...
Check that the following file was created: "C:\WINDOWS\ehome\BladeRunnerPro\GuideData\xmltv.xml" and that you can open this file in your browser.
Check the "C:\WINDOWS\ehome\BladeRunnerPro\QuickGuide\ChannelInfo.XML" file is created, you can open this file in your browser, and verify all channels are assigned unique and ascending virtual channel numbers (excluding "0" which can be used on any channel).
For example, if TVxb.ini looks like this:
[skjar1.is]
name=skjárEINN
name=1
url=...[stod2.is]
name=Stöđ 2
name=2
url=...
then ChannelInfo.XML should look like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="yes" ?> <NewDataSet>
<channel>
<name>skjárEINN</name>
<channelID>skjar1.is</channelID>
<virtualchannel>1</virtualchannel>
</channel><channel>
<name>Stöđ 2</name>
<channelID>stod2.is</channelID>
<virtualchannel>2</virtualchannel>
</channel></NewDataSet>
If the xmltv.xml and ChannelInfo.xml files are not successfully created, then refer to the TVxb Installation Guide for assistance.
Step 6
Run BladeRunner to load the listings into MCE.
Navigate to the C:\Windows\ehome\BladeRunnerPro\ folder
and run
BladeRunner.exe by double-clicking. TVxb will run again (much
quicker this time as the downloaded listing files are cached).
The xmltv file should then be loaded into MCE.
If you get errors, the most likely cause is a problem in your ChannelInfo.xml file. In particular make sure there are no duplicated virtualchannel numbers. Each channel number can only be used once (except zero which is a special case.)
If you get a privilege error message, then you might need to run caspol -s off to turn off Framework security. However, you should turn it back on again once you have worked out what the underlying problem is.)
If it is something else, then progressively edit the xmltv.xml file down to the one channel that doesn't work, and then one program. This might help identify the problem.
Bladerunner is supported through the http://www.xpmediacentre.com.au/ website.
Step 7a
Start MCE and setup the guide using
these
instructions.
Step 7b
Associate the EPG guide with the channels
If using Antenna, then Tune your TV channels (If you haven't done this already):
"The Green Button" (TGB), Settings, TV, Setup TV Signal
Then Assign your xmltv guide channels to the tuned MCE TV channels (If your virtualchannelnumbers are correctly setup, then this step might not be necessary):
TGB, Settings, TV, Guide, Add Listings to Channels.
Click on each "Unknown" entry and assign to the appropriate listing name
If using a Set Top Box, then the channels will already be assigned and no action is needed.
Change the channel order if you wish:
TGB, Settings, TV, Guide, Change Channel Order
That's it (hopefully).
On-going maintenance:
Once TVxb/QuickGuide
are setup and the Guide channels are mapped to MCE TV channels, then the
updates should proceed automatically without further attention.
If and when your listings provider changes their web-site around, or adds new channels, you might need to download and customize a new TVxb.ini file.
For subsequent runs of BladeRunner / TVxb:
1. Wait for the scheduled BladeRunner task to do its thing. (Setup in this step above.)
2. Manually run BladeRunner from MCE. i.e. "The Green Button" (TGB), "More Programs", "BladeRunner Pro"
Troubleshooting
Problem 1: If you have problems with the MCE TV Setup - setting up the channel numbers, or associating the guide with your channels for example, then I suggest running the MCE setup again from the start.
Problem 2: If you get errors running Bladerunner, then check that there are no "&" or "&" characters in the channel names of channelIDs. Check that the virtualchannel numbers are unique and sequentially increasing (except for 0 which means ignore the channel.)
Problem 3: If you live in Western Europe, and Bladerunner complains about the start/stop times and fails to load the guide, then check the xmltv output file for timezones of "GMT". You need to force all times to "UTC" by adding a special=utctime to the TVxb.ini file.
Problem 4: If you get the following exception while browsing the guide, a possible cause is descriptions greater than 507 characters in length. I believe it is fixed in the latest BladeRunner releases.
As a troubleshooting step you could add the following item into the top section of the TVxb.ini file:
maxdescriptionlength=500
Problem 5: Error code 23 when importing the guide into MCE. I've seen this following a recent MCE update. It seems to only occur when the xmltv file contains category elements. However I believe this is fixed in BladeRunner Pro v3.5.
If you have any other advice on using TVxb / Bladerunner Pro on MCE, then please forward through the Feedback page so I can share with other MCE users.