[mikefreeman]

Is there a way to get channel listings to show up on the PVR Timeline EPG view when there is no EPG data available? Perhaps just show a bar all the way across with the channel name in it or something along those lines?

I usually use the Timeline as my default, but some channels don't show up, as there is no EPG data for them. TV Headend doesn't work with U.S. GIT data, and Zap2It doesn't have all our local channels listed, so I can't make a complete xmltv file.

I'd like to see these channels and be able to select them, maybe even manually record them (either by manually entering a start/end time into a timer, or by hitting the on-screen or remote control record buttons at the beginning and end times), without having to switch views. Is this possible? Or can I request it as a feature somehow?

Thanks!

[ulibuck]

Just an idea for a work around: as you mention

I can't make a complete xmltv file

Why not complete the xmltv file with some dummy entries for the missing local channels?

Some scripting and knowledge of the XMLTVFormat should achieve that.

[mayoman]

See here and here .
From these discussions Argus currently automatically fills in the blanks and WMC will be able to do so in the next release.

[mikefreeman]

This would probably work if I knew how to make a script that automatically puts the entries in. I have zap2xml set to run as an automated task on a daily basis to keep everything up to date. I don't want to manually edit an xml file every day. But, I have no idea how I would go about scripting such a thing.

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Mayoman, I don't use Argus or WMC. I'm on Linux, so I think both of those options are out. Thanks, though.

[ulibuck]

zap2xml you are using (found it under http://zap2xml.awardspace.info/) is a Perl script, which can be easily modified to store additional dummy entries. Easy at least for someone who has worked with Perl before.

You might want to ask the author of zap2xml (zap2xml (at) gmail.com) if he would be willing to modify his script.

[mikefreeman]

For the zap2xml author to modify his script, wouldn't he have to know which channels I'm receiving that aren't represented at zap2it? And then, his script would only be good for people in my city and no where else. I have no experience with Perl, so I really don't know the first thing about modifying the script. Maybe I'll take a look at it and see if it's simple enough to teach myself what to modify (I have some rudimentary programming knowledge from decades ago, so could happen!).

[ulibuck]

Instead of hard coding your channel information into the script the author would probably program it to read that information from a file the user would have to provide.
The author would only define the structure and format of that file.
If no such file is provided there would not be any dummy entries.