OK, it took me 4 hours, but I did it - I've imported the DSTV guide data into Vista Media Center. I haven’t had time to automate the guide download yet, when it got to 3am this morning I had to call it a night.
Many thanks to Pete and FaberfoX and other contributors from the Australian Media Center Community! You guys did ALL the hard work. Here are the steps which I followed to get it working, so it might not be the only/best way to do things – I’ll add steps to automate the guide download for SA later:
- Install Vista RC1 or RC2 and all necessary drivers (you can run through the Media Center setup process but do not configure the Guide yet)
- Disable Windows User Account Control (Control Panel – Classic – User Accounts)
- Install BladeRunnerPro version 3.0 (not 3.5) which can be obtained from http://www.xpmediacentre.com.au/community/downloads.php
- Install IIS (Control Panel - Classic - Windows Products and Features)
- REBOOT
I’m going to automate steps 6-11 later, but in the meantime:
- Download the latest DSTV XML data, Channelinfo.xml and Categories.txt from http://sa-mce.com/files/default.aspx
- Place categories.txt in C:\Windows\ehome\BladeRunnerPro\QuickGuide\EPGXMLWriterParts
- Place Channelinfo.xml in C:\Windows\ehome\BladeRunnerPro\QuickGuide
- Place the DSTV guide xml file in C:Windows\ehome\BladeRunnerPro\GuideData and rename it to listing2.xml
- Create the following BAT file in C:\Windows\ehome\bladerunnerpro
UpdateGuide.bat:
@echo off
Bladerunner.exe
- Run UpdateGuide.bat and after a minute or so a C:Windows\ehome\BladeRunnerPro\GuideData\guide.bin file should be created and should be >10KB in size
- Open the IIS console (Administrative Tools), goto the properties of the Default Web Site and point it to C:\Windows\ehome\bladerunnerpro (I’m not at home at the moment and can’t remember the exact steps here)
- Create the following two XHTML files in C:\Windows\ehome\bladerunnerpro\Native
GetEPGDataMetaInfo.xhtml:
<?xml version="1.0" standalone="yes"?>
<EPGMetaInfo xmlns="http://data.tvdownload.microsoft.com/TVServices.Platform.XDS/1.0">
<URL>http://localhost/GuideData/guide.bin</URL>
GetTVServicesMetaInfo.xhtml:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<ServiceMetaInfo xmlns="http://data.tvdownload.microsoft.com/TVServices.Platform.XDS/1.0">
<SessionToken>00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000</SessionToken>
<Service name="EPGService" defaultScheme="http" serverName="localhost" serverPort="80" hostName="localhost" hostPort="localhost" path="Native">
<Interface name="GetHeadendList" scheme="http" subPath="GetHeadendList.html" />
<Interface name="GetEPGDataMetaInfo" scheme="http" subPath="GetEPGDataMetaInfo.html" />
</Service>
</ServiceMetaInfo>
- Create the following REG file in C:\Windows\ehome\bladerunnerpro
discsvc.reg:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Service\EPG]
"discSvc"="http://localhost/Native/GetTVServicesMetaInfo.html"
- Create the following BAT file in C:\Windows\ehome\bladerunnerpro
ModXMLandREG.bat:
@echo off
reg import discsvc.reg
cd Native
del GetTVServicesMetaInfo.save
ren GetTVServicesMetaInfo.html GetTVServicesMetaInfo.save
copy GetTVServicesMetaInfo.xhtml GetTVServicesMetaInfo.html
del GetEPGDataMetaInfo.save
ren GetEPGDataMetaInfo.html GetEPGDataMetaInfo.save
copy GetEPGDataMetaInfo.xhtml GetEPGDataMetaInfo.html
for /F "tokens=* skip=3" %%a in (GetEPGDataMetaInfo.save) do echo %%a >>GetEPGDataMetaInfo.html
- Open BladeRunnerPro configurator and add ModXMLandREG.bat to the Post Processes section (you can give it any name, but don’t specify any arguments)
- Open Media Center, goto the Guide Setup (under General Media Center setup I think), go through the setup choosing South Africa as the region, on the screen after “Guide Privacy”, minimize Media Center, and manually run ModXMLandREG.bat to import the discsvc.reg file and make required changes to the HTML files. Restore Media Center, continue through the setup, specify 0000 as the postal code, on the Select TV Signal Provider screen you should see EPG Data listed, continue on, it will download the guide data from BladeRunnerPro. Also, make sure you configure Media Center for manual guide download, not automatic.
Basically all that should be required to update the guide in future (and I’ll test tonight) is to run UpdateGuide.bat before doing a manual guide update in Media Center.
I hope I haven't missed any steps. let me know if this works.
Mark