XMLTV EPG Viewer

The xml files grabbed by Alan's Grabber program are very useful, but there seem to be few utilities available to actually view the data in a meaningful way.

The only other one I've so far come across is TVGuide, mentioned on Alan's Radio Times Grabber page, but I found it gave far too much information, and seemed very slow loading. So I decided to write a simple viewer for myself. I've tried to make it user-friendly and logical, but I was an amateur programmer who knew nothing about XML or C# before this. So bear that in mind if you decide to try it.

The Windows Version

Basically, it's meant to be fast and simple. Load an xml file generated by Alan's Radio Times Grabber, and if you're in luck, you should see a list of dates and channels. Select a combination of date and channel, and the program should display the listings for that combination. Click on a listing and you should see the description for that listing.

• Fixed the duration of programmes when setting a timer (due to a change in the xmltv file format it was always zero minutes - Alan has altered the file format in the next update of the grabber)

• Changed the colour selection method as it wasn't working properly under Vista (click the coloured buttons to pick a colour)
• Added the DigiTV radio channels to the mappings dropdown lists (mappings may need to be cleared first - see below)
• Added a facility to clear the channel mappings (may be needed after a DigiTV reinstall or upgrade, for example) 

Changes since version 1.2.1

• Timers can now be set from the Search results
• After a timer is set, the message shows the name of the programme set to record
• The timer limit is now 100 if DigiTV v3.7+ is installed (it was previously 50)
• Font changes are now shown "live" without having to click OK first
• Added the programme sub-title to the programme description
• The description in the Search view now shows the duration of the programme
• Speeded up and tidied up the loading of DigiTV channel mappings
• Fixed a problem where the Channel dropdown was too high for the current display
• Fixed a crash when starting the Viewer when no registry entries existed

  Thanks to David and Subhajit for their help with the above two fixes

Changes since version 1.1.1

• The Set Timer feature now works with the Nebula DigiTV-HD version 
• Increased the responsiveness of the main form when loading a large xml file 
• Added an option to set the font and font size for the listings etc. (see note below) 
• Added an option to to disable XP themes for the Viewer (see note below) 

  Note: Due to a bug in the .NET 2.0 Framework, when Windows is set to use XP themes the headings in the programme listings do not display properly when using a font size larger than approximately 12 points. If this causes a problem, the Enable Visual Styles for the EPG Viewer option will disable themes for the EPG Viewer only. The programme list headings will then display correctly. Changing this option requires that the Viewer be restarted for the changes to take effect, but the user is prompted to do this automatically.

Changes since version 1.0

• Now uses the .NET 2.0 Framework
• Added a search facility - accessed via the View menu, or by hitting Ctrl+S 
• Added a rolling 24-hour view for listings - accessed from the Options 
• Added an option to choose the colours to distinguish between listings for today and tomorrow
• Added a facility to set timers to record using the Nebula DigiTV card (see note below)
• Increased the height of the Day and Channel dropdowns to allow more entries to be shown
• Miscellaneous changes to fix small bugs and increase speed 

Download Links

Download the Windows version (1.3.2) of the viewer (35 KB) - Requires the .NET Framework 2.0

Download the Source Code of the Windows version of the viewer - written in C# using the .NET Framework 2.0

Other Stuff

Thanks to Alan Birtles for giving me some of his webspace to host this page, and for being so co-operative in adding the encoding feature to his Grabber program. Thanks also to both Martin Thompson and Simon Watkins for their help, advice and suggestions when testing the viewer.