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UserGuide for Cisco Digital Media Manager5.4.x
OL-15762-05
Chapter26 Electronic Program Guide
Concepts
Understand Methods to Describe EPG Channels
Generic Channel
Descriptions
You can disassociate a channel from all EPG data sources.
In this case, the only information that an EPG will show about the channel is exactly the text that you
enter in the Text to Show if Program Guide is Not Available field. This brief message, which you enter
one time, describes the channel in a broad and general sense, and straddles all time s lots.
Channel Descriptions
from a CSV File
You can enter descriptions into a CSV file for each program that a channel will show.
With this method, you can have and use an EPG without entering into a subscription contract. To
populate an EPG completely, you must create and upload a separate CSV file for every channel that
your EPG should include. EPG provider-related prerequisites do not apply if your channel will use
programming data from a CSV file.
There are strict requirements for what constitutes a valid CSV file. It must use syntax and formatting
that are perfectly consistent with output from a downloadable Microsoft Excel format template that we
provide for your use. We strongly recommend that you derive your CSV files from the free template.
Click Download the CSV Template to obtain a copy of the template, and start using it to define the
EPG attributes for programs on one channel. You can define the attributes for only a few programs or
for as many as 14 days of programs.
Populate fields in the template as follows, where each table row contains the attributes for one program
in the EPG for the corresponding TV channel.
•
Date—The date and time of day when one described program will start. Start times for programs
in your CSV file must use the format MM/DD/YY HH:mm.
•
Duration—The total running time for the described program. Duration values for programs must
use numerals, which indicate the total duration in minutes.
•
Title—T he title that the program guide should show for the described program. Program titles are
limited to a maximum of 23 characters. When the text to be displayed in a program title should
show any visible quotation marks, you must enter exactly
\"
for each quotation mark that should
bevisible .
•
Description—The actual description that the program guide should show for the program.
Descriptions are limited to a maximum of 50 characters. When the text to be displayed in your
program guide should show any visible quotation marks, you must enter exactly
\"
for each
quotation mark that should be visible.
Define the attributes for programs on one channel, and then save and upload your CSV file.
Channel Descriptions
from a Data
Subscription
You can negotiate with a vendor of programming data to establish a paid subscription, by which you
will gain automatic access to current program schedules and descriptions for multiple channels. Before
your channel can use any EPG data from a subscription provider, you must enter your subscription
details and synchronize data on the EPG Providers tab. Then, you must configure the channel on the
TV Channels tab. The supported data formats are:
•
TMS—Your EPG will use Tribune Media Services data to describe the channel and its programs.
•
<XMLTV>—Your EPG will use data in the XMLTV format to describe the channel and its
programs. The provider name here is not necessarily “XMLTV.” Instead, it matches exactly what
you entered for the provider name when you configured your subscription settings, assuming that
you have an XMLTV data subscription.