Electronic Program Guide

Revised: April 4, 2012
OL-15762-04

• Concepts

• Procedures

• Reference

 

Audience
 

We prepared this material with specific expectations of you.

    • You will configure and populate the channel and program listings for IPTV services to your presentation systems.

Concepts

• Overview

• Guidelines

• Restrictions

• Understand EPG Data Formats

Overview

Electronic program guide (EPG) data is not required for Cisco Cast to work. You can enable or disable the EPG for Cisco DMS. You are not required to subscribe to any EPG data service.

Tip To have and use an EPG without entering into a subscription contract, you can create and upload a CSV file that contains program descriptions that you have entered.

Guidelines

Note When you negotiate a subscription contract to receive EPG data in any format, tell your data provider that you will use its EPG data with Cisco Cast. Knowing this, your provider can ensure that your license grants you sufficient permissions so that you are not in violation of its terms.

User Permissions Restrictions

Note Features of Cisco Cast are hidden from you until your user role assignment is APPLICATION MANAGER and you have explicit WRITE permissions (CSCtr05337).

Understand EPG Data Formats

We support the XMLTV and TMS data formats for subscriptions to electronic program guide (EPG) data.

• XMLTV

• Tribune Media Services

XMLTV

XMLTV is an emerging, open-source format for EPG data, based in part on RFC 2838 and maintained by the XMLTV Project. An EPG data file that complies with this format contains structured records that describe the attributes of episodes and channels individually.

Cisco DMS supports EPG data subscriptions that retrieve a single GZIP-compressed XMLTV file from an ftp server. Many subscription providers compile and deliver EPG data in this way, including these providers based in the United States:

• FYI Television, Inc. ( http://www.fyitelevision.com/ )
1901 N State Hwy 360 3rd Floor
Grand Prairie, TX 75050

Tribune Media Services

Tribune Media Services (TMS; http://tms.tribune.com/products/k-epgs.html ) sells subscriptions to EPG data in several proprietary data formats that it controls. Cisco DMS supports only one of these data formats. Specifically:

• The name of the supported product is TV Schedules, United States .

• The scope of the supported product is Fourteen (14) rolling days .

• Subscriptions that use this format are available only within the United States.

Other EPG subscription products from TMS use data formats that we do not support. If you are already a TMS customer, check whether your preexisting subscription contract already authorizes you to obtain and use EPG data in the supported format.

Note • To learn more about the supported TMS data format or to negotiate the commercial contract for a subscription, contact Amy Mann, the director of new media sales at Tribune Media Services. Her toll-free telephone number is 800 833-9581, ext. 2333, and her email address is aamann@tribune.com. To ensure that your contract includes sufficient permissions, be sure to say that you intend to use TMS data for Cisco Cast.

  • It might be necessary to adjust security settings in your network so that you can receive EPG data from TMS. The ftp server on your DMM appliance must be able to reach the TMS ftp server.

• Data from TMS is proprietary, copyrighted, and licensed. Although TMS compiles this licensed data in good faith, neither Cisco nor TMS makes any express or implied warranties regarding the data or its merchantability or fitness for any purpose.

 

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 slots.

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 — The 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 be visible.
  • 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.

Related Topics

• Add Channels

Procedures

• Add or Edit Subscriptions to Data from an EPG Provider

• Delete Settings That Define a Subscription

• Synchronize EPG Channel Schedules and Program Descriptions

Add or Edit Subscriptions to Data from an EPG Provider

You use elements on the EPG Providers page to define the settings for your EPG data subscriptions, view a summary of all subscriptions that you have defined and, optionally, choose whether to edit, delete, or synchronize a subscription.

Procedure

Step 1 Click the EPG Providers tab.

Step 2 Do one of the following:

    • To define the settings for a new subscription, click Add an EPG Provider .
    • To edit a subscription that you defined previously:

a. In the EPG Provider Name column, identify the subscription to be edited; then, click the corresponding arrow ( ) in the Actions column.

The Actions menu expands so that you can see and choose among its options.

b. Click Edit .

A dialog box opens, in which you can define or edit the attributes for this subscription.

Step 3 Choose the options or enter the values that meet your requirements, as described in Table 28-1.

Step 4 Do one of the following:

    • To save your entries, do one of the following:

– If you are defining a new subscription, click Add Provider .

– If you are editing a subscription that you defined previously, click Update Provider .

    • To discard your entries, click Cancel .

Step 5 Stop. You have completed this procedure.

 

What to Do Next

Delete Settings That Define a Subscription

Procedure

Step 1 Click the EPG Providers tab.

Step 2 In the EPG Provider Name column, identify the subscription to be deleted; then, click the corresponding arrow ( ) in the Actions column.

The Actions menu expands so that you can see and choose among its options.

Step 3 Click Delete .

Step 4 Click Yes to delete the subscription.

OR


Click No to retain the subscription .

Step 5 Stop. You have completed this procedure.

 

Synchronize EPG Channel Schedules and Program Descriptions

Procedure

Step 1 Click the EPG Providers tab.

Step 2 Examine entries in the EPG Provider Name column.

a. Identify the subscription whose TV channel schedules and program descriptions should be synchronized to your EPG.

b. Click the corresponding arrow ( ) in the Actions column.

The Actions menu expands so that you can see and choose among its options.

Step 3 Click Synchronize .

The Performing EPG Synchronization dialog box opens. It shows a progress indicator ( ) that spins until synchronization has finished. This dialog box closes itself automatically upon completion, unless you dismiss it manually before that.

Step 4 ( Optional ) Would you like to dismiss the dialog box? If so, click Run in Background.

Synchronization finishes in the background so that you can continue your work.

Step 5 Stop. You have completed this procedure.

 

Reference

• Software UI and Field Reference Tables

• FAQs and Troubleshooting

Software UI and Field Reference Tables

• Elements to Define EPG Provider Settings

Elements to Define EPG Provider Settings

 

Table 28-1 Elements for Defining EPG Subscription Settings

Element
Description

Provider Name

The name that you use to distinguish this provider from all other providers.

Data Format

The file format for your subscription data, after you download and decompress it. One of these:

  • Tribune Media Services - TV Schedules
  • XMLTV

Host or IP Address

The routable IP address or DMS-resolvable hostname of the ftp server where you obtain EPG data from your subscription provider.

Username

Your username to log in to the specified ftp server.

Password

The password to authenticate your username to the specified ftp server.

Remote Path

The ftp server subdirectory path where EPG data files are stored for your subscription.

Enter the full pathname, including the actual filename for the .gz (gzipped) archive, if the data format is XMLTV. For example, you might enter pub/xmltv.xml.gz .

Proxy Settings (Optional)

Proxy Hostname

The routable IP address or DNS-resolvable hostname and port number of the proxy server that your DMM appliance should use if it does not have direct Internet access.

Note Do not enter a colon before the port number.

Note Do not configure proxy settings for DMM appliances that have direct access to the Internet.

Proxy Port

Automatic Synchronization Time

Hour

The exact time of day when your DMM appliance should synchronize its program guides for Cisco Cast with the latest available EPG data from your service provider.

Minute

FAQs and Troubleshooting

• Troubleshoot EPG Highlighting

Troubleshoot EPG Highlighting

A DMP 4310G does not always render yellow highlighting correctly in the electronic program guide (EPG) listings for Cisco Cast.

As you navigate through EPG program listings, yellow highlights on screen should always indicate which listing is the current focus of your navigation. However, this highlighting can become offset from your true focus. Before the EPG reaches this state, all of the following must be true simultaneously.

• A DMP 4310G controls the digital sign that shows your EPG.

• Your EPG navigation focus reaches to the outermost edge of your navigable EPG — whether top, bottom, left, or right.

• You use an arrow button or other control that is not valid for your current focus.

• The reason this control is not valid in this context is that it would move focus beyond the outermost edge.

To recover from this state, press any valid button. Alternatively, double-press the same arrow button or other control that you previously invoked in error. The yellow highlight is then restored to your true focus.