Custom Channels Guide Second Line?

Playground Custom Channels
#1

Using the Channels built-in EPG, it shows a second line with the subtitle. Like this:

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I use IPTVBoss to create a custom .xml for my custom channels. It has a "Next_Line" feature, but it just puts a break in the xml and Channels shows both lines on one. What should appear in the xml to separate the title from the subtitle such that the latter appears below in the smaller font above?

Any thoughts? Appears like this in the xml:

#2

That "second line" is the episode title, while the primary line is the program title.

In the XMLTV DTD, the program title is defined as the title element, and the episode title (or "second line") is the sub-title element of the parent programme element.

If you're not seeing that second line, then your guide data does not contain a sub-title element.

I have no idea what this means.

#3

I figured out what was wrong with my software. It was deliberately consolidating the subtitle into the title field because most players won't actually display the subtitle. I changed that setting and now it's all working as expected. Thanks for the clue to get me there.

#4

To add to what @racameron said.
For Sporting Events the second line would be the Event Title.

#5

No. This is about XMLTV guide data, and there is no "Event Title" in the spec.

#6

(As a note, because your post isn't formatted properly, your XML code sample is not displaying. You need to put ``` (3 back-ticks, usually the key to the left of 1 on the keyboard) on the lines both before and after your code snippet.)

#7

Thank you. Let's see if this works. Here's how it was before:

  <programme start="20230915073700 +0000" stop="20230915083700 +0000" channel="XXXXXX.us">
    <category lang="en">Talk</category>
    <category lang="en">Series</category>
    <desc lang="en">Actor Ansel Elgort; actress Jane Levy.</desc>
    <title lang="en">The Late Late Show With James Corden
    Ansel Elgort: Jane Levy</title>
  </programme>

You can see how, with IPTVBoss the NEXT_LINE functionality was just putting a line break after Corden and before Ansel. Talking to the developer, it was setup like that to specifically exclude the subtitle element. Evidently, many IPTV players won't recognize/show subtitles, but some IPTV players will observe a break like that to split the title into separate lines (and the rest will just default back to showing it all on one line). Of course, Channels recognizes and shows the subtitle element, and it does not recognize an ordinary line break in the xml instead consolidating both lines into a single line in the guide.

And here's how it is now, after I removed the exclusion of the subtitle element (and removed the injection of the subtitle element in the title element) and it is now working properly:

<programme start="20230915073700 +0000" stop="20230915083700 +0000" channel="XXXXXX.us">
    <category lang="en">Talk</category>
    <category lang="en">Series</category>
    <desc lang="en">Actor Ansel Elgort; actress Jane Levy.</desc>
    <sub-title lang="en">Ansel Elgort: Jane Levy</sub-title>
    <title lang="en">The Late Late Show With James Corden</title>
  </programme>

Thanks again for the help. Is the "three tick" convention a common thing for setting off code snippets in forums?

#8

If they do this, then they are not adhering to XML guidelines.

Yes. Many forums use Markdown, and additionally they tend to use GitHub-Flavored Markdown (GFM).

#9

Your contributions here are extremely useful. Thank you, again.