Channels & Services

About

ARGUS TV uses channels for programme scheduling, but tuner cards receive services on specific frequencies as defined by the broadcaster. The user therefore will need to associate programme channels to scanned service frequencies. The linking between services and channels can be done in two ways. The first one is using the Services dialog where we start from services, the second way is by using the Channels dialog where we start from existing channels, which one you use depends on the order things have happened.

• If you have scanned Services, but no Channels to link them to, use the Services page to create channels.
• If you have scanned Services and Channels to link them to, use the Channels page.

External EPG Grabbers: If you use an external EPG Grabber, like EPGCollector or WebGrab+Plus, you may find it easiest to grab your data before you link your Channels and Services. Once ARGUS TV starts to import Guide data, it should automatically create a set of Channels. You can then use the Channels page to link your channels and services.

Services

Connect Scanned Services to Channels

To use the services dialog, select at least one service that is not linked. Click the "create channel in.." button, and select the group in ARGUS TV, which you want the channels to be created in. Optionally, you can create a new group using the "this group" option, and type a name. As a result the group will be created in ARGUS TV, and the selected service will have a linked channel which will be placed in the selected group. For the remaining services, you can simply double click the row in the grid and channels will be created in the same group. This way, it takes only a few seconds to create all channels in ARGUS TV.

Linking Services

If your system combines different cards, it is possible that a service, say "BBC one" is captured in different ways, for example one via DVB-T and one via a DVB-S card. These "BBC one" services will be linked to a single "BBC one" service.

To link two (or more) services, select the services to link and click the "Link Channel" button. To Unlink Services, select the service and click the "Unlink Channel" button.

Linked Services, viewed in Channels will have multiple tuner frequencies displayed in the Service column, referring to services they are linked to.

Linking Channels: Services coming from the same type of cards cannot be linked. (eg from two different DVB-S cards)

Deleting Services

If you need to delete a service, Hold the shift key while clicking the "Hide" button.

Channels

About

The Channels page is used when a channel, already existing in ARGUS TV, needs to be linked to another or new service. This is often the case if the EPG data contains a new channel, or was added before any services were scanned.

Connect Channels to Scanned Services

Select the channel you want to link. If it was linked, use the unlink button to remove the link. Clicking the link button (or double clicking the channel) will open a dialog where you you can search for the matching service. Closing the dialog using the OK button will create the link.

Grab EPG

If you are using the built in EPG grabber, checking the "Grab EPG" Box will enable tell the Grabber to collect data for that channel.

Channels & Services (Eliminating the confusion)

In ARGUS TV, users need to configure both Services and Channels. Channels need to be configured in both ARGUS TV Recorder Console and ARGUS TV Scheduler Console, this can be confusing to new users, and seems unnecessary at first. This section will attempt to help the user understand the madness.

Services

ARGUS TV Recorder uses tuner cards to receive Services from the broadcast signal. A service is a constant stream of data broadcast on a frequency by a provider. The service contains nothing to identify the content within it.

There are several reasons we can’t just call Services Channels.

• A Service can be more than one Channel. Some providers will broadcast one channel for part of the day, then switch to a different channel for the next part of the day.
• A Channel can also be more than one Service. In many cases, one channel is broadcast via two or more signal types, for example, DVB-T and DVB-S signals.
• A Service can be acquired from more than one card. If there is more than one card tuning the same signal source, it is possible that a Service can be tuned on any of these cards .

A word on broadcast data: Digital frequencies broadcast data in a Multiplexed Stream or "mux". A mux can consist of many streams of data including video, audio, and things like EPG data and subtitles. A mux can also contain more than one Service. So one mux might have 4 video streams, 10 audio streams and 5 data streams, all on the one frequency.

Channels

ARGUS TV uses Channels to identify each stream and match it to the corresponding EPG data and logos. Channel names are also used in the client software to identify each channel and to select the logo to be used.

In ARGUS TV, channels are a link between Services and EPG data. You can actually call a channel anything you like in ARGUS TV. This allows you to tidy up any inconsistent or odd channel naming.

After the initial setup, the user can think of a channel, as a normal TV channel.

How they are used

Now let's look at how the two come together.

When scanning for services, ARGUS TV Recorder usually creates channels from the service name. These names will usually be correct, but if you wish, you could change it.

Example: Let's say we scanned and found a service. ARGUS TV Recorder Console created a channel, and called it "Comedychannel". We renamed the channel "Comedy Channel"

When importing EPG data ARGUS TV attempts to match EPG data with existing channels, if a match is found ARGUS TV links them. In the ARGUS TV Scheduler Console you can easily check the links and create or alter them if required.

Example: The EPG data for our channel is called "ComedyChannel" so we manually link it to "Comedy Channel" We go to the Guide section of the ARGUS TV Scheduler Console, and "Comedy Channel" will be listed, and the relevant EPG data included.

ARGUS TV uses the Channel name to match the channel logo also.

Example: We find a logo, name it "Comedy Channel" and drop it in the logos folder. Now we go to the Guide section of the ARGUS TV Scheduler Console, and "Comedy Channel" logo appears instead of the name "Comedy Channel".

All of this configuration becomes very useful when something changes. If the name of the EPG data changes slightly, or the Service moves, a few mouse clicks is all it takes to get it working again.