Season/Episode Numbers not always populating

Karl P

I use Schedules Direct for my EPG data on my Tvheadend install, which runs on my Unraid server in a docker container (Build: 4.3-2735_gfcd987f0b (2026-07-18T16:35:04+0000)). The guide is scheduled to be imported once a day, but I have noticed that the season/episode number are not always pulled through. There is one specific channel where I have noticed this more than anywhere else - Channel 4 HD (UK).

Channel four on Freeview has three different versions; Channel 4 (SD), Channel 4 HD and Channel 4 +1 (1 hour delay of the SD channel). On both the SD channels the season/episode numbers populate, but on the HD channel there are very few entries with this info, though it does exist on a few entries.

I have checked the Schedules Direct XML and it appears to be identical for all three listings. Here's an example:

  <programme start="20260825091000 +0000" stop="20260825094000 +0000" channel="I50716.json.schedulesdirect.org">
    <title>Frasier</title>
    <sub-title>The Dog That Rocks the Cradle</sub-title>
    <desc>Martin returns from his friend's funeral upset by how it was conducted. Frasier assures his father that when the day comes, they will follow his wishes to the letter. Elsewhere, after being fired by the radio station, Bulldog is working in pizza delivery to try and earn a little money. Roz asks him to babysit, but after he begins to work for her, her dates don't seem to go so well.</desc>
### Credits Snip ###
    <category>Sitcom</category>
    <category>Comedy</category>
    <category>Series</category>
    <category>series</category>
    <length units="minutes">23</length>
    <episode-num system="xmltv_ns">6.4.</episode-num>
    <episode-num system="dd_progid">EP012597200189</episode-num>
    <video>
      <quality>HDTV</quality>
    </video>
    <audio>
      <stereo>stereo</stereo>
    </audio>
    <previously-shown start="19991021" />
    <subtitles type="teletext" />
### Ratings Snip ###
  </programme>

  <programme start="20260825101000 +0000" stop="20260825104000 +0000" channel="I56892.json.schedulesdirect.org">
    <title>Frasier</title>
    <sub-title>The Dog That Rocks the Cradle</sub-title>
    <desc>Martin returns from his friend's funeral upset by how it was conducted. Frasier assures his father that when the day comes, they will follow his wishes to the letter. Elsewhere, after being fired by the radio station, Bulldog is working in pizza delivery to try and earn a little money. Roz asks him to babysit, but after he begins to work for her, her dates don't seem to go so well.</desc>
### Credits Snip ###
    <category>Sitcom</category>
    <category>Comedy</category>
    <category>Series</category>
    <category>series</category>
    <length units="minutes">23</length>
    <episode-num system="xmltv_ns">6.4.</episode-num>
    <episode-num system="dd_progid">EP012597200189</episode-num>
    <audio>
      <stereo>stereo</stereo>
    </audio>
    <previously-shown start="19991021" />
    <subtitles type="teletext" />
### Ratings Snip ###
  </programme>

  <programme start="20260825091000 +0000" stop="20260825094000 +0000" channel="I17155.json.schedulesdirect.org">
    <title>Frasier</title>
    <sub-title>The Dog That Rocks the Cradle</sub-title>
    <desc>Martin returns from his friend's funeral upset by how it was conducted. Frasier assures his father that when the day comes, they will follow his wishes to the letter. Elsewhere, after being fired by the radio station, Bulldog is working in pizza delivery to try and earn a little money. Roz asks him to babysit, but after he begins to work for her, her dates don't seem to go so well.</desc>
### Credits Snip ###
    <category>Sitcom</category>
    <category>Comedy</category>
    <category>Series</category>
    <category>series</category>
    <length units="minutes">23</length>
    <episode-num system="xmltv_ns">6.4.</episode-num>
    <episode-num system="dd_progid">EP012597200189</episode-num>
    <audio>
      <stereo>stereo</stereo>
    </audio>
    <previously-shown start="19991021" />
    <subtitles type="teletext" />
### Ratings Snip ###
  </programme>

Here's what shows in Tvheadend:

Guide Data

Schedules Direct is set for the guide data:

Channels Configuration

I've been seeing this problem for quite a while now and can't work out what's different and why the HD channel won't show the season info. I even did a complete reinstall of Tvheadend but the same problem persists.

Any ideas?

DeltaMikeCharlie

Karl P <episode-num system="xmltv_ns">6.4.</episode-num>

Odd. My first guess would be that the trailing dot in the xmltv_ns could be to blame, but it is present in all 3.

Here is what TVH is expecting to see:

https://docs.tvheadend.org/documentation/development/xmltv/input/episode-numbering

The only difference seems to be the presence of the <video> tag for the HD channel.

DeltaMikeCharlie

I took a copy-paste of your samples, made minimal changes and fed them into a test system. Each episode imported correctly.

Karl P

Thanks for the replies. It has narrowed down the issue, and it's not Tvheadend or Schedules Direct. The Docker container from linuxserver contains an old version of tv_grab_zz_sdjson (1.3.0). After seeing your replies I looked at the XMLTV repo on GitHub and found this issue.

I manually updated the version of tv_grab_zz_sdjson to 1.4.0 and now the HD episodes of Frasier have the correct season/episode info. I've created an issue on the tracker.