Most programmes have no description
Without <desc>, guide entries show a title and nothing else.
What it means
Fewer than half the programmes carry a <desc> element, so most entries offer a title with no further information about the content.
Why it matters
Descriptions are what a viewer reads when deciding whether to watch. A guide of bare titles is much less useful, and on clients that show a detail pane the pane is simply empty.
How to fix it
- Add a <desc> to each programme, with a lang attribute matching the title.
- Even one or two sentences is far better than nothing.
- If the upstream feed has descriptions you are not carrying through, check your transform is not dropping them.
Check your own stream
The free EPG checker runs this check on every analysis and links each finding straight back here.
Open the EPG checker →Frequently asked questions
- What does "Most programmes have no description" mean?
- Fewer than half the programmes carry a <desc> element, so most entries offer a title with no further information about the content.
- Why does it matter?
- Descriptions are what a viewer reads when deciding whether to watch. A guide of bare titles is much less useful, and on clients that show a detail pane the pane is simply empty.
- How do I fix it?
- 1. Add a <desc> to each programme, with a lang attribute matching the title. 2. Even one or two sentences is far better than nothing. 3. If the upstream feed has descriptions you are not carrying through, check your transform is not dropping them.
- How do I test my XMLTV guide for this?
- The free XMLTV EPG checker reports this per channel, with the hours of forward coverage and the timezone handling that usually explain it.
- What is the first thing to try?
- Add a <desc> to each programme, with a lang attribute matching the title.
Related Programme guides checks
- XMLTV timestamps have no UTC offsetTimestamps without an explicit offset are ambiguous, and are the usual cause of a guide that appears shifted by whole hours.
- XMLTV guide has holes in a channel scheduleConsecutive programmes do not join up, leaving blank stretches in the guide.
- XMLTV guide does not extend far enough aheadThe guide runs out within hours, so viewers lose programme information partway through the day.
- The guide is not well-formed XMLThe document could not be parsed as XML, so nothing else could be checked.
- The document has no <tv> root elementThe XML parsed, but its root is not <tv>, so it is not an XMLTV guide.
- Guide declares no channelsWithout <channel> elements there is nothing for a playlist to match against.