Free XMLTV EPG scraper

[drlava]

the stop time is derived from the duration subnode.

[whurlston]

If you mean the <length units="minutes">30</length>, this should actually be the running time of the program without commercials. From the xmltv dtd (the leading numbers are line numbers):

309 <!-- The true length of the programme, not counting advertisements or
310 trailers. But this does take account of any bits which were cut out
311 of the broadcast version - eg if a two hour film is cut to 110 minutes
312 and then padded with 20 minutes of advertising, length will be 110
313 minutes even though end time minus start time is 130 minutes.
314 -->
315 <!ELEMENT length (#PCDATA)>
316 <!ATTLIST length units (seconds | minutes | hours) #REQUIRED>
317

[drlava]

hmm, I'll have to look in to this.. thanks for the info.

[whurlston]

No problem. Unfortunately, there is no tag for the duration of the program. I'm having to go back on some of my code because some of my output is wrong. There are a couple of other minor things but I'll send you a PM later tonight about them.

[sub]

the stop time is derived from the duration subnode.

Over the length of this project, I dont think I've seen a single xmltv file that includes this tag, yet I've looked at a huge variety of different files from all sorts of countries. As Whurlston says though, its also not appropriate to be used for your intended purpose due to it not listing the full duration.

[drlava]

Thanks for your replies. based on your feedback the following changes have been made starting in version 0.29, posted in the origial thread:

-The channel ID has 'ID' prefixed to it so that it cannot be confused with a numeric channel number, even if it is numeric.
-'stop' attribute has been added and the incorrect usage of 'length' removed.
-the time zone offset is zero padded to sign plus 4 digits.

I don't think any of these changes will break other readers.
If there are any other simple changes like that necessary, post here.

[Carlito]

Seems to be working much better for me now. Thanks for the update.
The only problem I seem to have is that all my shows are off by 3 hours.
my offset (in the xml file) is for -0300.
I tried changing my offset in the gbpvr config util (xmltv) but it doesn't seem to stick. Everytime I change it to -300 save out of the config, then go back in it's back to 000.
So I'm not sure if this is a gbpvr bug or not.

Other then that (i'm sure we'll figure it out ) this is an excellent replacement. I've been kind of worried about what I would do for an epg, and hopefully this will be the answer.

[smajor]

Um, when I try to extract V.29 my anti-virus trips with this trojan:

http://www.f-secure.com/v-descs/autoit_x.shtml

[drlava]

The program is written in autoit, the source code is posted. If you are worried about virii, you can 'compile' it yourself, but I'm prety sure that this complaint from your scanner is it just being over sensitive.

[whurlston]

but I'm prety sure that this complaint from your scanner is it just being over sensitive.

I agree. You can add the program to the exclusion list and it should not trip it.