Zap2it listings

[anedjf]

First, you have to configure it. The configuration file can be auto-generated by running the following command (I found it to work best by using a DOS window, since this is all text based):

(this is for North America)

xmltv.exe tv_grab_na_dd --configure

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Once it is configured the first time, you can use the following commands to retrieve the guide and then sort it.

Here is the batch file I created, I just call it getguide.bat and set up a windows scheduled task to call it every morning at 1am.

xmltv.exe tv_grab_na_dd > newguide.xml
xmltv.exe tv_sort < newguide.xml > newguide_sorted.xml
del newguide.xml

Then, just point GBPVR's EPG Source to be an XML file, and locate the file the batch created.

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other countries can replace the "tv_grab_na_dd" in the configuration command with:

United Kingdom tv_grab_uk_rt
Canada and United States tv_grab_na_dd, tv_grab_na
Germany tv_grab_de_tvtoday
New Zealand tv_grab_nz
Finland tv_grab_fi
Italy tv_grab_it
Spain tv_grab_es, tv_grab_es_digital
Netherlands tv_grab_nl, tv_grab_nl_wolf
Denmark tv_grab_dk
Hungary and Romania tv_grab_huro
Japan tv_grab_jp
Sweden tv_grab_se
France tv_grab_fr
Norway tv_grab_no
Portugal tv_grab_pt

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Hope that made sense.

ANEDJF

[Dan]

Good instructions anedf, sorry I was not more specific in my original post. I was at work and in a hurry.

Just to add:

From what I read (Googled) xmltv.exe does not always like paths with spaces, i.e. don’t throw it in “My Documents” or somewhere deep (many directories down) on your drive. I unzipped it, and made a directory called xmltv at the root of a drive and place all the files there.

Now, like anedf mentioned it is a dos happy program so if you try to just double click on the xmltv.exe you won’t get much from it.

Open up a dos window and cd to your location, for me it is c:\xmltv

If you just type xmltv.exe (in a cmd window in the correct directory of course) you will get some vague help options.

C:\xmltv>xmltv.exe
Timezone is -0600
you must specify the program to run
for example: xmltv.exe tv_grab_fi --configure
Valid commands are:
tv_cat tv_grab_it tv_grab_uk_rt
tv_check tv_grab_it_lt tv_grep
tv_extractinfo_en tv_grab_na_dd tv_imdb
tv_grab_de_tvtoday tv_grab_na_icons tv_remove_some_overlapping
tv_grab_dk tv_grab_nl tv_sort
tv_grab_es tv_grab_nl_wolf tv_split
tv_grab_es_digital tv_grab_no tv_to_latex
tv_grab_fi tv_grab_se tv_to_text
tv_grab_fr tv_grab_se_swedb
tv_grab_huro tv_grab_uk_bleb

I readed the README, dug through the doc folder and of course did a little Goggling to get this down.

First do this: xmltv.exe tv_grap_na_dd –configure

You will get this;

C:\xmltv>xmltv.exe tv_grab_na_dd --configure
Timezone is -0600
adding '--share=E:/xmltv/share/xmltv'
using config filename ./.xmltv/tv_grab_na_dd.conf

DD data is in UTC by default
Please specify the appropriate offset
(We're working on improving this)
+0000 UTC
-0400 Eastern Daylight
-0500 Eastern Standard or Central Daylight
-0600 Central Standard or Mountain Daylight
-0700 Mountain Standard or Pacific Daylight
-0800 Pacific Standard

Timezone offset (+/-####) (-0600)

Free Data Direct registration required in advance.
You can get an ID at http://labs.zap2it.com
Specify certificate code: 'ZYZM-TE5O-SBUT' (Letter O)
(don't forget to add a lineup!


Username (): xxxx

WARNING: Storing the password in the config file is not secure
If password is blank, it will be prompted as needed(more secure)
Unsecured password ('x':delete,default:<keep>,):


Of course you don’t want it to prompt you or you will not be able to automate this so just type in you password and hit enter.

There you have configured it. It makes an .xmltv folder with this stored information for future execution. Now in the future you only need to do:

C:\xmltv>xmltv.exe tv_grab_na_dd > yourguide.xml

I did not need to do the sort afterwards, I just pointed GB to the .xml file and it figured it out. But hay, go with whatever works for you!

Put that command in a .bat file and make a schedule to run it. It will over write the original .xml with a fresh one each time. Remember GB will look to at 3am so time your schedule for the bat command accordingly.

By the way there is a --day 7 switch too if you want to change the number of days it will pull down. I did not use it; I just left it to the default.

After it pulls this information down than decompresses and spits it out, it seems to be time and CPU intensive. Must be some great compression from zap2it. Anyway, I tried to kick it off while watching a show and my CPU goes to 100% and the show does stutter a little. I am going to try and figure out how to nice this or at least make sure to schedule it when it is not doing anything.

If you are doing a recording at the exact same time and have the Hauppauge cards I would think it would not affect it since these cards do the encoding/decoding processing themselves. But I have not tested this…

I notice the stutter because I was doing live TV so it had to encode, buffer, decode than run it out my video card.

BTW, my system:
Micro ATX in a nice tiny case,
Athlon XP 2600
1G RAM (overkill)
2 capture cards:
-1PVR 350
-1 PVR 250
250G SATA Drive
GeForce FX 5200 256MB for TV out (S-video and DVI) (again overkill)
1 Linksys 802.11g wireless PCI card


I hope this is more helpful.
Again here is the link:
http://sourceforge.net/project....=286148

Grab the zip file, unless you want the source to do some modification but I doubt it.

Cheers again,
-Dan.

[Guest]

I tried it with zap2it and the xml method, using latest version of gb-pvr and tvguide listing is still empty

something is broke :-(

[ryandkg]

I have been using GBPVR for about a month now with the zap2it EPG updates. Last night I noticed (as I was browsing ahead to record some shows while I am out) that my TVGuide listings cut off at the end of Feb 1/05.

I have used the Search Guide and the show information is present for the week ahead but it it now showing up in the TVGuide.

I tried emptying and reloading the EPG from the zap2it plugin, no change. Tried using the xmltv solution suggested earlier in this thread by TipStir, no change. Tried stopping services, removing the gbpvr.mdb, re-installing the latest GBPVR and re-initializing the EPG, still no listing past midnight tonight.

Is there any other suggested course of action?

I hope so because a pvr without a tv guide is not very convenient to use and my MVP should be arriving any day.

[reven]

ryandkg upgrade to gbpvr v0.9 to fix this problem.

[Guest]

I have the same problem with my GBPVR/zap2it listings coming to an end last night. I upgraded GBPVR and tried updating the listings but no luck.

[sub]

sseat, what version does GB-PVR show in the config app. This is only a bug that occurred in previous releases.

[Guest]

v.090.7c

I may have pooched the upgrade though. It was not recording at the time but the little GB icon was still in my system tray and I just clicked the download and ran it then reran my epg update. It appears to login and download and update, but then there is nothing in my schedule.

Maybe I need a post-upgrade reboot to make something stick?

[Guest]

Nope, nothing on the reboot. Strangely enough I can get in to the access database that stores a lot of the 'stuff' and see that there are listings there going to 2/8 or so...but when I load gbpvr the schedule and search are blank.

Not sure what to do now...some kind of odbc connector thing? I will try a reinstall.

sseat

[ryandkg]

This subject is now appearing in various threads so FWIW I will summarize my experience.

I followed reven's suggestion and downloaded and installed the latest version of GBPVR (v0.90.7c). At this time GBPVR would not start. I checked the gbpvr.exe.log file and it looked like various skins files were causing the load process to throw some errors.

As a test I backed up my gbpvr folder, uninstalled, removed the gbpvr folder. Rebooted and reinstalled and ran basic config. All fine so far. Then started installing the assortment of plugins I had been using, in no particular order. Did this one at a time, ran config, started GBPVR. All was fine until I got to Video Archiver (Jan 26/05 version). At this point GBPVR would not start.

Then I shut down services, renamed gbpvr folder, restored the previous install with all of its data, settings and plugins, removed the Video Archiver plugin, restarted services and voila! GBPVR starts and all of the TV Guide and all of my previous recordings data are preserved.

A bit round-about perhaps but it worked for me.