UK RadioTimes XMLTV returning blank data. Plus more channels

[steeb]

Glad it helped, I just have it at the beginning of my updateepg.bat & it works fine.

It didn't just help for me, it scored BIG-time :-)

Some of us like to pile all the stuff into one .bat but that is for bigger brains than mine. I like to keep all my .bats separate so if something goes astray I can single it out quicker, but I have been accused at least once of being a bear with no brain at all

love your .bat implemented now as per .bat post of mine!

Steeb

[steeb]

Backup is done by Acronis - monthly fill backup and daily incremental ones. In theory I can go back to any day on the last six months for anthing, other than recordings.

@martin123

I'm running Acronis too for back_up on all of my machines (after switching from Nort*n Ghost) but in let's say your example, a daily incremental back_up, does it really work? I think I've answered my own question there, you're saying it does?! Still does not of course answer the RT website changes but I think you're suggesting there to use the Roll on/Roll off functions of Acronis? Hmmmm, I am so lazy with my back_ups....

[martint123]

I've just got a full RT listing this morning.

Steeb - yes the incremental backups do work - and very well. You can use windows explorer on any of the base or incremental files and it comes up with a list of the backup days and you just pick one and see the drives that were backed up on that day and wander around in a very similar way to explorer.
It was only a matter of seconds to get that xml file, just started on the 31st and went backwards till is was big and just dragged it to the desktop.

[Graham]

I've just got a full RT listing this morning.

My grab has just failed with msg "Radio Times returned a zero sized reply ..." for each and every channel ... I'll try again tomorrow.

[steeb]

thanks for all info martin123

Graham 3 minutes ago RT returned a full listing, who knows how long it will stay that way!

Steeb

[Pob]

Yep thank you Jaggy, I have now added your lines to my update.batch file - it was just what I was looking for.
From the info provided by martin123, I am still assuming this has been a temprary hitch with the RT data and it will soon be working normally again. As to the 'new channels' added to the RT data I'm not sure they were meant to be added - some seemed to be duplicates, and others old ones like Zone Horror and Zone Reality (now called the Horror channel and CBS Reality).

[martint123]

They have always been a bit behind with name changes, but if you have set yourself up on the RT web site and selected your channels, then the selection is much larger now and broken down into platforms as well. (which would be handy if Birtles did this).

All available channels
BBC1, BBC2, ITV1, Channel 4, Five only
Freeview
Freeview/Top Up TV
Sky Digital
Virgin TV (formerly NTL)
Virgin TV (formerly Telewest)
Freesat

[martint123]

And I note that there is a LOT more series and episode information that appears in the sub title field.

[BigMoose]

How are you all finding the updates over the last few days? I seem to be getting some channels but many of them are returning 0 size listings (BBC HD, ITV3 etc). I'm using XMLTVGUI, does that make a difference? It has picked up extra channels but most seem to pull back empty listings.

[Graham]

I am getting empty files ...

It is my understanding that the Radio Times data is ...

http://xmltv.radiotimes.com/xmltv/channels.dat

which contains the list of channels that have data ... and ...

http://xmltv.radiotimes.com/xmltv/2155.dat (for example)

where the number (2155, in this case) is from the channels.dat.

As I write, the number.dat files exist but contain no programme data.