I-xmltv: TV Guide customization & Zap2It EPG utility.

[Jim_]

Hi pens18aj,
There are several things that can keep recording from scheduling as expected.
But I’m very confident that I-xmltv isn’t one of them.

I’m can not get involved with supporting normal scheduling problems and questions, but if it were me I would.
1. shut down the recording service.
2. Move the existing database to a safe location, so a new one is created when you start the recording service.
3. Update the new, completely empty EPG, with TVGuide.xml
4. Try season scheduling some premiere’s
5. If it doesn’t work as expected, post a question in the support forum (with your gbpvr & I-xmltv logs) when sub returns from vacation.
And send me a PM so I can follow the thread to make sure it isn’t anything on my end.

Jim

[pens18aj]

I will give your suggestions a try I just thougt it was werid since it was only shows with "*" and that feature was something I never had until this product. I'll do some more testing and do a post with what I get.

Thanks

[Jim_]

Hi pens18aj,
I understand your having problems that on the surface, appear to be related to I-xmltv.
And I don’t want you or anyone to think that I don’t care about the problem because that isn’t the case. I’m sure you will be able to schedule premiere’s (as myself & others have been doing for quite some time now) after your problem is fixed.

This post is for everyone.
I cannot support gbpvr scheduling & recording questions/problems.
Here’s why.
I-xmltv does not record shows.
I-xmltv does not schedule shows.
I-xmltv does not interface with, nor alter, GBPVR’s operation in any way.
I-xmltv simply creates an EPG file that GBPVR can be configured to use.

If “TVGuide.xml” has a problem, GBPVR will simply refuse to use it or the problem will be visible in the guide.
The “only” fields I alter are ones that are visible in TV Guide.

If you see garbage characters, it’s an issue I can help with.
If you cannot schedule a show that is in the guide, the problem is related to your GBPVR configuration, or installation. That type of problem would need to be posted in the support forum, to be properly addressed.
But if you PM me a link to the support thread question, I will follow the thread to see if there is anything I can contribute.

Jim

[pens18aj]

but if it were me I would.
1. shut down the recording service.
2. Move the existing database to a safe location, so a new one is created when you start the recording service.
3. Update the new, completely empty EPG, with TVGuide.xml
4. Try season scheduling some premiere’s

Jim

5. also setup I-xmltv from scratch

Then all of that did the trick I had to restart the recording service a few time to get the TV guide updated but so far so good my pending list is showing all the shows with the "*" that I set for season recordings.

Thanks

[Jim_]

Awesome!
Glad to hear it's working.

Jim

[reboot]

After much mucking around, on the various systems I have, one problem keeps arising.
Whatever get's put in the PostEPGUpdate.bat file causes the epg update to end with an error.
I have simply deleted all PostEPGUpdate.bat's from the systems, because I don't need/want anything there anyhow, and all are now working perfectly.

[Jim_]

After much mucking around, on the various systems I have, one problem keeps arising.
Whatever get's put in the PostEPGUpdate.bat file causes the epg update to end with an error.
I have simply deleted all PostEPGUpdate.bat's from the systems, because I don't need/want anything there anyhow, and all are now working perfectly.

Hi reboot,
I-xmltv doesn’t put anything in PostUpdateEPG.bat, but if you saved a copy I could take a look at it for you.

If you're using XRecord it's probably one of these.
PriorityRecording.exe
rectracker.exe
recycler.exe

Jim

[reboot]

It's X-Suite adding priority recording and recycler I think...anyhow...
Successfully have I-Xmltv and EPGExtra working together, without any PostUpdateEpg.bat

[Jim_]

It's X-Suite adding priority recording and recycler I think...anyhow...
Successfully have I-Xmltv and EPGExtra working together, without any PostUpdateEpg.bat

I’m glad everything is working reboot, but I also believe your setting yourself up for problems by using both I-xmltv and EPGExtra at the same time.

Using both of the utilities would require two separate downloads from the Zap2It server each evening, up to 3-days for I-xmltv and 14-days for EPGExtra. That is exactly the Zap2It bandwidth problem I-xmltv was designed to reduce (remember the 3-day download limit last spring?).

ubu is welcome to post in this thread anytime for any reason, and if my understanding of EPGExtra is wrong ubu please correct me!
If you want to use EPGExtra, I suggest that you uninstall I-xmltv and use “only” EPGExtra.
Then switch back to the native GBPVR Zap2It plugin and “please” remove the checkmark from “Complete EPG Reload” in GBPVR Config. I-xmltv does not use the native GBPVR zap2It plugin, so I don’t know if incremental EPG update has been fixed in ver GBPVR 97.x.

<edit>
When I wrote I-xmltv this is what I was thinking.
Basically we need to decide if having “everything we want” in our EPG, is more important than “having an EPG at all” in the future?

[reboot]

I realize it requires double the bandwidth. I just wanted to see if both would coexist happily, then decide which one to keep.
Having multiple PVR's, I let each family member choose their favourite, but had to test drive both on one machine first.
So far, all is well with both WAF and KIF (Kid acceptance factor)