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

[Jim_]

You know I just noticed the same issue. If I look out a few days any shows at 10:00 pm or later do not show up in the tv guide. I am running the newest version. If I empty my EPG and let it do an update it does fix the issue for a bit.

Are you seeing gaps _____ in the EPG, or does the EPG just stop?

Zap2It sends data based on midnight UTC, so a single days EPG begins (and ends) at 7PM this time of the year in the central time zone.

If my previous post doesn’t help track down the problem, you guys are welcome to post your I-xmltv and xmltv logs and I’ll take a look.

Jim

[pens18aj]

Are you seeing gaps _____ in the EPG, or does the EPG just stop?

Jim

I looked at my log and did not see an errors but a question,

when I click on "Update EPG" from the GBPVR icon in the system tray I notice gbpvr is pops up with a box saying "updating epg" like normal but then the updateepg.bat runs while that is still running and finishes before teh normal GBPVR "information" window goes a way is that normal? I would have thought it would have waited till epg is done to run the bat file.

here is a snapshot of my tv guide. Today is Tuesday so If I go to 2 days out and everynight after tonight they all look the same after 10:00 pm.
[ATTACHMENT NOT FOUND]

[ATTACHMENT NOT FOUND]

[Jim_]

Yep all your I-xmltv logs look just fine.
Downloaded, verified and joined with no problems or lineup changes detected at any time.
You should start a thread in the support form with your GBPVR logs asking sub, because the problem doesn’t appear to be on the I-xmltv side. But I will watch the thread to see if there is anything I can contribute.
First, zip and attach your TVGuide.xml (or PM me for my email) I’ll load it on one of my systems to make sure the file doesn’t have a problem.

Jim

[pens18aj]

Jim_, I did PM you and also did some more trouble shooting in the mean time. I made a copy and then deleted my I-xmltv directory so I could started over. After running the config.bat and updateepg.bat I did not see any change to the TV guide so I decided since I was viewing this thru an MVP and sometimes I notice a refresh does not happen right away I decided to restart the recording service to see what happens. Well after my MVP came back up I checked the TV guide for 2 days out (friday at 10:00 pm) would'nt you know it all was well and working again. So I do not know what is up I guess I need to start watchin this each night. I guess if I see this again I will try to restart the recording service first and if not post my logs in the support forum.

[Jim_]

Sounds good & glad its working for now.
I sent a PM with my email address.
If you have an update problem again, zip and send me a copy of your TVGuide.xml before trying a manual epg update. That way I can make sure the xmltv file wasn’t the problem.
I remember there were a few issues with your system when you first installed I-xmltv, things like not being able to record shows that were marked with the premier marker.
Sub knows a lot more about his program than I do, hopefully between the two of us, we can isolate your epg update problem.
Jim

[pens18aj]

I remember there were a few issues with your system when you first installed I-xmltv, things like not being able to record shows that were marked with the premier marker.
Jim

I figured this issue above out. I reloaded GBPVR on to a new machine awhile back and I had checked the "Dont record duplicates (zap2it)" under the Misc tab in config. Once that was unchecked I could select the premier shows correctly. Sorry that I did not report that sooner.

[Jim_]

I figured this issue above out. I reloaded GBPVR on to a new machine awhile back and I had checked the "Dont record duplicates (zap2it)" under the Misc tab in config. Once that was unchecked I could select the premier shows correctly. Sorry that I did not report that sooner.

Thanks for the follow-up.

I looked at your TVGuide.xml and found a serious configuration problem.
In the I-xmltv setup directions…

Code:

xmltv setup:
Click on UpdateEPG.bat, [B]use +0000 for the timezone [/B]then enter your Zap2It user name & password. <enter> for all other questions.

You entered –0500 instead of +0000. You don’t need to re-install I-xmltv, just run “–configure.bat” and use +0000 for the time-zone offset.
I can’t say for sure that it caused the problem in your TVGuide.xml because xmltv must be configured using +0000 for automatic time-change reasons, and I’ve never tested it any other way.

If the problem happens again using +0000, copy 1 through 13.xml to a folder and zip the folder because I’d like to look at the individual files. There’s a way of bypassing the incremental feature all together if it’s needed with your system. But I tested all kinds of potential failure modes when writing the utility, none of them caused gaps at midnight UTC so I’m guessing –0500 was the problem.
Jim


PS.
If anyone else is wondering if their configuration is correct.
This post detailed how to confirm that xmltv was configured properly
http://forums.gbpvr.com/showpost.php?p=1...stcount=88

[pens18aj]

I looked at your TVGuide.xml and found a serious configuration problem.
In the I-xmltv setup directions…

Code:

xmltv setup:
Click on UpdateEPG.bat, [B]use +0000 for the timezone [/B]then enter your Zap2It user name & password. <enter> for all other questions.

You entered –0500 instead of +0000.

Interesting, so I guess since I am a technical person all day long and we like to hard code things instead of setting thing to auto I set it to -0500. but the line below said I could

"Time OFFSET Selection (note: not a timeZONE)
It is better to specify +0000 and let the final application
deal with a local conversion (helps with DST issues), but you
can specify a Time Offset if desired.
+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 (+/-####) (-0400)

I am wondering if I should leave it as is until it breaks again to see if changing this to +0000 fixes it? What do you think I do not mind being the guinea pig since I control the remote in the family and do not have to give into the WAF (Wife acceptance factor) she reads books instead of watching TV

[Jim_]

Interesting, so I guess since I am a technical person all day long and we like to hard code things instead of setting thing to auto I set it to -0500. but the line below said I could

"Time OFFSET Selection (note: not a timeZONE)
It is better to specify +0000 and let the final application
deal with a local conversion (helps with DST issues), but you
can specify a Time Offset if desired.
+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 (+/-####) (-0400)

Yea I did my time too, but it’s been a couple of years now and the nightmares are starting to go away. LOL

An unavoidable part of installing TVGuideSupercharger is downloading and configuring the xmltv downloader (not my program). The messages you see displayed by xmltv during setup, depend on the xmltv version installed.
For the TVGuideSupercharger “package” to work, xmltv must be configured using the settings I specified in the directions.

I am wondering if I should leave it as is until it breaks again to see if changing this to +0000 fixes it? What do you think I do not mind being the guinea pig since I control the remote in the family and do not have to give into the WAF (Wife acceptance factor) she reads books instead of watching TV

<Technical Support humor removed>
People are always welcome to experiment, in a completely unsupported kind of way.

[Jim_]

8/10/06

Just wanted to let people know that Zap2It appears to be having problems -today- with days 12-14. I checked their webboard and other users have reported it.

My epg loaded into GBPVR without any problems. But the offending days should be deleted from the I-xmltv folder to avoid potential problems.

Simply look at the size of the numbered “.xml” files in the I-xmltv folder (1-13 if you have a 14-day epg).
1.xml should be approximately twice the size of the others (2-13).
If you find any xml files that are abnormally large (almost as big as 1.xml) they should be deleted.