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

[zehd]

Here's a quick cap of he update in progress...

this is on 1.xml

Fetching from DataDirect: Fetched 2443 k/bytes in 7 seconds
##################################################
loading data: ##################################################
WARNING: multiple channel mappings for 'CFCN'
WARNING: multiple channel mappings for 'EA2'
WARNING: Multiple channel mappings found, please adjust DataDirect lineup
Writing schedule: ####

[zehd]

Frank, changing it to "belownormal" would hog more CPU!
I’d checked the priority months ago, so my memory had faded.
I monitored it again last night when GBPVR did its “automatic” EPG update just to be sure.
When GBPVR calls UpdateEPG.bat during the automatic update, all the processes are run at IDLE.

Reread this and realized we might be looking at different things. GB-PVR is calling the update from txguide.xml in idle, and that works great.

I'm talking about running your update bat, from Task scheduler..

Maybe that's where the problem is. If GB-PVR spawns your Bat file in Idle, then all child processes are in idle, therefore you don't see the problem.

The reason I went to having Windows Schedule the Update, is I seemed to have multiple fires of your update from GB-PVR using updateepg.bat out of gb-pvr directory. Might be because I have multiple cards...

But just telling gbpvr to update an hour after Windows Task Scheduler has fired your update bat seems to work the best, except for the hogging CPU thing

[zehd]

Just checked. TVguide.xml has no reference to 3 cfcn or 64 ea2

[Jim_]

Just checked. TVguide.xml has no reference to 3 cfcn or 64 ea2

Hi Frank,
I’m not the author of “xmltv tv_grab_na_dd”, but I do save any messages the grabber gives in I-xmltv.log for troubleshooting purposes. Remember, I-xmltv enhances listings downloaded by xmltv.
If this turns out to be something I cant help you with, Rmeden (on the zap2it forum) is the author of “tv_grab_na_dd” and he is very good at giving advise.
With that said, post (or PM) me your zipcode, lineup, and a complete list of the channels you -do not- have selected, and I’ll try it here.
PS.
Only channels listed in your “tv_grab_na_dd.conf” should be in the xmltv downloads.

Jim

[zehd]

Hi Frank,
I’m not the author of “xmltv tv_grab_na_dd”, but I do save any messages the grabber gives in I-xmltv.log for troubleshooting purposes. Remember, I-xmltv enhances listings downloaded by xmltv.
If this turns out to be something I cant help you with, Rmeden (on the zap2it forum) is the author of “tv_grab_na_dd” and he is very good at giving advise.
With that said, post (or PM) me your zipcode, lineup, and a complete list of the channels you -do not- have selected, and I’ll try it here.
PS.
Only channels listed in your “tv_grab_na_dd.conf” should be in the xmltv downloads.

Jim

Yep, the tv grab includes all the correct channels. Just something is deciding to elimate one of the duplicates. I'll get you more info

[Jim_]

Yep, the tv grab includes all the correct channels. Just something is deciding to elimate one of the duplicates. I'll get you more info

I tried a random postal code from the Calgary area.
You must be using "Shaw Cablesystems - Calgary - Digital" because it has the channel lineup you are talking about, and their analog cable lineup doesn’t have the dupes?

When I downloaded the complete digital lineup xmltv found these dupe channels.

WARNING: multiple channel mappings for 'VCC1'
WARNING: multiple channel mappings for 'CFCN'
WARNING: multiple channel mappings for 'EA2'
WARNING: multiple channel mappings for 'NFLNET'
WARNING: Multiple channel mappings found, please adjust DataDirect lineup

First I removed the dupes (the second numbers listed) in the Zap2It lineup configuration page, then I ran --configure.bat to update the lineup in xmltv.

3 - 232 'CFCN'
34 - 64 'EA2'
140 - 210 'NFLNET'
151 - 193 'VCC1'

255 channels? Thats a lot of channels!

Downloaded xmltv fine, epg updated fine, GBPVR listed all the channels that were selected.
Hope this helps.
Jim

[zehd]

I tried a random postal code from the Calgary area.
You must be using "Shaw Cablesystems - Calgary - Digital" because it has the channel lineup you are talking about, and their analog cable lineup doesn’t have the dupes?

When I downloaded the complete digital lineup xmltv found these dupe channels.

WARNING: multiple channel mappings for 'VCC1'
WARNING: multiple channel mappings for 'CFCN'
WARNING: multiple channel mappings for 'EA2'
WARNING: multiple channel mappings for 'NFLNET'
WARNING: Multiple channel mappings found, please adjust DataDirect lineup

First I removed the dupes (the second numbers listed) in the Zap2It lineup configuration page, then I ran --configure.bat to update the lineup in xmltv.

3 - 232 'CFCN'
34 - 64 'EA2'
140 - 210 'NFLNET'
151 - 193 'VCC1'

255 channels? Thats a lot of channels!

Downloaded xmltv fine, epg updated fine, GBPVR listed all the channels that were selected.
Hope this helps.
Jim

I appreciate you goimng that extra ten miles and guessing my postal codes, and cable provider...

Since my last post, I switched back to using Zap2it plugin direct in GB-PVR. The channels all lined up perfectly.

I was thinking that if I switch again to i-xmltv, it would still not fill in those two channels because there are no references to those channels in the tvguide.xml. So something in my setup is stripping out..

I'm going to pm you my actual logins ffor laps.zap2it...

[scezic]

Recently I started having problems with EPG updates, only grabbing 15 hours if I was lucky, so I decided to try i-xmltv and it seemed to work. I only did a 3 day grab and the only enhancement I saw was the * for new episodes. This was better then what I was getting so I tried a 7 day grab. I noticed this during the update

MESSAGE: The startTime you specified 00:00:00Z is not in a valid format, and has
been corrected to a default value.
MESSAGE: The startTime you specified was invalid and has been corrected to 2006-
09-03T06:46:14Z.
MESSAGE: The endTime you specified was invalid and has been corrected to 2006-09
-07T00:00:00Z.

Each file after 2.xml is progressively larger, and in the guide I have to hit over multiple times to get to the next listed program. For 5.xml I see

MESSAGE: The startTime you specified 00:00:00Z is not in a valid format, and has
been corrected to a default value.
MESSAGE: The startTime you specified was invalid and has been corrected to 2006-
09-03T06:46:14Z.
MESSAGE: The endTime you specified was invalid and has been corrected to 2006-09
-07T00:00:00Z.

It would appear that it is resetting the start time to 2006-09-03 each time it creates an .xml file thus adding several entries for each program in the later .xml files and when combined to the tvguide.xml (~16.5MB). I’ve tried a complete uninstall/reinstall of gbpvr v97.13 with no change in the built in zap2it or i-xmltv listings. Any suggestions on how to get the guide running correctly again?

[Jim_]

Recently I started having problems with EPG updates, only grabbing 15 hours if I was lucky, so I decided to try i-xmltv and it seemed to work. I only did a 3 day grab and the only enhancement I saw was the * for new episodes. This was better then what I was getting so I tried a 7 day grab. I noticed this during the update

Each file after 2.xml is progressively larger, and in the guide I have to hit over multiple times to get to the next listed program. For 5.xml I see

It would appear that it is resetting the start time to 2006-09-03 each time it creates an .xml file thus adding several entries for each program in the later .xml files and when combined to the tvguide.xml (~16.5MB). I’ve tried a complete uninstall/reinstall of gbpvr v97.13 with no change in the built in zap2it or i-xmltv listings. Any suggestions on how to get the guide running correctly again?

Hi scezic,
When you started having the problems were you using the native GBPVR zap2it plugin, or xmltv?

Yes there have been a number of posts reporting the Zap2It delivery problem on the Za2It support forum, I first noticed it in my xmltv logs around the 8’th of last month. Dropping back to a 12-day EPG fixed it for me.
There have also been a number of guesses as to what is causing the problem, but I don’t believe any of the user-suggested fixes/guesses are repeatable for everyone.
Personally, I’m guessing the Zap2It server we use simply needs to have its clock adjusted., and there’s no one left at Zap2It that knows how to do it…

If you want to try a test?
The zip in this post adds an UpdateEPG.bat option to use a single xmltv download.
“SET Incremental=0” for a single xmltv download.
“SET Incremental=1” to enable incremental xmltv downloading.
UpdateEPG.bat is configured for “0”, so don’t change anything for this test.

Extract the zip to your C: drive, it will update two files in your I-xmltv folder, UpdateEPG.bat & I-xmltv.exe. I included the latest I-xmltv.exe (v1.2) explained here because I didn’t want to modify the batch for the older (1.1) version.

Delete all the “xml” files in the I-xmltv folder, or run –configure.bat again.
Then run “UpdateEPG.bat” from the I-xmltv folder, and let me know if the xmltv.log shows any problems. Also rename or delete the old UpdateEPG.bat in your GBPVR folder first, then empty/update your epg and see how many days you get using the single download version.

If it works, move the new UpdateEPG.bat to your GBPVR folder.
If it doesn’t work, you can PM me your Zap2It information (if you want) and I will try it from here when I have a chance. People in CA appear to be having the biggest issue with Zap2It & xmltv right now.
Jim

<edit> 9/13/06
Removing attachment, this feature is now included in the wiki version

[scezic]

Jim_,

I was using the native zap2it in gbpvr successfully for about a year. I didn’t notice anything wrong with the tv guide until a couple of weeks ago. I tried what you suggested and it looks like I’m getting the same error in I-xmltv.log and only 1 day of listings. I’ll PM my zap2it account login. Thanks for taking the time to help me.