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

[Jim_]

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.

Your welcome.
Yea I was able to download and update my EPG with 11-days (max without the xmltv log error) using your account. So something I can't reproduce must be contributing to the 1-day max EPG problem on your end.
It could be anything, including network settings, service provider problems, windows date & time / time zone settings, or not entering “+0000” when configuring I-xmltv.

I’ve included a 7-day TVGuide.xml downloaded using your account so you can verify that you get more than 1-day in the guide using it. If not, the problem is most likely with windows time settings, or your GBPVR load.
Jim

[scezic]

Your TVGuide.xml gives me listings from 9/4 to 9/10 so I’m not sure what could be causing the problem on my end. I’ve tried updates on 2 different machines and I get the same results. I’ll reread this tread, maybe I missed a setting or I’m doing something wrong. Previously I was changing the default path to my G: drive where I-xmltv and gbpvr were installed. After doing the reinstall I left them both in their default install directories to narrow down my problem but I still get the error. The only things I changed in the UpdateEPG.bat were the time zone and days of listings to 7. I am entering +0000 when asked during configuration.

Should be able to copy just my I-xmltv folder and run it on a computer using a different ISP to test that? What time zone setting did you use to test my account?

Thanks for the help.

edit: from the post of lunkwill on the zap2it forums, I set my clock ahead 7 days and ran the UpdateEPG.bat and got the usual errors in xmltv.log but it set the start and end times to 9/4 and 9/11 respectively. Then I set my clock back to the correct date and updated the EPG from the TVGuide.xml and it worked. I have listing for 7 days. Sure this is not a fix because I'm certain I can't update daily, but it does give correct listings. Hope that gives you more ideas as to what I need to do to fix this.

[Jim_]

Your TVGuide.xml gives me listings from 9/4 to 9/10 so I’m not sure what could be causing the problem on my end. I’ve tried updates on 2 different machines and I get the same results. I’ll reread this tread, maybe I missed a setting or I’m doing something wrong. Previously I was changing the default path to my G: drive where I-xmltv and gbpvr were installed. After doing the reinstall I left them both in their default install directories to narrow down my problem but I still get the error. The only things I changed in the UpdateEPG.bat were the time zone and days of listings to 7. I am entering +0000 when asked during configuration.

Should be able to copy just my I-xmltv folder and run it on a computer using a different ISP to test that? What time zone setting did you use to test my account?

Thanks for the help.

edit: from the post of lunkwill on the zap2it forums, I set my clock ahead 7 days and ran the UpdateEPG.bat and got the usual errors in xmltv.log but it set the start and end times to 9/4 and 9/11 respectively. Then I set my clock back to the correct date and updated the EPG from the TVGuide.xml and it worked. I have listing for 7 days. Sure this is not a fix because I'm certain I can't update daily, but it does give correct listings. Hope that gives you more ideas as to what I need to do to fix this.

>>Just saw your edit when I was ready to post, I'll leave the post as is because it talks a little about setting your date ahead. I'm not sure there is anything "you" can do to fix this because it's a zap2it problem.... The problem with setting the date ahead is, you will need to stop the GBPVR recording service or pending recordings will fail during the update.<<

Glad the TVGuide.xml checked ok, that eliminates a lot of potential problems.

I’m in the central time zone, my clocks are auto-set using AboutTime (linked in my sig).
Trying a different computer isn’t a bad idea, and trying someone else’s computer in a different house (using a different router) is another option. Setting windows to a different timezone (or a date 10 or so days into the future) is another thing you can try.
The author of xmltv says to adjust your MTU if you’re having this problem. I use a program called TCPOptimizer to optimize my network & MTU (1500).
http://www.speedguide.net/downloads.php
Changing the MTU didn’t make a difference on my end, but it (and the other fixes on the Zap2It forum) are worth a try.

Sorry I can’t help more than this, xmltv isn’t my program so my understanding of how it works is very limited.
Probably best to start (or add to) a thread on the Zap2It forum letting them and Robert know the different results we found from two locations.
Jim

[bigbus01]

Jim,

I was having trouble with it also. I was stuck on TV listings thru Wed 9/6 for about a week on two machines. It appeared to update and then deleted the later day's xml files. I used your zip file and method from post #133 (single download) and now it is working fine. We'll see what happens on the update overnight.

Thanks,

Bigbus

[Jim_]

Jim,

I was having trouble with it also. I was stuck on TV listings thru Wed 9/6 for about a week on two machines. It appeared to update and then deleted the later day's xml files. I used your zip file and method from post #133 (single download) and now it is working fine. We'll see what happens on the update overnight.

Thanks,

Bigbus

I've been playing around with this trying to duplicate the single-day problem scezic is having,,, sofa + laptop + watching the US nationals.
I managed to replicate the single-day problem by changing my MTU settings (router & computer) from 1500 to 576 (Note: 576 is the default value Zap2It recommends!).
<edit> And the single-day problem happens if just the router was forced to 576 <end edit>
For me, using "optimal settings" in "TCP Optimizer" and a MTU of 1500, has worked fine. But changing the MTU to “576” caused my normally clean downloads to fail.


So try this.
Change your routers MTU to 1500. (if you can)
Download TCPOptimizer.
http://www.speedguide.net/downloads.php
File + Backup current settings,, just incase.
Largest MTU tab + Start
General Settings tab + optimal settings + apply changes
Reboot.
Limit your maximum EPG download to 11-days.

<Update 11-17-06>
I-xmltv v1.3 and above includes a download link to the newest version of xmltv. If the fix above does not work, try using this older version of xmltv.exe
http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/xmltv...p?download

Let me know if it works on your end!
Jim

[scezic]

Jim_

Good news! Checked my router and it was already set to 1500 MTU, ran TCPOptimizer, and made your suggested changes. Then I switched gbpvr back to native zap2it and 11 days just to test, and voila 11 days in the guide. It might just be a fluke or just a lucky grab from zap2it but it made my day. Still don’t know why all of a sudden it stopped working, no changes have been made for some time to my system. I'll try i-xmltv again, both incremental and single download, and let you know. If the problems return I know who to ask. Thanks a lot for all your help.

[Jim_]

Awesome!
Yes, the acid test will be if you can download 11-days using xmltv / I-xmltv without the errors. If TCP Optimizer, using optimize & MTU=1500 turns out to be a repeatable fix for the zap2it packet problem with xmltv & GBPVR, we’ll have to let sub know about it.

[scezic]

An 11 day grab using i-xmltv seems to be working as well. I have only tested the single download files you posted, but I will test the incremental tomorrow. I do still get

MESSAGE: The startTime you specified was invalid and has been corrected to 2006-09-04T00:00:00Z.
MESSAGE: The endTime you specified was invalid and has been corrected to 2006-09-15T23:59:59Z.

in the xmltv.log file, but the guide updates fine. We'll see what happens when the update runs tomorrow, but for now all is well. Thanks again.

[Jim_]

Thanks for the follow-up.
Using the dual-purpose update from post #133, all you need to do is change this setting in UpdateEPG.bat to use the incremental feature.

Code:

“SET Incremental=0” for a single xmltv download.
“SET Incremental=1” to enable incremental xmltv downloading.

If you get oversized day files, don’t hesitate to use the single download setting until they fix the problem..... A reliable EPG is much more important than saving them a bit of bandwidth.
Jim

[scezic]

Might just be the time of day, 5pm Pacific time, I ran the incremental update and I get no errors in xmltv.log but I get this in i-xmltv.log

I-xmltv v1.2 (build 6/24/06)
Today 20060905 17:06:21 (This month has 30 days)
1.xml 20060905 EPG for today & tomorrow is up-to-date.
XML validation. Minimum (day) length=60%
38444= 100% </tv> found >1.xml
25796= 67% Problem= 0 >2.xml
25268= 66% Problem= 0 >3.xml
23932= 62% Problem= 0 >4.xml
21708= 56% Problem= 1 >5.xml
24378= 63% Problem= 0 >6.xml
25671= 67% Problem= 0 >7.xml
26006= 68% Problem= 0 >8.xml
25829= 67% Problem= 0 >9.xml
25304= 66% Problem= 0 >10.xml
XML validation. Minimum (day) length=60%
38444= 100% </tv> found >1.xml
25796= 67% Problem= 0 >2.xml
25268= 66% Problem= 0 >3.xml
23932= 62% Problem= 0 >4.xml
21708= 56% Problem= 1 >5.xml
24378= 63% Problem= 0 >6.xml
25671= 67% Problem= 0 >7.xml
26006= 68% Problem= 0 >8.xml
25829= 67% Problem= 0 >9.xml
25304= 66% Problem= 0 >10.xml

However, the guide does update correctly as far as I can tell. I'll schedule an update early tomorrow morning and see if the problem remains. Looks like I'm back in business regardless so I’m going to sit back and do some channel surfing.