XMLTV Radio Times EPG missing channels?

[PhilTheDoc]

XMLTV was working fine until a few days ago. It still works, but BBC1 and all the main terrestrial channels are empty. The less popular Freeview channels are still OK. Is this Radio Times being sneaky or have I got a problem? I've returned to the DVB-T EPG for now, but the Radio Times one via XMLTV was better.

Thanks. Happy Christmas!

[sixgun]

I use the radio times xmltv source and my guide is fine. I only grab 7 days guide, and all channels are full up to (and including) the 30th.

I use XMLTV GUI 3.06.00W as my grabber. What grabber are you using? Maybe it's something to do with that.

Regards.

[martint123]

I confirm - no problems with it here either. Are you getting any error messages in the xmltv log.
(I've never had any sucess with getting an EPG out of my DVB-T 'thing')

[PhilTheDoc]

I use XMLTV GUI 3.06.00W as my grabber. What grabber are you using? Maybe it's something to do with that.

I'm using 3.07.00W - only one I've ever used.

[sixgun]

I'll hold off upgrading for now

I can send you my version if you want to try and older version.

Regards.

[PhilTheDoc]

Are you getting any error messages in the xmltv log.

Yes - I hadn't noticed. I now know I have a local problem:

13:22:16 - Please note that all data downloaded with this grabber is copyright of the Radio Times website (http://www.radiotimes.com) and the use of the data is restricted to personal use only. Also be aware that this service may not remain free and in future may become a paid-for service
13:22:23 - Radio Times returned a zero sized reply for channel Bid TV
13:22:29 - Clearing cache
13:22:29 - Finished pass 1 of grabber UK_RT
13:22:29 - 10554 programs found
13:22:29 - Starting pass 1 of processor PrgDets
13:22:32 - Finished pass 1 of processor PrgDets
13:22:32 - Starting pass 1 of processor UK_RT_Plus_One
13:22:33 - C:\Program Files\XMLTV GUI\lib/timezones.lua:163: attempt to compare nil with number
13:22:33 - Grab failed on program ""
13:22:33 - Finished pass 1 of processor UK_RT_Plus_One
13:22:33 - Starting pass 1 of processor UK_RT_Free_Limit
13:22:35 - Finished pass 1 of processor UK_RT_Free_Limit
13:22:35 - Combining Grabber Programs
13:22:35 - Finished Combining Grabber Programs
13:22:35 - Sorting Programs
13:22:35 - Programs Sorted
13:22:35 - Writing XML
13:22:37 - XML Written

If I turn off the UK_RT_Plus_One post processor everything's OK and I get all my channels back. I'll live without it for now.

Thanks for your reply.

[martint123]

Good news. Also thanks to your comment I've just upgraded. I thought I'd ticked the box for emails about upgrades, but nothing heard.

Martin

[melearp]

I have had no problems whatsoever downloading Freeview using XMLTVGUI 3.07.00W. I have had some frustration with the channel names from RT not lining up with the OTA channel names so I wrote another postprocessor for XMLTVGUI to fix them up. Now when I do a rescan (building another HTPC right now so this happens a lot at the moment) the names match and I don't have to do any manual mapping of EPG to tuning requests at all.
You can get this from Alan Birtles XMLTVGUI Wiki.

I also got frustrated with constantly having to manually set the channel numbers to match the freeview ones so that they are the same as the freeview tele, so I wrote/generated this SQL which will fix them up (AT YOUR OWN RISK - back up the gbpvr.db3 file first). I have used it only on an SQLite database.
Here is the code - remember, backup gbpvr.db3 and it's at your own risk. (nmaes are the fixed up freeview OTA names, but you can adjust to suit your situation). You have to use a SQLite browser of some description. I used SQLiteSpy.

Code:

UPDATE CHANNEL SET channel_number=1 WHERE name='BBC ONE';
UPDATE CHANNEL SET channel_number=2 WHERE name='BBC TWO';
UPDATE CHANNEL SET channel_number=3 WHERE name='ITV1';
UPDATE CHANNEL SET channel_number=4 WHERE name='Channel 4';
UPDATE CHANNEL SET channel_number=5 WHERE name='Five';
UPDATE CHANNEL SET channel_number=6 WHERE name='ITV2';
UPDATE CHANNEL SET channel_number=7 WHERE name='BBC THREE';
UPDATE CHANNEL SET channel_number=9 WHERE name='BBC FOUR';
UPDATE CHANNEL SET channel_number=10 WHERE name='ITV3';
UPDATE CHANNEL SET channel_number=11 WHERE name='SKY THREE';
UPDATE CHANNEL SET channel_number=12 WHERE name='UKTV History';
UPDATE CHANNEL SET channel_number=13 WHERE name='More 4';
UPDATE CHANNEL SET channel_number=14 WHERE name='E4';
UPDATE CHANNEL SET channel_number=15 WHERE name='abc1';
UPDATE CHANNEL SET channel_number=16 WHERE name='QVC';
UPDATE CHANNEL SET channel_number=18 WHERE name='The Hits';
UPDATE CHANNEL SET channel_number=19 WHERE name='UKTV Br''tIdeas';
UPDATE CHANNEL SET channel_number=20 WHERE name='f tn';
UPDATE CHANNEL SET channel_number=21 WHERE name='TMF';
UPDATE CHANNEL SET channel_number=22 WHERE name='Ideal World';
UPDATE CHANNEL SET channel_number=24 WHERE name='price-drop tv';
UPDATE CHANNEL SET channel_number=28 WHERE name='ITV4';
UPDATE CHANNEL SET channel_number=29 WHERE name='Film4';
UPDATE CHANNEL SET channel_number=30 WHERE name='E4+1';
UPDATE CHANNEL SET channel_number=31 WHERE name='ITV Play';
UPDATE CHANNEL SET channel_number=32 WHERE name='Film4+ 1';
UPDATE CHANNEL SET channel_number=35 WHERE name='Five US';
UPDATE CHANNEL SET channel_number=36 WHERE name='Five Life';
UPDATE CHANNEL SET channel_number=70 WHERE name='CBBC Channel';
UPDATE CHANNEL SET channel_number=71 WHERE name='CBeebies';
UPDATE CHANNEL SET channel_number=75 WHERE name='CITV';
UPDATE CHANNEL SET channel_number=80 WHERE name='BBC NEWS 24';
UPDATE CHANNEL SET channel_number=81 WHERE name='BBC Parliament';
UPDATE CHANNEL SET channel_number=82 WHERE name='Sky News';
UPDATE CHANNEL SET channel_number=83 WHERE name='Sky Spts News';

[martint123]

Phil - I noticed a mention on Alan Birtles forum about the errors.
http://www.birtles.org.uk/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=171

[PhilTheDoc]

Thanks Martin. Exactly my problem. Sorted