EPG messes up

[eurojojo]

Hai,

Today there was another annoying mishap. The GB-PVR EPG shows "Twelve Monkeys" to be shown on BBC1. The XMLTV data say "The American President" to be shown at the exact time.

Apparently the XMLTV grabber had data for "Twelve Monkeys", but that got updated to "The American President". GB-PVR does not follow updates if the start time is the same.

Since the BBC RadioTimes is the only supplier of TV data who also supplies raw XMLTV data lots of days in advance, it is not an option to use another grabber (like Zap2It), just to have slower and buggier XMLTV data. We should be very thankful for these raw data.

Here is the screendump:


Here is the XMLTV data:

<table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE"> <programme start="20050123221500 +0000" stop="20050124000500 +0000" channel="south-east.bbc1.bbc.co.uk">
<title>The American President</title>
<desc lang="en">This gleaming, witty and irresistible romantic comedy often harks back to the films of Frank Capra. One of several White House-based movies made in the wake of Bill Clinton's election and shot on an impressive full-size mock-up of the White House's business and domestic quarters, Rob Reiner's picture stars Michael Douglas as President Andrew Shepherd. Recently widowed and the father of a young daughter, Shepherd is in need of female company at official functions. Annette Bening, an eco-lobbyist, fits the bill and, after he dances with her in public, the press go into speculative overdrive. The script makes fun of the president's isolation (it's almost impossible for him to make a personal phone call or even buy a bunch of flowers) and Douglas gives a commanding performance that is far removed from his earlier roles in films such as Fatal Attraction and Falling Down. Bening is also terrific, combining the politically correct attitudes of the 1990s with Lauren Bacall's slinky sophistication and Jean Arthur's bubbly wit. The odd cliché apart, this is perfect entertainment.</desc>
<credits>
<director>Rob Reiner</director>
<actor>Michael Douglas</actor>
<actor>Annette Bening</actor>
<actor>Michael J Fox</actor>
<actor>David Paymer</actor>
<actor>Martin Sheen</actor>
<actor>Anna Deavere Smith</actor>
<actor>Samantha Mathis</actor>
<actor>Richard Dreyfuss</actor>
<actor>John Mahoney</actor>
<actor>Shawna Waldron</actor>
</credits>
<date>1995</date>
<category lang="en">film</category>
<category lang="en">Film</category>
<video>
<aspect>16:9</aspect>
</video>
<subtitles type="teletext" />
<rating system="BBFC">
<value>15</value>
</rating>
<star-rating>
<value>4/5</value>
</star-rating>
</programme>[/QUOTE]

(for those who wonder how RadioTimes listings are combined with Belgian and Dutch data, see http://www.prize.nl/software/pvr/ )

[sub]

Yes, the behaviour you describe is what I expect. Once the data is in, its in, and doesnt get changed.

I dont remember the last time a show was ever changed here in New Zealand, but I'm sure it is more common in some parts of the world, so it is something I'll look at in a future release. Dont worry, I agree that this is good thing to support, but its potentially difficult and time consuming so I cant tackle it at the moment.

[eurojojo]

If you need programming help, or some ideas on algorithms, let me know. Or, open a forum about it, because I am in the 90% of not-so-good programmers.

[eurojojo]

One more thing: it is not that shows get changed, although that may happen, but it is so that certain XML grabbers get information a lot of days ahead. And then shows may be listed as &quot;To be announced&quot;.

Quick pointer to how I repair this anomaly (work-around):

- Copy GBPVR.MDB to another name (backup!
- Open GBPVR.MDB in Microsoft Access
- Open the database &quot;Programmes&quot;
- Select those channels that may contain wrong information (you may want to re-sort them on channel number)
- Press &quot;Delete&quot;
- You will get a question if you want to be informed of items that have a relation with another database (if a show is also programmed to be recorded, you can not delete it from the &quot;Programmes&quot; database. That is no big problem). Tell Access you do not want to be informed.
- Save the database
- Use Config to update the EPG

Good luck.

[stefan]

Related to this may be a &quot;feature&quot; that is &quot;supported&quot; today, which I hope will continue to be supported even if Sub decides to try to fix &quot;xmltv file conflicts with itself&quot; :-) On some channels I get double information today. This is a good thing. An example describes this best: Say there is a hockeygame on. Then in the xml file there would be one entry for the entire game (simplified below):
1800 - 2100 Sweden vs Finland
Then there would also be entries for each episode and for the &quot;studio in between periods-talk&quot;:
1800 - 1810 Pretalk
1810 - 1900 Period 1
1900 - 1910 In between talk
1910 - 2000 Period 2
...
In the tv guide the Pretalk and periods and so on will show up as separate shows. But *before* that, there is a show that is &quot;invisible&quot;, that covers the entire match: 1800-2100. There is no visible entry for it, but when going back and forth with the tv guide cursor it will still stick there and I get an option to record the entire thing. This I like. I have no idea if it is intentional or not on Sub's part, but I'd really like it to stay this way :-)

Hope I make any sense at all...

[reven]

Quote[/b] (sub @ Jan. 24 2005,07:21)]Yes, the behaviour you describe is what I expect. Once the data is in, its in, and doesnt get changed.

I dont remember the last time a show was ever changed here in New Zealand, but I'm sure it is more common in some parts of the world, so it is something I'll look at in a future release. Dont worry, I agree that this is good thing to support, but its potentially difficult and time consuming so I cant tackle it at the moment.

sub if you are wondering the last time i know tv info change was last tuesday or wednesday, tv3 was going to play a Johnny Depp interview (which i had booked) and instead they played a Tsunami thing. just if you are wondering

so it does happen, even here.

[bgowland]

Quote[/b] (eurojojo @ Jan. 28 2005,14:40)]One more thing: it is not that shows get changed, although that may happen, but it is so that certain XML grabbers get information a lot of days ahead. And then shows may be listed as &quot;To be announced&quot;.

I think the nature of the BBC in particular has always been to do late scheduling of certain time slots perhaps for current affairs issues etc. That's where I tend to see the TBA slots the most.

I am seeing something weird with some other channels at the moment though. Sat. 5th on &quot;Five&quot; has Charmed (little block) with details for 18:00 -&gt; 18:45 then another littler block with details for 18:10 -&gt; 18:55 then a bigger block which is 18:15 -&gt; 19:05 (5 minutes longer). Basically three overlapping schedules for the same programme. This isn't the only example. I've tried emptying the EPG in both my Capture Sources then updating - some got fixed but many didn't.

Does anyone know what the effect on my pending/recourring recordings would be if I run the command-line options -OnlyEmptyEPG followed by -OnlyUpdateEPG perhaps in a batch file run using Windows Task Scheduler early each morning?

Brian

[alexeyalexey]

The Problem still exists?
can it be that simple ?:
SELECT p1.*,p2.* FROM PROGRAMME p1, programme p2 where p1.start_time < p2.end_time and p2.start_time < p1.end_time and p1.oid < p2.oid and p1.channel_oid=p2.channel_oid



just remove old importdata (p1.oid < p2.oid)
delete FROM PROGRAMME p1 where exists (select * from programme p2 where p1.start_time < p2.end_time and p2.start_time < p1.end_time and p1.oid < p2.oid and p1.channel_oid=p2.channel_oid)

[_gl]

Just wanted to say I also get the same problems (UK Radio Times XML), for some reason they've been particularly bad in the last month or so (programs chopped up into blocks, some blocks too early or late, some programs as a result not recording the correct duration, causing phantom conflicts & cursor problems in the guide etc). There's quite a few corruptions like that in this evening's listings alone.

I'd really like to see this addressed, as here in the UK at least it seems a lot of last-minutes changes occur, and not just on the BBC channels.

[_gl]

Basically three overlapping schedules for the same programme.

That's exactly what I'm seeing lately. I also just had an issue where none of my conflicts were resolvable (the conflicting show wasn't shown in any of them, reported in this thread)... I thought it was the 98.8b update, but it looks now like the Radio Times listings were causing this somehow. They seem to be falling apart...