To EPG grabber developers...

[bradmarsh]

That means it loads the webpage and then takes all the code (scrapes) and then analyzes the code to get the programming lineup. This means when zap2it or whoever changes their webpage the program won't work until it gets updated.

This is why people are using MCE or API versions, they're less likely to break.

But yes, that scraper will work fine.

Thanks for the information.
I see what could happen, but for now I will take my chances until it breaks.

Brad

[-Oz-]

frank,

just wanted to say the page is coming along quite nicely. Good install instructions.

[bradmarsh]

I'm working on a general EPG wiki page that will describe and link to your EPG Grabbers...

http://gbpvr.com/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Manual/EPG

I will need help in the descriptions. Please comment/ add/ correct inoformation here. I'll admin this page...

The different tools will link to individual wiki pages. If you need one for your program let me know...

For those of us that use GBPVR but have an ATI Card that came with Gemstars Guide plus, do you know of a utility that can convert that Database to work with GBPVR?

I am using a scraper now but thought maybe for us that have the software?
If this is the wrong place to ask I am sorry.

Brad

[zehd]

For those of us that use GBPVR but have an ATI Card that came with Gemstars Guide plus, do you know of a utility that can convert that Database to work with GBPVR?

I am using a scraper now but thought maybe for us that have the software?
If this is the wrong place to ask I am sorry.

Brad

If I knew of one, it would be on the wiki page...

Sorry, I don't

[whurlston]

For those of us that use GBPVR but have an ATI Card that came with Gemstars Guide plus, do you know of a utility that can convert that Database to work with GBPVR?

I am using a scraper now but thought maybe for us that have the software?
If this is the wrong place to ask I am sorry.

Brad

Do you know what type of database it's using?

[jam_zhou]

AAAArgh...not Gemstar, that piece of crap software used with ATi is the worst. I used to experience so many outages that I would think it's worse than a scraper...There's also no way of silently updating the guide - it'll start the TV app and if you don't have mute be prepared to wake up in the middle of the night. All the automatic ways that I've seen are basically macros. There was one floating around on the web but it was so unreliable for me that I wrote my own vbscript. I'm so happy that I don't have to even install that piece of software anymore. Funny thing though is that someone actually wrote an xmltv plugin for the ATI gemstar software - probably the best thing for it, check it out at the reage3d forums http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?t=33891474

Anyway, sorry for the rant...I had thought about asking for a Gemstar to XML format but couldn't stand the thought of Gemstar. Right now I'm using the Zap2XML scraper with the MSNXMLscraper as a backup. BTW, the Zap2XML will give you 7 days fix-time if they change the site format b/c it keeps the html files in a temp directory. It's also amazingly fast for a scraper. I hope that Zap2It doesn't change their format on Sept 1, in anticipation of the scrapers - although if they did we'll just be hammering that site even more b/c we would think it's just a glitch.

Sorry, must apologize again...don't let me stop you from writing a Gemstar plugin, just had to rant.

Bye.

EDIT: check out here for some outage issues... http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?t=33891227

[whurlston]

I couldn't write one anyway. I may be able to supply something that would read the database but there is no way I could force an update. I don't have the requisite hardware for a plugin of that nature.

[ACTCMS]

zehd: in the grabber installation section:

Installation

Follow the instructions for the EPG Grabber you wish to use…

Follow the instructions for the EPG Grabber you wish to use.
If you are using Schedules Direct, you can ignore this step and read its own wiki page for installation

Could include the green text and perhaps remove the red text (colours for markup purposes only):

Installation

Follow the instructions for the EPG Grabber you wish to use…

If you are using the Freeview EPG (UK and possibly NZ too), this section does not apply to you (installation/setup is done using the 'Capture Sources' tab in the GB-PVR Configuration dialog box).

Follow the instructions for the EPG Grabber you wish to use.
If you are using Schedules Direct, you can ignore this step and read its own wiki page for installation

This may reduce the possibility of confusion for new Freeview users...

Another thought... I use Alan Birtles' XMLTV GUI along with Joseph LeBlanc's TVGuide to get access to 14 day listings on my PCs (not linked to gbpvr) and for the more complex searching tools. Do you think a piece about that would be appropriate for your page?

PS The page is developing very well

[zehd]

Another thought... I use Alan Birtles' XMLTV GUI along with Joseph LeBlanc's TVGuide to get access to 14 day listings on my PCs (not linked to gbpvr) and for the more complex searching tools. Do you think a piece about that would be appropriate for your page?

Unless there are ways to link the output of those utilities into GB-PVR, I would not think to include them...

What would be links to those utils?

Edit: I've seen the utils... As long as someone else wants to explain how it works and confirm it works, I would include it in the wiki page, yes...

[ACTCMS]

TVGuide is http://tvguide.sourceforge.net/ and XMLTV GUI is http://www.birtles.org.uk/xmltv/.

I'm sure they could be integrated into gbpvr - I believe you can run XMLTV with a batch command... but I've never tried (I'm sure sub once suggested that DVB EPGs were pretty good, in light of the Zap2it problems). Are you in a position to try it or do you want me to volunteer...