Zap2it owes me $. Can I change channel times?

[himpshaw]

I have 9 channels that are three hours off. because Zap2it refuses to fix them. Is there a way to change channel times so that they are the right times?

[sub]

There is nothing in GB-PVR that would help with this.

Your best bet to harrass Schedules Direct about this. I cant believe they wouldnt be able to convince zap2it to fix this problem. If it doesnt happen, you could try asking the author of the US xmltv grabber to integrate some tools for tweaking the output it produces for these channels, or see if some xmltv tool already exists that can do this.

[himpshaw]

Schedules Direct has been great. They've contacted them several times. Zap2it insists that even though I've taken hours out, without compensation I might add, to copy down and disclose these mistakes the scheduler insist that the schedule is right. I could give you the info right now and you could see that it's wrong. Totally wrong. In effect they are calling me a liar. Every time my complaint is actually heard another one of my channels screws up three hours. First it was HBO that was off three hours and now it's Showtime that is off three hours. I guess they are trying to tell that I should shut up and make do with what I have so I am trying to find a work a round so I don't have to deal with these terrible people anymore. I have lodged a complaint with the BBB against Zap2it. But they refuse to respond. THEY REFUSE TO RESPOND!!! I know it's only twenty five bucks but if I had more time on my hands I would sue these jerks. If anybody want to take the time to put together a petition for the harassed and harangued then I will definitely be putting my John Hancock on the very top in big letters. Some people's kids. I'll tell you what! I'm going to tell their mom. That's what I'll do.

[bgowland]

or see if some xmltv tool already exists that can do this.

Alan Birtles' XMLTV GUI supported the old Zap2it service and now supports Schedules Direct.

http://www.birtles.org.uk/xmltv/

It's possible to write postprocessors as 'plugins' using LUA. You could write one to tweak the times on specific channels. If you don't know how to program LUA, Alan is a very helpful guy so you could try posting a request for help on the XMLTV GUI forum.

http://www.birtles.org.uk/phpbb3/viewfor...368a099503

Just a thought.

Cheers,
Brian

[himpshaw]

You guys are like glass a water after crossing the desert.

Thank you.

[Deusxmachina]

Zap2it insists that even though I've taken hours out, without compensation I might add, to copy down and disclose these mistakes the scheduler insist that the schedule is right. I

Do other people on the Schedules Direct forums have their HBO and Showtime and other channels off by three hours, too?

[Zathras]

I have channels that are off by 9 hours

[birty]

this script is completely untested but give it a go and let me know if it works:

Code:

local channels={}
local grabber

local offsets={
        {id="channel1ID",hours=9,minutes=0},
        {id="channel2ID",hours=6,minutes=0},
        }

require("timezones")
require("XGUI_Lib")

local function Pass1Func(proc,program)
    local dst,starthour,stophour
    local i,n
    XGUI.SetStatus(2,"Processing "..XGUI_Lib.XS.Val(program.Title))
    n=table.getn(offsets)
    for i=1,n do
        if program.Channel==offsets[i].id then
            program.Start.Hour=program.Start.Hour+offsets[i].hours
            program.Start.Minute=program.Start.Minute+offsets[i].minutes
            program.Start=time.Fix(program.Start)
            program.Stop.Hour=program.Stop.Hour+offsets[i].hours
            program.Stop.Minute=program.Stop.Minute+offsets[i].minutes
            program.Stop=time.Fix(program.Stop)
            break
            end
        end
    return program
    end

    
PostProcs.NA_SD_Time_Fix={
    Name = "NA_SD - Channel time fixer",
    Version = "1.00.00",
    Author = "Alan Birtles",
    InfoURL = "http://www.birtles.org.uk/xmltv/wiki/index.php?title=NA_SD_Time_Fix",
    Grabber = "NA_SD",
    Passes={
        Pass1={
            Type=XGUI.PassTypes.Program,
            Func=Pass1Func,
            },
        },
    Init=Init,
    }

save it into the scripts directory and edit the "offsets" table to set which channels to alter and the offset to apply

[himpshaw]

I am very limited in my knowledge of programming. I don't know if I can pull this off with my limited experience. Alan being intelligent has assumed that I am on the same page can just paste this in and get it too work. I consider that to be a great compliment. As I assumed there are others having the same probs that I am having. So I assume they will be working to get their programs working properly. If there is someone knowledgeable working with this could you report on if you got this to go and how you did it? Thank you.

[bgowland]

I think what you'll need to do (once you've installed XMLTV GUI) is copy'n'paste the code Alan supplied into Notepad then save it as NA_SD_Time_Fix.lua in the scripts\na_sd folder of the XMLTV GUI installation folder.

What Alan means by the "offsets" table is the bit of code at the top...

Code:

local offsets={
        {id="channel1ID",hours=9,minutes=0},
        {id="channel2ID",hours=6,minutes=0},
        }

Set the offset you want for each channel with the hours= bit and the bit in quotes after id= with actual channel ids which can be found in the data.xml file which the gabber will generate when you use it. Example (from my data.xml)

Code:

<[B]channel id[/B]="channel5.co.uk">
  <display-name lang="en">Five</display-name>
</channel>
<[B]channel id[/B]="itv2.itv.co.uk">
  <display-name lang="en">ITV2</display-name>
</channel>

Suppose I wanted to offset 'Five' by three hours and ITV2 by 2 hours, I'd edit the code to look as follows...

Code:

local offsets={
        {id="channel5.co.uk",hours=3,minutes=0},
        {id="itv2.itv.co.uk",hours=2,minutes=0},
        }

Add as many lines (one per channel) to the offsets table as you need.

I think that's how it works anyway.

Cheers,
Brian