(no show details) - UpdateEPG not pulling correct data?

[andyjoyb]

Howdy,

I'm trying to pull schedule details for like 10 channels for the next 15 days, and I'm on the struggle bus. My update EPG bat file was working for a while, but it mysteriously stopped. I don't recall changing anything, but it's borked.

I thought I had my UpdateEPG.bat file set up correctly but I'm starting to suspect that maybe I don't.

The epg file I pull does appear to populate correctly with show data, but NextPVR isn't seeing it or showing it on the schedule

Presently, every channel pulls (no show details) for every time slot on every channel.

I have attached my log files. Any help is appreciated. Thanks in advance!

[BrettB]

What is the source for your epg.xml file? It would be helpful if you uploaded your epg.xml file. Did you check the dates in it to make sure that they are for the correct range?

[andyjoyb]

Hi Brett!

Thanks for your quick response - with a cursory glance at my epg.xml file, it does indeed look like the dates are not correct - they're showing dates that have past.

Why would this be, and what can I do to change the dates so that I get future dates instead of past dates?

I've also attached the epg.xml file as requested.

Thanks so much for your assistance.

[sub]

Why would this be, and what can I do to change the dates so that I get future dates instead of past dates?

What is making your epg.xml? It's not something NextPVR is making. It's simply reading the listings from the file, and saving them into it's database. So...it looks like whatever utility you're intending to run to create your epg.xml is either not being run, or it's encountering some error and leaving the old file there.

[BrettB]

Thanks for your quick response - with a cursory glance at my epg.xml file, it does indeed look like the dates are not correct - they're showing dates that have past.

Side note for sub: the NextPVR log currently only lists the # of entries for each channel when it reads an xmltv file. Would it be easy for you to adjust it to also include the earliest and latest date/time for entries for each channel?

[andyjoyb]

What is making your epg.xml? It's not something NextPVR is making. It's simply reading the listings from the file, and saving them into it's database. So...it looks like whatever utility you're intending to run to create your epg.xml is either not being run, or it's encountering some error and leaving the old file there.

I'm using Zap2It and Zap2XML to pull the EPG files. I recently remembered reading somewhere that running "Update EPG" from within NextPVR with this tool tends to pull bad data. 'Lo and behold, when I ran UpdateEPG.bat manually, it pulled new data.

I'm attaching the new .xml file for your reading pleasure. This one appears to have the correct dates.

However, the data still doesn't seem to be populating inside NextPVR. I still have a bunch of "(no show details)" showing. Is there something I can do, aside from using the Update EPG button inside NPVR, to pull the new show data in?

Thanks again.

[sub]

I'm using Zap2It and Zap2XML to pull the EPG files. I recently remembered reading somewhere that running "Update EPG" from within NextPVR with this tool tends to pull bad data. 'Lo and behold, when I ran UpdateEPG.bat manually, it pulled new data.

It should be fine to run it from within NextPVR - but the UpdateEPG.bat you've created might be incorrectly assuming the current directory or path when run, so make sure you start the batch file by explicitly changing to the directory your want it to run from etc.

ie, there is zero known bugs in NextPVR regarding this. The only problems we've ever seen is when the user has made mistakes in the commands they've put in their UpdateEPG.bat.

I'm attaching the new .xml file for your reading pleasure. This one appears to have the correct dates.

However, the data still doesn't seem to be populating inside NextPVR. I still have a bunch of "(no show details)" showing. Is there something I can do, aside from using the Update EPG button inside NPVR, to pull the new show data in?

It's important to note that running UpdateEPG.bat wont update the NextPVR. This is just a batch file that NextPVR runs to give the user a chance to update any xmltv files etc. If you hit the 'update epg' button in EPG, it'll probably work now, since your xml file has now been updated. Clicking this 'update epg' button will run the UpdateEPG.bat, and will then read the xml file and load it's listings into the NextPVR database.

[BrettB]

However, the data still doesn't seem to be populating inside NextPVR. I still have a bunch of "(no show details)" showing. Is there something I can do, aside from using the Update EPG button inside NPVR, to pull the new show data in?

The UpdateEPG.bat file is just used to externally generate a new xmltv file (or get new guide data however). It doesn't actually update the EPG data in the NextPVR database. I believe that this command line should do that for you:

Code:

NextPVR.exe -updateepgonly

[andyjoyb]

It should be fine to run it from within NextPVR - but the UpdateEPG.bat you've created might be incorrectly assuming the current directory or path when run, so make sure you start the batch file by explicitly changing to the directory your want it to run from etc.

ie, there is zero known bugs in NextPVR regarding this. The only problems we've ever seen is when the user has made mistakes in the commands they've put in their UpdateEPG.bat.

It's important to note that running UpdateEPG.bat wont update the NextPVR. This is just a batch file that NextPVR runs to give the user a chance to update any xmltv files etc. If you hit the 'update epg' button in EPG, it'll probably work now, since your xml file has now been updated. Clicking this 'update epg' button will run the UpdateEPG.bat, and will then read the xml file and load it's listings into the NextPVR database.

Ok - this makes sense to me. Thanks again.

I am confused, however, because the .xml file created from within NextPVR differs from the .xml file generated when I run the .bat file directly.

To clarify, I deleted the existing .xml file I had already, and proceeded to create two new files: One was created when I ran "Update EPG" from within NPVR. The other was created when I ran UpdateEPG.bat.

I've attached the two resulting EPG files (hopefully the names are clear) to showcase the difference. Any idea why these would be different? One also appears to be *much* larger than the other.

Unfortunately, when I run Update EPG from within NPVR, it does not pull the new schedule data into the schedule. It appears to be pulling old data that way. However, running the .bat file directly does appear to pull good data.

Here's the text in my .bat file (with Zap2XML user/pass redacted since I'm sure you don't need that):
C:\Users\Public\NPVR\Scripts\zap2xml.exe -o C:\Users\Public\NPVR\Scripts\epg.xml -u REDACTED -p REDACTED -d 15 -D -A "new live" -E "amp apos quot lt gt" –F

I don't know if that's helpful or not, but I grabbed it from here:
http://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php?57662

@Brett - I'm sure I did something wrong, but I was not able to get that to work on the command line. I tried it from the NextPVR directory and got an error.

Thank you both!

[sub]

I am confused, however, because the .xml file created from within NextPVR differs from the .xml file generated when I run the .bat file directly.

To clarify, I deleted the existing .xml file I had already, and proceeded to create two new files: One was created when I ran "Update EPG" from within NPVR. The other was created when I ran UpdateEPG.bat.

I've attached the two resulting EPG files (hopefully the names are clear) to showcase the difference. Any idea why these would be different? One also appears to be *much* larger than the other.

Unfortunately, when I run Update EPG from within NPVR, it does not pull the new schedule data into the schedule. It appears to be pulling old data that way. However, running the .bat file directly does appear to pull good data.

Here's the text in my .bat file (with Zap2XML user/pass redacted since I'm sure you don't need that):
C:\Users\Public\NPVR\Scripts\zap2xml.exe -o C:\Users\Public\NPVR\Scripts\epg.xml -u REDACTED -p REDACTED -d 15 -D -A "new live" -E "amp apos quot lt gt" –F

I don't know if that's helpful or not, but I grabbed it from here:
http://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php?57662

One thing is clear - NextPVR isn't generating your xml file, so it's in no way causing you to ended up with old data in your xml file. It'll come down to whatever zap2xml.exe is doing. Unfortunately I've never used it, so can't really give you any advice on that one.

That said, maybe you've got some firewall software that is blocking access to the zap2it website when run from NextPVR, and it's using old cache files or something like that.