NextPVR - EPG Setup - XML/XMLTV EPG - Zap2it & Zap2xml

[phil0909]

Thanks. I'm thinking the "output" of zap2xml.exe is the xml file containing the listing data. I am able to read that after the batch file runs (when I run it successfully, from Windows Explorer). Are you referring to some other sort of output?

I don't know of any stored config info. Zap2xml.exe is just a command file, with some switches configuring its operation in the command line. Following up on your path suggestion, I tried another test - I just took the batch command and ran it from the windows command line, from my root C:\directory. It ran properly, and stored new tv listings in the specified location - NextPVR's scripts directory.

Anything else I could try?

[phil0909]

Thanks Martin. I'll look for permissions issues in the forums. Do you think a permissions issue could cause failure for a 7-day schedule load, but allow success on a 6-day load? Because that was my experience.

[sub]

Thanks Martin. I'll look for permissions issues in the forums.

Related to this, I seem to remember some users having to explicitly set a HOME or HOMEPATH environment variable in their batch files with zap2xml, because it was trying to store some cache info etc in the current user's home directory, and obviously this was not being found when run from a different user account.

Do you think a permissions issue could cause failure for a 7-day schedule load, but allow success on a 6-day load? Because that was my experience.

No, but I'm sure that is not the whole story. You'll probably need to do some test to tell us exactly what the different behaviour is when you try <6 days vs >6 days. (not just describing it as you how you think it was happening). Again, capturing the zap2xml output in the batch file will probably help tell us what is happening.

[mvallevand]

You probably did an update from NextPVR using the user role. Think of each zap2xml question as one month you should have subscribed to SD.

Martin

[phil0909]

Thanks sub. I think I figured out what you meant by 'output'. You were right, NextPVR does appear to run the batch file, but it fails. When I run from NextPVR, the batch command results first show a bunch of old cache file deletions, and then ends with these lines:

Deleting old cached file: cache/SP003771610000.js.gz
Logging in as "phil@blerf.com" (Sat Jan 6 20:45:18 2018)
Lineup 20494 favorites: 0
Getting: http://mobilelistings.tvguide.com/Listin...ration/180


That's it, no further explanation. When I run from Windows Explorer, the command results look like this:

ogging in as "phil@blerf.com" (Sat Jan 6 20:44:51 2018)
Lineup 20494 favorites: 0
[1/8] Parsing: cache/1515290400000.js.gz
[D] Parsing: 1870
[D] Parsing: 14562376
[D] Parsing: 1933
.
.
.
D] Parsing: 3134155
Writing XML file: C:\Users\Public\NPVR\Scripts\epg.xml
Completed in 2s (Parse: 1s) 216 stations, 2339 programs, 5070 scheduled.

[phil0909]

Thanks again, Martin. I did subscribe to Schedules Direct for a couple of years. I got it to work with NextPVR, or it may have been GBPvr. But I had more problems with it than I've had with zap2xml. It's been a while, can't recall exactly what they were.

[mvallevand]

Probably before sub added JSON support. Search more here you will find the solution.

Martin

[phil0909]

I'm thinking from the output above that maybe tvguide.com sees the NextPVR user/role as a mobile device - an iPad or an Android or some such - and is redirecting the request to their mobile site, which maybe zap2xml is not able to properly parse. I'll see if I can find a way to tell tvguide.com that NextPVR is not a mobile device. Alternatively, I suppose I could use Windows task scheduler to run my batch file every night, and NextPVR should at least be able to automatically read the xml listing every night after it updates.

If that doesn't work, I can try Schedules Direct again! Thanks both for your help, much appreciated.

[fla]

Thanks sub. I think I figured out what you meant by 'output'.

Here's how my UpdateEPG.bat looks and it captures both standard output and more importantly standard error into zap2xml.log when running zap2xml.exe

Code:

cd /d C:\Users\myuser\Zap2Xml
zap2xml.exe -u myuser@gmail.com -p mypassword -d 8 > zap2xml.log 2>&1

[sub]

phil0909, definitely worth following fla's advice above about also capturing standard error.

It does sound like there is some issues with zap2xml and its cache files and possibly other files like config etc, likely related to user account, possibly and/or paths, when it is run in a different ways.

It's funny that such a seemly simple looking batch file, with a single line, can have these problems. The looks like the author of zap2xml.exe was only really designing for the most simple single user case, of user manually running the utility, and the unfortunately the utility is making assumptions that are not always correct.

I'm seeing no evidence that NextPVR is doing anything wrong. It's successfully running UpdateEPG.bat, even if the user has problems with the commands they've put in their batch file. I may add some logic to capture the standard output and standard error from UpdateEPG.bat in future, so that we can more easily identify stuff going wrong with commands in the UpdateEPG.bat.