How do I set up zap2it EPG?

[thebigz]

Hi.  I've been using npvr for awhile now.  I had to format and reinstall windows, and I'm having a hard time getting this all going again.

I backed stuff up as well as I could, but I think it's all legacy at this point, as I never used a version that had a web app.

I've found 90 channels, did the EPG update, but it only loaded today only and completely missed some channels.

I had zap2it set up to update the EPG before the format.  Can I use my zap2it account for the EPG on the current version (6.1)?

I don't know how I set it up before, as I did it years ago.  Is there a post to guide me through the process on this version?

Thank you!

[mvallevand]

Yes NextPVR still supports xmltv files such as those created by zap2xml etc I wrote this guide to some epg source for North America https://github.com/sub3/NextPVR/wiki/EPG.NorthAmerica maybe the link on it will help you. Other users might be able to walk you through it.

Martin

[thebigz]

This all worked for me. Thanks! the zap2xml.exe no longer works on archive.org, but I had that in my backup, so I'm all good to go. Thank you! I'd be happy to share the .exe if anyone wants to host it so it isn't lost forever

[mvallevand]

Next time I am on the wiki I will note that download doesn't work. Since the original distribution is abandonware and the owner is lost, I would be reluctant hosting an untrusted source on the wiki.

Martin

[donbrew]

The link on archive.org works fine for me. The old awardspace is 404.

[mvallevand]

The instructions are there but the download for the binaries don't work for me on phatic.ml, at least for the page I linked on the wiki. Is there another?

Martin

[donbrew]

https://web.archive.org/web/202004260040...pace.info/
I just tried it, worked. You have to click on the very fine print "Download File" not the obvious looking part.

[mvallevand]

Thanks the one I put on the wiki was cached a few days earlier with a different download link.

Martin

[ferrels]

This all worked for me.  Thanks!  the zap2xml.exe no longer works on archive.org, but I had that in my backup, so I'm all good to go.  Thank you!  I'd be happy to share the .exe if anyone wants to host it so it isn't lost forever

Zap2It has gone offline but the entire site has been moved to https://tvlistings.gracenote.com/ including your old Zap2It credentials.  To obtain current xml guide data you will need to compile or find an updated zap2xml.exe file that talks to the gracenote server instead of one that looks for the old Zap2It server.  Compiling a new EXE using PERL isn't that difficult.  I've created a guide for Windows users to build their own updated zap2xml EXE here:  https://github.com/jef/zap2xml/issues/27

After Zap2It went offline I paid for a subscription to SchedulesDirect and was happy with it until about a year ago when I noticed that there were quite a few errors such as incorrect time zones and data for many channels was just simply missing.  This motivated me to look for an alternative which is why I stumbled across the github repo for zap2xml and saw how easy it was to once again use zap2xml instead of a subscription service.  The listings from gracenote have been perfect so far and for the many channels not providing DVB/ATSC EPG guide data, they now have have listings courtesy of gracenote.  My UpdateEPG.bat file for NextPVR is as follows:  zap2xml -d 4 -S 1 -D -A "new live" -E "amp apos quot lt gt" -9 -u name@email.com -p your_password

I use the -9 switch to make channel mapping easier as there are 129 channels in my broadcast area (metro-Phoenix) and matching by channel number is much easier for me than matching by channel name.

[mvallevand]

SD uses the Gracenote data, there probably was something wrong with your setup.

In any case that is a summary of what is being discussed here https://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php?tid=66253 and here https://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php?tid=66102 all these threads are saying the same thing. Since there already is a PR on the JEF Github it might be simpler just to download the edited file from the PR

Code:

curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jef/zap2xml/b95628578a34c4479a0cd4570b9285f81a18757a/zap2xml.pl -O

Martin