Won't download epg from zap2it

[fiteclub]

I just installed gb-pvr last night for the first time. Was very impressed with ease of setup but ran into a problem. After setting up my Zap2It account (I am in the US), I clicked the "update epg" button in the config menu. Window opens telling me that system is retreiving listings from zap2it. After about 4 min. the message changes to "processing listings..." It has stayed in this state for over an hour with cpu at 100% but does not appear to lock up system. Running with firewall off.

Thought the problem might be that the zap2it server was too busy but tried it this morning with the same results.

Please help. This is my third PVR program and yet to get one fully working. Have tried Beyond TV, Meedio and now GBPVR.

Thanks in advance,

Bill

System Info

Windows XP Pro
AMD 64 3500
Hauppauge WinTV PVR USB2
Avermedia 150M
1 GB memory
2 250 GB SATA Seagate drives
Gigabyte GEforce 6600 VGA with passive cooling
MSI Neo4 Platinum motherboard

[stefan]

I don't know exactly how long it should take, but I know that first time you download/process EPG data it can take a looong time if you have many channels. Not sure what looong time is, though, I only have 7 channels in my listing, and I don't use zap2it, so... maybe you should leave the computer be longer? Maybe someone with more experience from large zap2it listings can confirm...

[yuss]

You might want to check if your zap2it account is still valid.
Go to http://labs.zap2it.com/ztvws/ztvws_login...-1,00.html

(or click from the link within the config program -capture sources - "select source" click "edit" select "Settings" next to "EPG Source" - click on "CLICK HERE"

See if you can login on that page. If you can, then your account is still valid.

If that doesnt work, then maybe someone else here can help.

[fiteclub]

just created account yesterday so should still be valid! but went ahead and checked.

Status: Active
Subscription Expires: 2006/01/21
Subscription Plan: Gold

I left home this morning with the epg trying to update so will see what happened when I get home this evening. Don't have much hope though.

Bill

[AOSandman]

Did it work? If not, try setting it to only download 1 or 2 days worth of listings and see if that works. If it does, bump the setting up +1 or +2 and update again. In other words, if it was set to 2 days and worked then bump the setting up to 4 and update again. It will keep the 2 days worth of listings you already have and pull the next 2 days worth of listings.

[fiteclub]

Yep, when I got home from work the epg had downloaded! Hopefully regular updates won't take so much time.

[groover km]

FYI, I use Zap2it and I just have all the channels for my charter cable listing selected - channels I've never ever watched, all the digital music channels, etc... something like 200+ channels (I can't be arsed to go through and filter them).

The first time I download them (4 days worth) after emptying the epg or a reinstall, takes FOREVER - once took two hours. This is a long time when you are impatient to start 'playing'

Once the initial channel/program info is set up though, future updates take just a few minutes.

Tip: You may want to change the default time scheduled to download updates to avoid hitting a maxed out server.

[daphatty]

One thing you might want to try doing is changing the default grabber time. I just realized that I wasn't getting zap2it updates for quite some time and I missed several shows because of it. I think zap2it is getting so popular that the server can't handle all these 3 a.m. requests.

[haripj]

FYI, I use Zap2it and I just have all the channels for my charter cable listing selected - channels I've never ever watched, all the digital music channels, etc... something like 200+ channels (I can't be arsed to go through and filter them).

The first time I download them (4 days worth) after emptying the epg or a reinstall, takes FOREVER - once took two hours. This is a long time when you are impatient to start 'playing'

Once the initial channel/program info is set up though, future updates take just a few minutes.

Tip: You may want to change the default time scheduled to download updates to avoid hitting a maxed out server.

Same here - the initial update does take a long time. Subsequent updates are much faster though. Hopefully, the future updates are faster for you.

[fiteclub]

Well, I finally solved the problem of missing channels. I had initially set up my zap2it account with 2 channel lineups. One for my cable TV system and the other for my Dishnetwork satellite system. The cable channels would all come down fine from zap2it but the many of the satellite channels were missing. So I deleted my cable channel lineup from zap2it just leaving the satellite line up. Now all satellite channels downloaded just fine. So my fix was to setup two zap2it accounts; one for cable and one for satellite. Maybe this is the way it is supposed to work but then why would multiple lineups be allowed in one zap2it account? Maybe it has something to do with the way gbpvr processes the zap2it data. There were no duplicate channel numbers. The cable was 2 to 78 and satellite started at channel 101.

Only disadvantage is that I will have to renew 2 accounts every three months instead of one.