Very fast Dutch TV listings with NLGrabXMLTV 1.0

[Sheik Yerbouti]

NLGrabXMLTV is a free command line program that downloads TV listings for the Netherlands and saves the data in the xmltv format, after correcting errors and removing information that has no function in GBPVR. The original source of the TV listings is http://www.tvgids.nl, but the data is downloaded from http://xmltv.assies.info/. This had two advantages:
- The download only takes a few seconds in stead of hours;
- It reduces the downloads from http://www.tvgids.nl (I think there’s no advantage in grabbing the data yourself using tvxb or xmltv).

With NLgrabXMLTV you can:
- Select the channels you’d like to use;
- Rename the channels;
- Change the order of the channels by assigning a channel number.

To configure NLGrabXMLTV you have to change config.xml to your needs (use Notepad). The config.xml that comes with the download contains all the available channels from http://www.tvgids.nl. Remove the channels you don’t need and change the order to how you’d like to see your channels in GBPVR. Next change node <outputfile> to the location where you’d like save the xmltv file.

After configuring, just run NLgrabXMLTV.exe to download your TV listings. Of course you’ll need to setup GBPVR to use the specific file.

If you encounter problems, first check your logs in the NLGrabXMLTV Logs directory. If you can’t fix it or you want to make a suggestion to improve NLgrabXMLTV, send an e-mail to the address you can find in the support.txt file, or start a thread on the GBPVR forum.

I'd like to thank Htv for testing this program and Gertjan for making these downloads possible. Htv and myself have both been using it for some time now and it seems to work quite well.

Sheik Yerbouti

[HtV]

Yep, works excellent.
I think the biggest advantage of this is that it takes the load of tvgids.xml. So I really recommend it to all dutch GBPVR-users.
Big thanks to Sheik and Gert-Jan.

Hans

[zehd]

NLGrabXMLTV is a free command line program that downloads TV listings for the Netherlands and saves the data in the xmltv format, after correcting errors and removing information that has no function in GBPVR. The original source of the TV listings is http://www.tvgids.nl, but the data is downloaded from http://xmltv.assies.info/. This had two advantages:
- The download only takes a few seconds in stead of hours;
- It reduces the downloads from http://www.tvgids.nl (I think there’s no advantage in grabbing the data yourself using tvxb or xmltv).

With NLgrabXMLTV you can:
- Select the channels you’d like to use;
- Rename the channels;
- Change the order of the channels by assigning a channel number.

To configure NLGrabXMLTV you have to change config.xml to your needs (use Notepad). The config.xml that comes with the download contains all the available channels from http://www.tvgids.nl. Remove the channels you don’t need and change the order to how you’d like to see your channels in GBPVR. Next change node <outputfile> to the location where you’d like save the xmltv file.

After configuring, just run NLgrabXMLTV.exe to download your TV listings. Of course you’ll need to setup GBPVR to use the specific file.

If you encounter problems, first check your logs in the NLGrabXMLTV Logs directory. If you can’t fix it or you want to make a suggestion to improve NLgrabXMLTV, send an e-mail to the address you can find in the support.txt file, or start a thread on the GBPVR forum.

I'd like to thank Htv for testing this program and Gertjan for making these downloads possible. Htv and myself have both been using it for some time now and it seems to work quite well.

Sheik Yerbouti

May I suggest that you have the option to include data that is not used by GB-PVR naturally, but may be parsed and used using UltraXMLTV_Enhancer...

[pz1]

I'll give it a try.
Pieter

[-=TJ=-Stefan]

Installed it.
Tested it (very fast indeed)... TVGuide looks ok.

Will let it run for a while as the main source for the TV Guide.

Still got the good old TVGids_to_XML on standby....

Good job...

[Sheik Yerbouti]

May I suggest that you have the option to include data that is not used by GB-PVR naturally, but may be parsed and used using UltraXMLTV_Enhancer...

I'll include all info in the next release. I'll also look into UltraXMLTV_Enhancer. Thanks for your suggestion!

[Sheik Yerbouti]

Still got the good old TVGids_to_XML on standby....

I've had TVXB on standby for a long time. But the only time xmltv.aussies.info didn't have the files was after a change on tvgids.nl, so I couldn't use TVXB as well. Xmltv.aussies.info uses the xmltv program with it's own script, so when tvgids.nl isn't available, we will still have problems.

[-=TJ=-Stefan]

I've had TVXB on standby for a long time. But the only time xmltv.aussies.info didn't have the files was after a change on tvgids.nl, so I couldn't use TVXB as well. Xmltv.aussies.info uses the xmltv program with it's own script, so when tvgids.nl isn't available, we will still have problems.

I know... But I also know that TVGIDS_TO_XML works and this is a new program. What I've seen sofar it's looking very good and I will continue to use it. Still hate it when tvgids.nl stops working. Like a friend of mine said he would pay for a reliable tvguide service. Ofcourse depends on the cost versus free and sometimes an error...

Is there no other website where that info can be scrapped from?

[pz1]

Seems to work well, though getting sources, channels, and XMLTV properly aligned remains a real PITA in GBPVR configuration.
I keep this as the default, but like Stefan, I will keep the direct access to TVGids as a backup in case this site disappears for whatever (legal?) reasons.
Pieter

[-=TJ=-Stefan]

Still works fine.. Will keep it running.

Question though. What is the best time to run the update? I can only set one time in GBPVR to update the EPG. I had it set on 7 AM but the guide was empty a few times. When I ran a manual update at today 14:00 h the guide is ok till thursday next week.

I've changed the tool to 9 am and the guide update at 10 am. Will look tomorrow...