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[justme]

Thanx for the tip Lester.

I went on a wild ramble on SHSPVR(Im edtee there) about how to "fix" this. Guess the old saying is true "read the bleepping manual" or documentation in this case.

[justme]

Ok I downloaded 2 days of data. I ran tv_sort on the file. I then checked the file and "stop" was added where missing. I then copied the new epgdata.xml file in to the SageTV directory. While SageTV was closed I renamed wiz.bin and wiz.bak. I then did a complete setup with the "setup wizard".

Good news: I no longer had to remap my channels, like I did before I "sorted" epgdata.xml

Bad news:I still have the "no data" showing up on all channels with shows occurring around midnight. So strange, since I can see the "stop" set for "The Tonight Show" in the "sorted" file, but "no data" in SageTV for that time.

Its progress, Am I doing something wrong? Did some else get this to work? Could mlar's plugin be not properly handling midnight shows?

[Lester Jacobs]

Hi,

I have modified the EPG plugin originally submitted by mlar to add the following features:

1) Channel numbers are now assigned correctly without any remapping required.
2) Logic has been added to flag reruns (previously all shows were assumed to be first runs).

Caveats:
1) This is only designed to work for North American users who use the tv_grab_na xmltv grabber
2) Make sure that your tv_grab_na.conf file (in your xmltv directory) only has unique instances of each channel. For instance in my setup I have 2 channel 26's in my tv_grab_na.conf file so I commented out one of them (put a'#' at the beginning of the line)

For install instructions check mlar's webpage http://mta.techno.org/epg/

I have attached the plugin (including source)
UPDATE: If you downloaded the attachment before 7am May 2, you may want to download it again. The rerun logic appeared to be not working for some people, so I updated the file.

Regards
Lester

[Lester Jacobs]

Originally posted by justme
Ok I downloaded 2 days of data. I ran tv_sort on the file. I then checked the file and "stop" was added where missing. I then copied the new epgdata.xml file in to the SageTV directory. While SageTV was closed I renamed wiz.bin and wiz.bak. I then did a complete setup with the "setup wizard".

Good news: I no longer had to remap my channels, like I did before I "sorted" epgdata.xml

Bad news:I still have the "no data" showing up on all channels with shows occurring around midnight. So strange, since I can see the "stop" set for "The Tonight Show" in the "sorted" file, but "no data" in SageTV for that time.

Its progress, Am I doing something wrong? Did some else get this to work? Could mlar's plugin be not properly handling midnight shows?

Here's something else to try; use the --by-channel option on tv_sort if you are still getting No Data errors, i.e:

xmltv tv_sort --by-channel --output sorted.xml unsorted.xml

Remember though that the last day of your listings will always have problems at the 11:30 pm - 12:30 am timeslot (or thereabouts) since there are no subsequent shows to "guess" the end time from. However all intermediate days should be fine. This shouldn't be a problem as long as you always update your listings at least one day before they expire.

Regards
Lester

[olyar15]

Thanks Lester for the updated plugin. However, I am also having problems with "no data" for shows around midnight. Any show that ends or continues past midnight shows no data. Tried sorting both ways with similar results..Even tried manually editing the xml file and still no change. Weird.

[olyar15]

OK, looked at the xml file, and the problem is definitely in how xmltv inserts the stop times for shows that don't have a stop time. Usually this is for shows that cross over midnite. What seems to happen is that xmltv finds the next show on the channel and instead of using the start time of the next show as the stop time of the previous show, it instead uses the STOP time of the next show as the stop time of the previous show, causing an overlap.

This seems like an easy bug to fix. Of course, I can't program if my life depended on it, so I don't know how to go about it. Any gurus here willing to tackle this problem?

[justme]

What version of XMlTV are you using Im using 0.5.9. I thought of upgrading to 0.5.10, but another program I use has some problems with 0.5.10. I will try 0.5.10 today, I will let you know if it makes any difference.

I wonder how a gapping error like this has made it through XMLTV. Especially when the fix is so simple, for some one who can program any way. Heck even a simple VBscript should be able to set the correct "stop". I'm not mocking mlar or Lester. I really appreciate your help. Could the plugin try to fix the "stop" itself? Since it looks like tv_sort may even make the "no data" worse.

That's it I'm starting to learn to program tonight. I'll try VB since i did have some Basic experience about 15 years ago(a TRS80 COCO) Don't expect anything from me though, it will take a long time to get up to speed.

[justme]

Succes!

Ok both 0.5.9 and 0.5.10 seem to have the tv_sort bug, So I tried 0.5.8 . This was a partial success the data would download and tv_sort worked right. ,but the data was off by one hour.

The solution though not eleqant, is to configure and download with .9 or .10. And then use tv_sort from 0.5.8 on the data. The result when copied into the Sagetv dir, is corect time and the "no data" problem is gone.

This works great for me. At least so far as I can tell, no telling if something else cropped up. I would like to see if it works for someone else.

It's best to make batch file because of all the commands, copying and changing dirs.

PS:Make sure the different versions of XMLTV are in different dirs.

[Lester Jacobs]

Originally posted by justme
Succes!

Ok both 0.5.9 and 0.5.10 seem to have the tv_sort bug, So I tried 0.5.8 . This was a partial success the data would download and tv_sort worked right. ,but the data was off by one hour.

The solution though not eleqant, is to configure and download with .9 or .10. And then use tv_sort from 0.5.8 on the data. The result when copied into the Sagetv dir, is corect time and the "no data" problem is gone.

This works great for me. At least so far as I can tell, no telling if something else cropped up. I would like to see if it works for someone else.

It's best to make batch file because of all the commands, copying and changing dirs.

PS:Make sure the different versions of XMLTV are in different dirs.

Strange! I'm having absolutely no problems with "No Data" sections in the guide using the tv_sort from xmltv 0.5.9. I guess our data feeds from xmltv are different. However, now that you've identified the problem, please send an email over to xmltv-devel@lists.sourceforge.net explaining the issue (try to keep the explanation strictly in terms of xmltv since they're not likely to be familiar with Sage). Those guys are the ones responsible for maintaining the xmltv code. Although the plugin could technically fix the issue if we added some code to it, the fix properly belongs to the xmltv guys. You can also subscribe to the XMLTV mailing lists at http://sourceforge.net/mail/?group_id=39046

Regards
Lester

[justme]

Hi Lester,

Question: What OS are you using? I have an XP pro box.

By the way all my builds where pre-compiled win32 zipped Bins and downloaded from the sourceforge site. Ver 0.5.10 was the 2003-04-25 16:00 build, 0.5.9 was 2003-04-05 15:00, and 0.5.8 was 2003-02-14 16:00 .

Sorry for all the data and the question. I just want to verify all my facts before l send email as you suggested. I hope I can explain it coherrently, this is the first time I've sent an error report to a sourceforge project.

[olyar15]

Wow, great news. I will try 0.5.8 when I get home. I had tried 5.9 and 5.10 before. Lester, I wonder if your listings all have stop times, even for the last show of the day? If that is the case, you will never run into the Stop bug.

Now for a question to the Sage folks: Do I still have to buy a subscription in order to continue to use the XMLTV listings? Right now I am using the Trial password to activate the EPG. What happens after 2 weeks when the trial expires?

[Narflex]

Charles,

While you are more than welcome to purchase a subscription, if you're not actually downloading any data from us, then you're not required to.

Thanks,

[justme]

Hi peolple, I need your help for the XMLTV situation.

I've sent an email to XMLTV and gottten a response. They can not repeat the bug, just as some here on this thread have had good luck. What I need is the OS and XMLTV version you're using and your timezone. If the you are using two versions of XMLTV as a workaround, please list the version you use to download and the version you are using to sort with. It would help if some people who did not have problems responded as well. In your case please state your success with XMLTV.

EX: Win XP Pro SP1; xmltv 0.5.9 failed tv_sort(0.5.8 to sort); and EST.

I would really apreciate your help as the SHSPVR forum has been killed by love(too much use). It may only be temporary but, now you all are the only peolpe I can talk to who have had experience with this.

[olyar15]

I am using WinXP SP1, xmltv 0.5.8 only, PST
Tried both 0.5.9 and 0.5.10, both had the problem.
Listings are for Vancouver, Canada.

[Lester Jacobs]

WinXP Pro SP1, xmltv 0.5.9 with tv_sort from xmltv 0.5.9. Listings for Toronto, Canada (Rogers). Timezone is EDT.

Cheers
Lester

[Crazedz]

Win XP Pro SP1; xmltv 0.5.9 &xmltv0.5.10 failed tv_sort(0.5.8 to sort); U.S. CST6CDT.
Listings are for Minneapolis Minnesota.

[justme]

Thanx alot guys,
Hopefully this will give the XMLTV developers enough info to find the bug, and why it only occurs on some systems.

[ron.smythe]

Hi,

Does anyone know what I am doing wrong, I keep getting the error only 4 days of data when I do an XMLTV download?

C:\Program Files\Frey Technologies\SageTV\XMLTV>xmltv tv_grab_uk --days 8 --output file epgdata.xml
Timezone is +0100
using config filename ./.xmltv/tv_grab_uk.conf
getting list of channels: ##################################################
channel extreme.filmfour.channel4.com (656) not seen on site, remove from channe
l_ids file
channel world.filmfour.channel4.com (655) not seen on site, remove from channel_
ids file
film:12: unknown channel id extreme.filmfour.channel4.com
film:20: unknown channel id world.filmfour.channel4.com

Copyright (C) 2001 Ananova Ltd
www.ananova.com
For terms and conditions of use please see
http://www.ananova.com/about/terms.html

no channel package or region includes S4C2 (658.tv-listings.ananova.com, 658)
no channel package or region includes UK Horizons (Plus 1) (704.tv-listings.anan
ova.com, 704)
grabbing 90 channels from 587 available
downloading listings: ###############################no content for day 5, assum
ing --days 4
parsing: ##################################################
writing: ##################################################

C:\Program Files\Frey Technologies\SageTV\XMLTV>

Thanks.

[epa]

It seems to be true that the bug with XMLTV's tv_sort is intermittent. I cannot reproduce it myself (using the Perl scripts on Linux), perhaps it only happens with the Windows xmltv.exe. But even then it might not always occur. If you have seen the problem with tv_sort failing to add stop times correctly please send me a message with the system you use and the version of xmltv (also mention whether you're using the Windows binary version or the source distribution).

To the person who couldn't get more than four days of listings from tv_grab_uk: unfortunately that's because the site it fetches from has only four days of data.

[justme]

Hi Ed,

It's great to see an XMLTV person here. I'm amazed at your response time, once my ISP actually sends you my email .

Thanx for the help with this, Mike