XMLTV EPG Problems

[ukmgranger]

It would appera that my XMLTV is not working as it should

the XML file that gets downloaded only appears to be 1k.

here are the contents:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<!DOCTYPE tv SYSTEM "xmltv.dtd">

<tv source-info-url="http://www.radiotimes.com/" source-info-name="Radio Times" generator-info-name="XMLTV" generator-info-url="http://membled.com/work/apps/xmltv/">

and here are the contents of my .bat file:

pushd c:\xmltv

if exist started.at goto already_running
time /t >started.at
date /t >>started.at

del epgdata.xml
xmltv.exe tv_grab_uk_rt --days 3 >c:\xmltv\epgdata.xml
if ERRORLEVEL 2 goto no_data_downloaded

copy "c:\xmltv\epgdata.xml" "Z:\Program Files\Frey Technologies\SageTV"

:no_data_downloaded
del started.at
:already_running
popd

Anybody have any idea whats going on?

[nielm]

the XMLTV grabber is failing, so the generated file is empty -- run the grabber manually in a window and look at the error messages it gives. (and then post to the XMLTV mailing lists for support)

[nielm]

May be related to this problem

[ukmgranger]

Thanks for the info nielm.

I feel totally out of my depth here. I only understand the very basics of XMLTV (ie copyiny bat files off the net). I just have a fear that my nice Sage TV is going to bet let down often by what I can only see as an incredibly flakey system. I really have come to a dead end. My sage TV has now run out of EPG data, so I am left nowhere.

Wo is me!

Do you know of any other ways of getting XMLTV data? I have tried some software called 'XMLTV Automate' (which is just a front end for XMLTV, so also doesn't work) and 'grab EPG.exe' which does grab the EPG data (very fast grab?) however Sage does not seem to see this data once it is imported.

Any more help would be superb

[nielm]

XMLTV is nowhere near perfect, but it is the only solution for getting EPG info into sage.

tv_grab_uk_rt works by reading the www.radiotimes.com website and trying to extract the data from it... Easy for a human, difficult for a computer program...

To see the error messages, do:
start->run cmd.exe
then type:
c:
cd c:\xmltv
xmltv.exe tv_grab_uk_rt --days 3 >c:\xmltv\epgdata.xml

You could also try grabbing starting from tomorrows data
xmltv.exe tv_grab_uk_rt --offset 1 --days 3 >c:\xmltv\epgdata.xml

In any case, try grabbing again tomorrow and it might work. A new XMLTV version that will fix this problem in the future is being worked on.

[ukmgranger]

Man, you are a legend!

It would appear that that post was correct:

(special characters in title cause failures
If a TV Program is published with special characters,
such as a double quote (") the parsing of the title string
fails. This happens in tv_grab_uk_rt, on the UK channel
4, Tue 4th May 23:00 - 24:00 where the program name
is)

I had to put an offset of 2days in to make it work though!

Thanks so much for the info!

It all helps to keep the Girlfriend happy!

Cheers man

[ukmgranger]

so near yet so far!!

OK - I got the XML downloaded, but now Sage does not see it!?!

I have installed all the stuff that is required but when Sage says 'downloading EPG data' - it just sits on that screen.

Again - any ideas?

will it have a problem with epg data that does not start for a coupe of days maybe?

[ukmgranger]

OK - Managed to sort it......
The 'Plugin.zip' was not working. I had one installed that put 6 files into the xmltv folder within Sage. I then hunted aroung the forums for another version of this plugin and found one that just had the 3 files (3x .class).

Sage has now spotted the new xml data.

again thanx for your help man.