zap2xml

[RedR]

Originally Posted by wayner

Why are you using that rather than Schedules Direct?

Because options are a good thing.

[TwistedMelon]

Originally Posted by RedR

Because options are a good thing.

The question was asked of another poster, but regardless, the above isn't an answer.

Here's a rainbow, it has 7 colors. The colors are options. "Because options are good" doesn't answer the question "why did you pick green?"

[Lov'nSagetv]

I choose this option (using mc2xml) because I live in the country, where I get a total of 6 channels. Paying for Schedules direct at full cost for 6 channels seems overkill. I will save my $25.00/yr (or $31.00 CAD) per year for a little inconvenience.

Thank You goes to t.Ziu and david1234

Re: david1234 - simply remove one channel, and re-add to force an epg reload, seemed to work for me.

t.Ziu: wish I had the mc2xml plug-in for v9

Everyone, Have a great day.
D.

[Lov'nSagetv]

small issue with Timestamp message change from zap2it, but this fixes it...

elsif ($r->code == 400 && $dc =~ /Invalid time stamp or time span passed/) {

PS, did anyone convert 'mc2xml' plug-in for v9?

Thank you.
D.

[david1234]

Originally Posted by wayner

Why are you using that rather than Schedules Direct?

I don't come in here very often anymore so I missed this.

I'm using this, because it's the only guide I could get working on sage7. And, for the most part, this just works.

At some point I'll upgrade, but my ancient win7 system doesn't tolerate change anymore, but I haven't had the time or budget to replace it.

[david1234]

Originally Posted by Lov'nSagetv

small issue with Timestamp message change from zap2it, but this fixes it...

elsif ($r->code == 400 && $dc =~ /Invalid time stamp or time span passed/) {

I downloaded the update and reapplied my changes from the previous version. I wish they would throw this up on github, or something that's easier to watch for updates. I don't like that I don't usually know it's failing until a week after recordings stop. Of course, I do like that Sage is just a set and forget application at this point.

this isn't a license you see everyday, but you do when you start to consider forking a project and converting to python, or some other language I'm more familiar with...

# zap2xml (c) <zap2xml@gmail.com> - for personal use only!
# not for redistribution of any kind, or conversion to other languages,
# not GPL. not for github, thank you.

[wnjj]

Originally Posted by david1234

I don't come in here very often anymore so I missed this.

I'm using this, because it's the only guide I could get working on sage7. And, for the most part, this just works.

At some point I'll upgrade, but my ancient win7 system doesn't tolerate change anymore, but I haven't had the time or budget to replace it.

Changing from V7 to V9 shouldn’t even be noticed by your system. Some users even did it on XP which took a little finessing.

[david1234]

Originally Posted by wnjj

Changing from V7 to V9 shouldn’t even be noticed by your system. Some users even did it on XP which took a little finessing.

I do miss xp. It never failed after an update like w7 does.

So is v9 literally a drop in replacement? I got the docket version running in a vm, to see what it took, but never looked into just doing an upgrade

[wnjj]

Originally Posted by david1234

I do miss xp. It never failed after an update like w7 does.

So is v9 literally a drop in replacement? I got the docket version running in a vm, to see what it took, but never looked into just doing an upgrade

I ran the windows installer over top of my V7 install and it worked great. The UI is pretty much the same with most of the changes under the hood. Schedules Direct provides 21 days in advance which is a nice bonus over the legacy EPG. Back up your current directory just in case as wiz.bin does get converted and is not backward compatible with V7.

[Lov'nSagetv]

Originally Posted by Tiki

Actually it says he updated his local copy to make it work with v9 and anyone interested should let him know. It doesn't sound like he published his changes, so you will probably need to contact him. Hopefully he still checks the forums.

Just wondering if anyone posted how to get mc2xml to work with Sagetv9.

I'm still running Sagetv 7, with mc2xml, zap2xml, and www.zap2it.com successfully for the past 1.5 years or so, However, I would love to go to sagetv 9.

Please let me know... I don't know if others are still on Sagetv 7 too.

(thanks to Slugger for the original mc2xml)..

Thanks
D.

[49studebaker]

Has anyone updated the mc2xml plugin and renamed it zap2xml?

[Lov'nSagetv]

Originally Posted by 49studebaker

Has anyone updated the mc2xml plugin and renamed it zap2xml?

Been a while, but here is how I remember things.
zap2xml, is used to pull data from zap2it, and morph it into an xml format that mc2xml plugin can accept to create a Program guide.

currently mc2xml EPG Plugin is only for Sagetv 7,
Yes, I am still running Sagetv 7, and the above two for my EPG.

A little tinkering once last year, and that is all... everything is working perfectly.

But I would love to upgrade to Sagetv 9.
Anyone with help on getting mc2xml up to Sagetv 9, would be greatly appreciated.

thanks
D.

[wayner]

Why would you need mc2xml? Is your guide data not available for sched direct?

[ojones]

Fun issue with schedules direct - looks like it is incompatible to use it for both SageTV and Microsoft Media Center (relevant for those of us using a direct cable card set-up for non CC1 and MCE with a h264 encoder as a slave encoder). Might need two Schedules Direct subscriptions to make this work now... I'd go without the guide for MCE but seems to trigger all sorts of error codes.

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by ojones

Fun issue with schedules direct - looks like it is incompatible to use it for both SageTV and Microsoft Media Center (relevant for those of us using a direct cable card set-up for non CC1 and MCE with a h264 encoder as a slave encoder). Might need two Schedules Direct subscriptions to make this work now... I'd go without the guide for MCE but seems to trigger all sorts of error codes.

You don't actually need EPG to use WMC like that. I learned that if you decline the agreement, it doesn't download any guide data and it just shows all possible channels up to some high channel number. All that said, when WMC prompted annoyingly about the end of guide data and initially I could check any box to make it never come back again, I set up EPG123 with WMC only to get the message again anyway; thankfully there's a checkbox to make it not come back again now. I do not need two SD subscriptions to use this config.

[Fallen Kell]

Well, I am finally getting around to updating my system which had been effectively down the last couple of years (for recording purposes). I have finally bitten the bullet and solved my storage issues for the foreseeable future and now am setting things back up again.

One of the items I have run across is obviously the EPG service shutdown, and I was really liking this solution to the problem. However, one thing is not entirely clear to me on the instructions (or I am just screwing something up), which is selecting the lineup for my capture source. I have 3 choices when it gets to the lineup:

"Use US, Canada, or XMLTV Guide Data with this Source"
"Use tvtv Services Guide Data with this Source"
"Do Not Use Program Guide Data with this Source"

Given that this is ultimately using XML, I selected the top item, and then it asks me to input my zip code and then I get a blank list to select. So obviously something is wrong since I do not see the custom lineup that I created under the SageTV/plugins/mc2xmlepg directory (please excuse any forward slash/backslash items, I use too much unix/linux command line).

Any idea what I am doing wrong? Yes, I am still using v7 of SageTV (7.1.9.256 to be exact).

[egeller]

Originally Posted by Fallen Kell

Any idea what I am doing wrong? Yes, I am still using v7 of SageTV (7.1.9.256 to be exact).

Doesn't V7.1.9.256 still expect the SageTV EPG guide data server to exist? If true, then that is your problem. The guide server no longer runs and has been replaced by Schedules Direct. When you input your zip code, it tries to download the guide data I think.

I forget how to trigger using an XML line-up in V7. That may be documented elsewhere in this sub-forum. I would check the Sage Log to confirm that is what is happening.

I believe the correct answer is that you need a newer version that includes the following 4 options:

Use Schedules Direct Guide Data with this Source

Use EPG Plugin (XMLTV or other) Guide Data with this Source

Use or Copy an Existing Channel Lineup for this Source

Do Not Use Program Guide Data with this Source.

XML is the second option, but there is additional setup required to make it work. You may have already done the additional work.

If you are in the US, I'd recommend the $25 Schedules Direct subscription. It is fairly trouble-free.

[Lov'nSagetv]

Originally Posted by Lov'nSagetv

Been a while, but here is how I remember things.
zap2xml, is used to pull data from zap2it, and morph it into an xml format that mc2xml plugin can accept to create a Program guide.

currently mc2xml EPG Plugin is only for Sagetv 7,
Yes, I am still running Sagetv 7, and the above two for my EPG.

A little tinkering once last year, and that is all... everything is working perfectly.

But I would love to upgrade to Sagetv 9.
Anyone with help on getting mc2xml up to Sagetv 9, would be greatly appreciated.

thanks
D.

I'm still on sageTV 7, because I use mc2xml etc to still get the schedule from zap2it... no cost, and has been running perfectly for many years for me.

But I'd really like if someone can get mc2xml compatible with sagetv 9. I'd love to join into the fun with sagetv 9 with the rest of you.

I get only 5 OTA channels, so don't believe Schedules Direct cost is really worth it.

Please? can someone help?

Thanks
D.

[Lov'nSagetv]

Originally Posted by Fallen Kell

One of the items I have run across is obviously the EPG service shutdown, and I was really liking this solution to the problem. However, one thing is not entirely clear to me on the instructions (or I am just screwing something up), which is selecting the lineup for my capture source. I have 3 choices when it gets to the lineup:

"Use US, Canada, or XMLTV Guide Data with this Source"
"Use tvtv Services Guide Data with this Source"
"Do Not Use Program Guide Data with this Source"
(7.1.9.256 to be exact).

Ok, maybe I can help you...
Note Best, at this time sagetv 7 does not allow for Weather to work any more.
But you can get free tv guide.

My epg lineup is one of my own creation. IE MyEPG
on mc2xml epg plugin, set location of executable to a location of a bat file you create.

bat file:
1) if exist "starting.txt" (
del starting.txt
)
echo f:\mc2xml >>"starting.txt"
-- above allows you to see when it actually started running the bat file.
3) set TZ=GMT
4) initiate the perl script like this...
F:\mc2xml\Strawberry\perl\bin\perl F:\mc2xml\zap2xml.pl -u xxxxx@gmail.com -p YourPassword -U -F -L -T -D -d 14 -N 7 -r 20 > Runzap2xml_log.txt
5) echo f:\mc2xml ending at %date% %time% >> "Ending.txt"
6) exit

Now go to zap2it, and sign in, and create your profile with the channels you require to load.

Note, the perl code has already been described above, and I have provided a mod to make it work for the current zap2 results.

In the pl code... mine has three changes mentioned elsewhere in this chain.

Somewhere I configured the directory to F:\SageTV\plugins\mc2xmlepg\MyEPG

After configuring and working. in above directory is two files that get updated aprox once per day…

xmltv.xml and channels.xml

Once you get the above working, then you set up your tuner to use the new epg lineup (sorry, I can't remember all these steps), but they are documented within this forum.

from just after EPG from google went down, I've been using this, with only aprox 2 weeks without EPG.


Maybe this will entice someone to get mc2xml running in sagetv 9.

Hope this helps you Fallen Kell

PS thanks to those who created/unofficially supported mc2xml plugin!

thanks
D.

[Lov'nSagetv]

Originally Posted by Fallen Kell

Yes, I am still using v7 of SageTV (7.1.9.256 to be exact).

I too am using SageTV (7.1.9.256)

So Fallen Kell, you can get EPG working on this version using a few minor changes.


D.