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[SOLVED] Starhub and Zap2it Issues

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DixieDean
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[SOLVED] Starhub and Zap2it Issues

Hi all
 
I have problems with two websites I'm trying to grab channels from.
 
First, this is what I'm trying to do:
I'm in London but as well as grabbing my UK channels (which all work fine) I want some channels from the USA and one channel from Singapore.
I load my final output file into the TVGuide addon for XBMC.
Here's the problems:
Zap2it.com - I had to edit the siteini from UTC -05.00 to +00.00 to get the US channels to sync with my timezone. I  thought WG++ would have worked this out based on UTC but it didn't.
The second problem is that zap2it.com will only give me 1 days listings - I want at least 5 preferably 1 week. The ini says it allows up to 14 days.
 
Starhub.com.en - I had to edit the siteini slightly to get it to work (I changed the culture info from en to en-GB).
My problem is the timezone again. Unlike the zap2it siteini, no matter what values I put in for the timezone the resulting output is always 7 hours ahead.
 
I've attached my setup files and log. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
 
Cheers
 
 
Rich

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francis
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Rich,
To get more days, just change <timespan>2</timespan> in the config file.
Strange that it only takes 1 day. With this setting you should get 3 days.
But I'll try and test it over here also.

DixieDean
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I should have clarified, sorry. My uploaded files are a quick test run so you can see what happens. I've set the timespan to 6 and still only get 1 day from zap2it.
 
Any ideas about starhub.com ?

francis
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Ok, did the test for starthub.com (i'm in UTC+0200)

<programme start="20130730170000 +0900" stop="20130730173000 +0900" channel="Comedy Central Asia">
    <title lang="en">Trigger Happy TV</title>
    <desc lang="en">A hidden-camera television series in which no pedestrian is safe. Absurd, surreal, and outrageous stunts are played out on unsuspecting bystanders in this British, rapid-fire, hidden-camera comedy(n)</desc>
    <credits>
      <actor>Dom Joly</actor>
    </credits>
    <episode-num system="xmltv_ns">2.10</episode-num>
  </programme>

This looks ok to me. Currently Trigger Happy TV is running on that channel. And now its 17h or so there?
Probably XMBC doesn't use the +0900 and thats why its of by a few hours.
On test could be to manualy put a show with the correct hours. So

20130730170000 +0900

should become

20130730080000

And then load that XML into XBMC and see if that show is correct. (only use 1 show in the XML)
If that is the case, I know there is some utility on the download page that can handle that automaticly.

DixieDean
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Thanks Francis.
 
Yes, that worked fine. I subtracted 7 hrs and it showed up fine in XBMC.
The same addon understands my UK list in the same format (UTC+00.00) but not New York (UTC-05.00) or Singapore (UTC+08.00). Very odd!!!
 
Also, why can I force this with zap2it by setting New York to UK time (UTC+00.00) in the .ini but not with the sarhub .ini file?
 
Cheers
 
Rich
PS. I will do another test on the OS X installation later and let you know via email.

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Rich,
 
Starhub : try the latest starhub ini from the EPG channels download page! (You are using the one that came with the installation which is updated a few times.)
(Check your other ini's likewise!)
Let us know if that helps.
Jan

DixieDean
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Ooops!!!
 
Will try that and let you know.
 
Cheers
 
Rich

DixieDean
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Ok. I've downloaded the latest .ini files and have run them with no changes (except adding en-GB to starhub.com.en.ini to stop it giving an error).
Result: both zap2it and starhub show the wrong times (-5 hours and +7 hours). so now I'm running it again but now I've changed both .ini files to UTC +00.00. Will post how I get on once it's finished.
 
PS. zap2it is still only downloading 1 day even though I set it to grab 6 days.

DixieDean
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I have run it as I said above and now:
zap2it is correct. It is currently showing listings for 1pm in New York which is correct because it's 6pm in London.
starhub.com is completely wrong now!!! It has jumped back 17 hours (24 -17 = 7). Whatever I do it always starts the day at midnight.
Maybe this is because it is now Wednesday over there?
 
All shows in my output file (US, UK, or Singapore) have these time formats for the first programme of the day: 
<programme start="20130730000000 +0100" stop="20130730003000 +0100" channel="Comedy Central Asia">
<programme start="20130730060000 +0100" stop="20130730091500 +0100" channel="BBC1 London">
<programme start="20130730010000 +0100" stop="20130730030100 +0100" channel="WABC">
 
This is making my head explode!!! lol

DixieDean
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Just to add... I've tried running WG2MP.bat on OS X and get the following message in my terminal:
MacMini:exe richard$ mono WG2MP.bat
Cannot open assembly 'WG2MP.bat': File does not contain a valid CIL image.
 
Contents of the .bat file:
@ECHO OFF
rem specify:  wg2mp inputxmltvfile outputxmltvfile
rem inputxmltvfile and outputxmltvfile must be different!
WG2MP /Volumes/webdav.mydrive.ch/XBMC/TVGuideFiles/channels2.xml /Volumes/webdav.mydrive.ch/XBMC/TVGuideFiles/channels3.xml
exit
 
Can you make it a shell script?

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Ok, as the test showed in comment #5 the problem is not with WG++, but with the XBMC import function/addon for the XML file.
So changing the timezone from +0800 to +0000, will only make WG++ make strange things. (but they are normal).
You should leave the timezones as stated in the original .ini files They must be correct to work properly.
Then do the grabbing and check in the generated XML file if the times are correct. (but the tes in #5 showed they were).
Then you should convert that XML file, so that the timings are not in

20130730170000 +0900

but directly in

20130730080000

I thoutgh that there was a tool on the download page that could do that, but did not find it.
Maybe Jan can help on that one.

francis
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Rich,
 
Sorry , mist your comment #10
Thats the programm I was looking for.
Just try
mono WG2MP.exe /Volumes/webdav.mydrive.ch/XBMC/TVGuideFiles/channels2.xml /Volumes/webdav.mydrive.ch/XBMC/TVGuideFiles/channels3.xml
maybe you need quotes around the arguments. Just play with that;
.bat files are windows only!

DixieDean
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That worked but it's 1 hour out. I think that's my fault so I will re-run everything with the .ini file set back to what it should be.
Also. Mono didn't seem to like the location I had the files (mydrive.ch is a mounted disk using webdav but I can test that further).
 
I will try and get in touch with the person that wrote the XBMC addon to see if he can fix this little bug in his script!!! lol
 
Thanks for all your help Francis. I will update this thread when I have a fully working set of channels and explain what I did.
I will also try and re-install WebGrab+Plus on OS X tonight and give you more feedback on the best method.
EDIT: The times are fine, the channel I'm trying to watch is in Thailand and not Singapore (UTC+07.00)!!! So I will have to edit the starhub.ini by 1 hour anyway but that's OK for my setup and not a WG++ problem.
Cheers
 
Rich

DixieDean
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Lastly, have you got any ideas about zap2it only giving me 1 day?
 
Cheers

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I think that is a problem of the .ini of zap2it, but don't know for sure.
Someone should have a look at it. I'll do that when I have some time for it, but that can take some time.

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Hi ,
 
I will have a look at Zap2it. I think it also had another other issue with 'one day ahead' for some users.
 
Will report back ..
 
Jan

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DixieDean,
 
what ZIP or  Postalcode do you use to set the zip2it preferences? (I like to try with the same as yours, just in case)
 
Jan

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Hi Jan
DIRECTV New York - Satellite: Local (10002)
 
cheers
 
Rich

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Hi Jan
 
Any updates on the 'grabbing more than one day' issue?
Everything else is working perfectly accept this so if we could sort it out I could then do my updates once a week instead of every day. Which would be great.
 
Cheers
 
Rich

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Hi Rich,
 
I am terribly sorry, I have posted a reply with the solution a couple of days ago but I must have forgotten to save it or so, because it's not there ?! Whatever  ..
 
It was something like this:
The error is caused by a time conversion problem due to a wrong setting of the date format in one of the ini lines. In the same line there was another small mistake that caused to correct the date for utc twice.
 
I also optimized some of the element srubbing.
 
You find the update on the epg channels page @ http://www.webgrabplus.com/sites/default/files/download/ini/info/SiteIni.Pack/USA/zap2it.com.ini
 
Again, sorry to have you kept waiting
 
Jan

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Thanks Jan
 
Testing it now. Will let you know how I get on.
 
Cheers
 
Rich

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Hi Jan
zap2it now grabs more than one day which is great. My only problem now is when I run the output file through WG2MP.exe to correct the dates and times it crashes XBMC.
If I just load the uncorrected file into XBMC it is all fine.
 
Any ideas?
 
 
Cheers
 
Rich

DixieDean
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Ignore my last post Jan/Francis.
 
It must have been a setting on XBMC. All is fine now.
I must stop tinkering with settings while also testing!!! lol
 
Cheers
 
Rich

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