Free US Zap2xml scraper - Zap2It replacement

[ranger47]

http://zap2xml.110mb.com/

I got it to work in GB-PVR, but have yet to succeed in MP.

[luke16]

I got it working for media portal... but for only 12 channels. The thing seems to think that my lineup has only 12 channels for some reason.

EDIT: Its working correctly now.

[luke16]

Someone asked me in a personal message how to get this working in media portal, so I figured I would post it for all to see:

First, follow the directions from the site http://zap2xml.110mb.com/ to get a zap2it account and get the listings to show the 6 hour grid, and then download the windows binary from the site, then execute it so it extracts the file, and take this file, zap2xml.exe, and put it in the media portal xmltv folder, then go to start>programs>accessories>system tools>scheduled tasks, and add a new task for it using the "add a task" wizard, which should walk you through most of it. When it asks you for the program you want to run, click browse and go to file you put in the xmltv folder. Set it up to run however often you want your guide to be updated. After it is set up, right click the new task you just created, click properties, and make sure you are in the "task" tab, then where it says run, it will have the location of the directory that you selected, add the following to the very end of it, after the zap2xml.exe part: -u YOURZAP2ITLOGIN@EMAIL.COM -p YOURPASSWORD -o tvguide.xml , Replacing the capitalized letters with the appropriate login and password for zap2it, and when the schedule executes, your tvguide data should be populated. You may need to set time zone info in the media portal setup, and media portal may not instantly update the time zone info. I think that about covers it.

[ranger47]

Ya, I was only getting some channels before as well. I will try again.

[thegtrsr1]

Great instructions! I'm so glad somebody found a way to keep getting the listings for free. Has anybody else had trouble getting it to work in MP? My XML file seems to be okay and is about 5.5MB, so it seems like all the information was retrieved, but for some reason no information shows up in the Program Guide when I start MP.

Any ideas?

[luke16]

I don't think that problem was related to anything on the xml side of things. I think it was media portal not reading it right for some reason. I'm not exactly sure what I did (if anything) that caused all the channels to start getting the guide data. I think that it might have something to do with media portal combing over the data and adjusting for timezone, etc., so if you still have that problem you might want to try letting media portal run for a half hour and see if all channels work after that. YMMV

[luke16]

Originally Posted by thegtrsr1

Great instructions! I'm so glad somebody found a way to keep getting the listings for free. Has anybody else had trouble getting it to work in MP? My XML file seems to be okay and is about 5.5MB, so it seems like all the information was retrieved, but for some reason no information shows up in the Program Guide when I start MP.

Any ideas?

Maybe MP doesn't like the format that the format of the xml file that the grabber is putting out? Aside from letting MP sit for a half hour to see if it only requires time to "process" the data (as it seemed to need to with mine), you could try posting the xml file and asking one of the MP developers if there is anything that MP wouldn't like about it. Are you not getting any channel data at all, or just data for the first few channels?

[ctgoodman]

Ok, I've gotten it to create a xmltv.xml file that appears to be correct. My issue is how do I get the channels in mediaportal? I need to import something in the "channels" to get them to show up.. correct?

[luke16]

Originally Posted by ctgoodman

Ok, I've gotten it to create a xmltv.xml file that appears to be correct. My issue is how do I get the channels in mediaportal? I need to import something in the "channels" to get them to show up.. correct?

Read my earlier post. The file has to be named tvguide.xml instead of xmltv.xml and placed in the xmltv folder in your MP directory for it to be seen by MP.

[ctgoodman]

OK, is now tvguide.xml... The issue is I need to import a channel list into the configuration and its complaining about an xmltv.dtd file it can't find. I'm trying to setup a external box so I'm used to looking at the channel config to tell it to use my svideo connection on my Hauppauge PVR150.... I'm just a little lost...