Free US Zap2xml scraper - Zap2It replacement

[Phylix]

EDIT: Figured out a better way without an extra program! Read my other post!!!








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Ah... I've been trying to get some free EPG data working for months. Tried so many different grabbers, but I finally got it all working today.

Follow these simple 25 steps and you'll be watching guided TV too!

1. Download the newest version of zap2xml.
2. Put it in "C:\Program Files\Team Mediaportal\Mediaportal\XMLTV"
3. Register a Zap2It account and set it up with the instructions from ISPCP - Virtual Hosting Control System.
4. Open MediaPortal Setup and go to Television -> TV Channels.
5. Select one of the channels and click on Edit.

6. Go to the ATSC tab and memorize the Major and Minor channel.

7. Then click on Set Preferences on the Zap2It website.
8. Add the channel you memorized to your favorites list. (In my example: 4.1 - Channel format is: MAJOR.MINOR)

9. Continue checking the channel from MediaPortal and adding the channel to your favorites on Zap2It until you have all the channels you want.
10. Create a text file with Notepad in the zap2xml directory and put this in the text file:

zap2xml -u YOURZAP2ITEMAIL@EMAIL.COM -p YOURPASSWORD -d 10 -o "C:\Program Files\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal\XMLTV\TVguide.xml" -O -A -T -g

Replace YOURZAP2ITEMAIL@EMAIL.COM with the E-Mail you registered with for your Zap2It account and YOURPASSWORD for your Zap2It account password.

Optionally, you can add the -i flag to download icons like so:

zap2xml -u YOURZAP2ITEMAIL@EMAIL.COM -p YOURPASSWORD -d 10 -o "C:\Program Files\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal\XMLTV\TVguide.xml" -O -A -T -g -i "icons"

Which saves it to the icon folder in the same directory.

11. Rename the text file to download.bat (May have to enable file extension viewing to change the extension)
12. Run download.bat to download the EPG data.
13. Download and install Oz TV Guide Downloader here (Created by Big_Kev): Oz TV Guide Downloader
14. Open Oz TV Guide Downloader and go to the EPG Data Source tab.
15. Put where your TVguide.xml file will be (For most of you it would most likely be "C:\Program Files\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal\XMLTV\TVguide.xml") into the File option.

16. Go to the Channel Setup tab of Oz TV Guide Downloader and match up your channels. Instructions on doing this is in Setup.pdf where you installed Oz TV, but basically just select the channel on the left side, then select the channel on the left side under MediaPortal Channel Names and click the arrow. Again, to make sure you have the correct channels matched up, go to Television->TV Channels in MediaPortal Setup, select the channel, click Edit, ATSC tab, major and minor channel. The C4.1k part I have boxed is the channel. 4 = Major and 1 = Minor.
Oh, and also... This is where you would set up your icons if you wanted to.

17. Go to the Groups tab in Oz TV Guide Downloader and click on Reload Groups. I think this refreshes the TV guide data in MediaPortal.

18. Now create a Scheduled Task with luke16's instructions, but also use the -O -A -T -g flags.

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And that's it! But if you have problems with the time being off, follow these extra steps:
19. Go back to MediaPortal Setup and go to Television->Program Guide.
20. Check "Use time zone information from XMLTV file"
21. Set it to 0.0 hours and click "Update TV database with time zone compensation"
22. Click OK and open MediaPortal.
23. Go look at the TV Guide and try to figure out how many hours it's off by.
24. Go back to MediaPortal Setup and go to Television->Program Guide.
25. Change the time zone compensation to match the hours it is off by and update it again.


When you update the TV database's time zone and it doesn't give confirmation that it was successful, change the hours, try updating it again, and if tells you everything went okay, change it back.

I wrote a few of these steps from memory. I did a lot of the set up months ago so I might be missing a few things.

Here's a zip of all the files:
http://www.phylix.com/files/temp/zap... EPG Files.zip
-download.bat
-OzTvDownloadSetup.exe
-zap2xml-install.exe
-exorst14.zip - A free GIF to PNG image convertor for the logos. Drag and drop into the GUI.

[luke16]

Originally Posted by Phylix

zap2xml -u YOURZAP2ITEMAIL@EMAIL.COM -p YOURPASSWORD -d 10 -o "C:\Program Files\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal\XMLTV\TVguide.xml" -O -A -T -g

Can you tell me more about the "-O" option? Is that how MP really wants the file to be (in the old style channel ids)? I didn't think it mattered, so I left it off with mine.

[Phylix]

I used it so I could more easily match up the channels with Oz TV Guide Downloader. For example, step sixteen. With the -O option, it shows up as C4.1knbcdt.zap2it.com for NBC, but without it, it is I19568.labs.zap2it.com. I don't think it would really matter if you're not using the Oz TV Guide Downloader to map your channels, though.

[bungee91]

Any help on this would be GREATLY appreciated, I have tried for the last couple hours with little success.
I am newer to mediaportal so I am just probably just missing something.
I have followed the instructions in this thread multiple times and it kind of works (kind of explained below)

Some other info:
I am running a single seat install with the newest SVN of Tv server. I used the OZ guide downloader as explained and also set it up for my sql server, I mapped the channels to MediaPortals names and enabled the XMLTv plugin in the Tv server setup.

I have successfully downloaded the Tvguide.xml and everything looks great in the file. However the guide data doesn't get added to my current channels that I have mapped to the card, instead I get a whole new list of channels that aren't mapped to anything and even if I do map them they show as analog stations which won't work on my digital tuner.

So I need to figure out how to either point the guide data for the channels to my current and working (tuneable/watchable) ATSC channels in Media Portal, or setup the channels that it seems to import from the Tvguide.xml file into ATSC channels with the correct frequencies and major minors.

I hope that all makes sense in what seems to be going on, I appreciate any suggestions given.

[Ufdah]

Thanks so much for the lead! I've got it installed and it's working great!

[DragonFire]

Goodness, man. I'm having a whole lot of trouble with this one. Like Bungee, I can get the TVGuide.xml downloaded just fine. It's getting it into MP where the problem is. The guide is populated, but it's all the same channel information. As much as the idea of going to Hell frightens me, I'm not really that crazy about watching "Praise-a-thon" 24/7. I've tried going back through each step, but can't seem to get anywhere with it.

On top of having the same channel information, I have to beware about going to the guide. It takes almost 5 minutes to even bring up the grid. Changing channels or even selecting a different row is murderously slow too. I've been trying to get this working for a few weeks now and I think my wife might beat me up if I don't get it working soon. Any ideas?

[ranger47]

Honestly I gave up and moved to GBPVR

[luke16]

Originally Posted by DragonFire

Goodness, man. I'm having a whole lot of trouble with this one. Like Bungee, I can get the TVGuide.xml downloaded just fine. It's getting it into MP where the problem is. The guide is populated, but it's all the same channel information. As much as the idea of going to Hell frightens me, I'm not really that crazy about watching "Praise-a-thon" 24/7. I've tried going back through each step, but can't seem to get anywhere with it.

On top of having the same channel information, I have to beware about going to the guide. It takes almost 5 minutes to even bring up the grid. Changing channels or even selecting a different row is murderously slow too. I've been trying to get this working for a few weeks now and I think my wife might beat me up if I don't get it working soon. Any ideas?

Post the guide that your getting so maybe one of the developers can look over it and see if there is something wrong with the guide, or if its MP that's glitching.

For me, MP is generally real slow and buggy only when your first putting a new guide in. After it gets the guide formatted for timezone compensation and whatever else it does with it, its a lot better.

[DragonFire]

Obviously, posting the entire file isn't practical, but here's an idea:

<tv source-info-url="http://tvlistings.zap2it.com/" source-info-name="zap2it.com" generator-info-name="zap2xml" generator-info-url="zap2xml@gmail.com">
<channel id="C0jwltv.zap2it.com">
<display-name>0 JWLTV</display-name>
<display-name>0</display-name>
<display-name>JWLTV</display-name>
</channel>
<channel id="C2katu.zap2it.com">
<display-name>2 KATU</display-name>
<display-name>2</display-name>
<display-name>KATU</display-name>
</channel>
<channel id="C3krcw.zap2it.com">
<display-name>3 KRCW</display-name>
<display-name>3</display-name>
<display-name>KRCW</display-name>
</channel>

(I know enough to tell that is defining the channels)

</programme>
<programme start="20071114090000 -0800" stop="20071114130000 -0800" channel="C0jwltv.zap2it.com">
<title lang="en">Jewelry</title>
<episode-num system="dd_progid">SH00804547.0000</episode-num>
<previously-shown />
</programme>
<programme start="20071104123000 -0800" stop="20071104163000 -0800" channel="C2katu.zap2it.com">
<title lang="en">NASCAR Racing</title>
<sub-title lang="en">Nextel Cup: Dickies 500</sub-title>
<desc lang="en">From Fort Worth, Texas.</desc>
<date>20071104</date>
<category lang="en">Sports</category>
<episode-num system="dd_progid">EP00554465.1283</episode-num>
<video>
<aspect>16:9</aspect>
<quality>HDTV</quality>
</video>
</programme>
<programme start="20071104163000 -0800" stop="20071104170000 -0800" channel="C2katu.zap2it.com">
<title lang="en">Travel in Style</title>
<date>20071104</date>
<category lang="en">Travel</category>
<episode-num system="dd_progid">EP00672272.0073</episode-num>
<new />
</programme>

(and I can see that is the program info.)

[thisisaric]

Hi everybody! I'm new here(first post) along with just purchasing my first tvcard thursday.

Looks like the -g argument in zap2xml uses gmt when retrieving the data but not when outputting it? Not sure what the point of that is, maybe a glitch? Anyhow it still adds the time zone adjustment for the xml file it outputs. Since mediaportal is expecting gmt time, a simple solution is to just do the opposite of the time zone adjustment. Make sense?
Example: Pacific Standard Time is GMT -8 hours, the opposite would be to add 8 hours.

Settings:
MP Config>Telev>Program Guide>General Tab
<Checked> Use time zone info from XMLTV
Compensate time zone with: <opposite of time zone(example: 8.0)> hours

zap2xml.exe arguments:
-u <username> -p <password> -o tvguide.xml

Read a lot of people complaining about having to wait for their guide to slooooowly populate.... I experienced this to. Use the tvguidescheduler.exe

MP Config>Telev>Program Guide>Scheduler Tab
Grabber: TVguide.xml File (drop down list)
Then create a scheduled task or manually do it by clicking "Run grabber"

Advanced eh? Dos screen should pop up and it will take some time to process, just be patient with it.


Thats all for now.
Everyone that has contributed thanks for this great software.