(original thread) US/Canadian/Mexico EPG Zap2it Plugin Released

[Commodore 64]

Originally Posted by broadband412

Wow I'm very happy to see something like this come about. Hopefully I will start getting episode descriptions in my listings. In my opinion, there are conflicts with XMLTV and Mediaportal that prevent info such as episode names from showing up. I will definately try this.

I have episode descriptions in the MyTV preview screen. Haven't really checked the guide for that though.

[xemumanic]

Its good to see this is finally out for public testing, this is easily the best plugin I've found to date, it truly makes MP that much easier to use.

[chili]

Yea! Works great so far. Thanks again.

[Tikker]

sweet jebus, perfect. I was hoping to find someone that was interested in helping me build something like this, not to find one that already was working well

[ASiDiE]

I have finally got around to testing this plugin... I first want to say this is going to help a TON of people out. I know for a fact that a lot of people (including myself for awhile) have problems getting xmltv to work and get the guide lined up. I want to thank Jonathan for this awesome plugin. That being said, here are a list of things I see and would like to see in this plugin.

1. I would like to see a changelog/version number included in the zip file or within the name of the zip file. This will make it easier for everyone to know they are on the latest version.

2. I am hoping in the future you could add this as one of the steps into the install. Here is what I am thinking. I run the setup for the first time. First, I would like to see what cards were detected at this point. I have a DVB card that currently I cannot use. I would like to be able to remove this card and just leave my PVR-500. After I select my cards and give them there default name (card1 and card2) I would then like to go to the auto tune screen. I would auto tune one of the cards, they should be the same for both and detect all the channels my cards will pick up. This step is very important because it added the frequencies to the database.

After this step I would like to see your plugin next. I would put in my name and password, select all the options and add how many days I wanted it to download. At this point I would like for the program to go out to zap2it and just download the channel listing from there. (possibly 24 hours or less of guide so I can view it the second I enter MP. It can download the rest later) I have edited my zap2it channel listing for ONLY the channels I want. The auto tune fines several channels that are worthless or come in as static but still come in (HBO, government channels, public access)

Right now it is adding the channels to the list, but NOT removing the auto tuned channels. So I still have 2 and 2 KWGN showing up in my TV guide.

I would like to be able to automatically combine my channels based off of match of the number (2 + 2 KWGN = 2 KWGN) and I should no longer see 2. After this is done it should ask, Channels 14, 15, 28, 21 do not have any matches. Would you like to remove them from the channel database? YES/NO. At this point I would remove all the channels with no matches. I would also be able to pick and choose to remove channels at this point. Every single channel would be added to both cards so I could view and record from both.

After all this... I would have all my cards set up, all my channels set up, renamed, in the correct order and added to each card. 24 hours or less would have been downloaded so I should be good to go there. I would be able to start up MP and EVERYTHING that has to do with MY TV would be 100% set up.

3. Things I see right now with the plugin. It needs to combine the channels from zap2it to my auto tuned channels and then REMOVE the auto tuned ones if there is a match.

4. I usually download a 14 day guide. I put in 14 and then selected something else. The number changed from 14 to 13. Not a big deal at all because maybe that's the max.. but it did change on me.

6. I am sure this will be added to MP sooner or later and would like to see it under Television instead of plugins.

5. I will keep testing to see if I see any more issue with the product.

I would like to say this is a HUGE step in the right direction for MP. The more we can do something within the product that is all automatic, the better. I really want to commend you on all your hard work on this. Coming over from Meedio to MP is no simple task, as the 2 product are somewhat different.

Keep up the good would and can't wait to see what else you can come up with.

[mzemina]

Jonathan - What will occur when the subscription fails due to expiration of the username? Will your plugin notify the user with a display?

Mike

[bradsjm]

Originally Posted by mzemina

Jonathan - What will occur when the subscription fails due to expiration of the username? Will your plugin notify the user with a display?
Mike

If your password is incorrect it will inform you when it next runs by displaying a model dialog box for which you must click "OK" to dimiss. Your password is encrypted in the Media Portal.xml configuration file using the Microsoft Data Protection API. For security reasons, if you copy the config file to another computer you will need to re-enter your Zap2it password.

If your subscription expires or if you have no listings defined in Zap2it, it will also display a model dialog box. Unfortunately, due to the misformed SOAP packet from Zap2it I cannot differentiate between expired subscriptions, no lineups defined or an error in transmission as they all result in an XmlException error. I would need to write my own SOAP parser to detect this and I'd rather Zap2it fix the error in their code!

Each download the plugin will also check the date your subscription expires. If there are 7 days or less, it will notify you via a modal dialog box how many days you have left (and wait for you to click OK). 7 days was chosen as you cannot resubscribe by taking the web survey any sooner than that.

Otherwise, unless you disable the option, it will just have a 20 second popup that tells you how much guide data you now have in the database when it completes. You can click OK (or close) or just wait the 20 seconds and it will go away.

Also, you will likely see Zap2it support in WebEPG too in the future as I have shared the code with James

[broadband412]

Sorry for the wrong choice of words in my previous post. I meant episode titles and not episode descriptions. I have tried this plugin and works like a charm but I stil do not get episode tittles for most if not all tv shows. I know the episode titles are on the zap2it guide website. For Example, lets say I have an entry for Law & Order in my tv guie. It will read Law & Order and give me the description for the episode but not the episode title. This was also the case with XMLTV. Jonathan, I don't think this is your problem though becasue other apps that I have tried using a zap2it plugin gave me episode titles for all tv shows execpt for those tv shows that had no episode tittle listed on the website. Also I have tried importing the same tvguide.xml file into other PVR apps to compare guide data and importing the xmltv generated file showed the episode titles in the other PVR apps but not mediaportal so I really don't know what's going on. Jonathan, can you verify that you do or you do not get episode tittles in your guide. I would really appreciate it. Thanks.

[mzemina]

Originally Posted by bradsjm

If your password is incorrect it will inform you when it next runs by displaying a model dialog box for which you must click "OK" to dimiss. Your password is encrypted in the Media Portal.xml configuration file using the Microsoft Data Protection API. For security reasons, if you copy the config file to another computer you will need to re-enter your Zap2it password.

If your subscription expires or if you have no listings defined in Zap2it, it will also display a model dialog box. Unfortunately, due to the misformed SOAP packet from Zap2it I cannot differentiate between expired subscriptions, no lineups defined or an error in transmission as they all result in an XmlException error. I would need to write my own SOAP parser to detect this and I'd rather Zap2it fix the error in their code!

Each download the plugin will also check the date your subscription expires. If there are 7 days or less, it will notify you via a modal dialog box how many days you have left (and wait for you to click OK). 7 days was chosen as you cannot resubscribe by taking the web survey any sooner than that.

Otherwise, unless you disable the option, it will just have a 20 second popup that tells you how much guide data you now have in the database when it completes. You can click OK (or close) or just wait the 20 seconds and it will go away.

Also, you will likely see Zap2it support in WebEPG too in the future as I have shared the code with James

Jonathan - This all sounds good. All except the part were you would need to write your own SOAP parser to fix Zap2it's problem!

[bradsjm]

Originally Posted by broadband412

Sorry for the wrong choice of words in my previous post. I meant episode titles and not episode descriptions. I have tried this plugin and works like a charm but I stil do not get episode tittles for most if not all tv shows. I know the episode titles are on the zap2it guide website. For Example, lets say I have an entry for Law & Order in my tv guie. It will read Law & Order and give me the description for the episode but not the episode title.

Aha, I tracked this down. The information is being put in the database both with my plugin and XMLTV but none of the skins (mytvguide.xml) are showing it. The property is being set for the skin (#TV.Guide.EpisodeName) but the skin XML doesn't use it hence it never shows up

It should be simple enough to update the skin files to include it I think.