Tools and other software EPG-Buddy a new EPG Tool with easy usage. (7 Viewers)

[Tim B]

Trying to use EPG-Buddy on a Windows 7 pro x64 machine. When the grabber is run in any mode (channel list or get the EPG), the following error is thrown:

C:\Program Files (x86)\EPG-Buddy>"C:\Program Files (x86)\EPG-Buddy\EPG-Grabber.exe" --get_channellist:tvguide

EPG-Grabber v0.81.327 (11/24/2017), c 2017 by lightshock
Receive channel list from TVGuide
Grabbing epg for one day to get channel list...

Unhandled Exception: System.ArgumentOutOfRangeException: Hour, Minute, and Secon
d parameters describe an un-representable DateTime.
at System.DateTime.TimeToTicks(Int32 hour, Int32 minute, Int32 second)
at EPG_Grabber.cTVGuide_com.Hour2Millis()
at EPG_Grabber.cTVGuide_com.GrabEPG(Boolean Silent, Int32 intMaxDays)
at EPG_Grabber.cTVGuide_com.LeseSenderliste()
at EPG_Grabber.mMain.Main()​

This is in a VM (using XenServer), but NO other issues are occurring with a multitude of other programs running on this VM. I have 4 windows VM's running perfectly on this server (and have multitudes on similar servers at work), so I don't think this is a VM related problem.

Doing some research on that .Net error, I saw a post where Microsoft says that only way that method throws the mentioned exception is when the year is less than 1 or greater than 9999 and the month is not between 1 and 12. Perhaps some range checking could be added and/or debug logging showing the values supplied to that method?

The EPG-Buddy logs don't show anything - they are just truncating at the time of the error.

EDIT: I just tried it from my office machine desktop (physical machine) and it did the same thing. Only commonality is they are both running 64 bit Windows 7.

 

[Lehmden]

Hi.
I never saw anything similar before. Maybe the system time/clock of your VM is not working identical to a "real" machine. An working and valid system time is needed in many parts of EPG-Buddy. As this is something that should be the case on every Windows system it is not mentioned separately.

This part of the program (EPG-Grabber.exe) is written and maintained by @lightshock so I don't have many possibilities to help. Ofc I can not reproduce this error here as I don't use VM... I prefer "real" machines, especially for important things (MP is important to me)...

The EPG-Buddy logs don't show anything

EPG-Grabber is an CLI tool for grabbing the data in background. It is started and controlled from inside the main program, but it has it's own logs. So you need to have a look at "EPG-Grabber.log"

 

[Tim B]

I never saw anything similar before. Maybe the system time/clock of your VM is not working identical to a "real" machine.

I tested on my desktop (see the last line of my post) and it did the same thing. I'm thinking EPG-Grabber may not be entirely happy on 64 bit Windows 7.

RE: The VM's, XenServer is an enterprise class solution, and I have it running on a Dell server with RAID and beefy networking in the basement. We have multimedia playout VM's running on the same platform at work and it works well. I would never try to run MP systems on lesser VM's.

As to the logs, I wasn't clear - I looked at both logs and they look normal until they just stop:

[2017-12-31 01:05:24,206] [INFO ] [START ] [0 ] ApplicationCore: Programm : EPG-Grabber
[2017-12-31 01:05:24,219] [INFO ] [START ] [0 ] ApplicationCore: Copyright : © 2017 by lightshock
[2017-12-31 01:05:24,227] [INFO ] [START ] [0 ] ApplicationCore: Version : 0.81.327 (11/24/2017)
[2017-12-31 01:05:24,235] [INFO ] [START ] [0 ] ApplicationCore: Commandline: --get_channellist:tvguide
[2017-12-31 01:05:24,242] [INFO ] [START ] [0 ] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[2017-12-31 01:05:24,253] [INFO ] [SQLITE.DBCONNECT ] [20 ] Connect to database 'C:\Program Files (x86)\EPG-Buddy\EPG-Buddy.s3db'
[2017-12-31 01:05:24,357] [INFO ] [SETTINGS ] [0 ] Reading settings
[2017-12-31 01:05:24,366] [INFO ] [SQLITE.DBCONNECT ] [20 ] Connect to database 'C:\Program Files (x86)\EPG-Buddy\EPG-Buddy.s3db'
[2017-12-31 01:05:24,383] [INFO ] [SQLITE.DBCONNECT ] [20 ] Connect to database 'C:\Program Files (x86)\EPG-Buddy\EPG-Buddy.s3db'
[2017-12-31 01:05:24,398] [INFO ] [TVGUIDE ] [2 ] Get channel list from 'tvguide.com'.
[2017-12-31 01:05:24,407] [INFO ] [TVGUIDE ] [4 ] Grabbing epg for one day to get channel list...
[2017-12-31 01:05:24,438] [INFO ] [TVGUIDE ] [4 ] Get token from TVGuide.com
[2017-12-31 01:05:24,974] [INFO ] [TVGUIDE ] [4 ] token={Removed From post For Security Reasons}
[2017-12-31 01:05:24,982] [INFO ] [TVGUIDE ] [4 ] Login on TVGuide.com
[2017-12-31 01:05:25,017] [INFO ] [TVGUIDE ] [4 ] email : {Removed From post For Security Reasons}
[2017-12-31 01:05:25,025] [INFO ] [TVGUIDE ] [4 ] password: {Removed From post For Security Reasons}
[2017-12-31 01:05:25,749] [INFO ] [TVGUIDE ] [4 ] result: {"status":"success"}
[2017-12-31 01:05:25,758] [INFO ] [TVGUIDE ] [4 ] Successfull. Try to find LineUpID
[2017-12-31 01:05:25,766] [INFO ] [TVGUIDE ] [4 ] LineUpID=20567​

I think I'm just going to stick with my MP1 / Argus setup for the moment. Argus is a project on life support, so I thought I would spend some time tonight trying an alternate setup, but it seems I should wait for TVE3.5 and figure out working EPG alternatives before I try again.

Wish I could help. I've written quite a few projects in vb.net, and can read C#.net fairly well, but am afraid my coding skills aren't of much help to the MP project. The closest I've come is to patch the USBUIRT section of the core in my MP1 installation to add some additional remote control jumps, but that took a bit to wallow through.

Maybe I will just drop a courtesy message to @lightshock to see if they think it may be an x64 issue.

 

[Lehmden]

Hi.

I'm thinking EPG-Grabber may not be entirely happy on 64 bit Windows 7.

EPG-Buddy and EPG-Grabber are working flawlessly on Win 7 x64. We've developed and tested this Program on Win 7 x64 and Win 10 x64. This error never occurs before so it's something specific to your system. Your system date/time somehow is not as it is on "normal" systems. I don't say it's "wrong" or "broken", but it must be different. If it wasn't, this error wouldn't occur.

The VM's, XenServer is an enterprise class solution

I know XenServer (also I never would use something like this at home) but EPG-Buddy (and also MP) is in no way meant as enterprise class solution. It is meant for home usage.

By the way, if you get this error fixed you also can use EPG-Buddy with Argus. Argus is fully supported lately..

 

[Tim B]

Update: Just as a test, I completely uninstalled 0.4.2.6, then installed 0.4.2.5 on my desktop and it ran without errors. Threw it on the VM and it worked there too.

 

[Lehmden]

Which version did you run before? The recent 0.4.2.6 only has a single difference. It copies the tvguide.dtd file over to the configured epg- output folder where you need to copy this file by hand when using 0.4.2.5. No changes on EPG-Grabber.exe at all...

 

[Tim B]

The issues I was having was on 0.4.2.6 - from the MP repository.

Now that I put 0.4.2.5 on, I can install 0.4.2.6 and it runs. Very strange.

This on TWO different machines - one is a normal physical PC!

 

[Lehmden]

Very strange... As told, the "crashing" EPG-Grabber.exe is identical...

Maybe the access (and the copying) of the xmltv.dtd file was prevented by some security settings. EPG-Grabber also needs this file to work, but it uses the one available in the EPG-Buddy program folder.

You may have a look into the EPG-Buddy program folder and into the given output folder for your finished EPG xml files, if a "xmltv.dtd" is available on both places now.

You easily can stay with 0.4.2.5 but you need to copy the xmltv.dtd every time you alter the output folder manually then. Shouldn't happen that often, I believe. The "rest" of the program is identical...

 

[Tim B]

WAIT! This may be coincidental...

Could it have something to do with the new year??? I am wondering if TVGuide had an issue sending bogus timestamps with 2018 coming up. Not sure where in the process that time conversion procedure was being called, but an errant year calculation feeding that methods year parameter would cause that error.

 

[Lehmden]

Could it have something to do with the new year???

I really don't know. As I'm not living in the US I don't use TVGuide.com myself. I'm using TVSpielfilm as data source. Right now my daily automated EPG-grabbing is running and it is running well... If it has something to do with the new year, then it must be TVGuide.com specific...