Tools and other software EPG-Buddy ATSC USA Testing (4 Viewers)

[Lehmden]

Hi.
Have to look if the used installer is able to do so. But I can imagine it does..

By the way, do you know how one can read the (your) Provider ID from TVGuide.com? If we have this ID (it is a six digit number like "80002") the direct EPG data download from TVGuide is easy to achieve. With User/password it's much harder...

 

[breese]

I logged into tvguide.com, went to my profile page, then did a right click on the web page and View Source.
In that window I did a search for my user name and found

id":1403339

Does that help?

 

[breese]

I can tell you that with all the testing (removing and reinstalling EPG-Buddy), it did not remove the Task in Task Scheduler...
Once I had set it, it was there with each install...

 

[Lehmden]

Hi.

Does that help?

I don't think so. This is probably your user ID and not the provider ID. Provider ID is 6 digit and this ID is 7 digit long... But we will find a way to download the data with unser/pass.

it did not remove the Task in Task Scheduler...

I'm aware of this and it is on the todo list, but with an requester if to delete it. The schedule is not set automatically after fresh installation so it can be useful to keep the schedule.

 

[breese]

tvg-provider-20419

 

[breese]

After some very extensive testing, I have found EPG-Buddy to work extremely well so long as everything is done exactly right.
There are some things that differ from zap2xml that can catch people off guard.

zap2xml tvguide.xml imports extremely well were timezone settings are concerned that EPG-Buddy does not.
When both have the correct timezone info entered into their configurations and or you have setup your account properly on tvguide.com, the xmltv plugin reads the correct timezone info for each Except for EPG-Buddy.
With EPG-Buddy you must set the xmltv Time Compression to very exact settings.

The Time Compression setting when un-configured gives the impression that Single Digit Entries are acceptable.
The reality is, each of the boxes must be Exact to the timezone info for the users location.
As you can see in my settings (Red area), it is configured for -06 and 00. -6 and 0 does Not Work.

Also, the message below the Time Compression (Blue area) has Nothing to do with the Time Compression setting.
At first glance when trying to understand the Time Compression, this Information makes it seem the boxes are for changing the amount of time the system will query for changes in the TvGuide.xml

Configuring WebGrab+Plus for a new list of channels (it does need to be done now and again) can also be very confusing. This is why I recommended possible changes to EPG-Buddy and the required steps to properly get the results needed.... (Post #11 of this thread).

One thing that eludes me is that WebGrab+Plus will report Duplicate channels and refuse to run without correcting them.
EPG-Buddy imports the Channel list as found, there-by duplicating channels and allowing channel lists with a channel not containing a Sub-channel number.

Duplicate Channel samples:
<channel update="i" site="tvguide.com" site_id="(srvID20419)Number:2.1,SourceId:11751" xmltv_id="WBBM HDTV">WBBM HDTV</channel>
<channel update="i" site="tvguide.com" site_id="(srvID20419)Number:2.11,SourceId:64661" xmltv_id="WBBM HDTV">WBBM HDTV</channel>

Channel missing Sub-channel number sample:
<channel update="i" site="tvguide.com" site_id="(srvID20419)Number:2.11,SourceId:64661" xmltv_id="WBBM HDTV">WBBM HDTV</channel>

 

[Lehmden]

Hi.
Thanks for testing. We are working heavily to provide direct download of TVGuide.com EPG data without the need of WebGrab+Plus or zap2xml. Those downloaded data will have matching timezone settings when you set up your provider properly on tvguide.com website. There most likely will be no need for any time compensation in XMLTV plugin at all.

We also wanted to use proper language while comparing with TVDB. I can imagine there are lots of Spanish channels available at many providers all over the USA. When you compare such channels with TVDB the search for those channels has to be done in Spanish if you want proper results. All English speaking channels need to be searched in English of course... Up to now you only can set one language to search TVDB and this would be English in your case. On this topic we are also working right now.

But we will need another week or two before we will have something new to test. You're the first who will get the new test version then, promised...

WebGrab is and always will be very complicated. Not only for users but also for a tool like EPG-Buddy which want to make use of it. This is to be expected if you see all the many, many different websites that WebGrab has to support all over the world. So no blame for that. It's simply a fact.
If ever possible we want to get the data without WebGrab for this reason. When it is possible the direct download of the EPG data also is much faster most of the times. TVGuide.com program listings for one day is downloaded in less than two seconds, even over here in Germany...

 

[breese]

WebGrab is and always will be very complicated. Not only for users but also for a tool like EPG-Buddy which want to make use of it. This is to be expected if you see all the many, many different websites that WebGrab has to support all over the world. So no blame for that. It's simply a fact.

Not looking for blame..... Just trying to help make EPG-Grab the best it can be....

We also wanted to use proper language while comparing with TVDB. I can imagine there are lots of Spanish channels available at many providers all over the USA. When you compare such channels with TVDB the search for those channels has to be done in Spanish if you want proper results.

I don't think this is true....
I have a few channels listed in MP2 TVGuide that are Spanish (and others are available) and seem to produce the correct results.

Is this what your asking about?

 

[Lehmden]

Not looking for blame

I know and understand this right for sure...

MP2 TVGuide that are Spanish

This affects only the search for episodes and season numbers on TVDB, not the displayed description. I don't know if TVguide.com always has proper season and episodes numbers included. Most other EPG sources don't have. So after downloading the "raw" EPG data we are looking through the programs if there are some that can be identified as a series episode. Then we do an online lookup at TVDB to add proper season and episodes numbers to the final EPG data for this program. If this should be done, can be selected for every channel separately as not all channels are airing series. For those channels w/o series the lookup is useless and only a waste of time.

Example... "The Flintstones" are named "Los Picapiedra" in Spanish. So if you have a Series named "Los Picapiedra" and do an online lookup in English at TVDB you won't get any result. You need to do the lookup in Spanish to get a proper result.
Up to now you can do this successfully only for English programs, not for Spanish ones, as the online lookup on TVDB always is done in English. This will and has to be changed soon.

 

[Lehmden]

By the way...

I would like to suggest that the installer checks to see if the user scheduled a Task Scheduler setting and have it removed when they uninstall

This is included in meantime. When uninstalling the installer asks if the user want to remove all settings too. If this is confirmed by the user aside the settings the schedule also is removed. If the user cancel it, all settings and also the schedule is kept for a later installation...
You maybe need to enter admin credentials for this as Win10 did not allow modifying schedules running from C: without admin rights...