Free US Zap2xml scraper - Zap2It replacement (3 Viewers)

[Phylix]

Oh, I didn't mean your EPG data was old. I just thought zap2xml, the program that downloads and puts together the EPG data may have been old. However, since it's all working now, you probably already have one of the newer versions.

As for the logos, I believe zap2xml has a switch that will also download the logos for you, but I don't remember how to have them display in the guide. I'm sure you can find the answer to this in the documentation.

For the channels thing, I may know a method, but it's tedious and requires a different program. Maybe someone else knows a better way that's built into Mediaportal.

 

[Odoyle]

My TVguide.xml output file is now only 1Kb. It, quite literally, consists of this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<!DOCTYPE tv SYSTEM "xmltv.dtd">

<tv source-info-url="http://tvlistings.zap2it.com/" source-info-name="zap2it.com" generator-info-name="zap2xml" generator-info-url="zap2xml@gmail.com">
</tv>

The bat file I wrote still downloads stuff to the cache and parses it so I'm getting data, but it's not outputting to the xml file anymore. Worked like a charm for several months and now this.

I'm still using 0.2.3.0 since I don't have time to fiddle with getting the TV Server to run my HDHomerun. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Phylix]

zap2it.com made some changes to their website, so you probably just need to update zap2xml. Download the newer version at zap2xml

 

[rmiles403]

Help installing zap2xml

I have downloaded the program, and extracted it, but every time I run the program, it opens and immediately closes. How do I get it to stop?

 

[DaleVandy]

I have downloaded the program, and extracted it, but every time I run the program, it opens and immediately closes. How do I get it to stop?

You can not run the program directly. You have to run it from the command line. It has to be run either a batch file or from the Windows Task Scheduler. That's because there are several "switches" (options) that have to be configured when the program is run. See post #2 in this thread for help.

 

[alec]

I'm trying to get zap2xml working on MP 1.0 RC2 following the instructions here and in other threads but MP doesn't appear to be loading the XML data.

I did not install TVServer with MP because I do not have a tv tuner. I simply want the EPG to show up so i can see what's on tv. No recording, no tuning, no scheduling, just the xml data to appear. Are there instructions to do this?

Does TVServer or MySQL need to be installed in order for the EPG to show up?

thanks in advance

 

[Phylix]

Using MediaPortal JUST to view EPG data seems like a bit much... There are probably other programs that can view XMLTV files and display them nicely.

A quick search came up with this: EPG Viewer for XMLTV Radio Times Data

Or why not just bookmark Zap2It's TV guide? Sign up for a free account, put in your information, and it'll load pretty quickly. Might be easier than having MediaPortal simply for the purpose of finding out what's on.

But if you still want to use it for just that purpose, can you tell me if you actually download the data? You can check by looking at tvguide.xml and opening it up with Notepad, Wordpad, or some other text editor. Look for descriptions of shows.


As for TVserver and MySQL, I don't have either installed and everything works fine with my TV tuner.

 

[alec]

it seems to be working now. I downloaded the new version of zap2xml and moved zap2xml.exe and the xmltv file to "C:/ProgramData/Team MediaPortal/MediaPortal/xmltv" instead of ProgramFiles folder.

One or both changes musta fixed it. I'm on Vista SP1 and when zap2xml.exe is run from "C:/ProgramFiles/Team MediaPortal/MediaPortal/xmltv " no xml is produced, whereas it would from any other directory. go figure.

 

[lar1r]

xmltv says something like "this folder should also include the xmltv.dtd file

What is this? i found one on my system that was done in 2004. It allows me to force import my data, but no programs get imported. Is there a newer xmltv.dtd i need?

Thx


***UPDATE***
Scanned my system and found a more recent one. Can't remember where it came from as I was downloading a few different plugins to try and get this going. Now the programs are read in.

 

[jaymode]

So how do I get a xmltv.dtd file? There is not one created by the zap2xml script.