New Australian TV guide source (1 Viewer)

[MikeL]

Hi Angusmann,

Great to see you back with a new EPG. I used DUGG for quite a while and was always in awe of your ability to keep up with the constant changes at the networks. I've recently had my fill of EPG frustrations with my current source, so I'm keen to give your current system a go. Are you still making copies of Guidedigger available?

Thanks & regards,

MikeL

 

[WeeGraeme]

This seems to be working better than I could get anything else to work.

How long should it take? I have Austar (Foxtel) pay TV channels included. It's been going for a couple of hours and it's only up to 7%.

Also, with regard to the ABC1 which is also shown on Austar, Austar shows ABC1 NSW nationally, but we also get ABC1 Qld which is channel 193. I don't know if ABC1 in other states is also shown.

 

[angusmann]

The program speed is dependent on a number of things and here are some basic facts.

1 Obviously your internet connection speed is a factor.

2 The program only downloads data once. So when you run it for the first time it needs to download a whole 8 days. Run it the next day and it only downloads the one extra day....so it takes 1/8th the time.

3 Ticking the FTP download box greatly improves download speed. It can grab the data in one chunk without having to scrape it which is slow and inefficient.

4 But the benefit of (3) is only realized if some kind person (maybe you) ticked the FTP upload box. Then the next person (who ticked the download box) does not have to endure the time and bandwidth you wasted scraping the data.

5 The idea is that if enough people tick the FTP upload and download buttons, then ON AVERAGE, each user will only have to scrape the data on rare occasions.

6 In theory if you are the ONLY person grabbing a particular channel, then the FTP upload and download will have no real effect on the download times, but you will still get the benefits of (2) above.

I grab 11 free-to-air channels. No pay TV. On average the first time I run the program it goes for 9 minutes, then after this it runs for 2.5 minutes. Two hours or more is longer than I have ever seen but I guess it's possible if you're grabbing 50 or more channels.

Be sure you ticked the two FTP boxes and see how fast it runs on the second try. It should be at least 8 times faster. PM me with your findings.



As for the ABC1 and NSW/QLD ....
I don't know the answer. If someone can tell me FOR SURE that ABC1 is different in NSW and QLD then I will modify the program to have a channel option for each region. So far nobody has told me so - therefore I have not looked into it. There are so many channels and so many regions I rely on others to tell me of a problem before I set out to solve one.

This seems to be working better than I could get anything else to work.

How long should it take? I have Austar (Foxtel) pay TV channels included. It's been going for a couple of hours and it's only up to 7%.

Also, with regard to the ABC1 which is also shown on Austar, Austar shows ABC1 NSW nationally, but we also get ABC1 Qld which is channel 193. I don't know if ABC1 in other states is also shown.

 

[WeeGraeme]

I must've somehow set something incorrctly. Despite being online overnight, it still hasn't completed a download. It only goto as far as 17%. I keep getting error messages which say that IE failed to load in time. IE7 is installed on my machine, but it's not my default browser.

I've actually got the two ftp options enabled, as well as the option to disable the web download enabled, so I wouldn't have thought it would need a web browser at all.

Any suggestions for what I might be doing wrong?

 

[diablosv]

Thanks, I am using the latest RC, which is great but I thought I'd note that ABC1 can be different in each state (im in NSW) and I notice in the guide it uses the QLD ABC1 guide data because programs like Stateline come up as " Stateline Qld", this might seem a small issue but I did also notice when the QLD election was on it was showing in the guide which was not showing where i am (NSW).

 

[angusmann]

OK...I may take a few days but I will divide the single ABC1 channel into the various regional variants.

Thanks...I rely on reports like this to keep things current.

Thanks, I am using the latest RC, which is great but I thought I'd note that ABC1 can be different in each state (im in NSW) and I notice in the guide it uses the QLD ABC1 guide data because programs like Stateline come up as " Stateline Qld", this might seem a small issue but I did also notice when the QLD election was on it was showing in the guide which was not showing where i am (NSW).

 

[5teve]

I grab 11 free-to-air channels. No pay TV. On average the first time I run the program it goes for 9 minutes, then after this it runs for 2.5 minutes. Two hours or more is longer than I have ever seen but I guess it's possible if you're grabbing 50 or more channels.

Be sure you ticked the two FTP boxes and see how fast it runs on the second try. It should be at least 8 times faster. PM me with your findings.

Just a quickie (and not a complaint as this has been running so nicely for months, until it hiccupped the other day but the new release solved that!)

the first run on mine will take anything up to 2.5 hours im running a 15mb connection (actual connection speed) what i have noticed is that it trys to download ftp a few times, but then it disables ftp download for remaining channels so has to scrape them all....

like i say its just an observation, as it collects data (as you say faster after first run) in the middle of the night as a scheduled task, so i never see it!

thanks again for a great grabber tho

Steve

 

[angusmann]

After a certain number of failed FTP logins it stops trying....that's what you're observing.

Most likely you have a firewall or something that prevents connections on port 21. This is the FTP port.

If you have a router with a firewall, check that also.

If you can correct get FTP working you will notice a huge increase in speed.

I grab 11 free-to-air channels. No pay TV. On average the first time I run the program it goes for 9 minutes, then after this it runs for 2.5 minutes. Two hours or more is longer than I have ever seen but I guess it's possible if you're grabbing 50 or more channels.

Be sure you ticked the two FTP boxes and see how fast it runs on the second try. It should be at least 8 times faster. PM me with your findings.

Just a quickie (and not a complaint as this has been running so nicely for months, until it hiccupped the other day but the new release solved that!)

the first run on mine will take anything up to 2.5 hours im running a 15mb connection (actual connection speed) what i have noticed is that it trys to download ftp a few times, but then it disables ftp download for remaining channels so has to scrape them all....

like i say its just an observation, as it collects data (as you say faster after first run) in the middle of the night as a scheduled task, so i never see it!

thanks again for a great grabber tho

Steve

 

[WeeGraeme]

Thanks, I am using the latest RC, which is great but I thought I'd note that ABC1 can be different in each state (im in NSW) and I notice in the guide it uses the QLD ABC1 guide data because programs like Stateline come up as " Stateline Qld", this might seem a small issue but I did also notice when the QLD election was on it was showing in the guide which was not showing where i am (NSW).

Another plus for changing it (which I see you're already doing anyway) is that when daylight saving is in effect, the programme times would be out by an hour on one of the ABC channels.

 

[redeye19987]

angusmann, you sir are my hero!

It would be good if there was a validation and replace for characters like "&" etc in the programme description before compiling the xml. There is currently one of the programmes with at least one in it and is causing a failed load. Got it sorted once I knew that the problem was not me.

Also other channels that are missing: A-Pac, Fox Sports News, Hallmark, NITV, Showcase and Sky news business. Oh and W+2 but i got than as a customised duplicate/timezone offset right now. You could probably remove the FOX Footy channels and History+2 as I believe these are all discontinued. (Correct me if i'm wrong).
Maybe also a few channel re-names? A1 to Nat Geo Adventure, Club [V] to Channel [V]2.

A pleasure doing business!

redeye19987