(original thread) US/Canadian/Mexico EPG Zap2it Plugin Released (1 Viewer)

[bradsjm]

Quick update...

The next release will have some changes (and bug fixes of course) you should be aware of.

- You will be able to set it to do an immediate update through the configuration the next time MP loads. This is not normally required (hence it will be under the advanced options tab) but if you are playing with your tuning or channel lineup, it may be helpful

- It will only automatically add channels if you are using Digital Cable or Satellite tuner. These do not require autotune and so at most the new channels will need to be mapped to the card if you have multiple cards. If you are using HDTV/OTA/Analog cable you will need to run a new autotune to pick up new channels and then the next time the plugin runs it should match those channels to the new ones. Upon consideration, I feel having duplicate channels is worse from a usability perspective and getting rid of autotune (ala MCE style setup) is beyond the scope of this work right now!

- You will be able to view your Zap2it lineups and channels from the plugin configuration for reference purposes without having to go to the web site.

 

[bradsjm]

Re: zap2it plugin fails with System.Net.Sockets.SocketExcept

Disabling the firewall didn't help. Google turned up another article that suggested that winsock might be corrupted (although that also seemed like an unlikely possibility since so many other programs making tcp connections work), but netdiag didn't return any errors, either. I'm out of ideas again

While it is likely to be something particular to your setup I'd like to find a way to solve it if at all possible. All I'm doing is communicating via SOAP which is XML over port 80 just like a web request (except it is XML instead of HTML).

However, since all the examples show this issue only when using asychronous calls and although I'm using them in my code for convenience I don't absolutely need them so I'll try using synchronous calls in the next build, won't make any difference to the experience but maybe it will fix your issue. Either way, it is worth a try

 

[SteveV]

I have cleared my guide and removed all external channels from the Tv Channel list. When I start MP the epg client adds all of the channels in my Zap2It lineup. Unfortunately, all of the channel numbers in Configuration.exe-->Television-->TV Channels are mapped to 250000/0. They should instead be mapped to 250000/origChanNum. 300 HBO for instance should be mapped to 250000/300.

Thanks -- Steve

Found this bug, will be fixed in the next build. If you can't wait, PM me and I'll get you a pre-release.

Thanks Jonathan!

 

[captainspanky]

Channel icons

Hi -

First thanks for the great plug in. Much more straightforward than the xmltv setup.

The question I had was how to get channel icons in my programming guide. Would be a handy way of zooming in on exactly the right channel when browsing up and down.

Noticed them in a screen grab just now in someone's post in this thread and did some poking around trying to find references to it on the forums. Someone mentioned putting some .jpgs named after the channels in a "tv icons" directory, wherever that is... There was a reference to icons in one of the xmltv config files poked in my old directory that implied that they could be DL'ed from zap2it

Is this something that is within the purview of this plug in?

Thanks again

 

[pdoconnell]

Weird display bug I've found. If you use the plugin in order to load the guide with no TV data already in the program, it detects the following according to the log:
"6/20/2006 7:33:22 PM Date of last program entry in database currently 1/1/0001 12:00:00 AM."
After the data is updated by the program, the popup that appears says the data is updated until "1/1/0001 12:00am."

Also, I've had some weird data input errors the last couple of days related to the plugin apparently not inputing data for the times of 7:00pm and 5:00am. I'm looking into it, trying to reproduce.
edit: also, at this point, with a clean install and use of the plugin, it will not install any of the data. Sample log entries below.
6/20/2006 7:44:09 PM Zap2it EPG Client: version 1.2.2355 starting
6/20/2006 7:44:09 PM Date of last program entry in database currently 1/1/0001 12:00:00 AM
6/20/2006 7:44:09 PM Configured to grab 5 days of EPG data
6/20/2006 7:44:09 PM Scheduling first poll for Zap2it listings at 6/20/2006 7:44:24 PM
6/20/2006 7:44:24 PM Starting EPG refresh job on thread #7
6/20/2006 7:44:24 PM UTC time is 6/21/2006 12:44:24 AM, local time is 6/20/2006 7:44:24 PM (DST is True)
6/20/2006 7:44:24 PM RemoveOldPrograms()
6/20/2006 7:44:24 PM sqlELETE FROM tblPrograms WHERE iEndTime < '20060619000000'
6/20/2006 7:44:24 PM sqlELETE FROM canceledseries where iCancelTime < '20060619000000'
6/20/2006 7:44:24 PM RemoveOldPrograms done
6/20/2006 7:44:24 PM vacuum done
6/20/2006 7:44:24 PM Requesting 24 hours of program listings from [6/20/2006 7:44:24 PM] to [6/21/2006 7:44:24 PM]
6/20/2006 7:44:32 PM Processing lineup Charter Communications [id=WI48457:X type=CableDigital postcode=53715]
6/20/2006 7:44:32 PM Could not find a match for AMC
6/20/2006 7:44:32 PM Could not find a match for AETV
6/20/2006 7:44:32 PM Could not find a match for BET
6/20/2006 7:44:32 PM Could not find a match for BRAVO
6/20/2006 7:44:32 PM Could not find a match for FAM
6/20/2006 7:44:32 PM Could not find a match for CMTV
6/20/2006 7:44:32 PM Could not find a match for CNBC
6/20/2006 7:44:32 PM Could not find a match for CNN
6/20/2006 7:44:32 PM Could not find a match for CNNH
...
6/20/2006 7:44:33 PM Completed processing of 0 of 76 channels
6/20/2006 7:44:33 PM Starting processing of 2248 schedule entries
6/20/2006 7:44:33 PM Zap2it schedule #SH6891490000 @2006-06-21T00:00:00Z not imported
6/20/2006 7:44:33 PM Zap2it schedule #EP6750820017 @2006-06-21T01:00:00Z not imported
6/20/2006 7:44:33 PM Zap2it schedule #EP6750820059 @2006-06-21T01:30:00Z not imported
6/20/2006 7:44:33 PM Zap2it schedule #EP8132490011 @2006-06-21T02:00:00Z not imported
6/20/2006 7:44:33 PM Zap2it schedule #EP8132490010 @2006-06-21T02:30:00Z not imported
6/20/2006 7:44:33 PM Zap2it schedule #EP4461670050 @2006-06-21T03:00:00Z not imported
...
6/20/2006 7:46:53 PM Imported 0 of 6761 schedule entries
6/20/2006 7:46:53 PM Last program entry in database was 1/1/0001 12:00:00 AM, now 1/1/0001 12:00:00 AM
6/20/2006 7:46:53 PM Removing any overlapping programs
6/20/2006 7:46:53 PM Committing the transaction
6/20/2006 7:46:56 PM Scheduling next poll for 6/21/2006 10:49:45 AM

 

[bradsjm]

also, at this point, with a clean install and use of the plugin, it will not install any of the data. Sample log entries below.

The log indicates it is working as designed, it could not map any channels (0 of 76) so it cannot import programs for them (0 of 6761) therefore there will still be nothing in the tv guide database.

It would appear you have disabled the option to "Add new channels" in the configuration and have no channels defined.

 

[bradsjm]

Re: Channel icons

The question I had was how to get channel icons in my programming guide. Would be a handy way of zooming in on exactly the right channel when browsing up and down.

Noticed them in a screen grab just now in someone's post in this thread and did some poking around trying to find references to it on the forums. Someone mentioned putting some .jpgs named after the channels in a "tv icons" directory, wherever that is... There was a reference to icons in one of the xmltv config files poked in my old directory that implied that they could be DL'ed from zap2it

Is this something that is within the purview of this plug in?

Thanks again

Zap2it do not provide icons for legal reasons. Download the icon you wish to use and name it the same as the channel name in the guide (e.g. 5 WABC.jpg) and place it in:

C:\Program Files\Team Media Portal\MediaPortal\thumbs\tv\logos

This assumes your installation of MediaPortal is in C:\Program Files\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal, change it if not!

 

[bradsjm]

1.3: 6/21/06

1.3: 6/21/06

Fixed a bug when setting channel numbers
Removed experimental code for frequency information
Changed automatic channel adding to only work for digital cable & satellite. For analog cable/OTA you must autotune first then match
Added config option to force a guide update on the next start of MediaPortal
Changed from asynch SOAP to synch SOAP request (should not make any perceived difference)
Added tab for viewing and updating your zap2it lineups and channels without going to the Zap2it web site
Added logic to skip schedule import if no channels were sucessfully processed

 

[ASiDiE]

Very Nice. I want to thank you for putting all this hard working into this plugin.

 

[bradsjm]

Re: zap2it plugin fails with System.Net.Sockets.SocketExcept

Disabling the firewall didn't help. Google turned up another article that suggested that winsock might be corrupted (although that also seemed like an unlikely possibility since so many other programs making tcp connections work), but netdiag didn't return any errors, either. I'm out of ideas again

Try the new build (1.3) and see if has the same issue or not.