Schedules Direct US/Canadian/Mexico EPG Plugin (Updated August 2010) (3 Viewers)

[patrick]

I poked around in the program table in the database and found that there is data out to sept. 15 for some channels. So, what I had was the next 24 hours, a big gap (10 days or so) and then data again.

This is probably causing/contributing to your issues.
When I say the difference between what is in the database and the
days set, it uses the last program date/time.
So it will probably only get the difference between the last program
after the 10 days or so and the specified number of days.

Sux, but this can happen if the update is stopped part way through.
I have been looking into it but the TV3 database is not as easy (as MP stand alone SQLite)
to work with transactions which help prevent this problem.
(Technically, using a transaction should speed things up too.)

HTH,
patrick

 

[Das Hammer]

Based on your knowledge of this, do you think I could just wipe out the contents of the program table and force the plugin to update (check the box in the plugin to force an update, restart tvservice). Seeing as how nothing would be in the table, it should update from the beginning again, right? Of course, backing up the current table as-is goes without saying.

 

[patrick]

Das Hammer,

Looks like you can. I do not see any constraints on the program table so it should be straight forward.

patrick

 

[Das Hammer]

patrick:

I let it go for an hour this time, but the gaps still didn't fill in. I then erased the contents of the program table and forced an update with the plugin. All of the data was then filled in quickly and perfectly. Due to the complexity of my lineups and oddball channels, I manually entered the externalID field for a lot of the channels. This might have sped things up since it didnt' have to figure it out for itself. Anyway, if someone is having a lot of problems like I was, just flush out the data table and start over.

Also, maybe you just haven't got around to some of these things, but I noticed some things and just wanted to point them out (in a positive/constructive manor). A lot of us are using your plugin(s) and obviously appreciate the work you've done.

The signup "code" for zap2it is still displayed in the plugin dialog box. May be confusing to a new user.
The wording has changed for the instructions for the "force update" checkbox. It says an update will take place when Meida Portal is restarted, but doesn't it take a restart of the TV Service instead?
The checkbox for notification that the data retrieval has finished appears to have been left out. Perhaps it was replaced in favor of one of the new options you have.

Again, thanks for a great plugin.

 

[patrick]

@Das Hammer

Glad you got it working!

Thanks for the feedback!

The signup "code" for zap2it is still displayed in the plugin dialog box. May be confusing to a new user.

Fixed

The wording has changed for the instructions for the "force update" checkbox. It says an update will take place when Meida Portal is restarted, but doesn't it take a restart of the TV Service instead?

Fixed

The checkbox for notification that the data retrieval has finished appears to have been left out. Perhaps it was replaced in favor of one of the new options you have.

Left it out. Since it runs in the TvService and not MP there is nothing to send the notification to.


patrick

 

[massacre]

Hi Patrick,

First, I have to say I've been very impressed so far that this was so easy to setup. That being said, I thought I would point out something that may help others using the TV Server plugin.

In order to make this work (I have extended basic analog cable in the US), I cleaned out the channels from the server, setup the schedulesdirect plugin of yours to grab digital and analog channels and restarted the service. Once they were imported, I mapped them to my card. Once finished, however, it found the program data, but wouldn't tune anything. The problem was that the "external" video input card was a misnomer. The plugin had defaulted it to one of the SVHS settings. I switched it to tuner, cleared channels and started over. It grabbed the channels automatically again. Now it tunes the channels properly to the right input. I think that it might be best to either rename this or to split it between analog and digital (so you can set it for either).

Thanks for the note above where you suggested deleting the channels and checking the analog box... that got me started. Anyway, it seems to be working like a champ!

Tom

 

[patrick]

Thanks for the feedback Tom!

The problem was that the "external" video input card was a misnomer. The plugin had defaulted it to one of the SVHS settings. I switched it to tuner, cleared channels and started over. It grabbed the channels automatically again. Now it tunes the channels properly to the right input. I think that it might be best to either rename this or to split it between analog and digital (so you can set it for either).

Not really sure what you mean here to split between analog and digital.


Thanks again!



Also, just FYI, it looks like there was a SVN change yesterday on the TVServer that will break this plugin,
no big deal it is a small change then recompile it.

Also, I found a big bug in the MP stand alone version.
So fixing that too.

So, should have an update today or tomorrow.

patrick

 

[massacre]

Hi Patrick,

The text states that it's only for External Tuners. I guess either I don't know what that means or I assumed that it was a different setting than whatever defaulted for the "internal (PCI?) tuner". Since I"m using a PCI based card, I didn't think that setting would do anything to my config. I was wrong, obviously.

As for splitting it, it was late... I'm not even sure what I meant there.

Thanks for the hard work. You should get this into the dev cycle and on the main page for plugins - this one is going to be in high demand!

 

[Thecodont]

SVN Question for the Plugin

Hi - I am totally new to HTPC software so I hope that this does not sound like a dumb question. I have installed MP 2.2 and everything works great. I wanted to use Patrick's plugin for schedule direct so I downloaded it and unzipped as instructed. When I go to config I get an error, which I am supposing is because I may not have the latest SVN.

Since I have no clue what an SVN is and I did not install one (I just ran the regular MP installer) I searched the wiki and found a page that lists MediaPortal 'Nightly Builds' - v0.2.3.0-RC1-Archiv.

Is this where I get the SVN?

It appears that I would need to then upgrade to MediaPortal 0.2.3.0 RC1 correct?

Do I just run the installer for MediaPortal 0.2.3.0 RC1 and choose repair or do I have to uninstall my current version?

 

[jburnette]

Hi - I am totally new to HTPC software so I hope that this does not sound like a dumb question. I have installed MP 2.2 and everything works great. I wanted to use Patrick's plugin for schedule direct so I downloaded it and unzipped as instructed. When I go to config I get an error, which I am supposing is because I may not have the latest SVN.

Since I have no clue what an SVN is and I did not install one (I just ran the regular MP installer) I searched the wiki and found a page that lists MediaPortal 'Nightly Builds' - v0.2.3.0-RC1-Archiv.

Is this where I get the SVN?

It appears that I would need to then upgrade to MediaPortal 0.2.3.0 RC1 correct?

Do I just run the installer for MediaPortal 0.2.3.0 RC1 and choose repair or do I have to uninstall my current version?

I'm pretty sure you have to uninstall your current copy. However, when you uninstall it leaves your databases, etc. in tact so that when you reinstall the new copy you won't have to reconfigure everything.