SchedulesDirect - Major changes - November 1st (1 Viewer)

[CanadianEh]

Good afternoon,

I happened to log into the SchedulesDirect website today, and it appears that they are revamping their service beginning November 1st, and from the sounds of it, the SchedulesDirect plugin needs to be updated to continue to work past November 1st.

Is anyone actively supporting this plugin, and aware of this? This will likely cause an issue for the vast majority of USA/Canada users of MediaPortal.[DOUBLEPOST=1413398595][/DOUBLEPOST]Adding link: www.schedulesdirect.org

September 11th 2014

Major Service Change coming to Schedules Direct
We have been informed that our data source: Gracenote (formerly Tribune Media Services) will be ending the guide data service currently used by most SD members. Their plan is to end support for this service on November 1, 2014.

Thankfully there is no need to panic, as Schedules Direct was already hard at work implementing a more modern JSON-based service using newer/better data feeds from TMS, as well as a service similar to the current method.

If you are an application developer, please come up with a plan for your users. If you are an end user, please be give your developers time to develop a plan.

For more details and dicussion please check out the THREAD IN OUR FORUM

 

[breese]

There has been a lot of talk about this...
https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/...pdated-august-2010.26951/page-87#post-1104315

As for complete support... I think geoffstewart would not mind some other (or up and coming) dev looked into it...
Would be a great benefit to MP is someone took this over...

 

[mm1352000]

Hi guys

This will likely cause an issue for the vast majority of USA/Canada users of MediaPortal.

Have you actually checked that assumption?
Reports so far are that the replacement service works fine:
https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/...pdated-august-2010.26951/page-88#post-1104316

The people that I'd expect would have an issue are the people outside the US and Canada for which the replacement service won't work.

Regards,
mm

 

[CanadianEh]

Oh nice... thanks guys. I tried searching the forums for mention of this today, and somehow did not find that thread. Glad to see others are already testing this out.

Thanks for the link again, mm. lol

 

[mm1352000]

No problem.
My advice would be to try the replacement service too, because I have my doubts that anybody will have time to code and test an updated plugin in the two weeks that remain before the TMS service is discontinued. If there are issues then I'd report them directly to SD.

 

[Pierre Isabelle]

Hello,

I am sort of a Newbie to Mediaportal. I have been using MP TV service successfully for a few months, using the Schedules Direct EPG client plugin, and updating the EPG with the PowerScheduler firing an mc2xml batch file that reads as follows:

c:
cd \ProgramData\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal TV Server\xmltv
mc2xml.exe -T "myusername:mypasswd" -o tvguide.xml

It was working fine until a few days ago. I tried to understand the discussions in the current thread and that led me to modify the c:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts so as to add the following line:

54.85.117.227 docs.tms.tribune.com webservices.schedulesdirect.tmsdatadirect.com

Unfortunately, when I run my mc2xml batch file I am still getting the same error message as before:

C:\ProgramData\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal TV Server\xmltv>mc2xml.exe -T <myname:mypasswd> -o tvguide.xml
Loading ..... : mc2xml (c) <mc2xml@gmail.com> (v1.2)
Reminder .... : Unauthorized redistribution prohibited.
Reminder .... : If this software is useful, please donate!
Reading ..... : mc2xml.dat
Downloading . : tmsdatadirect.com
Error ....... : Invalid username or password

Can anyone please help me with this?

Thanks in advance,

Pierre

 

[RonD]

not really sure whats going on, I did not know/remember mc2xml had SD option

if I use the recommended IP=54.85.117.227 mc2xml, I get the same error
Loading ..... : mc2xml (c) <mc2xml@gmail.com> (v1.2)
Reminder .... : Unauthorized redistribution prohibited.
Reminder .... : If this software is useful, please donate!
Reading ..... : mc2xml.dat
Downloading . : tmsdatadirect.com
Error ....... : Invalid username or password

if I use the older IP=144.142.232.53 mc2xml runs/downloads, get 7 days of listings I think
Loading ..... : mc2xml (c) <mc2xml@gmail.com> (v1.2)
Reminder .... : Unauthorized redistribution prohibited.
Reminder .... : If this software is useful, please donate!
Win32 setup . : Use dialog for initial configuration.
Downloading . : tmsdatadirect.com
Downloaded .. : 512051 bytes in 25s
Source ...... : TMSDataDirect
Start time .. : 2014-11-12T02:00:01Z UTC
End time .... : 2014-11-19T02:00:01Z UTC
Parsing ..... : Local Broadcast Listings Antenna
Writing ..... : xmltv.xml
Writing ..... : mc2xml.dat
Completed ... : 11931392 bytes in 33s, 133 channels, 17822 programs scheduled.

in the sd forums, 3rd page, Oct 18, there are comments about mc2xml problems, failing at password
http://forums.schedulesdirect.org/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=2599&p=7899&hilit=mc2xml#p7899

I think you may need to use the MePo ScheduleDirect plugin with IP=54.85.117.227, or maybe contact the mc2xml guy to see if he has any ideas.

Make sure you use SetupTV.exe to export your old channels/groups, scheduled recordings, etc in case you have trouble getting SD plugin to run. When I was setting up the SD plugin, I had to delete all channels, import channels etc, when I ran into setup problems.

 

[Pierre Isabelle]

Hello Ron,

Many thanks for your response.

UnfortunateIy, at the moment I am very confused about the different ways of getting EPG data using different plugins. In my current setup I am using the following things:

1) the "Schedules Direct EPG client" plugin in MP TV server configuration. I entered my credentials in the "configuration" tab of that plugin. In your message you appear to be saying that I should changed the IP address used by that plugin. However, I do not see any place where I can do that in the plugin configuration pages.

2) I am using the PowerScheduler plugin to fire the mcxml.bat file that I listed in my previous message every night.

Is there in principle any redundancy in the above two setups? In any event, at the moment none of this is working.

What is the best way for me to get regular EPG updates from Schedules Direct?

Thanks in advance for any further assistance you may be able to give me,

Pierre

 

[RonD]

My response last night might have misled you. What type of TV setup are you using? Antenna/ATSC? Cable/QAM? Satellite? I have USA antenna/ATSC setup so my comments are based on that option. I assume you've already setup the SD account/webpage with the correct listing options/channels you want to use. This wiki link has a some more SD setup info.
https://code.google.com/p/mp-schedulesdirect/wiki/GeneralConfigWiki

For SD-plugin you need to use the etc\hosts IP fix you used for SD/mc2xml
54.85.117.227 docs.tms.tribune.com webservices.schedulesdirect.tmsdatadirect.com

as I commented before, you should use SetupTV.exe to export your old channels/groups, scheduled recordings, etc

Disable the xmltv plugin, enable SD plugin, to make sure only SD is active.

To get started, you might want to limit days=3 to make download/setup faster, when you are happy with setup you can increase the number the of days and do a full download.

In advanced option (antenna/ATSC), I would disable all "checkboxes" then enable "Force Guide update". To trigger a SD download you need to goto Setuptv > Manual control, press "stop" wait till tvservice is stopped, then press "start". After a few seconds the SD plugin will start downloading, map channels, then download/update listings. The TVService.log will show the status, this will take a few minutes depending on the number of channels/days.

If there are problems upload TVService.log and TVService-Error.log files to give debug info.

 

[Pierre Isabelle]

Hi again,

I am using an ATSC setup too in Canada (using a Homerun double tuner). A few months ago I created an SD account in which I am using two lineups: one located in Ottawa (Canada) and the other one in Norwood (NY), USA. My setup was working fine until the recent changes at SD.

I just tried following your instructions:

- my etc/hosts file is as instructed;

- I disabled the xmltv and WebEPG plugins so that only the Schedules Direct EPG client plugin is active;

- That plugin is configured as you instructed: my username and passwd are OK, and nothing is selected in the advanced options except the “Force full guide update”; I tried twice checking the latter and then stopping and retarting the TV service manually.

Unfortunately, I still do not see any listings in my Mediaportal TV client.

I guessI should now upload my log files. How am I supposed to do that? Can I simply attach them in an e-mail reply to your posts?

Thanks a lot,

Pierre