setup webEPG for OTA HD in USA (1 Viewer)

[Big_Z]

TV-Server Version:
MediaPortal Version: 1.0.0.0 RC4
MediaPortal Skin: default
Windows Version: XP SP3
CPU Type: X2 5000
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1. TV Card Type: hybrid
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3. TV Card:
3. TV Card Type:
3. TV Card Driver:
4. TV Card:
4. TV Card Type:
4. TV Card Driver:
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h.264 Video Codec:
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TV - HTPC Connection:


Hi all. New to MediaPortal and HTPCs in general. I'm trying to config EPG to get channel info for OTA digital stations. I followed directions for webEPG and added channels and set it to look at tv.yahoo.com but its not pulling any data and its not making the xmltv file. The webepg.log file says its is not finding any listings and when I copy the address from the log and paste into browser it shows a blank page. Did yahoo change something and the grabber isn't working?

I did a forum search and found a thread about some dutch guys having the similar problems but it was becuase the dutch website changed something and the grabber broke.

can some help me out? is there a better way to get USA antenna EPG data?

Thanks!

Aaron



EPG LOG DATA:

2008-12-16 21:30:15.656250 [Info.][1]: WebEPG: Starting
2008-12-16 21:30:15.656250 [Info.][WebEPG-xmltv]: WebEPG: Using directories
2008-12-16 21:30:15.656250 [Info.][WebEPG-xmltv]:  WebEPG - C:\Program Files\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal
2008-12-16 21:30:15.656250 [Info.][WebEPG-xmltv]:  xmltv  - C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal\xmltv\
2008-12-16 21:30:15.656250 [Info.][WebEPG-xmltv]: Assembly versions:
2008-12-16 21:30:15.656250 [Info.][WebEPG-xmltv]: WebEPG 3.0.2.20955
2008-12-16 21:30:15.656250 [Info.][WebEPG-xmltv]: Utils 2.2.6.31343
2008-12-16 21:30:15.671875 [Info.][WebEPG-xmltv]: Loading Config File: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal\WebEPG\WebEPG.xml
2008-12-16 21:30:15.890625 [Info.][WebEPG-xmltv]: WebEPG: Loading Channel Config
2008-12-16 21:30:15.890625 [Debug][WebEPG-xmltv]:  Loading Channel WYZZ-DT ID: WDRB@fox.com
2008-12-16 21:30:15.890625 [Debug][WebEPG-xmltv]:  Loading Channel WHOI-DT ID: Central@abc.com
2008-12-16 21:30:15.890625 [Debug][WebEPG-xmltv]:  Loading Channel The CW ID: Central@upn.com
2008-12-16 21:30:15.890625 [Debug][WebEPG-xmltv]:  Loading Channel WEEK-HD ID: Central@nbc.com
2008-12-16 21:30:15.890625 [Warn.][WebEPG-xmltv]:  Ignoring Channel Name: WEEK-SD - No Grabber id
2008-12-16 21:30:15.890625 [Info.][WebEPG-xmltv]: WebEPG: Getting Channel ID: WDRB@fox.com
2008-12-16 21:30:15.890625 [Info.][WebEPG-xmltv]:         [1 of 4]
2008-12-16 21:30:15.890625 [Info.][WebEPG-xmltv]: WebEPG: Opening US\tv_yahoo_com.xml
2008-12-16 21:30:16.125000 [Info.][WebEPG-xmltv]: WebEPG: Version: 2.0
2008-12-16 21:30:16.125000 [Info.][WebEPG-xmltv]: WebEPG: TimeZone, Local: Central Standard Time
2008-12-16 21:30:16.125000 [Info.][WebEPG-xmltv]: WebEPG: No site TimeZone, using Local: Central Standard Time
2008-12-16 21:30:16.156250 [Info.][WebEPG-xmltv]: WebEPG: ChannelId: WDRB@fox.com
2008-12-16 21:30:16.156250 [Debug][WebEPG-xmltv]: WebEPG: Grab Start 9:30 PM 12/16/2008
2008-12-16 21:30:16.187500 [Info.][WebEPG-xmltv]: WebEPG: Reading http://tv.yahoo.com/tvpdb?d=tvs&id=166031108&channels=us_WDRB&lineup=us_KY16673&.intl=us&startdate=1229434216 POST: 
2008-12-16 21:30:16.531250 [Info.][WebEPG-xmltv]: WebEPG: No Listings Found
2008-12-16 21:30:16.531250 [Info.][WebEPG-xmltv]: WebEPG: ChannelId: WDRB@fox.com grabber error
2008-12-16 21:30:16.531250 [Info.][WebEPG-xmltv]: WebEPG: Writing Channel to XMLTV: WYZZ-DT
2008-12-16 21:30:16.531250 [Info.][WebEPG-xmltv]: WebEPG: Getting Channel ID: Central@abc.com
2008-12-16 21:30:16.531250 [Info.][WebEPG-xmltv]:         [2 of 4]
2008-12-16 21:30:16.531250 [Info.][WebEPG-xmltv]: WebEPG: ChannelId: Central@abc.com
2008-12-16 21:30:16.531250 [Debug][WebEPG-xmltv]: WebEPG: Grab Start 9:30 PM 12/16/2008
2008-12-16 21:30:16.531250 [Info.][WebEPG-xmltv]: WebEPG: Reading http://tv.yahoo.com/tvpdb?d=tvs&id=166034666&channels=us_ABCC&lineup=us_Central&.intl=us&startdate=1229434216 POST: 
2008-12-16 21:30:16.859375 [Info.][WebEPG-xmltv]: WebEPG: No Listings Found
2008-12-16 21:30:16.859375 [Info.][WebEPG-xmltv]: WebEPG: ChannelId: Central@abc.com grabber error
2008-12-16 21:30:16.859375 [Info.][WebEPG-xmltv]: WebEPG: Writing Channel to XMLTV: WHOI-DT
2008-12-16 21:30:16.859375 [Info.][WebEPG-xmltv]: WebEPG: Getting Channel ID: Central@upn.com
2008-12-16 21:30:16.859375 [Info.][WebEPG-xmltv]:         [3 of 4]
2008-12-16 21:30:16.859375 [Info.][WebEPG-xmltv]: WebEPG: ChannelId: Central@upn.com
2008-12-16 21:30:16.859375 [Debug][WebEPG-xmltv]: WebEPG: Grab Start 9:30 PM 12/16/2008
2008-12-16 21:30:16.859375 [Info.][WebEPG-xmltv]: WebEPG: Reading http://tv.yahoo.com/tvpdb?d=tvs&id=166034694&channels=us_UPNC&lineup=us_Central&.intl=us&startdate=1229434216 POST: 
2008-12-16 21:30:17.171875 [Info.][WebEPG-xmltv]: WebEPG: No Listings Found
2008-12-16 21:30:17.187500 [Info.][WebEPG-xmltv]: WebEPG: ChannelId: Central@upn.com grabber error
2008-12-16 21:30:17.187500 [Info.][WebEPG-xmltv]: WebEPG: Writing Channel to XMLTV: The CW
2008-12-16 21:30:17.187500 [Info.][WebEPG-xmltv]: WebEPG: Getting Channel ID: Central@nbc.com
2008-12-16 21:30:17.187500 [Info.][WebEPG-xmltv]:         [4 of 4]
2008-12-16 21:30:17.187500 [Info.][WebEPG-xmltv]: WebEPG: ChannelId: Central@nbc.com
2008-12-16 21:30:17.187500 [Debug][WebEPG-xmltv]: WebEPG: Grab Start 9:30 PM 12/16/2008
2008-12-16 21:30:17.187500 [Info.][WebEPG-xmltv]: WebEPG: Reading http://tv.yahoo.com/tvpdb?d=tvs&id=166034683&channels=us_NBCC&lineup=us_Central&.intl=us&startdate=1229434217 POST: 
2008-12-16 21:30:17.500000 [Info.][WebEPG-xmltv]: WebEPG: No Listings Found
2008-12-16 21:30:17.500000 [Info.][WebEPG-xmltv]: WebEPG: ChannelId: Central@nbc.com grabber error
2008-12-16 21:30:17.500000 [Info.][WebEPG-xmltv]: WebEPG: Writing Channel to XMLTV: WEEK-HD
2008-12-16 21:30:17.500000 [Info.][WebEPG-xmltv]: HTTP Statistics: Site tv.yahoo.com : Pages 4 : Bytes 292 : Total Time 00:00:01.2812500 : Av. Rate 227.9024 Bps
2008-12-16 21:30:17.500000 [Info.][WebEPG-xmltv]: WebEPG: Finished

 

[Big_Z]

nobody has any ideas? does anyone use webEPG in US? is there a better solution?

 

[Paranoid Delusion]

Hi Big_Z

Due to the lack of anyone in the North American region updating WebEPG, its pretty useless for that part of the world, the only one we know that works is SchedulesDirect, which is not free ($20 per year last i heard).
Just wish we had some American developers, who would have a self interest in seeing if this is now possible to scrap a free epg from any source

 

[Big_Z]

Thanks for the response. I had been doing some searching and found some info about schedules direct last night. I'm going to test that out and see what happens.

 

[tonyscha]

I am from American, and I use Schedule Direct, I used it with Cable, but now I just use it for OTA-HD... Works great, its easier to spend the 20 dollars then to mess around with it.

I feel bad not never helping code on mediaportal since I know C#... I just dont know where to beign

 

[moab]

I use schedules direct plugin. It worked great for my OTA HD (ATSC signal).
I then switched to Comcast Cable TV and I now have some issues with most channels not getting the EPG working.
Oldly enough some channels work. I think my combination of HD and SD channels is confusing the plugin.
Need to do some more testing.

My confession on developing a US webEPG...
I used WebEPG-Designer.exe to build my own grabber for USA.
No programming skills required.
It worked great and parsed the EPG data fine.
However I hit a wall at the last (supposedly easy) step.
I tried to load my custom grabber file into mediaportal but it didn't work.
I wish there was some detailed documentation on webEPG and troubleshooting it.
Once the grabber is created it is trivial to modify it to grab different channels from the source web site.
Perhaps if I have time over xmas I will resolve the last issue and we will have USA EPGs.

 

[mcmanuss8]

I use schedules direct plugin. It worked great for my OTA HD (ATSC signal).
I then switched to Comcast Cable TV and I now have some issues with most channels not getting the EPG working.
Oldly enough some channels work. I think my combination of HD and SD channels is confusing the plugin.
Need to do some more testing.

My confession on developing a US webEPG...
I used WebEPG-Designer.exe to build my own grabber for USA.
No programming skills required.
It worked great and parsed the EPG data fine.
However I hit a wall at the last (supposedly easy) step.
I tried to load my custom grabber file into mediaportal but it didn't work.
I wish there was some detailed documentation on webEPG and troubleshooting it.
Once the grabber is created it is trivial to modify it to grab different channels from the source web site.
Perhaps if I have time over xmas I will resolve the last issue and we will have USA EPGs.

Any luck with this? I'm willing to help to get this fixed - would rather not pay for schedulesdirect since I plan to barely use epg

 

[moab]

I use schedules direct plugin. It worked great for my OTA HD (ATSC signal).
I then switched to Comcast Cable TV and I now have some issues with most channels not getting the EPG working.
Oldly enough some channels work. I think my combination of HD and SD channels is confusing the plugin.
Need to do some more testing.

My confession on developing a US webEPG...
I used WebEPG-Designer.exe to build my own grabber for USA.
No programming skills required.
It worked great and parsed the EPG data fine.
However I hit a wall at the last (supposedly easy) step.
I tried to load my custom grabber file into mediaportal but it didn't work.
I wish there was some detailed documentation on webEPG and troubleshooting it.
Once the grabber is created it is trivial to modify it to grab different channels from the source web site.
Perhaps if I have time over xmas I will resolve the last issue and we will have USA EPGs.

Any luck with this? I'm willing to help to get this fixed - would rather not pay for schedulesdirect since I plan to barely use epg

Have not had a chance yet. :sorry:
I got my big screen wall mounted though .

 

[marcsulf]

WebEPG working for digital OTA stations in United States using IMDB

It took a little configuring, but I got this working on my system.

Here's my grabber file (I called it www_imdb_com_mod.xml):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Grabber>
<Info availableDays="14" timezone="" version="2.0" />
<Channels>
<Channel id="CBS" siteId="KBCIDT" />
<Channel id="PBS 1" siteId="KAIDDT" />
<Channel id="PBS 2" siteId="KAIDDT2" />
<Channel id="PBS 3" siteId="KAIDDT3" />
<Channel id="PBS 4" siteId="KAIDDT4" />
<Channel id="NBC 1" siteId="KTVBDT" />
<Channel id="NBC 2" siteId="KTVBDT2" />
<Channel id="ABC" siteId="KIVIDT" />
<Channel id="CW 1" siteId="KNINDT" />
<Channel id="CW 2" siteId="KNINDT2" />
<Channel id="FOX" siteId="KTRVDT" />
</Channels>
<Listing type="Html">
<Site url="http://www.imdb.com/tvgrid/[YYYY]-[MM]-[DD]/[ID]/?zip=83713&amp;tv_prov=ID11474&amp;start_date=[YYYY]-[MM]-[DD]" post="" external="false" encoding="" />
<Html>
<Template name="default" start="single_station_container" end="">
<SectionTemplate tags="T">
<TemplateText>
&lt;tr class="station_listing"&gt;
&lt;td nowrap="1" align="right" width="60px"&gt;
&lt;a href="/tvgrid/2009-03-17/2336/#NBC"&gt;&lt;#START&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href="/title/tt0305056/"&gt;&lt;#TITLE&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;:&lt;#DESCRIPTION&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt; </TemplateText>
</SectionTemplate>
</Template>
</Html>
</Listing>
</Grabber>


All you need to do to get this working for your own channels is modify the channel names to those used on the IMDB site for your local stations, change the zip code, and change the listing provider. I've highlighted the things to change in red for clarity. Go to the IMDB site and pull up a channel listing manually to get the id number for the listing provider and the IMDB channel names.

After you have your grabber set, just put it in the Mediaportal\WebEPG\Grabbers\US folder, and then use WebEPG-conf.exe as described in the manual.

 

[zaubertuba]

Thanks so much for the file, marcsulf! I've been pulling my hair out trying to edit my own, to no avail.

I plugged your file in (couldn't edit the filename without corrupting the xml file, for some reason, so just copied an existing template and replaced the data). I was able to find the grabber file and map it, but when I ran WebEPG manually (this was the first time it actually created a file for me, so I figure I'm at least off to a good start), the TVGuide.xml file it generated didn't have any program data in it.

I'm just down the road from you in Nampa (fancy that! ), so I figured I just needed to change the zip code, am I correct in thinking that, or am I missing something?

===zaubertuba