Time zones in xmltv (1 Viewer)

mj_wood

New Member
November 6, 2005
3
0
Brussels
I live in Belgium and mainly watch British and Flemish television.
I run tv_grab_uk_rt and tv_grab_be to produce 2 xml files for the channels that I watch, which I then merge. Obviously those listings that were grabbed by tv_grab_uk_rt use GMT times and those grabbed using tv_grab_be use CET.

The problem I have is that Media Portal treats the +0100 time zone information in the xmltv file as being a time offset - therefore it adds another hour onto the time listed.
This means that all my Belgian channels display the wrong time in Media Portal but work with other programmes.

Is there any way around this other than importing the 2 xml files in tvxb, adding a "special=utctime" command to the header of the ini filea and exporting a singl file from tvxb?
 

Marcusb

Retired Team Member
  • Premium Supporter
  • February 16, 2005
    1,995
    29
    Melbourne
    mj_wood said:
    Is there any way around this other than importing the 2 xml files in tvxb, adding a "special=utctime" command to the header of the ini filea and exporting a singl file from tvxb?

    Sorry, that's exactly what I was about to suggest. Hopefully someone else will come along with a better suggestion...
     

    DaveInUK

    Portal Member
    November 5, 2005
    20
    0
    Well, apart from Europe adopting something Bristsh for once (only kidding), I dont thing so.

    Logic suggests that if you are importing something which asks for a time zone and then you do it again with another time zone, any 'manual' merging will be at your cost! So, how about polling your MP to suggest adopting British Time (well maybe not); so in the meantime I guess there will need to be some manual intervention in the process.

    I guess you could write a script that; grabbed the UK listngs; put the clock back an hour; and, then grabbed the Belgium listing - might work?

    Dave
     

    mj_wood

    New Member
    November 6, 2005
    3
    0
    Brussels
    DaveInUK said:
    Logic suggests that if you are importing something which asks for a time zone and then you do it again with another time zone, any 'manual' merging will be at your cost!
    The problem isn't with the xml file, which contains all the necessary time zone information. The problem is that Media Portal does not read that information properly. The same xml file works fine with other applications.
     

    billd

    Portal Member
    December 9, 2004
    11
    0
    Hong Kong
    Convert to UTC time

    If you add the following item to the top section of the TVxb.ini file, it will convert all times to UTC. Medial Portal will then process the timezones correctly.

    special=utctime
     

    billd

    Portal Member
    December 9, 2004
    11
    0
    Hong Kong
    Correction to my earlier comment

    I should have read the original post more carefully. The present TVxb release can't help with this problem. It can change the timezone of program data it scrapes itself. However it cannot change the timezone for data imported from an external sources.

    Actually all TVxb does with imported data is make sure the character-encoding is correct and then merge that with its own data. I have been thinking about parsing and modifying the imported data - however there are several other requests ahead in the queue at this time.
     

    James

    Retired Team Member
  • Premium Supporter
  • May 6, 2005
    1,385
    67
    Switzerland
    Hi Guys,

    I've just added TimeZone support to WebEPG. It will now convert the times on a site by site basis into the local time zone.

    You can test it out in the latest CVS builds.

    Cheers,

    /James
     

    Joce

    Portal Pro
    November 10, 2005
    72
    0
    Lagny sur Marne
    Home Country
    France France
    Hi James
    Does it work for the information shown on the TVGuide page of MP ?
    I actually use the 0.1.3.0 version of MP. How can I benefit from your update ?
     

    James

    Retired Team Member
  • Premium Supporter
  • May 6, 2005
    1,385
    67
    Switzerland
    Hi Joce,

    Yes it works with the information shown in TVguide. It is for those users getting guide information from a different country/timezone as their own.

    To try it out you can download a CVS built. All new versions of WebEPG now require .NET 2.0.

    The file structure is a little changed so if you dont want to use the CVS build and just want to try WebEPG you can run it from the root directory of the CVS build.

    If you want to copy it somewhere else without all the other CVS files then:

    copy the following:

    Files: webepg.exe, webepg.dll, utils.dll, databases.dll, core.dll nd sqlite.dll
    Directories: WebEPG, xmltv, databases

    into a new folder. If you want to try the new database lookup feature then copy your tv database into the above mentioned databases directory each time before running webepg.

    Hope this helps and is not too complex.

    Cheers,

    /James
     

    Users who are viewing this thread

    Top Bottom