XMLTV porblems: timezone, tvguide.xml, etc... (1 Viewer)

[B0SC0]

Synopsis: Enter the details of your problem here:

Prepared system and had everything configured.
Unit sat for a month without a cable connection.
Powered unit up and everything appears to be okay except
TVguide has no data.
Ran MP setup, had to do a manual grab. Everything appeared to download okay.
Guide was an 1 hour ahead of schedule.
My timezone = -0500
It keeps showing timezone -0400 in the dos window.
Played around with offset settings and somehow managed to mess things up.
Timezone in MP RUN GRAB dos window was showing -0400 with an error.
Tried d/l grab many times xmltv tv_grab_na_dd --configure works fine and now displays -0500 as default, however when I run MP 's RUN GRAB I get an error stating that the timezone function is not supported,or something to that effect in a dos window.
Tried deleting xmltv.xml in both directoreis(/XMLTV and .XMLTV)
Did this a couple of times back and forth with the above grab functions.
Deleted tvguide.xml
To see if it would regenerate a new file. Didn't.

What should I do at this point?

Restore tvguide.xml file and how?
Restore timezone to -0500 and how?

Thanks

B0SC0



Area: Media Portal Program / Media Portal Documentation / Media Portal Skin / Plugins / Other
MP Version: R3
Skin: DEFAULT
Windows Version: WINXP SP2
CPU Type: INTEL P4 2.3GHZ
Memory: 1 GIG
Motherboard Chipset: MSI 865PE
Video Card: NVIDIA GEFORCE FX5200
Video Card Driver: NVIDIA 5.6.73
Video Card Resolution: 1024X768
Video Render Type: VMR9
Video Codec Type & Version: video codec you used for testing
Audio Codec Type & Version: audio codec you used for testing
TV Card: PCI,HAUPPAUGE PVR500MCE
TV Card Type: hardware
TV Card Driver: 2.0.35.23348
Optional Log: parts of the "/log/MediaPortal.log" which show an issue
Optional References: any reference

 

[DocGolden]

Anyone have thoughts on this? I'm having almost the exact same problem. Only difference is that I'm in the Central US timezone (-0600). When I run grabber from setup AND when I run xmltv commend from dos, I get 'local timezone is -0500', but the data in the EPG is a mess - it's off by several hours. It's so bad that I can't figure out how far off it is.

 

[James]

Sorry I cannot help you much. If you cannot figure out the difference the only way is by trial and error. Change the offset in MP by +/- 1 hours and see what happens. Do this a few times until the time matches up correctly.

 

[DocGolden]

That's the method I've been trying. Could there be an error in xmtv that has it changing the time offset that is in the .conf file?

Also, can you explain the offset fields in Setup? There are 2 fields, is the first hours, and the second minutes (or similar). Or is the first field positive offset, and the second field for negative offset?

Thanks!

 

[B0SC0]

DocGolden,

I got mine working.

Are you entering in this format?
-XX XX
OR
+XX XX

example; +05 00 to move forward 5 hours

Also check the box allowing for the offset.

I was able to get mine working with this method.
Just look at a program in the tvguide and see what time it shows. and then check the actual time the prgram starts. Adjust either pos or neg to get the correct setting.

I was making the mistake of entering the offset in this format.

XX -50

OR

XX +50

or something like that.

Hope this helps.

B0SC0

 

[DocGolden]

OK - I finally got it figured out... As an aside, someone ought to document these issues & put them in the wiki (Television setup has nothing created). For someone new to MP, this is an absolutely dreadful process that will scare off those who have no programming/debugging experience...

I found some interesting things:
- it seems that there's some strange bug in xmltv-0.5.43. It kept reporting errors about expecting a bit instead of 'Black & White'. This was a bit of a red-herring. I reverted to xmltv-0.5.42a and this actually explained a lot more.
- xmltv-0.5.42a revealed to me part of the issue I was seeing about my timezone (Central US -0600) reading as -0500. We're on Daylight savings time, so it's trying to help me out by stating the time as -0500. I finally understood what was happing b/c I noticed the offset notes which stated:
-0500 Eastern Standard or Central Daylight
-0600 Central Standard or Mountain Daylight
:shock: Guess I'd looked at it so many times that I never saw what was wrong.

So, the upside: I've got valid EPG data . The downside(s): It took way more effort than one would hope for a component that's so key to having a working PVR and each spring & fall I have to readjust my offset values from -0500 to -0600 depending upon the time of year (couldn't this be updated to work more like Windows auto-adustment?)

Hopefully this helps someone else.

BOSCO, your notes about the time entry for the Program Guide Setup fields ('Compensate time zone with:') actually did help clarify things for me. I was putting in the correct offset & thought had a formatting issue when you used -XX XX. Turns out this wasn't a major problem since it went back to -5 0 when I hit ok. Thanks for the assist!

 

[kevon27]

OK - I finally got it figured out... As an aside, someone ought to document these issues & put them in the wiki (Television setup has nothing created). For someone new to MP, this is an absolutely dreadful process that will scare off those who have no programming/debugging experience...

I found some interesting things:
- it seems that there's some strange bug in xmltv-0.5.43. It kept reporting errors about expecting a bit instead of 'Black & White'. This was a bit of a red-herring. I reverted to xmltv-0.5.42a and this actually explained a lot more.
- xmltv-0.5.42a revealed to me part of the issue I was seeing about my timezone (Central US -0600) reading as -0500. We're on Daylight savings time, so it's trying to help me out by stating the time as -0500. I finally understood what was happing b/c I noticed the offset notes which stated:
-0500 Eastern Standard or Central Daylight
-0600 Central Standard or Mountain Daylight
:shock: Guess I'd looked at it so many times that I never saw what was wrong.

So, the upside: I've got valid EPG data . The downside(s): It took way more effort than one would hope for a component that's so key to having a working PVR and each spring & fall I have to readjust my offset values from -0500 to -0600 depending upon the time of year (couldn't this be updated to work more like Windows auto-adustment?)

Hopefully this helps someone else.

BOSCO, your notes about the time entry for the Program Guide Setup fields ('Compensate time zone with:') actually did help clarify things for me. I was putting in the correct offset & thought had a formatting issue when you used -XX XX. Turns out this wasn't a major problem since it went back to -5 0 when I hit ok. Thanks for the assist!

Okay... So what did you do correctly again to fix the problem????
I'm kinda Slllllloooow.. Need more input.. Please show and tell. I'm getting really pissed off at MP. They keep creating daily builds, New test releases, but can't build in a working program guide. If the other htpc frontend software (sage, myth) can do it why can't MP.. If ya don't know how to program it in from scratch.. RIP OFF THE FREAKING CODE from the other guys. I'm am so sorry I spent money on the TV card, because everthing else works pretty well (my video, radio, Trailers). It's the TV part this is still amature. I can't even let other people use the HTPC because it is still not working right to record, or just to see a proper program guide.
Sorry for ranting. I guess I have to attually donate money to have something done right.

 

[mzemina]

OK - I finally got it figured out... As an aside, someone ought to document these issues & put them in the wiki (Television setup has nothing created). For someone new to MP, this is an absolutely dreadful process that will scare off those who have no programming/debugging experience...

DocGolden - Why can't you be that person who updates the wiki? Someone new is the best person to provide documentation! If you like MediaPortal (and I assume you can't program) you can help MP by providing like your nickname leads us to believe - that you are like gold in documenting? Even something is better than nothing, give it a shot then maybe that will help others to document more!

 

[DocGolden]

Okay... So what did you do correctly again to fix the problem????
I'm kinda Slllllloooow.. Need more input.. Please show and tell. I'm getting really pissed off at MP. They keep creating daily builds, New test releases, but can't build in a working program guide. If the other htpc frontend software (sage, myth) can do it why can't MP.. If ya don't know how to program it in from scratch.. RIP OFF THE FREAKING CODE from the other guys. I'm am so sorry I spent money on the TV card, because everthing else works pretty well (my video, radio, Trailers). It's the TV part this is still amature. I can't even let other people use the HTPC because it is still not working right to record, or just to see a proper program guide.
Sorry for ranting. I guess I have to attually donate money to have something done right.

kevon27 - Hopefully this will help some:
Make sure you're following the steps outlined here: https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/viewtopic.php?p=71708

- Steps under ** Registering for your listings using Zap2it ** are all fine.
- Under ** Media Portal Configuration ** run steps 1-3. I moved back from the latest version of xmltv to xmltv-0.5.42a (this is the 2nd most recent release)
- Jump to ** Manual xmltv --configure ** . Running Step 1 here will allow you to see what you're configuring most accurately.
When prompted for your timezone offset enter +0000. MediaPotal will make the timezone adjustment for us once we change the setup page. NOTE: tv_grab_dd_na should be tv_grab_na_dd (as pointed out by ASiDiE later in the post)
- copy the file tv_grab_na_dd in the \xmltv\.xmltv folder up one level to \xmltv (this is then where MP's Run Grabber uses the file from
- To make sure you're getting data from Zap2it, you can run: xmltv tv_grab_na_dd from the command line.
- Switch to MP's Setup > Television > Program Guide
- Make sure the "Use time zone information from XMLTV file" box is checked.
- Set "Compensate time zone" for your time zone (this is where things can get tripped up very easily). Since we've set the offset in the xml file to +0000 already, we can now have MP import w/ the correct offset. Please note that in North American when we're on Daylight Savings Time, this does change the offset. So for example, I'm in the Central timezone which is normally -06 00. BUT since we're on Daylight Savings Time, I actually will enter -05 00 (note the usage of a space here to denote the 2 fields on the MP setup form).
- If you've previously attempted an import of EPG data, I'd recommend using the button @ the bottom of the setup page (sorry, can't remember the exact wording as I'm doing this from memory & don't have MP in front of me) which clears the EPG database. Then you're in a clean state.
- Now run step 6 from ** Media Portal Configuration **.

Once this completes, you should have data imported into your EPG which is valid...

Rather than use the built in Scheduler add routine on the Setup page, I'm going to be putting in a batch file which will run nightly. It's mentioned in step 3 here: https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/viewtopic.php?t=313. I'm going w/ 13 days (which I think I read was the limit from Zap2it) rather than 7.

Thanks!

 

[mzemina]

DocGolden - Why not update the wiki :?: