Zap2it free TV listings XML is no more. (4 Viewers)

pfilippone · April 2, 2025

NOT A MEDIAPORTAL ISSUE.

Using MediaPortal1, Kodi for TV viewing. Today I noticed the TV Guide in Kodi stopped updating. A Google search, and I discover Zap2it (the free source for TV guide EPG in XML format) stopped their service. Does anybody out there know of a free replacement? I am aware of XMLTVListings and Schedules Direct (both are available for a fee). THANKS

EDIT: After more searching, it appears the service is not dead, they just changed the URL to https://tvlistings.gracenote.com/
Got this tidbit from the Kodi forum. Unfortunately, I'm using mc2xml program, and it doesn't seem to have a way of changing the URL.
Anybody familiar with zap2xml? Looks like I may need to switch to this, as it apparently is still working (once you change the URL in the config).

EDIT#2: After yet more searching, it seems the zap2xml and mc2xml programs are hardcoded to use tvlistings.zap2it.com . One workaround I found out there is to trick these programs into using the new URL via a clever method: the Windows host file. Add 54.148.50.239 tvlistings.zap2it.com to the end of the file. I just tried it and it works. The proper way would be to get the perl scripts and fix it in there. I'll just wait until this breaks again to look into it. Hopefully it will last a while.

Clearly_Lost · April 2, 2025

Worked a charm! Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!

shazeldine · April 3, 2025

Can you be more specific about how to use the Windows host file to change zap2xml to login with the new web address.

mrceolla · April 3, 2025

@pfilippone , you, sir, are a genius! Thank you!

@shazeldine

Here's what I did:

1) Open Notepad as Administrator (so you have permissions to open/save this file)
2) From Notepad, File -> Open, navigate to: C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc
3) Change file type to "All files" so you can see the files in this directory
4) Open the file called "hosts" (no extension)
5) Paste the following at the bottom of the file: 54.148.50.239 tvlistings.zap2it.com
6) Save the file

That should be it. Note, you may need to enable the viewing of these system files if you can't already see them. I believe you uncheck something that starts with "Hide..." in File Explorer view options.

NRivera637 · April 3, 2025

Frigging Genius. I was in a panic already. Hope this holds or that someone (smarter than me) updates the zap2xml.pl file. I tried changing the Zap2it references to gracenote but that ain't work too good. Not at all actually. So thank you for expressing those genius neurons.

Noise672 · April 4, 2025

All was good up to March 25th.

I am still in a panic. Adding 54.148.50.239 tvlistings.zap2it.com to the end of host file does not work for me...

# localhost name resolution is handled within DNS itself.
# 127.0.0.1 localhost
# ::1 localhost
54.148.50.239 tvlistings.zap2it.com

Running:
PS C:\ProgramData\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal TV Server\xmltv> .\zap2xml -u noise672@outlook.com -p password
I get error:

Logging in as "noise672@outlook.com" (Fri Apr 4 13:16:38 2025)
[Attempt 1] <html>
<head><title>403 Forbidden</title></head>
<body>
<center><h1>403 Forbidden</h1></center>
</body>
</html>

Failed to login within 3 retries.

Please help.
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.

EDIT: ping tvlistings.zap2it.com
Envoi d’une requête 'ping' sur tvlistings.zap2it.com [54.148.50.239] avec 32 octets de données :
Délai d’attente de la demande dépassé.
Délai d’attente de la demande dépassé.
Délai d’attente de la demande dépassé.
Délai d’attente de la demande dépassé.

Statistiques Ping pour 54.148.50.239:
Paquets : envoyés = 4, reçus = 0, perdus = 4 (perte 100%)

pfilippone · April 4, 2025

Looks like it's not working (again).

I can get the TV listings on the web page TV Listings- Find Local TV Listings and Watch Full Episodes

But not working to get XML.. It could mean the end of Zap2it for good. I'm researching the web for a fix. Also researching other FREE TV guides in XML format.

pfilippone · April 4, 2025

I think I found a workable and FREE solution. EPGSHARE01 is a site that seems to provide FREE EPGs for lots of countries.
I wrote a batch file that downloads the USA EPG file (yes, one file for the WHOLE USA). It comes as a compressed .gz file. The batch file extracts the gz file (you need to get gzip. Just Google it). Then I had to (just the one time) remap the channels in TV Server > plugins > XmlTv (Oh what fun!), since the channel names are not the same as what Zap2It used to have. Oh, and update the task scheduler to run the batch file instead of the mc2xml/zap2it file.

EDIT: I couldn't get this method to work. So I went back to the windows host file trick, except using IP=52.27.89.57 . I confirm that works.
Who knows how long this will last??

mrceolla · April 5, 2025

Someone claims the IP changed and that this one works:

52.27.89.57

I haven't tried it yet myself.

mrceolla · April 5, 2025

Yup, 52.27.89.57 works for me now.

Zap2it free TV listings XML is no more. (4 Viewers)

pfilippone

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Clearly_Lost

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shazeldine

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mrceolla

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NRivera637

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Noise672

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pfilippone

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pfilippone

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mrceolla

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mrceolla

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