Zap2It Stopping Service (1 Viewer)

[jburnette]

I'm not sure if anyone noticed this yet or not but it appears that zap2it will no longer be available to those of us who use it.

From their website:

For several years we have offered a free TV listings service to hobbyists for their own personal, noncommercial use. In October of 2004 we posted here an open letter saying the future of Zap2it Labs was at risk because of certain growing misuses of the Zap2it Labs data. Unfortunately this misuse has continued and grown. These misuses, combined with other business factors have led to the decision to discontinue Zap2it Labs effective September 1, 2007.

 

[lumpy]

So anyone have an alternative source for US guide data? is the XMLTV guys already working on scraping websites again?

 

[djshawnee]

damn... that sucks.

actually, my zap2it stopped working when i switched to 0.2.3.0 RC1. it was working fine with 0.2.2.1. has anyone else had this problem? as of right now, when the plugin is enabled, mediaportal just freezes, and have to force a quit. has anyone else had this problem? is there a new version of the zap2it plugin that i am not aware of?

yes, and what is the alternative to zap2it now for the US?

 

[patrick]

damn... that sucks.

actually, my zap2it stopped working when i switched to 0.2.3.0 RC1. it was working fine with 0.2.2.1. has anyone else had this problem? as of right now, when the plugin is enabled, mediaportal just freezes, and have to force a quit. has anyone else had this problem? is there a new version of the zap2it plugin that i am not aware of?

MP stand alone or with the TVServer?

patrick

 

[tonyscha]

This sucks, Now I Wonder if someone else will be offering a similar service? Will mediaportal be effected?

 

[ZetaVu]

Several threads are covering this, looks like it will die off, I am wondering if they consider products like mythtv and media portal as commercial products? I wonder if there is a way for the myth and MP admins to contact zap2it and set up a joint linking arrangement, let individual users have access for cross-credit or restricted by program or something? Otherwise, the various free (and paid) htpc groups should set up a shared source for US/Canada and run it off donations. If all the groups link to it through a common portal, requiring ads when needed for donations (I'm thinking public television, or sending through ads from sponsors) then they should be able to support themselves without too much issues.

 

[shred444]

damn... that sucks.

actually, my zap2it stopped working when i switched to 0.2.3.0 RC1. it was working fine with 0.2.2.1. has anyone else had this problem? as of right now, when the plugin is enabled, mediaportal just freezes, and have to force a quit. has anyone else had this problem? is there a new version of the zap2it plugin that i am not aware of?

yes, and what is the alternative to zap2it now for the US?

I am having the exact same problem. Any luck getting it to work?

 

[Topher5000]

I haven't had freezing, but I don't get any guide data with 0.2.3.0 & TV2. If I start MP Setup & try to config the Zap2it plugin, I get an Unhandled Exception error.
I have to re-install SQL Server & TV3, so I don't know about that.
Maybe this should be discussed in a seperate thread in a support forum?

 

[patrick]

I don't want to hijack this thread but the ones having problems with RC1 and TV2
have you tried Zap2It-Plugin-v1.8a-(MP SVN).zip from here:
https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/original_thread_us_canadian_mexico_epg_zap2it-t8278.html



HTH,
patrick

 

[vort]

Over on the GB PVR forums, some users have created some alternative programs to get EPG data from Yahoo. It looks like the programs obtain the data, parse it into an XMLTV file. If MP can read this file, this could successfully replace Zap2it when it goes down?