XMLTV Importer For Beyond TV 3.4

[ctebo]

In order to use XMLTV imported program guide data with BeyondTV 3.4, you must upgrade to version 1.16 or higher of the PVS XML Importer.

Installation Instructions for the Importer Follow:
-------------------------------------------------------------
Getting Snapstream Setup
---------------------------------
1. Install or Upgrade your BeyondTV installation with 3.4 version.

2. Run the Snapstream Setup Wizard if this was a fresh install.

3. Start Beyond TV.

4. Go to the web-admin and disable automatic guide updates (Configure – Snapstream.Net Settings – Allow Automatic Updates - Disabled). Save your changes.

5. Stop Beyond TV. Exit the full screen UI AND exit the the tray icon app.

6. Go to C:/Documents & Settings/All Users/Application Data/Snapstream/Beyond TV/ and delete LineupCollection.xml

7. Re-run the Snapstream Setup Wizard



Getting the XMLTV Importer Setup
-------------------------------------------
1. Download the v1.16 installer (or later). http://pvsxmlimport.sourceforge.net

2. Run the installer. If you are upgrading v1.14 or later, your configuration data will be saved.

3. Run the importer configuration (Start Menu | All Programs | PVS XML Import | Configure PVS XML Import). If you don’t already have a config.ini in that directory from a previous version, then the importer will take you to the configuration page. Remember that with the new version, the Beyond TV database is now in: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\ Snapstream\Beyond TV

5. While still running the configuration app, select Clear EPG Database, select “yes” to clear channel data. This step might take a minute. Wait for the “Done” dialog to come up.

6. While still running the configuration app, select Edit Channel Lineup (note that this requires you to have a current xmltv file).

7. Provide the station numbers for the channels identified. And select done.

8. Exit the configuration app.

9. Run the importer against a current xmltv file. (Start Menu | All Programs | PVS XML Import | Configure PVS XML Import)

10. Start BeyondTV and your guide data should be all set.

Note: A very small number of users in the beta program had an issue with the importer producing a runtime error 6 when processing started. A pre-release build of the 1.17 importer corrected this problem for those users experiencing the issue. I will be releasing 1.17 of the importer in the next day or so, so that those of you experiencing this issue can get your EPG data corrected.

Chris

[ctebo]

Having installed the release version of 3.4 and tested with the importer, it seems that someting has changed between the last 3.4 beta and the release version of 3.4. This is causing issues with the channel lineup on my installation. This is causing the EPG to display unavailable for all my shows.

I will continue looking into it, and report back here with a new build/workaround when I get this figured out.

Chris

[ctebo]

The XMLTV importer (v1.16 and above) does work with the 3.4 release version of BTV, but bear the following in mind...

If you make any changes with regard to your video sources using the BTV web-admin, you must do the following to have XMLTV imports successfully populate your EPG.

1) Stop BTV fullscreen and in the task-tray.
2) Delete the LineupCollection.xml file in C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Snapstream\Beyond TV
3) Run the BTV Setup Wizard. This will produce a new LineupCollection.xml file.
4) Run the PVS XML Configuration and edit your channel lineup.
5) Run the PVS XML Import to populate your guide data.
6) Your guide should be up-to-date.

The problem seems to be that making changes to video sources causes the BTV web-admin to create a new channel lineup, and thus foul your import configuration.

Chris

[peter]

ctebo,

Are you aware of any issues with importing xmltv data for 2004? When I try to import programs that start late on 31/12/03 but finish early 01/01/04 the programs don't appear in the epg.

A few progs from my xml src file;

<programme start="20031231235000 +0000" stop="20040101002000 +0000" channel="921.radiotimes.beeb.com">
<title lang="en">Game-Pad 3</title>
<desc lang="en">Violet Berlin presents the computer gaming show featuring in-depth news, reviews, behind-the-scenes features and hardware round-ups. This edition compares the Lord of the Rings games that are based on the book and on the film, and reviews Die Hard and the new NBA game.</desc>
</programme>
<programme start="20031231235000 +0000" stop="20040101010500 +0000" channel="south-east.bbc1.bbc.co.uk">
<title lang="en">Hogmanay Live 2003</title>
<desc lang="en">Monarch of the Glen star Hamish Clark joins Jackie Bird and a whole host of stars for a New Year's Eve celebration live from Scotland. Musical treats include Capercaillie, Liberty X and Rosanne Cash - who'll be leading a tribute to her late father, the legendary Johnny Cash. The celebrations culminate with cameras joining the throngs in Edinburgh's Princes Street for a very special rendition of Auld Lang Syne.</desc>
<subtitles type="teletext" />
</programme>
<programme start="20031231235500 +0000" stop="20040101000500 +0000" channel="carlton.com">
<title lang="en">New Year from Big Ben</title>
<desc lang="en">The New Year chimes.</desc>
</programme>


At first glance these look ok to me, but i'm no expert on the xmltv format & xml.


I am downloading another listings file now (as the listings file included no programs which start in 2004 at all). If I see the same issue I'll post the xml listings src file as well.

Thanks
peter

[mangiov]

Hi ctebo,
I have my time zone difference set to -1. When running PVS importer, I get an error "Type Mismatch 13" which probably has to do with the month adjustment for programs starting or ending between midnight and 00.59 AM of January 1st 2004 (i.e. 20040101001500 CET).

Also I have noticed that in ver1.16 there is still no check made for feb 29.

Thanks,

Vinny

[Fred]

Identical problem here! A type mismatch occurred.

The import process log:

[28-12-2003 18:03:34] ---------------------------------------------------------
[28-12-2003 18:03:34] XMLTV to PVS3.0 EPG importer.
[28-12-2003 18:03:34] ---------------------------------------------------------
[28-12-2003 18:03:34] Starting run at 28-12-2003 18:03:34
[28-12-2003 18:03:34] XML filename is: \\Microcat\xmltv\nllist.xml
[28-12-2003 18:03:34] EPG database file is: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\SnapStream\Beyond TV\SS_PVS_DB.mdb
[28-12-2003 18:03:34] Video Library file is: C:\DOCUMENTS AND SETTINGS\ALL USERS\APPLICATION DATA\SNAPSTREAM\BEYOND TV\SlaveStoreCollection.xml
[28-12-2003 18:03:34] Recording Manager file is: C:\DOCUMENTS AND SETTINGS\ALL USERS\APPLICATION DATA\SNAPSTREAM\BEYOND TV\JobCollection.xml
[28-12-2003 18:03:34] Channel Lineup file is: C:\DOCUMENTS AND SETTINGS\ALL USERS\APPLICATION DATA\SNAPSTREAM\BEYOND TV\LineupCollection.xml
[28-12-2003 18:03:34] Time zone adjustment is: -1:00
[28-12-2003 18:03:34] EPG database identified as version 34
[28-12-2003 18:03:34] Retrieving EPGIDs for shows in your Video Library
[28-12-2003 18:03:34] Found 28 EPGIDS in your Video Library
[28-12-2003 18:03:34] Correcting Recording Manager Job Station Numbers
[28-12-2003 18:03:34] Validating EPGIDs for Recording Manager Jobs
[28-12-2003 18:03:34] Set PVS's automatic guide updates to be disabled.
[28-12-2003 18:03:34] Checking for new channels in XML file
[28-12-2003 18:03:35] Updating the default channel lineup
[28-12-2003 18:03:35] Creating list of current stations
[28-12-2003 18:03:35] Completed checking for new channels. 0 new channels found
[28-12-2003 18:03:35] Clearing old data from EPG
[28-12-2003 18:03:35] Processing guide data...
[28-12-2003 18:03:36] 500 listings processed.
[28-12-2003 18:03:37] 1000 listings processed.
[28-12-2003 18:03:37] Programme month corrected due to timezone difference
[28-12-2003 18:03:37] Programme month corrected due to timezone difference
[28-12-2003 18:03:37] Runtime error occured: Type mismatch    13

I'm glad it's just the year changing, not the century

[ctebo]

Hi All,

I've been away for the past few days... Sorry for the lack of response on these issues.

I'll dig into the code base and see what I can find. Could some of you having the type-mismatch error post your xmltv output files here that generate that error? As I cannot reproduce the error with my local xmltv files.

Chris

[ctebo]

One more update...

I received an email from a user of the australian xmltv grabber indicating that the australian grabber does not correctly deal with shows that cross a year boundary.

So for those of you experiencing this issue with australian listings, check with the provider of the australian scraper for a fix, or wait until the new year and this problem should go away.

As for those who are seeing this in other regions, I'm working on it...
Chris

[Fred]

Hi Chris,

Here is the exact input I'm using for the error I reported.

(And, yes, I will admit that I was too lazy to open it to find out what went wrong )

[ctebo]

A new build of the importer is now available that corrects the "Type mismatch 13" error some of you were seeing during imports. You can donwload it from here: http://pvsxmlimport.sourceforge.net

This was caused by incorrect handling of shows spanning year boundaries with negative timezone offsets.

Post here if you still have any remaining issues after upgrading.

Chris

[Fred]

Well Chris, if it is feedback you want, then feedback you shall have
[list=1][*]The configurator does not like "USESAXPARSER=0" in the configuration file[*]referring to the zip I uploaded, I keep getting "Farscape" where I should get "De wereld van Sofie"[/list=1]

To elaborate.

I upgraded to 1.17 and it processed my xmltv listing without reporting errors.

Then I noticed in the EPG that on 2003-12-29 at 13:13 hrs there was an episode of "Farscape" on "Nederland2". Hmmmm weird. Do a simple clean of the EPG, add "USESAXPARSER=0" to the config file and re-import. Same results.

Okay, do a 'complete' clean of the EPG, hit 'Edit Channel Lineup". Bang error message about an unsupported property flashes by. Scratch the head, remove the USESAXPARSER entry from the config. Edit Channel Lineup works.

Put USESAXPARSER entry back again and do an import. EPG still has farscape instead of Sofie. Hit 'Edit Channel Lineup' again, and now it works with the USESAXPARSER entry present. Apparently it didn't like the combination of the entry and the empty database.

Now about the erroneous EPG entry. I do record both "Farscape" (sundays - weekly) and "De wereld van Sofie" (weekdays). The entries immediately in front and following on Nederland 2 are correct.....

I've attached a screen shot of the EPG showing the odd entry.

[ctebo]

Thanks for catching the incorrect handling of the non-sax parser for the configuration tool. An easy fix... The next release will include the fix, but this should not be a problem for most users, as the SAX importer should do the trick for them.

As for your Farscape issue, having looked at your xmltv file, the problem does not seem to be coming from it. Your comment that you are recording both "Farscape" and "De wereld van Sofie" suggests that some inconsistent data exists in your Recording Manager job file. Could you post your "JobCollection.xml" file? I suspect that the two shows are sharing an epg id, and that file will expose the problem. As well, the "SlaveStoreCollection.xml" file would be helpful.

Chris

[Fred]

Chris, here is the entire collection of Beyond TV related XML files from the application data directory. It turns out that Farscape is no longer in the scheduled jobs list. I just set it up manually every Sunday.

I have confirmed that the behaviour is still the same (using this set of XML configs and the nllist.xml file I uploaded earlier)

[rmanke]

Whenever I run the Config app, I get the following error:

---------------------------
Runtime Error
---------------------------
configMain.Form_Load

Source: ConfigData.GenerateConfig : xmlconfig

Number: 6

Description: Overflow

Application will exit.

---------------------------
OK
---------------------------


I have followed the steps outlined above to get the XML Importer to work with the latest version of BeyondTV.

[ctebo]

Based on the error info you provided, it seems something is going wrong during the calculation of your timezone offset. To help me try to reproduce this, can you provide:

1) The timezone setting that your pc is set to?
2) What operating system are you running?
3) At rougly what time were you trying to run the configuration?

Thanks,
Chris