PPV listings hack fixed?

[Dank]

So, now that the regular PPV listing hack isn't working due to the TVGuide.com change, is there a fix or new version that people are using? That was one of the big features I was looking forward to once I hacked, and now it looks gone... :-(

[philhu]

the getppv seems dead.

We need someone to get the listings from the dtv site directly.

Or, if TheDoctor would release his code for reading the listings from a dtivo, it would be cool!!!!

[Bigdog999]

Philhu, can anything be done with the TitanTV listings. I too loved the PPV listings hack, hate to manually record them. Lazy, I guess.

Bigdog999

[philhu]

Of course tiutantv can be used.....

YES!

Their offline stuff gives you 8 days of data, easily parsed and can be run on a schedule.......

I looked thru the js offline program database and think it would be trivial to make it work....

I'll look at it this week

[philhu]

ok

It is possible to get reliable listings from titantv......

You use their offline option...it generates, daily, 8 days worth of listings for the channels you define as favorites.

I wrote a parser to read their data file and turn it into shows files, that then go thru mkslice, like normal.

I am testing it now.

Give me a few days...

phil

[Dank]

Awesome Philhu! I can't wait to try it out... Finally, PPV and NFL Sunday Ticket with actual names!

[philhu]

hmmmm

Forgot about NFL sunday ticket stuff

I'll look at that too.

What you do is register with titantv, build a program guide, directv, no locals, then select the channels you want it to grab as favorites, and download the 'offline' reader program.

Then daily, I have its updater grab newest listings for 8 days and run them through my new program, based upon vb_parsexmlguide. I have it all running in a cygwin batch file. The only problem is that IE prompts me to close the ie window after the data update. It does not stop the run, just leaves a prompt/window up when it runs.

Also, although I selected 8 days, it seems to only load down 6 days of data. It does not put years in the movies, but does have genre, descriptions, actors.

It makes shows files/directories, where you then plug them into mkslice, edtc.....

I ran a test last night, it works fine.

I'll add nfl, if possible, I assume it is... And make a way to change the data file location and the stationsppv.txt file needed to run the program.

It has no windows, counters. It does generate a log file of the run. But it displays nothing, just runs...Good for a batch run!

[philhu]

bad news

I was going to add sunday ticket, mlb, nba but titan tv does not have listings for these channels with real titles, just 'NFL Footnall' as the titles.....etc

[Dank]

Hmm... Strange, I am looking at "NFL5" on 9/21 at 1PM, and it says "NFL Football: Rams at Seahawks". But that is online, I'll have to download the standalone schedule and see if that data comes along.

Regardless, awesome news with the PPV... That is vastly more important to me, and probably everyone else.

[philhu]

yes

I tried dl the listing for nfl, etc

It does not show the game name

:(

[philhu]

good news

I was just looking at the nfl/mlb etc listings

What they do is put the game name in the episode field in the online guide only.

I have written them, about adding this to the offline data. I also asked them to provide the year of production for the movies, explaining that remakes are hard to find without dates

I think they will listen. I wrote them about only providing 6 days data instead of 8 and they fixed that for me in less than a day!

If they fix it, I will do the following:

Since I am building the titles, I COULD make the title something like:

NFL: Team at Team

by combining the fields!

Does that solve the problems?

[Dank]

Awesome, yes that would work. Really even the teams being in the episode description would be good enough; keyword wishlists could find those.

So this would still be using the old getppv script, just with new data? Guess I have to start reading up on how and where to find that...

[philhu]

no, getppv is a dead script.

This requires you to register at titantv, and grab their offline mode software, which download a file of favorite channels on demand

Then you run my new ParsePPV.exe and run it

Then you take the output and run it through mkslice

[Bigdog999]

philhu, great work bud. How soon do you expect to be releasing your parseppv and where can it be downloaded from.

[philhu]

I have runb it for 3 days now, no problems....

I will run it thru the weekend. THen release it here.

I am writing the how-to/readme now and getting the files together to make it work.

You will need the visual basic 6 runtime system in stalled from microsoft.

Search for vb6run.exe on the ms site.

[philhu]

ParsePPV v1.0

Hi

This is parse ppv.

I have included a readme/howto, the stationsppv.txt file and the program.

PLEASE READ THE HOWTO before setting it up!!!

I've also included a unix/cygwin bash batch file to show the order
of running the stuff. As well as the dos BAT file I start it all off with.

Basically, it is:

Run updates from titantv
Run parseppv
Find first folder and last folder, skip first folder (see readme).
Make these arguments to mkslice from the tivoguide system.

A slice is generated, ftp it to the tivo, run do_slice30

Voila.

Please do NOT email me with problems, keep them in this thread. Also, if the problem is found in the readme, I will ignore the 'How do I' questions.

Please read the bsh (bash bat file) and BAT files to see how I run it start to finish

[Bigdog999]

PhilHu,

I'm having problems getting the program to process the listings. To simplify matters, I dropped my listings down to one PPV channel, the program seems to work fine, mkslice seems to work fine, but sliceview says the slice is bad.

If I include all the PPV channels, ParsePPV errors out with error 52, bad file or number.

Any thoughts.

attached is the log file

[philhu]

You found 2 small problems...

The bad slice might be caused by starting sid and pids at 1, shulkd be huge number, like 13000000.

I'll fix it.

The genre 'other' was not defined. I'll fix that too.

The bad file or number error is not happeninng to me.

Is that log from the err 52 run or a good run?

Also, slice dump saying it is bad? Can you post the slicedump txt file? If it is saying orphaned records, it is not bad as we do not supply station records in the slices, because the stations are predefined.


Did you look at any of the show files created?

[Dank]

So we still need to download TivoGuide to use this script? I've found TivoGuide1.1 by searching; is that the most recent version?

I can't wait to try this, although I still need to figure out why my network card is dying after a day or two of running. Also, it looks like fixing NFL isn't going to be an issue... I looked today and the TiVo already had the games listed! Too bad TiVo can't do that for the PPVs.

[Bigdog999]

here's the log file from a good run, but one which slice viewer still read the slice as bad.

I'm not using slicedump, I always check the slice with slice viewer first to make sure the slice is good.

[philhu]

bigdog...


Again....

What does it say ios wrong with the slice? If it is orphaned records (no station records), then it is fine.

Did you look at the shows directory where parseppv writes its files?

Did you look at these? Do they look ok?

Without this, I cannot look at it.

Yes, you need tivo guide to run this.....Although, there is a EXE version somewhere for windows use, otherwise, you need perl, modules, etc. A bit of a pain. Look for mkslice.exe.

I am uploading a new version that fixes thfilese small id's it was generating.

You will need to kill your *.tvg files that parseppv made in the bad runs.

Also, bigdog, if you can upload your .js file from titqantv here, so I can see why you are getting error 52. Mine is running every day without problems.

[philhu]

New version

[Bigdog999]

PhilHu

Whatever changes you made in the new version solved my problem. I was able to download all the PPV channels and process them with ParsePPV, then mkslice them, sliceview opened the slice with no errors, and now I've uploaded them to my Tivo. Slice loaded with no errors and I now have PPV listings on my Tivo once again. Thanks, dude.

[dirty1]

Well this thread got me all excited, thinking I could finally get dish network ppv data on my tivo.

I signed up for titan tv, and dammit they have no dish ppv listings! (the bastards) I sent them a scathing email.

Anybody have ideas or know of anyone who has gotten dish ppv listings on their tivo?

[philhu]

Originally posted by Bigdog999
PhilHu

Whatever changes you made in the new version solved my problem. I was able to download all the PPV channels and process them with ParsePPV, then mkslice them, sliceview opened the slice with no errors, and now I've uploaded them to my Tivo. Slice loaded with no errors and I now have PPV listings on my Tivo once again. Thanks, dude.

Cool! Glad to help!

[philhu]

Originally posted by dirty1
Well this thread got me all excited, thinking I could finally get dish network ppv data on my tivo.

I signed up for titan tv, and dammit they have no dish ppv listings! (the bastards) I sent them a scathing email.

Anybody have ideas or know of anyone who has gotten dish ppv listings on their tivo?

Sorry

No one lists dish ppv. Pretty stupid, if you ask me

[Dank]

OK, finally had some time to muck around with your work phil. Getting there...

Some issues I've run into:
1) Your "makexmlPPVslice.bat" has an 'error' in it. Your call 'start "iexplore" "refresh_data.htm"' actually isn't calling iexplore. The first quoted argument to 'start' is just a window title, so the only reason the browser opens is because .htm files are associated with it. Changing it to 'start "refresh titantv" "iexplore" "refresh_data.htm"' will launch internet explorer, regardless of what your default browser is, which I think was your intention. (And is needed, since Firebird, my default browser, seems to never finish updating...)

2) I can't get ParsePPV to run without bad path errors. My commandline in the NewPPV.bsh is:
./parseppv.exe ourdir=C:\XMLTV showsdir=C:\XMLTV\PPVSHOWS stationsfile=C:\XMLTV\STATIONSPPV.TXT "datafile=C:\Program Files\TitanTV\support\programguide_data.js" gmtoffset=-8
I've tried every way I can think of to quote the "program files", but still get the "Run-time error '76' Path not found" error. I assume that is the path that is giving the error, but of course it could be something else... Any ideas?

[dirty1]

Originally posted by philhu
Sorry

No one lists dish ppv. Pretty stupid, if you ask me


Well, at least one place does, but it's pretty convoluted and probably next to impossible to parse. Beyond my current skills.

http://www.ppvorder3.com/events/event_menu.htm
http://www.ppvorder3.com/movies/Tuesday_Sep_23.html

Not that I'm asking anyone to do it for me, but maybe someone will get a wild hair and take it up.

I appreciate your efforts nevertheless, philhu. :)

Take care.

[philhu]

Originally posted by Dank
OK, finally had some time to muck around with your work phil. Getting there...

Some issues I've run into:
1) Your "makexmlPPVslice.bat" has an 'error' in it. Your call 'start "iexplore" "refresh_data.htm"' actually isn't calling iexplore. The first quoted argument to 'start' is just a window title, so the only reason the browser opens is because .htm files are associated with it. Changing it to 'start "refresh titantv" "iexplore" "refresh_data.htm"' will launch internet explorer, regardless of what your default browser is, which I think was your intention. (And is needed, since Firebird, my default browser, seems to never finish updating...)

Thanks, I'll fix it



2) I can't get ParsePPV to run without bad path errors. My commandline in the NewPPV.bsh is:
./parseppv.exe ourdir=C:\XMLTV showsdir=C:\XMLTV\PPVSHOWS stationsfile=C:\XMLTV\STATIONSPPV.TXT "datafile=C:\Program Files\TitanTV\support\programguide_data.js" gmtoffset=-8
I've tried every way I can think of to quote the "program files", but still get the "Run-time error '76' Path not found" error. I assume that is the path that is giving the error, but of course it could be something else... Any ideas?

Did you look at the log? Are they being read?

You are right, I did not account for spaces in path names. I do not know how to fix this....Try a different path, an alias, or try using for 'program files', use 'progra~1' (the old dos name for it)

[Dank]

Originally posted by philhu
Did you look at the log? Are they being read?

You are right, I did not account for spaces in path names. I do not know how to fix this....Try a different path, an alias, or try using for 'program files', use 'progra~1' (the old dos name for it) Yeah, I tried all of that. None of it worked. Very strange. But, being much more of a DOS geek than a UNIX/Cygwin geek, I figured out some workarounds that you may want to implement:

1) Here's a good one. Annoyed that you get the "the webpage you are viewing is trying to close the window" dialog after you run the update? Found a simple fix. Edit the "refresh_data.htm" file that gets run for TitanTV. Find the DoneFn() about 20 lines from the bottom (or just search for "window.close()"). Prior to the close(), add the line:
window.opener = null;
And the window will just go away after it is done updating.

2) Running into weird cygwin errors trying to launch ParsePPV? Then do it in DOS! I changed the "./ParsePPV.exe" line in NewPPV.bsh to:
cmd /c "parseppv.exe ourdir=C:\XMLTV showsdir=C:\XMLTV\PPVSHOWS stationsfile=C:\XMLTV\STATIONSPPV.TXT datafile=C:\Progra~1\TitanTV\support\programguide_data.js gmtoffset=-8"
And it works great now. (Obviously, everyone should use their own options...) Still not sure what was wrong in bash, but a solution's a solution...

But now I'm getting to the stupid problems... Where do I find the slicedump.pl and all the other necessary scripts? I've searched all over here and Google, and it all just says "join yahoo canada", which I can't, or turns up nothing. Why are these files hidden? Once I get those scripts all set up, hopefully I'll be closer...

[philhu]

actully, when I test, I run it in a cmd window, so that is why my progra~1 was working.

Thanks for the refresh data fix

The scripts are called tivoguide.

There is a cvs for it somewhere, where you can grab it all.

I could pack up mine for you, but I've made some directory changes about a year back, so it might not work as expected.

Anyone have a tivoguide tivo directory they can zip up?

Also, look for mkslice.exe (Someone made a win32 executable for mkslice a while back).

[philhu]

Originally posted by Dank
But now I'm getting to the stupid problems... Where do I find the slicedump.pl and all the other necessary scripts? I've searched all over here and Google, and it all just says "join yahoo canada", which I can't, or turns up nothing. Why are these files hidden? Once I get those scripts all set up, hopefully I'll be closer...

Go to www.tivocanada.com/old

There is a full tivo hack guide.


You want to look at part 3 to go to the cvs to get the tivoguide files.

[philhu]

Cough..ahem...cough...cough

Still look at the tivocanada.com. It shows how to get this all working....

Please change the extension from ZIP to TAR for it to work. This groups does not allow .TAR files (Unix compressed).

Winzip will still read it for you.

[Dank]

I finally got it working! Definitely not a plug-and-play thing, but oh well. I had to uninstall and reinstall perl, and since I didn't have FTP installed in my Cygwin it was launching the windows/DOS FTP which didn't support your method of command sending... But it runs now!

One error I'm getting, but that does not seem to cause a problem: the "slicever=`head -n 3 /cygdrive/$driv/$pkg/xmlrc | tail -n 1 - | cut -b 17-20`" line is giving me an error, because I have no "xmlrc" file. Where is this supposed to come from? And what is this line supposed to do, since it appears to not need it?

Now the only thing this needs to be fully automated is some way to fire off the "./do_slice"... Any ideas?

Oh, also, I can't do a search on my newly added programs. Is this just the database taking a while to sync up, and it'll go away in a few hours?

Awesome work though.

[philhu]

that cryptic line gets the version of the slice and prepends it to the slice created.

It is the .tivorc or whatever file you have. Just change the read to that

I run my do slice stuff using cron for tivo.

Go look for it, it runs jobs at specific times. I run my ppv at 12:20am and then do_slice at 6:35 am

My stuff is plug and play...but the tivoguide kit is a bit to install....

[Dank]

OK, found some other weird things, not sure why these would differ from you...

1) I added in my file for the xmlrc. But it appeared to be grabbing from the wrong line. It grabbed "rive" instead of the number. I just edited the bash line for my own, but weird that it differs from yours

2) One of the program descriptions (some stupid Jerry Springer thing) had a description over 200 characters, which hit an asserting in the makeslice code.
In Tivo\Slice\Field\String.pm I changed:
my $value = shift;
$value = substr($value, 0, 200);
So the description will always be 200 or less long. Not sure why this cap is in place, but seemed safe.

3) One final request... How do you generate the numbers for the STATIONSPPV.TXT file? I want to add Channel 101.

Thanks again for writing the app and all the help. If you want help writing up a dummies install guide, I'll gladly be the dummy...

[philhu]

I forgot about mkslice. Yes, I modified it a long time ago to stop at 205 characters.

The old getppv used to try to make longer descriptions.

The .tivoguiderc file is different because I 'modified' tivoguide to add a few more values in the rc file. To make it able to write outputs other places, read its files other palces, etc.

Does titan really have listings for 101?

To add stations, you need to find out the serverid of the station you want. I used channel remap from tivoweb.

Here are some for you:
101 1705928
102 1705929
103 1705930
104 1705931
105 1705932

[Bigdog999]

yep, I had to modify the string.pm file too because of that Jerry Springer show. Created my own bat file to speed up my slice creation. going to have to study your newppv.bsh file to try to figure it out and get it working for me, I don't know Liunix that well. Here is how I set up my bat file:

start "C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe" "C:\Program Files\TitanTV\support\refresh_data.htm"
:
copy "C:\Program Files\TitanTV\support\programguide_data.js" "D:\XMLTV\"

ParsePPV.exe ourdir=D:\XMLTV showsdir=D:\XMLTV\PPVSHOWS stationsfile=D:\XMLTV\STATIONSPPV.TXT datafile=D:\XMLTV\programguide_data.js gmtoffset=-5
:
xcopy "D:\XMLTV\PPVSHOWS" "C:\cygwin\home\shows" /E /Q
:
rmdir "D:\XMLTV\PPVSHOWS" /S /Q
:

archaic, but work well.

Only small glitch is that when I run the refresh_data.htm file, I get an error saying it can't find file although the htm is working in the background. Almost like it's trying to run itself twice.

[Dank]

Bigdog, hmm, thinking about your issue got me to improve the process yet again...

One minor issue, your start call does not have a title. So like Phil's first version, it really isn't launching internetexplorer. Its just launching the html file with its default application. That may be the cause of your issue, but I doubt it... Still, add a title to ensure IE is used for the processing.

But more likely, its because your batch file doesn't have any waits or sleeps in it, so it looks to me like as soon as you launch refresh_data, it then starts the copy. What would work better is adding a /wait to your start. So:
start /wait "TitanTV" "C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe" "C:\Program Files\titantv\support\refresh_data.htm"

This way, the batch file will wait until IE shuts down to continue to the next command. For Phil's bash version, this allows the SLEEPs to all be removed as well.

Phil: One other issue I noticed yesterday. All of the PPV movies seem to be marked as Episodes. Is that data that TitanTV doesn't send, so you just defaulted to it (since its really pretty harmless), or was there a bug?

[Bigdog999]

Dank, thanks...that did correct that issue.

[jimmypopali69]

using bigdogs method i now have a ton of folders in my cygwin home dir, and from there then i do what exactly? please excuse me as i am new to cygwin i have been doing hacks with the tivo for a while but never had to use cygwin always just ftp'd files over to tivo and ran them on tivo.

i would love to finally be able to have my ppv i record be named correctly

on another topic, is it possible to copy guide data from 1 series 1 SA to another s1 SA? possibly to automaticly transfer the data at 4:30 am, 35 mins after my main tivo makes its daily call?

Thanks for helping the noob out,
jimmy

[Bigdog999]

jimmypopali69,

those folders should be in a shows directory in you cygwin home directory, correct ? what I do then is to start cygwin and type "perl mkslice ???+7 > myslice.slice" where ??? is the name of the second lowest directory in shows. You may also set myslice as a more descriptive name.

Then all you have to do is to upload it to your tivo and ./do_slice it if you have that allready set up.

[jimmypopali69]

this is a fresh install of cygwin when i enter the command from cygwin bash i get response
bash: perl: command not found
is there a library that i need to install in cygwin?
i put the mkslice file from tivocanada in the bin dir
am i missing something?

edit:
(duh i was missing perl installed)
ok i put the entore contents of the tar into the cygwin dir chmod mkslice and re ran the command here is my output:


GameWhore@gamer /
$ perl mkslice 12324+7 > myslice.slice
Can't locate Date/Calc.pm in @INC (@INC contains: /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.0/cygwin-mu
lti-64int /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.0 /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.0/cygwin-multi-64int
/usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.0 /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl .) at TiVo/CommandUtils
.pm line 7.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at TiVo/CommandUtils.pm line 7.
Compilation failed in require at mkslice line 12.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at mkslice line 12.

GameWhore@gamer /

there is no date folder and i cant find calc.pm anywhere either, missing something again?

Jimmy
$

[Bigdog999]

I'm not sure all the libraries you will need. These are the libraries(modules) I installed for the original project of getppv:

# HTML::TokeParser
# HTML::TokeParser::Simple
# Date::Calc
# LWP::UserAgent
# GDBM

[philhu]

Originally posted by Dank
Phil: One other issue I noticed yesterday. All of the PPV movies seem to be marked as Episodes. Is that data that TitanTV doesn't send, so you just defaulted to it (since its really pretty harmless), or was there a bug?

I set movies to episode so that you can search and find other showings of the movies.

Without episode set, you could not search for alternat times.

[philhu]

Originally posted by jimmypopali69
this is a fresh install of cygwin when i enter the command from cygwin bash i get response
bash: perl: command not found
is there a library that i need to install in cygwin?
i put the mkslice file from tivocanada in the bin dir
am i missing something?

edit:
(duh i was missing perl installed)
ok i put the entore contents of the tar into the cygwin dir chmod mkslice and re ran the command here is my output:


GameWhore@gamer /
$ perl mkslice 12324+7 > myslice.slice
Can't locate Date/Calc.pm in @INC (@INC contains: /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.0/cygwin-mu
lti-64int /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.0 /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.0/cygwin-multi-64int
/usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.0 /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl .) at TiVo/CommandUtils
.pm line 7.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at TiVo/CommandUtils.pm line 7.
Compilation failed in require at mkslice line 12.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at mkslice line 12.

GameWhore@gamer /

there is no date folder and i cant find calc.pm anywhere either, missing something again?

Jimmy
$

You do not need GDBM foir mkslice

You do need the others

[splifs]

Ok, I've finally had a chance to sit down and play with this. the ppv part I'm parseppv worked ok. I made my slice then ran do_slice and was presented with the message that it had completed. I looked at my listings and there was nothing there. I did a dumpslice and got this error like 4-5 listings down

000000f7 - Record 0000 (Unknown), Length 00000000
Unknown record type =
Last record's length is too short at C:\tivo\guidedir\slicedump.pl line 451.

any ideas anyone?

[Dank]

I never ran dumpslice to verify my slices; they either were caught by the "too small" error, or worked.

But there are a number of interior scripts that get run by the makeslice step that can (and did, for me) both fail. Try running the script manually (./NewPPV.bsh) so you can scroll back up and read the output for any errors... My bet is you'll find some errors in there.

[splifs]

Well I'll try that when I get home....damn this whole having to earn a living thing during the day!!

*home now*


If only I knew where to begin w/ newPPV.bsh :confused:

[splifs]

damnit....why can't tivo just tell me what the damn movies on ppv are, this is truly a pain in the ass

[philhu]

I fount a parseppv bug that had problems with long listings....

I fixed it and am waiting for my ppv data to be gone, so the slices load.

Phil

[philhu]

Originally posted by splifs
Ok, I've finally had a chance to sit down and play with this. the ppv part I'm parseppv worked ok. I made my slice then ran do_slice and was presented with the message that it had completed. I looked at my listings and there was nothing there. I did a dumpslice and got this error like 4-5 listings down

000000f7 - Record 0000 (Unknown), Length 00000000
Unknown record type =
Last record's length is too short at C:\tivo\guidedir\slicedump.pl line 451.

any ideas anyone?

Don't know why this would be, all Parseppv does is create shows files. Text files.

I wonder if there is a file with nothing in it, causing mkslice to get confused.

Mkslice makes the slice

[Barneyd]

Does anyone have a copy of or the format for xmlrc

[Barneyd]

Does anyone have a copy of or the format for xmlrc

[philhu]

xmlrc is really tivoguiderc

If you've installed tivoguide, to get mkslice working, use it and change the newppv.bsh to look at it. Also note, that my xmlrc is named that because I added some fields in tivoguide for my own use, so youre lines might vary


newppv.bsh is an example only, modify for your own environment.

[splifs]

Originally posted by philhu
[B]I fount a parseppv bug that had problems with long listings....

I fixed it and am waiting for my ppv data to be gone, so the slices load.




if you need a guinea pig i'm game, mine just ran out last night / this morning.

[philhu]

ok, here is the latest version....

It works fine. Has run for 3 days.

Remember, in the mkslice stuff, you need to still check for >200 characters and truncate if it finds > 200

Here is my version of: tivo\slice\field\String.pm:

======================================
package TiVo::Slice::Field::String;

use strict;
use base qw(TiVo::Slice::Field);
use TiVo::Slice::Number;

our $VERSION = (split / /, q$Id: String.pm,v 1.1 2001/12/02 11:00:19 grant Exp $)[2];

sub new {
my $class = shift;
my $value = shift;
my $chars = length($value);
#warn "string ($value) too long" if $chars > 200;
if($chars > 200 ) {
printf "string ($value) too long-fixing it for you";
$value=substr($value,0,200);
}

my $length = TiVo::Slice::Number->new($chars)->tivonumber;
my $self = $class->SUPER::new($length . $value);
return $self;
}

1;
============================================

I've updated all files with all changes, newgenres.txt, stationsppv.txt, parseppv.exe, the batch file and the bash file.

Thanks to all for the changes as shown.

[Dank]

Originally posted by philhu
Here is my version of: tivo\slice\field\String.pm:

======================================
package TiVo::Slice::Field::String;

use strict;
use base qw(TiVo::Slice::Field);
use TiVo::Slice::Number;

our $VERSION = (split / /, q$Id: String.pm,v 1.1 2001/12/02 11:00:19 grant Exp $)[2];

sub new {
my $class = shift;
my $value = shift;
my $chars = length($value);
#warn "string ($value) too long" if $chars > 200;
if($chars > 200 ) {
printf "string ($value) too long-fixing it for you";
$value=substr($value,0,200);
}

my $length = TiVo::Slice::Number->new($chars)->tivonumber;
my $self = $class->SUPER::new($length . $value);
return $self;
}

One serious issue with that code... If your string is (say) 250 characters long, $chars will still be 250 when you pass it on to the $length constructor... I don't know what "TiVo::Slice::Number->new($chars)->tivonumber;" does, but I imagine it should get the correct number of characters...

[Barneyd]

If I run from DOS or from Cygwin

parseppv ourdir=\tivo\xmltv showsdir=\tivo\xmltv\ppvshows stationsfile=stationsppv.txt datafile=\tivo\titantv\support\programguide_data.js gmtoffset=-4

I get run-time error '52' bad file name or number

Although I get directorys in ppvshows using both and I can mkslice and load to Tivo, the slice information is not complete. I get all 8 days in ppvshows but each day only has two station ID sub-directories (channels 106 and 107). The guide on Tivo only shows two movies for these two channels there is no other information.

When I check properties for the ppvshows directory I get 120 files in 20 folders for a total size of 60K

I would appreciate any thoughts?

[philhu]

Originally posted by Barneyd
If I run from DOS or from Cygwin

parseppv ourdir=\tivo\xmltv showsdir=\tivo\xmltv\ppvshows stationsfile=stationsppv.txt datafile=\tivo\titantv\support\programguide_data.js gmtoffset=-4

I get run-time error '52' bad file name or number

Although I get directorys in ppvshows using both and I can mkslice and load to Tivo, the slice information is not complete. I get all 8 days in ppvshows but each day only has two station ID sub-directories (channels 106 and 107). The guide on Tivo only shows two movies for these two channels there is no other information.

When I check properties for the ppvshows directory I get 120 files in 20 folders for a total size of 60K

I would appreciate any thoughts?

Check the .js file and see if the data is indeed in there.

Then:
Your directory names are misformed.

parseppv requires FQDN (As stated in the documentation), Fully qualified Directory names, like:

c:\xmltv\tivo

not:

\xmltv\tivo

I do not know if this is your problem. If not, please send me a zip of your stationsppv.txt, , the log file output and the xml file you are processing.

[Dank]

It's defective!

Well, no, but I was about to post that... TitanTV apparently is not the most accurate of listing services. I scheduled a recording on channel 182, using the PPV listings, and it was totally off... I checked the upcoming programs off the satellite vs what TitanTV has, and they just don't match..

Oh well, at least the software works, and its just a data issue...

[philhu]

Mine are right on....

I did see tvguide.com wrong a few times too....

But, did you set the gmtoffset for your area?

Are they off exact hours or half hours or what?

[Dank]

Its the channel. They get off by half an hour and they stay off. The movie I'm trying to get is at 10:30pm (PST) on 182, but titantv lists it at 11:00pm. This morning, it started either 30 mnutes or an hour after it said it was going to.

Most channels are correct. Just a few (or maybe even only this one) aren't.

But, back on topic, what changed in the new build? I wasn't running into any errors (that I noticed) with the old build.

[philhu]

what errors?

I do nothing to cause the listings to be off by half an hour. I fixed some of the command line stuff.

Go into the .js file and look at the channel, gets you the id, then go to schedule for that id.

The schedule is based upon the utc time at the top of the .js file. Seconds since the utc time to start each item, negative means it started n seconds before current utc time.

Find the movie times directly in there

[Dank]

No, I know. The errors I am running into are 100% TitanTVs fault. Looking at the listings on their websites has the error. I am not blaming the program or tivo or anything other than TitanTV having bad data.

I was just curious as to what changed in the 1.1 build of the Parse, since I wasn't seeing any issues with the 1.0 build.

[philhu]

oh, I get it

I just threw in a bunch of extra error checking for people who have alot of 'operator error'

:)

[philhu]

New version going up today.

I was getting bad slices due to description being too large, so I FORCE the description to 199 characters or less in PARSEPPV

Note that this will BREAK any movies you alreay have loaded, since the programid will now not match longer titled-shows.

Not a big deal, and should clear up within 7 days and only affects any recordings you have scheduled since the id's change.

The attached is NOT a zip, it is an exe, so after downloading - RENAME IT TO EXE

Phil

[jimmypopali69]

ok once i get this working on one tivo then can i just copy guide data from 1 tivo to another? if so, how?

[jimmypopali69]

Originally posted by Bigdog999
I'm not sure all the libraries you will need. These are the libraries(modules) I installed for the original project of getppv:

# HTML::TokeParser
# HTML::TokeParser::Simple
# Date::Calc
# LWP::UserAgent
# GDBM



ok i re ran cygwin install and could not find these items, anyone have them they could send over so i can finally get friggin ppv data


jimmy

[jimmypopali69]

ok i found the parser and i serched and found a version of calc.pm is this right? i attached it, drop the .txt extension. this is my new error

$ perl mkslice 12324+7 > myslice.slice
Can't load '/cygdrive/c/WINDOWS/system32/Calc' for module Date::Calc: dlopen: Wi
n32 error 126 at /usr/lib/perl5/5.6.1/cygwin-multi/DynaLoader.pm line 206.
at TiVo/CommandUtils.pm line 7
Compilation failed in require at TiVo/CommandUtils.pm line 7.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at TiVo/CommandUtils.pm line 7.
Compilation failed in require at mkslice line 12.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at mkslice line 12.

[philhu]

titantv.com listings are very inaccurate.

I just found quite a few channels off by 2 hours, so I thought it was a timezone problem, but I found channel 155 off by 90 minutes.

It is not Parseppv doing the error, it is the titan listings themselves.

I sent them an email about it.

They do respond

[Comedian]

I'm still trying to figure out why sometimes their guide data downloads 8 days worth of stuff, sometimes 7, sometimes 6, sometimes 5, etc.

[Comedian]

The damn bastards at Titan turned off Desktop EPG!

AAAAARGGGGHH!

[philhu]

re: titan desktop epg

How do you know?
Did they announce it?

Did you write them?

Phil

[philhu]

CRAP!
-------

From their website:
===================================

TitanTV Offline Edition Discontinued

The Big Screen and Desktop Editions of TitanTV have been temporarily discontinued. We will continue to evaluate all of the valuable feedback and suggestions that we have received from our current users. Watch TitanTV in the coming weeks for further details on a new version of our Offline program guide.

====================================

Maybe it will come back better. It does says it will be back in a few weeks....

[Dank]

Ugh! Thats awful. Although I did have to wonder how those guys were planning on making any money... Ah well. Hopefully it comes back, or somebody finds another source of data...

[Dank]

Hmm... I wonder, are the slices created by this program compatible with the Jpags slices? Obviously I'd rather be able to scrape it manually, but until tiantv comes back, Jpags may have to do... Would just copying the Jpags JPG to where our slices go work?

[philhu]

No

Jpags does not use slices. He wrote MFS code and sends the program keyword stuff which then updates the listings.

Totally different.

What we need is someone to figure out how to scrape the tvguide.com site again.

If someone can get me html pages from tvguide, in any format, I'll update my ppv program to read it.....

Who knows, titantv MIGHT come back. It says watch for it in a few weeks.

[cyoung_mi]

After reading several posts.. I've seen alot of posts that say
Dish network PPV doesnt exist...

But Zap2It posts them. it is possible to parse the data from there.
How do the current ways add them to the guide or
create slice files??

Infact here is a sample of the data parsed..
----------------
2007-01-26 02:00:00|2007-01-26 03:30:00|1502|Comedy|0|2006|0|0|How to Eat Fried Worms|At a new school a boy takes a school bullys challenge to eat 10 worms in one day.**+|PPV 502|502|PG
2007-01-26 02:00:00|2007-01-26 04:00:00|1504|Horror|0|2005|0|0|The Descent|Cave explorers encounter underground predators.***CC|PPV 504|504|R
2007-01-26 02:00:00|2007-01-26 05:00:00|1510|Action / Ad|0|2006|0|0|Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Mans Chest|Capt. Jack Sparrow must find a way to save his soul from ghostly pirate Davey Jones.**+|PPV 510|510|PG-13
2007-01-26 02:00:00|2007-01-26 04:30:00|1512|Crime|0|2006|0|0|Miami Vice|Detectives Crockett and Tubbs take on drug lords in South Florida. Based on the television show.**+|PPV 512|512|NR
2007-01-26 02:00:00|2007-01-26 04:00:00|1516|Misc|0|2006|0|0|Lady in the Water|A man learns that the woman he rescued is a character in a bedtime fable.**|PPV 516|516|PG-13
2007-01-26 02:00:00|2007-01-26 04:00:00|1519|Horror|0|2006|0|0|The Wicker Man|A lawman finds sinister forces at work as he searches for a missing child.*+CC|PPV 519|519|PG-13
2007-01-26 02:00:00|2007-01-26 04:00:00|1523|Comedy|0|2006|0|0|My Super Ex-Girlfriend|A superheroine takes revenge after her boyfriend breaks up with her.**|PPV 523|523|PG-13
2007-01-26 02:00:00|2007-01-26 04:00:00|1526|Comedy|0|2006|0|0|Little Man|A very small thief poses as a toddler to gain access to a couples home.**CC|PPV 526|526|PG-13
2007-01-26 02:00:00|2007-01-26 04:00:00|1528|Action / Ad|0|2006|0|0|X-Men: The Last Stand|The discovery of a cure for mutations divides the followers of Charles Xavier and those of Magneto.CC|PPV 528|528|PG-13
2007-01-26 02:00:00|2007-01-26 04:30:00|1538|Action / Ad|0|2006|0|0|V for Vendetta|A vigilante known as V uses terrorist tactics to fight the totalitarian state in which he lives.CC|PPV 538|538|R
-------------------


Why does everyone do Direct Tv info.. but it seems
no one wants to do anything with Dish Network.