WisconsinEric

I am not the moderator, and I don't think there is one. If you have a problem, post it here and people will try to help. Or write directly to Geniatech.

If you want to access the guide for using xmltvlistings, it is also posted on their web site under the Help tab; you don't need an xmltvlistings account to access it: https://www.xmltvlistings.com/help/guides/eyetv

It looks formidable if you glance at it, but I wrote it up so if you are patient and take it step by step, and follow instructions exactly, you'll have a maintenance free EPG for EyeTV v.3.6.9. I can't speak to EyeTV 4, since I have never used it, given that v. 3 works fine.

5 hours ago, RGG said:

 As the Program Guide has not worked since at least August 2022 and many users have reported the issue to Geniatech and it remains unresolved with no apparent communication to users, would this approach from 2019 work with current versions of EyetV whether version 3 or version 4?  Like a lot of users I am using  MacOS 10.15.7 and have not updated to 11.x, 12.x or 13.x of the Mac OS.  I really hope Geniatech updates eyetv or opens it up to other epg sources.  I would like to renew my geniatech epg subscription soon as it will expire this spring but I do not have much confidence and I feel like i would be throwing money away if buy a new subscription when it has not worked for over half a year.  Any thoughts?

 

EyeTV Version 3 permits use of any standard EPG (electronic program guide) formatted source; it does NOT have to be through a Geniatech provided source. I can tell you for a fact that it works with XML TV Listings (https://www.xmltvlistings.com/) out of Ottawa, Ontario, which covers North America. At $19.95 a year, with automatic renewal built in, it's a bargain (I have no connection with the company, just a satisfied customer). I've been using this without incident since the US TV Guide source was abruptly terminated in January 2019. I collected other people's info and my own experience to write up detailed instructions for setting up Eye TV to use this service; it is tricky but I've never had to fix anything once it was up and running in 2019 and I watch and record a lot of TV programs. These instructions are still posted somewhere on this site, and XML TV Listings asked me for permission to post, so it's on their site also. Since EyeTV 3 is 32-bit software, I have kept my Mac Mini used as a media center permanently at OS 10.14.6. Given the poor customer reports on EyeTV 4, and the fact that EyeTV 3 is an outstanding and mature piece of software running virtually perfectly, I could see no reason to go through the pain and agony of upgrading (I have several other computers running OS 12, but my understanding is EyeTV 3 will not run on anything later than OS 10.14). It should be possible for you to get an inexpensive older Mac Mini, erase it and reinstall OS 10.14, and run EyeTV 3 on it. An Apple dealer I patronize gave me instructions on how to erase a Mac and install an older OS; they are still available on an Apple web site that is not publicized. You notice I haven't said anything about Geniatech here; I've written them off, sad because EyeTV is great software that they apparently lack the technical knowledge to upgrade. Hope that answers your questions.

I have been using XMLTV Listings since February 2019 (that's when Geniatech abruptly canceled the TV Guide EPG with no notice); I've had exactly zero issues. They have good customer service (I've asked them a couple of questions, gotten a quick answer), and you can sign up for automatic annual renewal (which has also worked flawlessly). After reading of all the problems people have had with EyeTV 4, I asked myself: "you have a perfectly [almost] functioning piece of software in EyeTV 3 that has negligible bugs, is mature, and does all you want it to. Why change or upgrade?" The answer is 64-bit software now required by Apple (EyeTV 3 is 32-bit). So I'm keeping a Mac Mini running OS 10.14 as a dedicated media server, and will never be able to upgrade (unless a simulation of OS 10 will run flawlessly within the current Mac OS).

A mystery. I do remember now many years ago (I've been using EyeTV since 2009) something got corrupted and I had to solve it by deleting and reinstalling the software from scratch. Unfortunately I forget what the problem was. If you have a backup from prior to your trouble, you could try that. Someone familiar with zap2it.com (I am not) might have other suggestions: if what I'm doing works, and the one area in which what you're doing differs does not, that's the place to start looking. Good luck, sorry I can't help.

Additional note to T33: I am running EyeTV 3 Build 7524 on a 2018 Mac Mini running OS 10.14.6 (haven't gone through the pain yet of upgrading, since I have a few critical 32-bit programs, of which EyeTV 3 is one). So if you are using EyeTV 4, that may make a difference in your problem.

To t33, I have not seen any change in xmltv behavior. I cannot hypothesize what produced the change; I assume you have rebooted your system (what I do when all else fails).

I will ask one question, though: is there any specific reason you're doing this manually, instead of automating it per the how to guide from February 2019? For me the automated nightly downloads have worked without a single failure since mid-February 2019. Every night at 4 am the EyeTV EPG updates from xmltvlistings.com automatically. See the linked PDF guide posted February 20 & 22, 2019 above in this thread. XMLTVLISTINGS.COM liked it enough they asked permission to post it on their site; you will find it here (look for the file "EyeTV & XMLTVListings.com Guide"): https://www.xmltvlistings.com/help.

I had not noticed that, but it would be nice to have. I usually edit that in to descriptions of programs I want to keep. Never used Smart Guides before so I probably won't start now. But yes, XML TV Listings has not included that info previously, which was a minor annoyance. I have noticed that although they never use the "New" marker in the program guide, they do use "Repeat" pretty accurately, so you can assume if it doesn't say "Repeat" it must be a new show. Overall I am glad I switched to XMLTv Listings, since once set up it is 100% maintenance free, even for renewing (that was always a pain in the old EyeTV).

It was my impression that titantv and xmltvlistings are both EPG's. So I'd assume you have to use one or the other, you can't use both. But I am not familiar with TitanTV. Given what you did, you'd now have to set up remote scheduling using xmltvlistings when it appears in the EPG displayed in the EyeTV application. Perhaps someone familiar with TitanTV can be of more help.

If you decide you don't want to fuss any more with the hack, you could switch to using xmltvlistings.com. I posted a step-by-step guide to using this service, which uses an API posted by the service itself. It costs a few bucks less, renews automatically every year if you want, and has worked flawlessly for me since I switched 19 months ago. You can find the guide by scrolling back through this very long thread. Since I haven't used schedulesdirect, I'm afraid I can't help you with your problem otherwise, sorry.

I agree with your assessment. I've used it since late 2009, and have rarely encountered any issues. I know of only 2 bugs, one old and one new. Old: if you are recording and without thinking select "Quit", EyeTV will abort the recording and quit without giving you a warning. This is a bug of omission; the software should have the usual "Do you really want to do this?" dialog box. New bug: when I updated my OS from El Capitan to Mojave, the time left progress bar on a recording you are watching is now blank unless at least an hour is left. Not a deal killer, but kind of inconvenient if you want to go back and find a specific spot in a recording to re-watch. Otherwise very stable software, virtually never crashes, maybe 2% of the time a recording doesn't complete for no obvious reason. And yes, I wish the software were owned by a company that understood it and was invested in maintaining and occasionally developing it (since it is mature not much is needed).

PS It may be the application was uninstalled but not supporting preference files. If it was the application that got corrupted, that would fit the facts you have presented.

That's probably because it is in a separate file that didn't get uninstalled with the rest. Maybe in Documents or Application Support or someplace like that.

– Eric

Ok, good luck. I'll be interesting in hearing how it goes. The archive is a separate folder and should not be affected, but if you're concerned move it to a separate (disconnected) external drive during your reinstall. I actually have my archive divided into 2 parts so I can spread it out onto an external drive; EyeTV allows only one archive location, but if you put an alias within the archive folder to a second external archive (on a 3TB drive, so plenty of room), it will find the aliased archive folder as well and combine them when it lists your program library. There is no deficit in playback when playing recordings from the external drive. I figured that out (with a little hint from one of their tech support guys) and wrote up a user tip on it around 2010 or 2011, which the folks at the original EyeTV company (forget its name) liked so much they added it to their site. They said they were going to add it to the user guide, but I don't know if they ever did.

Yup, I'm still out here. Unfortunately I just accidentally deleted 20 minutes of typing and the stupid discussion software doesn't allow for "undo." Here's a short version, I'm not going to do it all over: (1) quit and restart EyeTV; (2) reboot the computer. (3) In EyeTV check all the setup preferences for sourcing from xmltv files. When none of that works, go through pain & suffering: (4) write down all your settings, reset EyeTV to defaults (there's a button in there for that), and set up XMLTVListings in EyeTV like you did the first time; and finally if that doesn't work, (5) delete EyeTV (write down all your Preferences first), download a clean copy, and reinstall. I had to do that once, took hours. Sounds like you corrupted something; I remember making a mental note last year to not do anything else, including recording, while EyeTV was updating. I only tried updating manually the first two times after I switched to xmltv listings, have been using automated at 5 am ever since (Feb 2019) without issue. Good luck solving your problem. Stay safe!

8 hours ago, JWA said:

WisconsinEric - I'm running EyeTV version 7528 on both a 2015 i7 27" iMac running 10.13.6 and a 2018 i7 Mac Mini running 10.14.6.  As I move the counter to less than an hour the time disappears on the right side on both Macs.  Hadn't noticed this before.

So it is the same problem; must have then started with at least 10.13. I had upgraded from 10.11 (where the time tracking counter for a program worked correctly) to 10.14, where it counts down to an hour and then disappears. Anyone report this to the EyeTV people, or figure out a workaround? No point in upgrading to version 7528 if the bug is still present there as well.

Jennifer - go to the 4th post above this one, my September 4th post. The link there IS still active, I just clicked on it and the instructions came up. Maybe there was an EyeTV Forum hiccup on your previous December 10th post, because I did not get notification of it and should have since I follow this thread (and I got an e-mail notification of your current post). Post again if the link still doesn't work. Note the comment from John10044 about having to log in to an EyeTV Forum account to access attached files. Good luck.

– Eric

Thanks you MZB [^], I am glad the program guide instructions helped.

One new problem has cropped up, wonder if anyone else has noticed or found a way of dealing with it. I'm still back on EyeTV version 7525 since with XMLTV Listings I had no need to move up to 7528. In September I bought a new Mac Mini (replacing a 2010 model) ahead of the release of OS 10.15, so I'd be up to date but EyeTV would continue to run. Since upgrading that way to Mojave (OS 10.14), the time on the program progress bar has disappeared, which makes it harder to pick up where you left off if you change positions in a program (or even know how much is left). More specifically, the time shows at the right only as long as it exceeds one hour left to view; as soon as the counter ticks past an hour, the time vanishes. An obvious bug, and not the end of the world but annoying.

MY QUESTION: is this bug present in version 7528? (please specify whether what OS version you're running). Thanks.

It is not necessary to use EyeTV's built in EPG. There are 2 alternative EPGs: xmltvlistings.com (which I use, see next paragraph) and schedulesdirect.org. Both are proven to work well with EyeTV, both produce 2-week listings for the channel lineup of your choice, and at a lower cost than EyeTVEPGPremium.  On screen they look just like TV Guide. It is not necessary to upgrade to EyeTV's latest build (#7528) to use them, they work perfectly with earlier builds. There has been a lot of discussion about them on various parts of this forum since TV Guide disappeared from EyeTV in the US in February.

About 6 months ago I worked out and posted a step-by-step guide to installing the EPG for xmltvlistings.com. There have been a few suggestions for improvement, especially in the past 2 weeks, so I've updated it and the revised Guide is posted here. Most of this is other people's work, which I simply collated and organized for convenience; be sure to see the Credits at the end of the Guide. Since various threads here have discussed EPGs, I'll post this in a couple of other relevant threads as well.

XMLTVListings EPG with EyeTV-Guide.pdf

It is not necessary to use EyeTV's built in EPG. There are 2 alternative EPGs: xmltvlistings.com (which I use, see next paragraph) and schedulesdirect.org. Both are proven to work well with EyeTV, both produce 2-week listings for the channel lineup of your choice, and at a lower cost than EyeTVEPGPremium.  On screen they look just like TV Guide. It is not necessary to upgrade to EyeTV's latest build (#7528) to use them, they work perfectly with earlier builds. There has been a lot of discussion about them on various parts of this forum since TV Guide disappeared from EyeTV in the US in February.

About 6 months ago I worked out and posted a step-by-step guide to installing the EPG for xmltvlistings.com. There have been a few suggestions for improvement, especially in the past 2 weeks, so I've updated it and the revised Guide is posted here. Most of this is other people's work, which I simply collated and organized for convenience; be sure to see the Credits at the end of the Guide. Since various threads here have discussed EPGs, I'll post this in a couple of other relevant threads as well.

XMLTVListings EPG with EyeTV-Guide.pdf

2 minutes ago, John10044 said:

So until the instructions on page 16 can be updated, should anyone use them to automate the loading of the $19.95/yr xmltvlistings.com program guide, here are the changes I suggested:

• On all scripts do NOT copy & paste commands from the instructions.  Type them into TextEdit or equiv manually.
• If chmod fails with "No such file or directory" in step 1.3, then you may have your file extensions hidden.  Do a File/Get Info in the Finder on [yourprogramname], and uncheck "Hide Extension".  Then rename the file in the Get Info Name & Extension box to remove the ".txt" extension.
• If you can't see the Library folder in step 2.4.2, then press 'Command-Shift-period' to display hidden files and folders.  This works both in the Finder and File/Open dialog boxes.

Everything works for me now. My Mac is setup to download 2 weeks of TV listings automatically every night, and I can additionally call for an immediate EPG update from within the EyeTV app, just like the old days.  I also selected the option to auto-renew the subscription, so in theory I am good forever, lol.

Many thanks to WisconsinEric, DC Rackerby, Earl Noe, Millstadt Weber, UnixGuy, and everyone else who contributed to the instructions!

Many thanks for the useful updates! When I get time (a week?), I'll update the instructional PDF for using xmltvlistings.com as the EyeTV EPG source and repost it here.

1 minute ago, John10044 said:

Also, for anyone having trouble posting here:  I had to use a mail.com recommendation I saw in another thread because the forum software wouldn't send a verification email to comcast.net, and support wouldn't respond (no, it wasn't in my spam folder).  The person making the recommendation said verification emails don't go out to a host of domains.  

I needed the logon because besides not being able to post, you can't download the file attachments, like the xmltvlistings.com instructions found on page 16.

I've had no trouble posting to this forum, so not sure what your problem is. I have been using xmltvlistings.com since February without any problems. I've found the listings less complete than TV Guide in some respects (e.g., no season, original show date, or episode info) though more complete in some minor manners (a couple of shows in a series I watch on our state public TV network have titles that TV Guide never could provide). They aren't very complete about 'New' vs. "Repeat". The latter seems to be used for the 2nd and later in multiple showings of a new show (I watch mainly public television, where a given episode is shown multiple times during the week). I never use the record 'new' only option, so I'm sorry I cannot help.

40 minutes ago, Holden said:

It looks like Geniatech continues to tinker with its support of the EyeTV 3 application...as the number following the build number in parenthesis is incrementing upwards. I have a download from about the time when a form of a television guide returned that was EyeTV 3.6.9 (7528) 20190727 and the one available for download this morning is EyeTV 3.6.9 (7528) 20190730.

Also sometime within the last few days the number of programs listed under EyeTV Plus has exploded to an astronomical number (the number in the tiny circle to the right of the name). Not being a subscriber to it (still using 7524 and XMLTVListings) I don't know the reason. Let's hope one day soon their tinkering produces a 64-bit version. I'm about to buy a 2018 Mac Mini close to the time OS 10.15 comes out so I have 10.14 and the current EyeTV locked in for at least 2 or 3 years to give Geniatech time to catch up (replacing my 2010 Mini used as a media center).

3 hours ago, UnixGuy said:

I do have this warning dialog box (see attached image) in my EyeTV (build 7416 on Snow Leopard).  So EyeTV did have this feature in the past at least.

Apparently it got lost by build 7524 (which I've been running for quite a while now on El Capitan), though I'm now so careful I don't think I've tried to quit or put the computer to sleep during a recording in quite some time.

5 minutes ago, Holden said:

You got me thinking about this too, since I had memories of this happening as well. So, in the last half hour I tested it. First, I set a program to record and then quit EyeTV but left  my Mini running. A minute or so before the scheduled recording EyeTV launched itself and changed the channel on my Spectrum cable box to the desired channel and began recording. The, I set a program to record and then quit EyeTV AND I powered off the Mac as well and switched the TV's input to the cable box. A minute or so before the scheduled EyeTV program, I was surprised to hear the familiar start-up sound or "chime" and my cable box was changed to the scheduled EyeTV program. When I switched the TV's "input" back to the Mac Mini, it was indeed powered on and the cable box changed the its  channel to the channel the EyeTV was set record.

So...yes both things can and did just happen in my test...i.e. for a scheduled EyeTV program with EyeTV "quit". It relaunched itself to record the program. And if the Mac was powered off, it powered up the Mini and launched EyeTV and began recording the scheuled program. I never let my Mac go into "sleep"mode, so I don't know what happens when it is sleeping with regard to EyeTV. So, it appears if your Mini is haunted Rick, mine it as well.

Well that's impressive. And I learned something and stand corrected. Thanks for running this definitive test and reporting the results. Is this with build 7524 or 7528? We would need someone with more technical expertise than I have to explain how this happens, but I assume that EyeTV ties into the Mac OS in some way to accomplish this. With additional Apple security in the newer OS's (e.g., Mohave), I wonder if this feature will continue to work? In a related aspect, I do know that if you accidentally quit EyeTV during a recording, the recording immediately stops . . . there should be a warning dialog box, but isn't (that's a small bug in EyeTV), as I've found out the hard way.

34 minutes ago, PickleRick said:

My issue: does EyeTV boot the computer when there's a scheduled recording?  It used to for me (I think) but it hasn't been doing it lately.  I have my Mini set to auto log in, so it shouldn't be a password issue.

Briefly, the answer to your question is "no, not now or ever." I think you are probably referring to EyeTV waking the computer from sleep to record, which it does automatically and still should do. However, it cannot do anything if it isn't running (i.e., it will NOT auto record if you quit EyeTV). I don't think ANY software can boot a computer except internal within Apple's own OS. For EyeTV, the same would apply if the computer is running but you are logged out of your account. I am still using build 7524 (since my EPG needs were being met, I didn't need to upgrade to 7528), so I can't comment on features or problems with 7528.