WisconsinEric

EPG from XMLTVListings

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Silly me. "Date added" is yesterday, so it is the fresh copy I installed then, which "learned" the schedules somewhere.. This suggests the main application was not uninstalled at all. Maybe just resetting the prefs would have done the job. Some people badmouth EyeTV, but after working with it for years, I think it is a sophisticated and stable piece of software whose present owners don't understand it very well.

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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.

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I am hoping you fine folks here can help me.  I have been trying to get the XMLTV guide workflow to work and I have a lot of  it working (import, connecting channels, etc), but I have a persistent problem that I cannot seem to get around. I use a EyeTV HD connected to cable box with an IR blaster for channel change and for years this worked great.  With the death of the guide service, I tried many many things before I got to this forum and found that it was a systemic problem and not just me.  Along the way, I lost my channel line up.

Now every time I try to configure the set top box or run the setup assistant, it cannot find any channel line up in my area or any zip code I try.  I have an old channel line up file and by deleting a bunch of preference files etc. I was able to load it, but all the channels are configured for a Service called "Set Top Box."  No matter what I do not I cannot seem to complete configuring the set top box and therefore clicking on a channel or program in the guide (from XMLTV) does not tune to that channel live and instead pops a dialog saying the channel is not available, please verify that the device is connected. Obviously recording is a non-starter as well.

I'm perfectly fine editing XML files (that's how I got the channel line up back in) but I cannot figure out how to get out of the set top box not configured state.  If I try to search for a channel line up by zip code (I'm in the USA) I get the spinning beach ball until I force quit EyeTV.

Do any of you with experience have ideas?  I am open to a total redo at this point, but I thought I had done that by following the FAQ and deleting all the pref files scattered all over.

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Maybe I am too late to offer any help but I have had an old experience with EyeTV 3 after Geniatech released an update some time ago. The new update no longer supported my HD HomeRun tuner box. Seems like Geniatech only wanted to do business with people who purchased their hardware at that time. So I had to re-install an older version of EyeTV 3 (7524). So just make sure the you selected your hardware box in the preferences panel and check your signal from your cable box. Mine shows the received signal strength and signal quality for all of the video tuners. 

Your hardware,  EyeTV HD, was that purchased from El Gato or maybe Silicon Dust? El Gato was the company that developed the early versions of EyeTv software. Then came Silicon Dust and now we got Geniatech.

I am using a MacMIni, late 2012, OS 10.12.6, EyeTv 3 (7528). Configured for HD HomeRun Quatro for Broadcast Television.

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I just noticed that the XML TV Listings data is including the season and episode for some, but not all shows. I'm pretty sure this is a new development, but maybe I haven't been paying attention. For those shows that include that data, the "Record All" button is available. That will allow for the automated creation of Smart Guides that I've been missing. It's also nice to have the season and episode info again. 

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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).

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Hello-

I have continued using this method to successfully obtain schedules, the only change being I am now using a Samsung TV as a display. I haven't upgraded the EyeTV software because the new version doesn't support my HD Homerun tuner. Lately, though, I've noticed a small glitch: The computer wakes from sleep and acquires the schedule, but the following morning I notice the computer has not gone back to sleep as per instructions. This is not always the case. Sometimes the fluctuating power light shows it is properly snoozing, but most of the time it has insomnia and when I power up the TV, the computer is awake. I tried increasing the awake time a bit, and unchecking "wake computer for network access," but without result. I can't identify what is causing this sleep/wake anomaly.

Another question: I started handling audio by sending output to the display by HDMI cable and using the TV's optical audio out, using an optical splitter and a digital/analog converter to send the audio to a sound bar and (analog) to the stereo receiver. This handles audio from both the computer and a streaming box which also connects to TV with HDMI that Xfinity sent me out of the blue. One small glitch: Whenever I have to restart for some reason (High Sierra), the outputs in the Sound panel of Sys Prefs revert to HEADPHONE and cause momentary consternation until I remember to go and reset SAMSUNG as output for system audio and alerts. Is there a workaround to make the sound settings stick?

 

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New and undesired behavior...

For some time I downloaded a xmltv.xml file and dropped it on eyeTV, the little watch appeared and spun for a few seconds, and I had guide info for about 12 days.  Starting 7-10 days ago, I download, I drop, and nothing happens, no spinning watch, no guide info.  I can not identify anything that has changed in my system, eyeTV, or the xml file.  Anyone else see similar behavior?

 

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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.

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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.

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Thank you WE.  I am also on a 2018 mini running 14.6 and 7524, I rebooted, then tried clearing guide data, then tried clearing eyeTV prefs, all to no avail.  I also tried using the script line to open the xml file in eyeTV rather than dropping.  All to no avail.  And the reason I'm doing it manually is that I found your guide only a couple days ago when searching for a solution to my problem.  I've been using guide data generated from zap2epg.py which runs against tvschedule.zap2it.com but the file appears fine ... it certainly includes the relevant data.  Very annoying.

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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.

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Yes, I know this is an old topic but XMLTV Listings has come up during the latest outage at Geniatech.

Since Geniatech refunded me my subscription fee they therefore canceled my Premium EPG Service. Now I am trying out XMLTV Listings for over air broadcast and have had a mostly successful experience. XMLTV Listings does not find all my channels unfortunately (one is missing so getting that lineup via ATSC/OpenCable), but that is minor.

 

 

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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).

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Hello WisconsinEric, Well this has been a ongoing problem for many years. I have a post about this issue dated in 2016. The last time Geniatech actually had to change the Program EyeTV 3 so that everyone could have an EPG that was supplied by TV guide . This EPG has failed for me and now, before the end of it's subscription it will not update daily. I have tried contacting Geniatech about this issue but no response. 

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2 hours ago, JimBob said:

Hello WisconsinEric, Well this has been a ongoing problem for many years. I have a post about this issue dated in 2016. The last time Geniatech actually had to change the Program EyeTV 3 so that everyone could have an EPG that was supplied by TV guide . This EPG has failed for me and now, before the end of it's subscription it will not update daily. I have tried contacting Geniatech about this issue but no response. 

Some people have gotten emails after multiple support requests. I got an email ("from eytev-oldproducts-support") after my second request. It stated that their engineer is working on the problem and will send feedback once they have a solution.

I've already received my refund since my subscription was within PayPal refund period (March 2022) so I am not so concerned. This is a worldwide outage of services from Geniatech; North America and Europe EPG services are down. And as I have said elsewhere in the forums, the TitanTV partnership is broken so the remote scheduling can't be used. 

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Hello TBinNM, I'm not sure why you are replying to my Post with information that so out of date. eyeTV 3.6.9 build (7530) was created recently for the "TVGuide EPG". This failure of no EPG being available for eyeTV 3 has happened too many times. You seem to be talking about the EPG from Titan. I know that was available in 2008 because that was when I first purchased EyeTV from Elgato. Since then there  has been; Siliondust & Geniatech. I'm not sure but the change over might have happened with Silicon Dust but there were many years while there was no Titian EPG.

Additionally the EPG from TvGuide contains almost no information. Specifically it only contains the show’s name and series date. Nothing else to help you create a list to play show to view in sequence or help you determine if you have previously seen the show. How worthless !

Please stop posting irrelevant information , thank you so much.

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25 minutes ago, JimBob said:

You seem to be talking about the EPG from Titan.

The "partnership" with TitanTV I am talking about (partners.titantv.com or titantv.com) is supposed to provide remote scheduling from the TitanTV website to EyeTV. Remote scheduling stopped working for me in early August, about the same time Premium EPG Service (TV Guide) stopped downloading data.

EyeTV 3.6.9 build 7530 was released LAST YEAR to fix the EPG outage lasting from Premium EPG Service.

I am actually responding to people having an ongoing problem with EPG download and I said that I began to use the XMLTV subscription which has been fairly in its setup and Apple Script download using the guide at XMLTV.com help page.

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