Is tv_grab_na failing for anyone else this morning? Is this the big push to move everyone to the data direct service?


checking provider information for postal/zip code 27613, be patient..
double checking channel information, be patient..
zap2it failed to give us a form to choose a Text Listings
failed 1 times, will retry after 30 seconds..
zap2it gave us a server error, but let's go for it anyway
Use of uninitialized value in substitution (s///) at /usr/share/perl5/XMLTV/ZapListings.pm line 267.
Use of uninitialized value in substitution (s///) at /usr/share/perl5/XMLTV/ZapListings.pm line 280.
Use of uninitialized value in pattern match (m//) at /usr/share/perl5/XMLTV/ZapListings.pm line 300.
Use of uninitialized value in substitution (s///) at /usr/share/perl5/XMLTV/ZapListings.pm line 362.

It's OK on mine.

Just curious how you fixed this since my MythBox is refusing to download listings now, with tv_grab_na error messages, also.

I can't update my program listings anymore. It gives me an error that I can't find tv_grab_na. I did a find and the file is missing. I have files like tv_grab_na_dd and tv_grab_de and things, but no tv_grab_na, which is the file I need.

I started to have to do mythfilldatabase commands manually lately. It used to automatically go out and get listings at 6:30 am, but it kept failing the last few weeks. I thought it was failing because it was being impatient since my internet connection is through another computer running Internet Connection Sharing on Windows XP with a modem. I thought it just wasn't waiting long enough for it to dial-up before trying to download listings.

Well, today I tried to do mythfilldatabase and it said something about not being able to find tv_grab_na (and then laughed evilly). The only thing I can think of is that it somehow messed me when I did my last apt-get install xmltv about 3 or 4 days ago. It seemed to install the xmltv update just fine, but now my tv_grab_na file has been whisked into the ether. I tried apt-get install again for xmltv, but it just mocks me more by telling me that everything is up to date and supposedly working (hmm, don't think so).

Is there a way to force a re-download of the XMLTV package again, or to get my tv_grab_na file back where it belongs (in /usr/bin ?)?

Ok, I found out why I'm having problems. XMLTV no longer includes tv_grab_na in the latest version (.33). It actually comes along and deletes it for you if you do apt-get install.

Ignore the messages that mythfilldatabase gives you about a newer version being available. Newer version = death.

After hassling with installing an older version manually (.31) that included tv_grab_na, I gave up since I couldn't make the older version. There were all kinds of dependancies on things that weren't installed.

I finally gave up and restored my backup of the entire Linux partition from a month ago since it was easier to do this than hassle with everything.

Nothing like keeping existing interfaces intact (tv_grab_na) so that older software (KnoppMyth) doesn't break. I thought keeping interfaces intact was a principle of OO. I guess XMLTV doesn't care much about backwards compatibility, tho.

The moral of the story? Don't update XMLTV to newer versions unless you like watching things break.

Cheers.

yes it's always good to not fix it if it isn't broke.

but just curious for a compatability standpoint did you try to switch to the tvgrap_na_dd to see if it worked while you had the new version installed?

I tried for a few minutes, but wasn't sure how to configure everything. I got another error instead. (Can't remember what since I didn't write it down.)

It would be nice to move to that version since I understand it runs much more quickly and includes additional information that isn't present in the web-page crawling version.

Backup to the rescue![/b]

Ah, but I am seeing that it is broke. For some reason the process is failing already. It's the 23rd, and I can not fill anything beyond the 28th. I am also missing data on the 25th. So the current mythfilldatabase is broke.

I went ahead and did the upgrade, created an account, ran 'tv_grab_na_dd --configure' providing the appropriate information and succesfully geting a listing, and have attempted to run mythfilldatabase again, only to get the 'unable to find tv_grab_na error message. I linked the tv_grab_na_dd file to tv_grab_na, and now it runs, but it acts as if the user information has not been provided.

On the off chance that mythfilldatabase was running as root rather than user mythtv, I tried running 'tv_grab_na --configure' as root, no change.

If mythfilldatabse were a script, I could probably fix it myself. as it is things don't look good. I will see if I can modify the source, and compile a working version, but at the moment my hopes are not high.

-Rusty

p.s. this is in r4v2.

_________________
Master:
- AMD 1800XP on a MSI KT4V motherboard, via KT400 bios
- 120 G Segate Baracuda /, /cache, /myth, swap
- 200 G Segate Baracuda /myth/tv
- 3 Haupauge! WinTV PVR250s
- 19" Daewoo Monitor (1280x1024 ni)

Ok, here's what I have learned.

As some of you know, Zap2it.com has been tired of screen scrapers for some time. It ties up too much bandwidth, and when you get down to it is not particularly handy with long program descriptions.

In an effort to reduce their bandwidth utilization, and at the same time actually help the people that are interested in getting this kind of information, they have developed a new interface called Data Direct.

Recently they asked the xmltv people why people were still using the screen scrpaer process, and let them know that some of the data they were going to be adding to the web pages was probably going to break the existing screen scrapers. From what I can tell, that has now happened.

In response xmltv pulled tv_grab_na out of the package for the current release. I presume there were other fixes as well, but I have not dug into them, so I may be wrong.

That along with my earlier message explains why some of us are having problems using mythfilldatabase.

Over on the Mythtv-user mailing list it's been talked about as well, which is where I got much of the above information. So if it's wrong, either I interprted things incorrectly, or...

In any case, Mr. Dean over there in message http://mythtv.org/pipermail/mythtv-users/2004-May/041696.html provided this shell script that can be used to import the new format data. There is a flag that can be added to the script to pull down the listings using the old channel ID's, however I did not add that here.



Before you run this script, you will need to create the account, and run 'tv_grab_na_dd --configure' to provide the appropriate information, including your current time ofset (which will be one of
* -0400 for EDT
* -0500 for EST and CDT
* -0600 for CST and MDT
* -0700 for MST and PDT
and
* -0800 for PDT.

I presume that you understand what you need to do if you are outside of North America, but then you probably would not be using the old tv_grab_na in that case.

At the moment the script above will create duplicate channel entries. I personally suspect those will go away as the channel contents expire, but your experience may be different.I find it odd, because it does have the commandline entry that should be using the old channel IDs.

Everything appears to be working with both channel id's at the moment though. I can use either channel entry to watch tv, and for now only one is selected for recording, though I should find out more on that later today. My scheduled recordings does list only one recording of the shows I expect, but only goes through the 28th.

Since I expect the script will be run by cron as a root job, you may want to go in as root and create the same login information.

This is purely an interim measure. The next version of MythTv, 0.15, which is currently in CVS has this fixed already. Unfortunately that doesn't help us in knoppmyth versions v4r2, or v4r3.

Hope this helps someone.

-Rusty

_________________
Master:
- AMD 1800XP on a MSI KT4V motherboard, via KT400 bios
- 120 G Segate Baracuda /, /cache, /myth, swap
- 200 G Segate Baracuda /myth/tv
- 3 Haupauge! WinTV PVR250s
- 19" Daewoo Monitor (1280x1024 ni)

not so bright, didn't check the other fora here first. Probably the best course of action is to look at the stickey in Linux > Mythtv for a better explanation. Meanwhile I will go on with life, and who knows...

_________________
Master:
- AMD 1800XP on a MSI KT4V motherboard, via KT400 bios
- 120 G Segate Baracuda /, /cache, /myth, swap
- 200 G Segate Baracuda /myth/tv
- 3 Haupauge! WinTV PVR250s
- 19" Daewoo Monitor (1280x1024 ni)