[mythtv-users] UK xmltv/tv_grab_uk_rt woes - argh!

Tue May 4 11:44:41 EDT 2004

At 16:20 04/05/2004 +0100, you wrote:
>Hi there,
>
>Sorry to hear about your xmltv troubles. I'm running Gentoo and havn't had
>any problems with it, but I'll see if I can throw a few ideas your way
>anyhow.
>
>1) You shouldn't need to run "tv_grab_uk_rt --configure". The myth setup
>program does that for you when configureing a TV source. Admittedly it's a
>pain 'cos you think at first that it has hung, when in fact you just need to
>ALT-Tab to your terminal window. There you'll see the configure run through
>for xmltv. When you exit you should be able to run mythfilldatabase without
>problems.

Aye, that's what I've been doing - the Myth docs are very clear up to this 
point! I only ever tried configuring manually once I realised that the 
mythfilldatabase --manual function wasn't doing what it said on the tin.

>2) If you insist on running it yourself, you'll still need a source setup
>and "attached" to the card input you'll be using. If we assume you've
>managed to configure a ~/.mythtv/channel xmltv config file, you must run
>"tv_grab_uk_rt --config-file ~/.mythtv/channel --output listings.xml". Once
>you got the xml file you can run "mythfilldatabase --file 1 0 listings.xml"
>which should populate your database.

I shall give that a whirl, but Initial Reports Confirm (i.e. 5 minutes of 
mucking about with switches and redirects) that it looks like RT is 
blocking (default) XMLTV access. I'm going to attempt to get the haXx0ring 
hat on and see if I can convince RT to let me in with a user/pass I made 
myself and see if that solves anything. Hopefully looking at PERL code 
won't make me go mad.

>As you can see it is far easier to set it up through the initial myth setup
>prog. The xmltv ids (london.bbc1.bbc.co.uk etc.) aren't real URLs they are
>just used for identifying channels withing xmltv. If you are still having
>trouble with the channel numbers and xmltv ids then MythWeb is probably the
>easiest way to adjust these. I found I had to do quite a bit of tweaking.

Aha, I see - I had no idea XMLTV used "fake URLs" - no wonder it had me 
confused! I've already written my own BASH script to test every single 
frequency and channel number that I can receive so I can compile a list of 
channel numbers and frequencies and insert them into the DB manually if 
neccessary.

Am I right in thinking that Myth will be able to change channels 
automagically, and I won't have to call ptune.pl manually? I don't even 
want to go into the bother of telling you what I had to do just to get 
ptune.pl working (damned documentation!)!

/mind boggles at funkiness of Myth

So many questions! Answers on a postcard please. Or an old slice of pizza 
if you're so inclined!

Thanks for the replies chaps - all too many of the Gentoo forum goers just 
tell me to reinstall things. Makes me wonder why I didn't join this list 
sooner!

>Hope some of that helps,
>
>Adam
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: mythtv-users-bounces at mythtv.org
> > [mailto:mythtv-users-bounces at mythtv.org] On Behalf Of Stephen Tait
> > Sent: 04 May 2004 15:33
> > To: mythtv-users at mythtv.org
> > Subject: [mythtv-users] UK xmltv/tv_grab_uk_rt woes - argh!
> >
> >
> > OK, another guy with a fairly basic Myth setup. Ickle desktop
> > case with a
> > PVR-250 in it, running Gentoo with MythTV 0.13 and XMLTV
> > 0.5.32 (latest
> > version). ivTV works fine in mPlayer and all the rest of 'em
> > (I even got
> > audio working after I found out the UK version needed
> > different module
> > parameters!).
> >
> > I've followed as many instructions as I could find to try and
> > get the TV
> > listings to work, but so far nada. I've made a similar post
> > on the Gentoo
> > forums and am about to go find somewhere to post it in the
> > XMLTV lists.
> >
> > Initial Myth setup goes swimmingly until the time comes to
> > populate the
> > database.
> >
> > I first set up XMLTV to use tv_grab_uk_rt (using the
> > --configure option) to
> > create my ~/.xmltv/channel file which lists all the channels
> > I want - BBC 1
> > & 2, ITV, Channel 4 and 5. When I run mythfilldatabase
> > --manual (or just
> > regular mythfilldatabase) everything goes pear shaped.
> >
> > 1) Nothing ever gets written to the database in the
> > "channels" section. The
> > rest of the database (music, video, etc etc) all gets updated
> > immediately
> >
> > 2) XMLTV is using the wrong channels. It lists BBC 1 on
> > channel 1, when
> > it's actually channel 26. Same for other channels.
> >
> > 3) No program data is downloaded.
> >
> > The text I get spewed back after XMLTV hangs (if I press
> > return five times,
> > this message pops up):
> >
> > Unknown xmltv channel identifier: london.bbc1.bbc.co.uk
> > Skipping channel Unknown xmltv channel identifier:
> > channel4.com Skipping channel Unknown xmltv channel
> > identifier: channel5.co.uk Skipping channel Unknown xmltv
> > channel identifier: central.carlton.com Skipping channel
> > Unknown xmltv channel identifier: london.bbc2.bbc.co.uk
> > Skipping channel
> >
> > XMLTV barfs on this, and then tries to download the next days
> > data, and
> > fails, ad inifinitum. It probably doesn't help that half of
> > those URL's
> > don't seem to exist - not that it shoud need them, since it's
> > grabbing from
> > radiotimes.co.uk right? - but then I don't know how XMLTV
> > works (though I
> > might have to find out at this rate).
> >
> > Does anyone have a clue a) what's going wrong and b) how I
> > can fix it? I've
> > decided that what UK users need is a good consolidated howto
> > for setting up
> > MythTV in a limey environment, since documentation on the PAL side of
> > things is sketchy to say the least (oh google, where would I
> > be without
> > you?). If anyone has any help, I'd be exceedingly grateful
> > and have already
> > been compiling a step-by-step guide onto getting Myth and ivtv up and
> > running in a UK environment (tailored for Gentoo, but being
> > made relevant
> > to all distros).
> >
> > Thanks in advance!
> >
> > Tait
> >
> > New found hater of XML file formats ;^)
> >
> >
>
>
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