[mythtv-users] Trying to get schedules direct working

[Douglas Peale]

I'm trying to follow the instructions here: https://wiki.mythtv.org/wiki/XMLTV

for the "Setup with tv_grab_zz_sdjson"

with my notes from previous attempts:

To allow MythTV to sleep, mythfilldatabase must be working.
need to install
xmltv
xmltv-util
need to run:
sudo runuser -l mythtv
tv_grab_zz_sdjson --configure --config-file $HOME/.mythtv/North.xmltv
tv_grab_zz_sdjson --configure --config-file $HOME/.mythtv/NorthWest.xmltv
tv_grab_zz_sdjson --configure --config-file $HOME/.mythtv/NorthWest\ ATSC3.xmltv
tv_grab_zz_sdjson --configure --config-file $HOME/.mythtv/South.xmltv
exit

After doing this, this is what shows up in the log:

2026-05-15T18:09:21.927476-07:00 BlackBox mythfilldatabase: mythfilldatabase[65912]: I CoreContext filldata.cpp:149 (GrabData) 
XMLTV config file is: /home/mythtv/.mythtv/North.xmltv
2026-05-15T18:09:22.227563-07:00 BlackBox mythfilldatabase: mythfilldatabase[65912]: E CoreContext filldata.cpp:224 (GrabData) 
XMLTV grabber returned error code 1
2026-05-15T18:09:22.227629-07:00 BlackBox mythfilldatabase: mythfilldatabase[65912]: E CoreContext xmltvparser.cpp:842 
(parseFile) Malformed XML file, missing </tv> element, at line 1, Premature end of document.
2026-05-15T18:09:22.427882-07:00 BlackBox mythfilldatabase: mythfilldatabase[65912]: I CoreContext filldata.cpp:326 (Run) 
Updating source #5 (South) with grabber tv_grab_zz_sdjson
2026-05-15T18:09:22.427935-07:00 BlackBox mythfilldatabase: mythfilldatabase[65912]: I CoreContext filldata.cpp:341 (Run) Found 
24 channels for source 5 which use grabber
2026-05-15T18:09:22.727955-07:00 BlackBox mythfilldatabase: mythfilldatabase[65912]: I CoreContext filldata.cpp:408 (Run) 
Grabber has capabilities: baseline manualconfig preferredmethod
2026-05-15T18:09:23.028205-07:00 BlackBox mythfilldatabase: mythfilldatabase[65912]: I CoreContext filldata.cpp:433 (Run) 
Grabber prefers method: allatonce

It is pretty clear that MythTV wants an xml file, but the resulting .xmltv configuration file is not an xml file. For example 
the "North.xmltv" file is as follows:

$ cat North.xmltv
cache=/home/mythtv/.xmltv/tv_grab_zz_sdjson.cache
channel-id-format=mythtv
previously-shown-format=date
username=Censored
password=Censored
mode=lineup
lineup!USA-OTA-95127

I am obviously doing something wrong, but I have been unable to guess what.

MythTV version: 2:34.0+fixes.20240210.e3e165a1-0ubuntu6

OS version: Linux Mint 22.3 - Cinnamon 64-bit

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