I have 3 machines running this setup and all 3 seem to have quit displaying guide data at roughly the same time. The collector seems to get the download and exits with a code 0, looking at the xml ,it looks like all the data is there but wmc cannot seem to display it
If you do a google search on zap2xml, you will see people reporting issues in plex,emby,etc starting around the middle of Dec.
This is the second week in a row that my zap2xml guide & cache have gotten corrupted. In this case the corruption occurred ~ 01/01/2021 about 1:00 am and stayed corrupted until ~ 01/04/2021. Solution in both cases was to increase the -N parameter to delete the corrupted cache. For me in both cases I would end up with shows that went on for days in the guide.
These issues may be a symptom of a change at zap2it or simply some temporary issues on the site.
To the best of my knowledge, no one has taken over the maintenance of the version of zap2xml most of us here use so even a minor change on the site could cause the utility to completely stop working.
Hopefully, these are just symptoms of temporary problems on the site rather than the beginning of the end for zapwxml.
Last edit: s armstrong 2020-12-30
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
on the command line include "-N #" where # is the number of days of cache to delete and reprocess. You usually want this to be as small a number as possible to get the results you need because processing from cache runs faster and puts less burden on the zap2it site.
The primary reason for this is so guide updates replace old data so the upcoming N days have the most current/accurate data possible. I mostly see it with weekend sports, others have mentioned guest names on talk shows. An initial guide listing 10 or more days out might not have the teams that are playing but eventually the guide would update with the detailed info. If the cache is not cleared, sometimes the old incomplete listings are not replaced with newer info. For that reason I usually run with "-N 2" so if I setup weekend recordings on Friday I have up to date info. When these problems occured i temporarily did one run with the N parameter bumped up to 4 to clear out the corrupted data. You can always just clear out the cache directory to completely refresh the guide. Just be aware that depending on the number of channels you get for your guide,number of days,etc this can run significantly longer.
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
Anyone interested in seeing my particular zap2xml xmltv issue, I've attached the "bad" and "good" xmltv files from zap2xml. Good is after deleting cache entries for that day and re-running. Since I , so far, have not noticed the issue until days after it's initial download I don't know what the zap2it site looked like when the problem initially occurs. Once in the zap2xml cache, however, it doesn't correct itself until cache is deleted. [sorry, don't know xml well enough to know best start/stop places]
Here is 1 example from the bad/good xml files:
If you search for "the nfl today" in each of the files you see that this 1 hour program in the "bad" file goes on for about a day. After clearing cache, the "good" version shows the correct end time.
"Bad"
<new>
<subtitles type="teletext">
<programme start="20210103110000 -0600" stop="20210104023500 -0600" channel="I4.1.21234.zap2it.com">
<title lang="en">The NFL Today</title>
<desc lang="en">Get ready for all of Sunday's game action on CBS with "The NFL Today." Hosted by James Brown, the hourlong show presents a mix of features, highlights, predictions and the latest news from across the league. Analysts alongside Brown include former players Boomer Esiason, Phil Simms and Nate Burleson, and onetime Pittsburgh Steelers coach Bill Cowher.</desc>
<category lang="en">Sports</category>
<category lang="en">Football</category>
<category lang="en">Sports talk</category>
<length units="minutes">30</length>
<icon src="https://zap2it.tmsimg.com/assets/p185928_b_v9_ae.jpg"></icon></programme></subtitles></new>
"Good"</programme><programmestart="20210103110000 -0600"stop="20210103120000 -0600"channel="I4.1.21234.zap2it.com"><titlelang="en">TheNFLToday</title><desclang="en">GetreadyforallofSunday's game action on CBS with "The NFL Today." Hosted by James Brown, the hourlong show presents a mix of features, highlights, predictions and the latest news from across the league. Analysts alongside Brown include former players Boomer Esiason, Phil Simms and Nate Burleson, and onetime Pittsburgh Steelers coach Bill Cowher.</desc><categorylang="en">Sports</category><categorylang="en">Football</category><categorylang="en">Sportstalk</category><lengthunits="minutes">30</length><iconsrc="https://zap2it.tmsimg.com/assets/p185928_b_v9_ae.jpg"/><url>https://tvlistings.zap2it.com//overview.html?programSeriesId=SH00276900&tmsId=SH002769000000</url><episode-numsystem="dd_progid">SH00276900.0000</episode-num><new/><live/><subtitlestype="teletext"/></programme>
Note: many other, similar issues. Just an example.
I have 3 machines running this setup and all 3 seem to have quit displaying guide data at roughly the same time. The collector seems to get the download and exits with a code 0, looking at the xml ,it looks like all the data is there but wmc cannot seem to display it
See my comment in the other thread on this topic. Check the log - it tells you at the end the range of dates that were in the xml file.
rookie here, which log and where is it?
If you do a google search on zap2xml, you will see people reporting issues in plex,emby,etc starting around the middle of Dec.
This is the second week in a row that my zap2xml guide & cache have gotten corrupted. In this case the corruption occurred ~ 01/01/2021 about 1:00 am and stayed corrupted until ~ 01/04/2021. Solution in both cases was to increase the -N parameter to delete the corrupted cache. For me in both cases I would end up with shows that went on for days in the guide.
These issues may be a symptom of a change at zap2it or simply some temporary issues on the site.
To the best of my knowledge, no one has taken over the maintenance of the version of zap2xml most of us here use so even a minor change on the site could cause the utility to completely stop working.
Hopefully, these are just symptoms of temporary problems on the site rather than the beginning of the end for zapwxml.
Last edit: s armstrong 2020-12-30
How do I increase the -N parameter? it's been a year since I set these up.
on the command line include "-N #" where # is the number of days of cache to delete and reprocess. You usually want this to be as small a number as possible to get the results you need because processing from cache runs faster and puts less burden on the zap2it site.
The primary reason for this is so guide updates replace old data so the upcoming N days have the most current/accurate data possible. I mostly see it with weekend sports, others have mentioned guest names on talk shows. An initial guide listing 10 or more days out might not have the teams that are playing but eventually the guide would update with the detailed info. If the cache is not cleared, sometimes the old incomplete listings are not replaced with newer info. For that reason I usually run with "-N 2" so if I setup weekend recordings on Friday I have up to date info. When these problems occured i temporarily did one run with the N parameter bumped up to 4 to clear out the corrupted data. You can always just clear out the cache directory to completely refresh the guide. Just be aware that depending on the number of channels you get for your guide,number of days,etc this can run significantly longer.
Anyone interested in seeing my particular zap2xml xmltv issue, I've attached the "bad" and "good" xmltv files from zap2xml. Good is after deleting cache entries for that day and re-running. Since I , so far, have not noticed the issue until days after it's initial download I don't know what the zap2it site looked like when the problem initially occurs. Once in the zap2xml cache, however, it doesn't correct itself until cache is deleted. [sorry, don't know xml well enough to know best start/stop places]
Here is 1 example from the bad/good xml files:
If you search for "the nfl today" in each of the files you see that this 1 hour program in the "bad" file goes on for about a day. After clearing cache, the "good" version shows the correct end time.
"Bad"
<new>
<subtitles type="teletext">
<programme start="20210103110000 -0600" stop="20210104023500 -0600" channel="I4.1.21234.zap2it.com">
<title lang="en">The NFL Today</title>
<desc lang="en">Get ready for all of Sunday's game action on CBS with "The NFL Today." Hosted by James Brown, the hourlong show presents a mix of features, highlights, predictions and the latest news from across the league. Analysts alongside Brown include former players Boomer Esiason, Phil Simms and Nate Burleson, and onetime Pittsburgh Steelers coach Bill Cowher.</desc>
<category lang="en">Sports</category>
<category lang="en">Football</category>
<category lang="en">Sports talk</category>
<length units="minutes">30</length>
<icon src="https://zap2it.tmsimg.com/assets/p185928_b_v9_ae.jpg"></icon></programme></subtitles></new>
Note: many other, similar issues. Just an example.
Not sure if files will attach due to size
Last edit: s armstrong 2020-12-31
Still not sure I understand what caused the issue but adding the -N switch got my guide data back , Thanks for all the help