It's really sad that thetvdb.com is so flaky. It's really the best resource of its kind. I will do an update to avoid the error when the search engine is not available. Until then everything works fine after the search times out, right?
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
These errors come from the fact that thetvdb.com is sometimes down. I need to make the error more clear. In TOT I just added the ability to turn off auto-search. Not quite ready for prime time yet, but getting close. I will hopefully get out a release soon…
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
Anonymous
-
2009-11-14
Thank you cmarrin.
I'm looking forward to a new release, but can't this be fixed by editing the commands.xml? Haven't looked yet and don't want to mess around in there too much.
But this error is really annoying because the error pops up about 10 times with about 1 minute interval before the file is added….
***grrrr**** ;-)
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
Unfortunately this part of the logic isn't in the XML file.
The good news is that this only happens when thetvdb
goes down. While this is too often for my taste, it
doesn't really happen a lot
I do need to start thinking about more reliable alternatives
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
Well, I'm glad to hear that this is a known problem, I thought there was something wrong with my computer. The thing is, I don't know how rare a condition this is: basically every time I've tried to use VM in the past couple of weeks, I've run into this commands.xml error. The error box keeps popping up, over and over again, and I've not had the patience to wait for it to stop - good to hear, above, that it does, eventually.
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
Been using VM for around a week & am mightily relieved to see this error is related to some external resource, or the absence thereof, as I've been telling everyone about how useful VM is shaping up to be & moving them from the venerable iSquint.
Hope you find an alternative to thetvdb &/or add a preference for switching off automatic look up.
May I also suggest a preference for whether to look up movies or tv first. This is because I (in)tend to convert films in batches and TV shows in different batches.
Many thanks & please do keep up the great work.
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
Yes, let me join talbym in praising Video Monkey - thanks so much for creating it! Once I get past the error prompts, it works like a charm, and the user interface is clean and elegant.
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
I checked the forum for thetvdb.com (which is thankfully at a different site!) and this is a problem that has been ongoing for a few days. They are apparently moving to a new server and having some problems. The good news is that they will hopefully have less downtime in the future.
I've also been looking into IMDb for a way to legally use their data. I think it's possible, but would involve storing about 350MB of IMDb data on every machine and keeping it up-to-date. So if I do that it would obviously be opt-in.
More later…
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
I'm going to throw my hat in with a request for a minor bug fix release that allows us to circumvent the thetvdb.com lookup. Currently I get the message 5 times for each file I add, and there is a 1 minute delay between each message. That means it takes me five minutes to add each file I want to convert. I ripped a bunch of my son's Hot Wheels DVD's and wanted to batch convert them last night to stream through my XBox. It took over 20 minutes just to add the files to VideoMonkey!
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
Well, the site seems to be working again, but if it's not too hard to make that look-up optional, that would still be a great feature to have. I'm ripping some shows from my DVDs right now, and converting them afterward to iPod format with Video Monkey - and the result of the tvdb.com look-up seems to be to make every single episode show up in iTunes as the same episode! (Same title, same description, over and over, for episodes that are definitely not the same! I'd certainly turn it off if I could - right now, it obscures the original information about the file name, which I used to be able to use to figure out which episode was which. Now they're all "episode X". :))
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
I also think that having the web lookup optional would be really beneficial - I would really speed up the process of adding files to the encoding queue, and enable the encoding of movies when internet connections are not available (or provider websites down).
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
I get the error:
Error parsing commands.xml
zero byte resource
The only thing I am doing is adding the -threads 8 (as I have a MacPro) to the iTunes section of that file and saving it via textedit.
I just started getting the same thing. I've trashed the app and redownloaded it. I've tried a different user account. Any ideas what is going on?
The console logs are not helpful.
It looks like it is failing to connect to www.theTVdb.com.
hmm, yes I can't reach the site from my browser or via a ping.
Looks like Videomonkey does not handle reaching the two lookup sites gracefully.
Getting the same error. Is this going to be temporary or will this need a new version to fix?
It's really sad that thetvdb.com is so flaky. It's really the best resource of its kind. I will do an update to avoid the error when the search engine is not available. Until then everything works fine after the search times out, right?
I did almost the same thing except I changed mine to detect automatic. Worked fine (two-ish weeks) until this morning for some unexplained reason.
Error happened again today. Will there be an update? Thank you!
These errors come from the fact that thetvdb.com is sometimes down. I need to make the error more clear. In TOT I just added the ability to turn off auto-search. Not quite ready for prime time yet, but getting close. I will hopefully get out a release soon…
Thank you cmarrin.
I'm looking forward to a new release, but can't this be fixed by editing the commands.xml? Haven't looked yet and don't want to mess around in there too much.
But this error is really annoying because the error pops up about 10 times with about 1 minute interval before the file is added….
***grrrr**** ;-)
Unfortunately this part of the logic isn't in the XML file.
The good news is that this only happens when thetvdb
goes down. While this is too often for my taste, it
doesn't really happen a lot
I do need to start thinking about more reliable alternatives
Well, I'm glad to hear that this is a known problem, I thought there was something wrong with my computer. The thing is, I don't know how rare a condition this is: basically every time I've tried to use VM in the past couple of weeks, I've run into this commands.xml error. The error box keeps popping up, over and over again, and I've not had the patience to wait for it to stop - good to hear, above, that it does, eventually.
Been using VM for around a week & am mightily relieved to see this error is related to some external resource, or the absence thereof, as I've been telling everyone about how useful VM is shaping up to be & moving them from the venerable iSquint.
Hope you find an alternative to thetvdb &/or add a preference for switching off automatic look up.
May I also suggest a preference for whether to look up movies or tv first. This is because I (in)tend to convert films in batches and TV shows in different batches.
Many thanks & please do keep up the great work.
Yes, let me join talbym in praising Video Monkey - thanks so much for creating it! Once I get past the error prompts, it works like a charm, and the user interface is clean and elegant.
I checked the forum for thetvdb.com (which is thankfully at a different site!) and this is a problem that has been ongoing for a few days. They are apparently moving to a new server and having some problems. The good news is that they will hopefully have less downtime in the future.
I've also been looking into IMDb for a way to legally use their data. I think it's possible, but would involve storing about 350MB of IMDb data on every machine and keeping it up-to-date. So if I do that it would obviously be opt-in.
More later…
I'm having this problem too :( It's making it very difficult to use VideoMonkey. Could a minor bug fix release be issued just to fix this?
I too had the same problem.
This error appears to have changed text now to:
`The requested URL was not found on this server`
and only affects metadata lookup at <http://www.thetvdb.com/>
I'm going to throw my hat in with a request for a minor bug fix release that allows us to circumvent the thetvdb.com lookup. Currently I get the message 5 times for each file I add, and there is a 1 minute delay between each message. That means it takes me five minutes to add each file I want to convert. I ripped a bunch of my son's Hot Wheels DVD's and wanted to batch convert them last night to stream through my XBox. It took over 20 minutes just to add the files to VideoMonkey!
Well, the site seems to be working again, but if it's not too hard to make that look-up optional, that would still be a great feature to have. I'm ripping some shows from my DVDs right now, and converting them afterward to iPod format with Video Monkey - and the result of the tvdb.com look-up seems to be to make every single episode show up in iTunes as the same episode! (Same title, same description, over and over, for episodes that are definitely not the same! I'd certainly turn it off if I could - right now, it obscures the original information about the file name, which I used to be able to use to figure out which episode was which. Now they're all "episode X". :))
I also think that having the web lookup optional would be really beneficial - I would really speed up the process of adding files to the encoding queue, and enable the encoding of movies when internet connections are not available (or provider websites down).
sorry, that last part of the sentence should have started with "it would really speed up…" instead of "I would really speed up…"
:-)
And let's not forget those who are not always connected to the Internet.
I see this same error 100% of the time I'm not connected; only coming here and trying VM while online have I used VM error free.