Hi,

The context: EyeTV 3, Mac OS X 10.5.1, EEP 0.9.9, xmltv nightly snapshot.

The problem:
I downloaded the latest xmltv from snapshot.xmltv.org to build the latest available grabber – seeems OK, I could get a proper XML.
EEP 0.9.9 installed on my Mac perfectly and it serves my EyeTV but somehing still not OK because EyeTV says: “The current guide (Titan TV) does not cover this country.”. I checked my apache log by extracting the URL where EyeTV asks the data and downloaded it by hand. Everything seems OK except the run_time:

I checked the source XML (grabbed by tv_grab_huro) and realised that the grabber does not give stop timestamps – sample from the base XML:

The reason behind this is that unfortunately the source feed does not contain stop times.
Do you think can this be a reason for EyeTV EPG failure?

Can’t say anything about EyeTV 3, since I don’t have it, but someone else reported it worked fine in another post here.
At what point in the setup steps do you get the “guide does not cover this country” error?

Did you try all the steps of the troubleshooting page ?

Also, make sure data.titantv.com points to your own server by trying to ping it from Terminal.app

I double checked everything based on the Toubleshooting description page. The best result I could achieved till now is that I have a TitanTV channel list within EyeTV Channels window but no EPG.

Things I have changed to fire up EEP on my Leopard installation:
- move /etc/httpd/users/eep.conf to /etc/apache2/users
- uncommented the line “LoadModule php5_module…” in /etc/apache2/httpd.conf
- compiled a fresh xmltv based on http://snapshot.xmltv.org
- downloaded xmltv epg by using tv_grab_huro
- moved the xmltv generated xml to /Library/WebServer/Documents/eyetv-epg-proxy/dataservice.asmx/cache/ as xmltv-A_00001.xml
- changed EEP config file as follows:
$config[‘cacheDays’] = 0;
$config[‘providers’] = array( ‘A_00001’ => array(‘epg-source’ => ‘xmltv’, ‘type’ => ‘analog’, ‘desc’ => ‘mydesc’, ‘city’ => ‘mycity’),
);
- set up EyeTV to use TitanTV as EPG source
- successfully fetched channel list in EyeTV Programs window

After doing these stuffs:
- data.titantv.com now is my Mac
- EPG channel list is OK in EyeTV
- still no EPG data

When I go to EyeTV Preferences/Guide and press Update Now button the update runs smoothly – at least the result is an “Update successful.” message within this window.
Same thing happens from within EyeTV Programs window by choosing “Update TitanTV Guide” from the dropdown button – status messages on the bottom right part of the window:
- contacting server
- downloading
- parsing
- adding programs

I have checked the apache logs
- error_log is empty.
- access_log relevant piece:
127.0.0.1 – - [26/Jan/2008:09:26:35 +0100] “GET /services/partnertools.asmx/GetUUID?PartnerId=51260&ProductId=8&ProductVersion=3%2E0&LoginName=a&Password=a HTTP/1.1” 200 344
127.0.0.1 – - [26/Jan/2008:09:26:35 +0100] “GET /dataservice.asmx/RequestProgramData?UUID=EG4QKZ3LQD3TYHTA484N4BYE7RHAX1&ProviderId=A_00001&DaysRequested=8 HTTP/1.1” 200 7083645

There are some network traffic indeed so EyeTV will have the data – but by the end it evaluates tha received xml as useless: “The current guide (Titan TV) does not cover this country.” in Program Guide window.

I think the problem is with the file generated by tv_grab_huro – if you can provide a minimal skeleton to me what EEP wants to create the proper TitanTv wrap I would check my EEP input again.

My guess is that EyeTV 3 added a check on the country chosen in the Channels pane when using TitanTV EPG data. Maybe you can ask the persons who were able to make it work in EyeTV 3 what is their configuration..?

Here’s what EyeTV (2.x at least) expects from a RequestProgramData call to data.titantv.com:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<ProgramDataCollection xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" 
  xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" 
  xmlns="http://www.titantv.com/services/dataservice">
        <ErrorCode>0</ErrorCode>
        <ErrorDescription>OK</ErrorDescription>
        <ProgramData>
                <BaseTime>2008-01-26 09:00:00</BaseTime>
                <ProviderId>A_00001</ProviderId>
                <UsingCachedData></UsingCachedData>
                <StationCount>46</StationCount>
                <ScheduleCount>18050</ScheduleCount>
                <ProgramCount>4075</ProgramCount>
  <Stations>
    <Station>
      <station_id>1</station_id>
      <call_sign>info-illico Videotron</call_sign>
      <rf_channel>2</rf_channel>
    </Station>
<!-- The rest of the stations are here -->
          </Stations>
  <Programs>
    <Program>
      <program_id>1</program_id>
      <run_time>120</run_time>
      <title>Cable System Information</title>
      <is_episodic>N</is_episodic>
      <description />
      <genre>Other</genre>
      <show_type>Other</show_type>
    </Program>
<!-- The rest of the programs are here -->
  </Programs>
  <Schedules>
    <Schedule>
      <program_id>1</program_id>
      <station_id>1</station_id>
      <start_time>-180</start_time>
      <end_time>-60</end_time>
      <hd>N</hd>
      <stereo>N</stereo>
      <cc>N</cc>
    </Schedule>
<!-- The rest of the schedules are here -->
  </Schedules>
        </ProgramData>
</ProgramDataCollection>

And about the run_time: indeed, XMLTV supports having a start time and no stop time attributes, but EEP doesn’t yet understand this. I’m not sure if EyeTV will correct those by itself, or if a patch will be required to EEP.

Thanks for the sample – I tried to simulate the EEP output:
- replaced the contents of /Library/WebServer/Documents/eyetv-epg-proxy/dataservice.asmx/RequestProgramData to <?php include('RequestProgramData_sim.php') ?>
- created /Library/WebServer/Documents/eyetv-epg-proxy/dataservice.asmx/RequestProgramData_sim.php file based on your sample – here it is:

<?php require_once('functions.inc.php') ?>
<?php sendHTTPHeaders() ?>

<?php echo '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>' ?>
<ProgramDataCollection xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" 
  xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" 
  xmlns="http://www.titantv.com/services/dataservice">
        <ErrorCode>0</ErrorCode>
        <ErrorDescription>OK</ErrorDescription>
        <ProgramData>
                <BaseTime>2008-01-26 15:00:00</BaseTime>
                <ProviderId>A_00001</ProviderId>
                <UsingCachedData></UsingCachedData>
                <StationCount>46</StationCount>
                <ScheduleCount>18050</ScheduleCount>
                <ProgramCount>4075</ProgramCount>
  <Stations>
    <Station>
      <station_id>1</station_id>
      <call_sign>m1</call_sign>
      <rf_channel>1</rf_channel>
    </Station>
  </Stations>
  <Programs>
    <Program>
      <program_id>1</program_id>
      <run_time>120</run_time>
      <title>Cable System Information</title>
      <is_episodic>N</is_episodic>
      <description />
      <genre>Other</genre>
      <show_type>Other</show_type>
    </Program>
  </Programs>
  <Schedules>
    <Schedule>
      <program_id>1</program_id>
      <station_id>1</station_id>
      <start_time>-60</start_time>
      <end_time>60</end_time>
      <hd>N</hd>
      <stereo>N</stereo>
      <cc>N</cc>
    </Schedule>
  </Schedules>
 </ProgramData>
</ProgramDataCollection>

Tried this but Still no EPG :(
Due to xmltv data feed I choose TitanTv as EPG source BUT indeed, I am using Deutscheland & Analog – Antenna/Cable PAL BG setting in Channel setup because this is the most relevant setting to my country.

I am not sure EyeTV3 checks country because there is still a request coming out to data.titantv.com – they can simply disable TitanTV usage for non-US country setting. Anyway, I’ll ask EyeTV3 users about this.

I also downgraded to EyeTV 2.5.1 – results are the same: “The current guide (Titan TV) does not cover this country.”

Some more info:

It seems so you are right and a TitanTv account requires US/Canadian country selection (source: http://faq.elgato.com/index.php/faq/more/512/). Do you have any info about tvtv stream format?

No. tvtv requests from EyeTV are made using HTTPS, so I can’t see them.

I find it weird that you can’t make EEP work in another country, since it’s been confirmed to work in multiple countries in Europe when it was first released… Let me find the post in question…

Ah, maybe it’s because of the service you chose in the Channels tab is not supported! Follow the thread here for more details about this. EEP can’t work in AU because of this; maybe it affects you too.

My suggestion: try other Services in the dropdown found in the Channels tab. That might help.

The problem is in Hungary there is no DVB-T countrywide yet – so all I can use is the Analog Antenna/Cable PAL BG service :S

It’s a pity tvtv cannot be sniffed (I already prepared a wireshark for that).

Just another idea: if Elgato would publish their EPG database file format this would be another point to refresh EPG data.

Anyway I won’t give it up this early and will drop an e-mail to Elgato – in case of any feedback I’ll do post it here as well.

The EPG database is in SQLite format, but it is encrypted so it can’t be accessed by anyone else than Elgato.

Thanks. I wrote a mail to them – in case of any feedback I’ll do post it here as well.

So here is the official answer from Elgato:

Gabor,

Thank you for contacting Elgato Systems.

I’m sorry to hear about your problem.

If TVTV does not support your country yet, then we don’t have an alternative for your analog cable Program Guide.

The interface between TVTV, TitanTV or IceTV and EyeTV are protected, and we can’t expose the interface. This is partially due to the monetary nature of the transaction – the data is not free for us to offer to customers. The EPG database is encrypted via the desires of the EPG providers.

XMLTV is not a source we can support at this time. Changes in what’s required for individual vs business accounts are part of the reason – Elgato, as a business, would have to pay for access to EPG data, except if it appears in the video stream itself (like with DVB). We can’t change the software to offer back doors or workarounds to circumvent this fact.

I can’t say if or when our engineers can offer other EPG options, but we will work with TVTV to try to provide support in other countries. Our goal is to offer a Program Guide in as many countries as possible. We appreciate your concerns, and will do what we can to provide options – however, those options may entail a fee, since the EPG provider has to be paid.

Nick Freeman
Customer Support

Elgato Systems LLC

Hi fns,

I have almost the same problems you have. I am using EyeTv 3.

I am in Brasil and I use the xmltv to grab info from net.tv.br

The solution for me was to add the stop attribube to the xml feed.

The grabber I used do not generate the stop attribute, but I found a post explaining you can introduce the stop attribute pipeling the grab result to tv_sort.

I used tv_grab_br_net—days 2 | tv_sort > feed.xml