STV Import: MovieTimes Movie Listings Import v0.57 Beta

[aperry]

Last updated: July 1, 2006 (v. 0.57 beta)
Release Notes for latest version

Morgan111 has been working on a SageMC compatible version of this STVi. You can find more details in this post.

The MovieTimes STV Import allows you to view movie listings and showtimes in SageTV. It was developed using SageTV version 4, and currently has been tested with 5.0.2 of SageTV. I think that other versions (starting with 4) would work, but I have not tested those. There are some issues in the operation of the import, but it is useable.

The MovieTimes STV Import supports multiple countries (Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, United Kingdom, and United States). I have only personally tested the United States, but the others should work. Let me and key master know if there are problems you encounter in the listings.

This import uses the MovieTimes Standalone (MTSA) program written by the author of the Meedio MovieTimes VBNet Importer (key master).

IMPORTANT: This import requires the .NET Framework to be installed on your computer. It should work with either version 2.0 or version 1.1 of .NET.

For .NET version 2.0, click here.

For .NET version 1.1, click here.

MovieTimes Installation Guide can be found in the ZIP download below.

Download Page


NOTES
1. The MTSA program will take care of only keeping active posters and trailers (if selected) on your system. Once a particular movie drops off your listings, the corresponding poster/trailer files will be deleted.

SCREENSHOTS

Main Menu:


Movie List:


Theater List:


Movie Details:


Movie Showtimes:

[deria]

This looks very good. I'm going to give it a try tonight! Nice job!

[Humanzee]

FYI, It does appear to work with neilms dynamic menu, I had to add the MovieTimes Main internal screen then save the definition file, load the config.xml inside the new screen and then restart sage tv before I could get the config screen but that seemed to work.

I followed the rest of the directions however, I can't get it to display any information under "List Movies" or "List Theaters" It just says "no movies were found please run and update to download"..... I did run MTSA and it did download theater times, thumbnails etc. I do have a moviedata xml and xsd file now. The configuration does appear to point to all the correct directories. I do get a list of theaters in the configuration screens but no data shows on the list screens. any ideas?

[Homebuilder]

Where is the download for this? Can not find it anywhere.. can someone link to it in thie forum?

Found it, bottom of download page.. small print, hard for my old eyes to see

[nielm]

Very nice -- unfortnately it looks like the belgian site has just re-designed, so it does not work for me at the mo... (also posted @Meedio)

[aperry]

Originally Posted by Humanzee

I can't get it to display any information under "List Movies" or "List Theaters" It just says "no movies were found please run and update to download".....

Yeah, that is one of the quirks. I had that happen last night as I was putting together the documentation. I would suggest exiting SageTV and reentering. That got it working for me.

Let me know if it works or not.

[aperry]

Originally Posted by nielm

Very nice -- unfortnately it looks like the belgian site has just re-designed, so it does not work for me at the mo... (also posted @Meedio)

I guess I waited too long to get it released... I'm sure someone will get a working Belgian version soon. As soon as I get an update MTSA program with the Belgian stuff working (or any other fixes), I'll update the download file.

BTW, if you are so inclined, he stated in the other thread that you can update the code for Belgium and send it to him for inclusion in a new version. The website for the MTSA program is HERE.

[phantomfsoc]

When I try to load up the config file it looks for it on the Server even though I'm on the client. Thats fine I guess so I can just use the same folder on the server from all my clients but Its not loading the config section. I pick Load config file and pick the file but it just goes back to the Load config file sreen again.

I'll keep playing with it.....

[aperry]

There's no real feedback that you have loaded the new config file when you select that option. If you select "Load Config" again, the first popup screen should show what the current config filename is. That way, you can verify you have the correct file loaded.

[phantomfsoc]

Sorry My Bad.... just finished an over night shift so my eyes are messed up.

After picking load config file.... it says Load Location file. I didn't realize that it had changed.

Its all good now. Did the set up now just waiting for it to download the info and we'll see what happens.

Just a quick question, do you know how to make the scheduled task run minimized or in the background so it won't pop up on the screen in case I'm watching TV at that moment?

[nielm]

Originally Posted by aperry

BTW, if you are so inclined, he stated in the other thread that you can update the code for Belgium and send it to him for inclusion in a new version...

Yeah, I thought about doing that for about 5 seconds, before deciding against it My todo list is way too long already, and I enjoy writing web-site scrapers only fractionally more than I enjoy getting my teeth pulled out (without anesthetic) (I still need to fix the IMDB site parsing for my IMDB plugin)... And I do not have VB.net either
I'll wait for a new parser exe to be released

[ldavis]

Originally Posted by aperry

There's no real feedback that you have loaded the new config file when you select that option. If you select "Load Config" again, the first popup screen should show what the current config filename is. That way, you can verify you have the correct file loaded.

Aperry,

I have the same problem (and I do not get the "load location" item) but when I select load conf again it says that no valid file was found so apparently it is not loading. This is true on server or client. Help please!!!

One potential issue is that many older users will have their sage installation in the "Frey Technologies" folder not in "SageTV". Maybe that is the problem

[phantomfsoc]

Ok got it all to load up but its not seeing my theaters and movies. I check the xml files it creates and its all there but sage doesn't read those files for some reason. Could have to do with the client/server networking paths?

[Humanzee]

Originally Posted by aperry

Yeah, that is one of the quirks. I had that happen last night as I was putting together the documentation. I would suggest exiting SageTV and reentering. That got it working for me.

Let me know if it works or not.

I restarted at least once and it still didn't work. Sounds like its happening to other folks as well.

Also, regarding the trailers, I know you are working on it but can you put it in for us to select the player application of our choosing or the default app, even if we can't play it in sage for now? Also, a quick google search shows that there are a number of conversion tools for .mov to just about any file format. Could this be an option to have Dirmon, or something, launch a conversion application to convert the .mov to .mpg so that they could be viewed with in Sage? Then if you have clean up turned on, it would delete both the .mov and .mpg file after they had left the theaters.

For now, I have my MTSA set to download the .mov trailers anyway, as I can go and watch them manually.

[ldavis]

Well, I retarted Sage (incl. the service) and the config file loaded properly. During the configuration, though, when the local theaters are being downloaded, I get an error about need a location file. When I try to load a location file, it will not load.

[Humanzee]

Originally Posted by ldavis

Well, I retarted Sage (incl. the service) and the config file loaded properly. During the configuration, though, when the local theaters are being downloaded, I get an error about need a location file. When I try to load a location file, it will not load.

This happens while it is downloading, wait till its done. It sounds like you are haveing the same problems I am. Once it's finished downloading, restart sage and check to see if you can even view the list of movies and theaters.

[ldavis]

Originally Posted by Humanzee

This happens while it is downloading, wait till its done. It sounds like you are haveing the same problems I am. Once it's finished downloading, restart sage and check to see if you can even view the list of movies and theaters.

The reason my location.xml would not work is that it had an illegal character in it. On of the theaters had the following "& ". Apparenly it did not like the space after the &. I removed the "&" and all is working now. Data is downloading and I will see later if all is well.

[jlabrue]

I am having the same problem as well (&). It works great with the default zip code but when I change it and modify it to my settings it does not display anything. Starting to look awesome though! This will be a sweet plugin

[aperry]

Originally Posted by ldavis

The reason my location.xml would not work is that it had an illegal character in it. On of the theaters had the following "& ". Apparenly it did not like the space after the &. I removed the "&" and all is working now. Data is downloading and I will see later if all is well.

I'll report that to key master. That is an issue he should be able to fix with an update to MTSA. The ampersand sitting all by itself would be causing a problem in the XML parser.

Try changing the stand-alone "&" to "&" and see if that doesn't work for you...

[ldavis]

Aperry,

I have been able to get past the ampersand issue but I am having the same problem as others - All of my directories are full of data and trailers but this does not show up in Sage. References are correct in the configuration.