BladeRunner Pro 3.5 success in New Zealand

[johnrw]

I have found a simple and reliable approach to getting BRP 3.5 operating with a New Zealand Grabber XLMTVNZ.

The process is this:

Clean out all of the previous Bladerunner software by using uninstall.

Remove the Bladerunner Pro directory and its contents which will remove previously installed XMLTVNZ as well as any old files you got from the defunct ehomedia.com.

Dowmload from xpmediacentre.com.au, Bladerunner Pro 3.5 to a desktop folder, unzip (extract) it all to C:\Windows\ehome\BladeRunnerPro.

The BladeRunner Pro 3.5 instructions and download for convenience are at

http://www.xpmediacentre.com.au/comm...-released.html

Download XMLTVZ to a desktop folder, unzip (extract) it all also into C:\Windows\ehome\BladeRunnerPro (not in its own folder as suggested in ehomedia.com).

For convenience here is the URL for XMLTVNZ:

http://www.reven.co.nz/index.php?opt...nc=select&id=2

Set up a batch file with the following in it and save it as getlistings.bat into C:\Windows\ehome\BladeRunnerPro. (Use Notepad, copy the text below and paste into the Notepad page then save it as getlistings.bat remembering to select "All files" when saving so that you can save it with .bat suffix).

This suggested text is for free to air channels. More can be added depending on your region, providing a guide a downloadable exists, by referring to xmlTVNZ Tags. Try this one first and edit "-days 5" to "-days 1" until you have got everything working.

---------------
c:
cd\windows\ehome\BladeRunnerPro
xmltvnz.exe xmltv.xml -days 5 tv1 tv2 tv3 sky_c4 prime sky_maori tri sky_juice
copy xmltv.xml C:\WINDOWS\ehome\BladeRunnerPro\GuideData
copy Channelinfo.xml C:\WINDOWS\ehome\BladeRunnerPro\QuickGuide
copy GenreShowList.xml C:\WINDOWS\ehome\BladeRunnerPro\GuideData
copy settings.xml C:\WINDOWS\ehome\BladeRunnerPro\GuideData
copy xmltv.dtd C:\WINDOWS\ehome\BladeRunnerPro\GuideData
cd..
---------------

After all this, follow the BladeRunner Pro 3.5 instructions. Go to Start> All Programs> BladeRunner Pro> BRP Configurator

Select Grabber, put, say, RevenBat for the Name in the Item Info area, click on Browse, go to the BladeRunnerPro folder, select All Files in the Files of Type pull-down, select getlistings, click on Open (this will show C:\WINDOWS\ehome\BladeRunnerPro\getlistings.bat in the File line, then click Add, click File in the top left corner, click Save, click File, click Exit.

That's it !!!!!! for the BladeRunner Pro 3.5 and XMLTVNZ set up.

Run BladeRunner Pro 3.5 then go into MCE and do what the BladeRunner Pro 3.5 instructions say to do.

Last but not least, you can set up daily automatic grabbing through Scheduled tasks but the program to run is BladRunner.exe. BladeRunner Pro 3.5 sets up the Scheduled Task but in my case I had to redo it with my Computer name or reference then it worked.

When you have got it all going, don't forget to change the days to "-days 5" in the getlistings.bat file. In New Zealand FTA available guides are unreliable with some channels above 5 days. Some say they have got away with 7 days but anything above that causes unwanted challenges with FTA.

I have not got SKY Digital (Satellite) but if I do I will work on it. Others may be able to figure it out from this.

[digisparks]

I Have my EPG working fairly reliably with the original version of BladeRunner Pro and XMLTVNZ here in New Zealand. Are there any advantages to using BRP 3.5 over the original? I'd hate to stuff it up for no real gain!

Mike

[johnrw]

Originally Posted by digisparks

I Have my EPG working fairly reliably with the original version of BladeRunner Pro and XMLTVNZ here in New Zealand. Are there any advantages to using BRP 3.5 over the original? I'd hate to stuff it up for no real gain!

Mike

Only the fact that it takes care of when MCE does its update as part of the Scheduled Task run of BladeRunner.exe without having to be concerned about the weird times that MCE wants to do its thing. Have a look also on reven.co.nz where I have done some posts covering this and a minor issue which I think I have solved but can't test until my computer comes back from getting it optical drive checked out (probably to be replaced under warranty). I also think that when I have got everything working with 3.5 with exactly the right things working, I will prepare another post with maybe a .pdf containing screen shots , etc. I also use tricks like using Hibernator to hibernate the computer (fans turn off), wake up for a scheduled run of BRP 3.5, hibernate, wake up to record something scheduled, hibernate, and so on. I also want to use Channel Changer but I have yet to spend some time on getting Channelinfo.xml to not be changed everytime a Guide update is done but have it in the right place with edited channel names for channels which have no Guide.

In summary, I think BRP 3.5 is a better utility. It is also HDTV ready so we can all have another fiddle next year when Freeview comes on stream.

[johnrw]

Originally Posted by johnrw

I have found a simple and reliable approach to getting BRP 3.5 operating with a New Zealand Grabber XLMTVNZ.

The process is this:

Clean out all of the previous Bladerunner software by using uninstall.

Remove the Bladerunner Pro directory and its contents which will remove previously installed XMLTVNZ as well as any old files you got from the defunct ehomedia.com.

Dowmload from xpmediacentre.com.au, Bladerunner Pro 3.5 to a desktop folder, unzip (extract) it all to C:\Windows\ehome\BladeRunnerPro.

The BladeRunner Pro 3.5 instructions and download for convenience are at

http://www.xpmediacentre.com.au/comm...-released.html

Download XMLTVZ to a desktop folder, unzip (extract) it all also into C:\Windows\ehome\BladeRunnerPro (not in its own folder as suggested in ehomedia.com).

For convenience here is the URL for XMLTVNZ:

http://www.reven.co.nz/index.php?opt...nc=select&id=2

Set up a batch file with the following in it and save it as getlistings.bat into C:\Windows\ehome\BladeRunnerPro. (Use Notepad, copy the text below and paste into the Notepad page then save it as getlistings.bat remembering to select "All files" when saving so that you can save it with .bat suffix).

This suggested text is for free to air channels. More can be added depending on your region, providing a guide a downloadable exists, by referring to xmlTVNZ Tags. Try this one first and edit "-days 5" to "-days 1" until you have got everything working.

---------------
c:
cd\windows\ehome\BladeRunnerPro
xmltvnz.exe xmltv.xml -days 5 tv1 tv2 tv3 sky_c4 prime sky_maori tri sky_juice
copy xmltv.xml C:\WINDOWS\ehome\BladeRunnerPro\GuideData
copy Channelinfo.xml C:\WINDOWS\ehome\BladeRunnerPro\QuickGuide
copy GenreShowList.xml C:\WINDOWS\ehome\BladeRunnerPro\GuideData
copy settings.xml C:\WINDOWS\ehome\BladeRunnerPro\GuideData
copy xmltv.dtd C:\WINDOWS\ehome\BladeRunnerPro\GuideData
cd..
---------------

After all this, follow the BladeRunner Pro 3.5 instructions. Go to Start> All Programs> BladeRunner Pro> BRP Configurator

Select Grabber, put, say, RevenBat for the Name in the Item Info area, click on Browse, go to the BladeRunnerPro folder, select All Files in the Files of Type pull-down, select getlistings, click on Open (this will show C:\WINDOWS\ehome\BladeRunnerPro\getlistings.bat in the File line, then click Add, click File in the top left corner, click Save, click File, click Exit.

That's it !!!!!! for the BladeRunner Pro 3.5 and XMLTVNZ set up.

Run BladeRunner Pro 3.5 then go into MCE and do what the BladeRunner Pro 3.5 instructions say to do.

Last but not least, you can set up daily automatic grabbing through Scheduled tasks but the program to run is BladRunner.exe. BladeRunner Pro 3.5 sets up the Scheduled Task but in my case I had to redo it with my Computer name or reference then it worked.

When you have got it all going, don't forget to change the days to "-days 5" in the getlistings.bat file. In New Zealand FTA available guides are unreliable with some channels above 5 days. Some say they have got away with 7 days but anything above that causes unwanted challenges with FTA.

I have not got SKY Digital (Satellite) but if I do I will work on it. Others may be able to figure it out from this.

I can now confirm absolutely that the above descrption which I posted of what to do for New Zealand is correct. My problem reported elsewhere was fixed by making sure the Scheduled Task for "C:\Windows\ehom\BladeRunnerPro\BladeRunner.ex e" had the -t at the end of it. It all works. Many thanks to Monster and the team for such a great effort.

[Mike]

Good work johnrw - thanks for sharing!

Reps for you

Mike

[johnrw]

I have one small question for an expert to answer. When setting up TV Channels (antenna), Guide, etc, within MCE when setting MCE up (to be used in conjunction with BladeRunner Pro 3.5), do you select "Update when connected to the internet" or whatever it asks or do you select "manual update" (this is within MCE setup)?

Everything runs fine for me based on what I posted above but MCE also does its guide update thing every 24 hours (BRP does not run at these times of course and it does not matter because the full BRP download and MCE update have already happened on schedule every 24 hours earlier in the day.

I have selected "Update when connected to the internet".

While it is only of nuiscance value, can I stop MCE doing its independent thing and just have it do its thing when BRP asks it to? Have I selected the wrong option with MCE Guide setup?

[berty]

hmm have set up exactly as said above but says cannot find file"C:\WINDOWS\ehome\BladeRunnerPro\GuideData\lis ting2.xml"

Any ideas? or have i missed something?

[johnrw]

Originally Posted by berty

hmm have set up exactly as said above but says cannot find file"C:\WINDOWS\ehome\BladeRunnerPro\GuideData\lis ting2.xml"

Any ideas? or have i missed something?

Question:

What says cannot find file "C:\WINDOWS\ehome\BladeRunnerPro\GuideData\listing 2.xml" ?

Versions of BladeRunner Pro prior to 3.5 used that file but version 3.5 is looking for xmltv.xml. Check my post on how to do it all and you will see that my getlistings.bat puts various files which it creates (with the help of Reven's xmltv.exe) into GuideData and QuickGuide (including xmltv.xml but not listing2.xml or listings2.xml or whatever it is called). If you do what it says in my post above, it will all work.

[macros]

I've just installed BladeRunner Pro 3.5 from the installer, run thru the above instructions & run into this problem from inside MCE:

"Unable to display page" with the path being: "C:\WINDOWS\ehome\BladeRunnerPro\.\BladeRunner.lin k".

I've edited the registry to change the path to remove the \.\ part, but still no go! Can anyone help me with this?

Cameron

[johnrw]

Originally Posted by johnrw

I have one small question for an expert to answer. When setting up TV Channels (antenna), Guide, etc, within MCE when setting MCE up (to be used in conjunction with BladeRunner Pro 3.5), do you select "Update when connected to the internet" or whatever it asks or do you select "manual update" (this is within MCE setup)?

Everything runs fine for me based on what I posted above but MCE also does its guide update thing every 24 hours (BRP does not run at these times of course and it does not matter because the full BRP download and MCE update have already happened on schedule every 24 hours earlier in the day.

I have selected "Update when connected to the internet".

While it is only of nuiscance value, can I stop MCE doing its independent thing and just have it do its thing when BRP asks it to? Have I selected the wrong option with MCE Guide setup?

I have not heard from anyone on this small issue but finally solved it myself.

To stop MCE doing a Guide Update every 24 hours on its own without BladeRunner Pro 3.5 running first, I did the following:

from the MCE Start page

>Settings
>Automatic Downloads Options
>Click on Manual Download (with nothing else clicked or checked)
Save

That's it.

I can now report that everything with BladeRunner Pro 3.5 and the Reven Grabber is working perfectly on 5 days and FTA Channels. One day I might put the full description into a .pdf complete with screen shots. I am also successfully using The Hibernator to wake up and hibernate the computer (No fans running). I am also successully using DVRMSToolbox to skip commercials when I am watching recorded programs on the TV.

[Gremlin]

I've been using xmlTVNZ and Bladerunner for a year or more, it works fine with 7 days normally (I'm pulling from skytv guide with all digital channels also), any issues are normally becuase of the provider data being crook so you'll have problems with 5 days when that happens too (it doesn't happen very often).

[johnrw]

Originally Posted by Gremlin

I've been using xmlTVNZ and Bladerunner for a year or more, it works fine with 7 days normally (I'm pulling from skytv guide with all digital channels also), any issues are normally becuase of the provider data being crook so you'll have problems with 5 days when that happens too (it doesn't happen very often).

Cheers

I have changed my days to 7 from 5 and everything is very reliable and consistent.