Dear Devs,
Please take into account that there are some countries that decided not to observe DST in 2015. This is not seen yet in WebGrabPlus. It still uses the old DST list from last year.
ie: i live in a UTC+02:00 (used to observe DST untill 2014, cancelled in 2015), and when I grab a site at the same time zone/same country (ini has UTC+02:00), I get the resulting XML guide with a +3 time adjustment. Which means a 1 hour earlier than actual airing time.
(my computer is not set to use DST as it is not in a location that observes DST). What I do is change timezone in the ini of that site from UTC+02:00 to UTC+01:00 so it evens out.
There is a list of those changes at http://www.timeanddate.com/time/dst/2015.html
Maybe if you have the time, you could adjust that.
Hi Karimf,
I believe all these changes are already in our timezone database.
We regularly update that database that is maintained and updated for public use by www.iana.org. Our lates version is from early this month, V2015g
I checked a few of the cases listed in http://www.timeanddate.com/time/dst/2015.html and most were OK.
If there are differences, we tend to believe that database, because it is also used by travel/shipping and flight operators.
If you want to check it yourself, just use any siteini and change the timezone entry in timezone=?.
Then inspect the logfile .. you will see all the timezones in this data base plus some basic data.
And if you want more info you can put a ? after a valid timezone, e.g. timezone=Europe/Andorra? you will see :
[ Debug ] Base UTC Offset : UTC+01:00
[ Debug ] UTC Offset now : UTC+02:00 (DST in effect)
[ Debug ] next DST dates : 25/10/2015 03:00 (local)
[ Debug ] : 27/03/2016 02:00 (local)
[ Debug ] local time now : 14/10/2015 14:42:38
In other words, don't worry about that.
About your own situation: Which siteini are you refering to?
You mention that you change the timezone value from UTC+02:00 to UTC+01:00. In fact these values are internally mapped to Europe/Athens (with DST) and Europe/Paris (also with DST) of the database. I advice you not to use that type of values but use a value for the guide location from the database . See above how to do that.
Jan
Hi Jan,
thank you for your response and clear explanations.
One of the sites I'm referreing to is elcinema.com which is supposed to be UTC+02:00 (Cairo Local Time, no DST) but I get a time difference although I'm in the same country of the site. Also, I made a siteini file for niletc.tv which is the same as above, and still got a +3 in the guide, so I had to change the ini to UTC+01:00.
About what you said that "...UTC+02:00 to UTC+01:00. In fact these values are internally mapped to Europe/Athens (with DST) and Europe/Paris (also with DST) of the database", this is strange as there are countries with UTC+1 or +2 that don't observe DST and this causes guide issues for times.
What do you think?
Dear Jan,
I tested like you said and it seems everuthing is fine. Except for 1 site that needs a correction of -23 hours for some channels and +1 for others (using xmltv_time_correct) which is starnge because the debug says UTC+02:00 no DST (which is also my local time) but everuthing in the guide is 23 hours late when compared to the site itself !
The site is elcinema.com (the ini file is elcinema.ar.com.ini downloaded from the EPG Channels)
Just to let you know about this issue.
Hi,
a few reactions:
1. You are right if you state that the timezone value UTC+0100 or UTC+0200 covers areas with and without DST. That is the reason why we recommend not to use it . WG++ has no other option then to map it to one of the Timezone-database timezones, even when there is a chance that it is the wrong one. In fact, values like UTC+0100 is not a timezone but a time.
2. Another point to keep in mind with the Timezone value in siteini's. The tvguide sites display there schedules (nearly always) in local times, so using the local timezone. Also , most siteini's get the times directly from epgdata in which the times are the same as the ones displayed. But there are a lot of exeptions : e.g sites that have there epg data in UTC and use some process to render the schedules displayed in local times. In such a case , the siteini uses timezone=UTC although the localtimezone is different. This point is sometimes hard to explain to confused users.
I did a quick check with elcinema.ar.com, sofar I don't see your problem. Which channels have these problems?
Jan
Dear Jan,
Thanks for your continuous interest and support.
I get what you explained, as for the channels that are giving the issue on the mentioned site, they are: CBC, Rotana Classic, Rotana Cinema.
For those channels I have to use xmltv_time_correct for -24 hours ! Otherwise, their schedule on the site itself is 24 hours "ahead" from what I get in my guide. Strange because other channels from the same site don't need this time correction.
I don't get it, but I'm sure you would find the cause of this behavior.
I also noticed that when I changed this site's ini file to Africa/Cairo, as you advised not to use UTC+02:00, and I first ran the grab after this, there was a note on the window of te program at the very beginning saying something like site time zone changed from +2 to +3 !! which is also strange because the ini file says Africa/Cairo which is according to the database you use +2.
(Note: The default time of the website is Cairo, but you can change it to other cities in the region from adrop down list)
Is there a way to overcome this issue ? or do I just continue using the time adjustment batch file ?
Thanks for your help Jan.
Hi Karimf,
me again ...
The 24hr shift issue. That is caused by the fact that the first show in the index (for these channels) starts just before midnight and because the times presented by the site have no date component. So it is impossible to know if that first show is from today or not. If there is no date component in the time, WG++ always assumes that the starttime of first show is from 'today'. And that is wrong in this case, it is just before midnight of 'yesterday'.
This happens quite often and can easily be solved by adding site {firstshow=1} to the siteini. This sets the starting index to 1 (the first has index 0). That way this first show of yesterday is skipped and the date counting starts with the first show that 'alway' has its starttime 'today'
The new elcinema siteini : http://webgrabplus.com/sites/default/files/download/ini/info/SiteIni.Pac...
BTW do you have an 'English language' elcinema.com.ar.ini version?
Jan
Hi Jan,
Thanks for your reply very much. I'll try your updated version and keep you informed. Will the change you made affect other channels that don't have this issue ?
Yes, i have an english version of the site (attached). It's practically the same only difference in the url_index. It works perfectly for the channels that provide shows that are in English (like fox, fox movies, etc...) because when you use the ar.com.ini version, these channels are usually empty and vice versa.
So, the ar.com.ini for channels that have "arabic shows" and the other (attached) for channels that have "english shows".
Thanks again for your help.