Messages

1

N.A.N.Y. 2014 / Re: NANY 2014 Release - epCheck

« on: December 23, 2019, 09:16 PM »

One possibility that I'm using right now is "thefutoncritic" website.

-msteph (November 25, 2019, 09:10 AM)

(Read msteph's post #385 above for his tips and insight of The Futon Critic, too.)

The Futon Critic is exceptionally useful.  Its catalogue and episode accuracy exceeds anything I've used.  I've bumped into this site a few years ago, but never recognized its value.  Probably because of its old-school, but good-school interface.

Anyhow, it will be my primary source as an accuracy check against TrakTV, Episode Calendar and DUckieTV, each of which leave something to be desired in that department.  I'll continue to use it even if/when epCheck returns.

The Futon Critic (My Futon Critic when you're logged in) touts itself as "the world's best television resource."  I can't argue that and IMHO, the simple displays has much to do with that. 

There are caveats:
- Unsecure HTTP connection.  No big deal considering what's being dealt with, but you should make sure you sign up with an email address you don't use for important stuff.  (I used a temporary mailinator dot com address as I'm not needing any of The Critics' e-mail subscriptions.)  All things considered, one can even use a simple-to-remember password.

- Ancient searching algorithms.  "The NameOfShow" fails, "NameOfShow, The" doesn't.  I couldn't find "A Discovery of Witches" but I did find it in a list of shows by searching "discovery."  Upon selecting it, it's in my ShowWatch as "Discovery of Witches, A"  Search for two or three dozen shows and you'll get the hang of it.

- There is no "wall" calendar as in epCheck.  The calendar is a front end for a very complete and useful text listing of show(s) for the date you click on.  A text listing can also be displayed for an entire month. The calendar does not have different fonts/colors for days with or without shows.

I really like MyNews.  It parses your ShowWatch for custom targeting of news and announcements, RSS capable.

Cheers.

2

N.A.N.Y. 2014 / Re: NANY 2014 Release - epCheck

« on: December 20, 2019, 02:29 PM »

dallas7, that's a great post.  Thanks for checking out those alternatives, and I will look into them myself.
One possibility that I'm using right now is "thefutoncritic" website.

-msteph (November 25, 2019, 09:10 AM)

Thanks!  I didn't know about The Futon Critic and I'll look into into it because...

The user experience in DuckieTV, Episode Calendar and TraktTV have been overall unrewarding.  They're loaded down with so many bloated features, overpowering visuals and the wasted space of the modern/metro/millennial/material design, that the simple need for a basic calendar has taken a seat way up in the bleachers.  As well, the schedules don't quite match up and some shows that can be added or favored in one can't be done so in another.  I'm now checking all three to be sure my DVR scheduling is accurate.

The subscriptions features of DuckieTV and TrakTV are worthless to me and would even add to the bloat of the free versions.

I did pay for three months of Episode Calendar to get past the 20-show limit of the free service.  But two inquiries I sent to the developer remain unanswered.  So, no support, it seems.

Cheers.

3

N.A.N.Y. 2014 / Re: NANY 2014 Release - epCheck

« on: December 20, 2019, 02:09 PM »

First of all, I'm glad you find (found? ) the app useful.  Secondly, apologies for the lack of replies lately.  My regular job has got me pretty covered up this year.  Third, based on what I've seen, this will not be an easy, nor a quick, fix.  So, right now, it's a matter of finding the time necessary to update epCheck.  I was hoping to have some time off of business travel in December, but it seems not as I travel each of the first three weeks.     What I really need are 40 hour days or to go without even less sleep than I typically get.   

-skwire (November 22, 2019, 09:43 PM)

Sorry it took me this long to reply.  I've been using epCheck since early 2014.  I did not mean my Nov 22 post to portend its death knell or an expectation that you prioritize a fix.  Or a fix at all.

Your Nov 25 post that you have an enthusiasm in updating epCheck is hopeful.

Cheers.

4

N.A.N.Y. 2014 / Re: NANY 2014 Release - epCheck

« on: November 22, 2019, 05:26 PM »

Well, this could be the end of epCheck.   

I've been using TitanTV dot com and epguides dot com for years but there's no calendar to customize and print out.

epguides has an excellent resource for TV watchers where one might find alternatives to epCheck in the link for "Check out these Customizable TV Listings" but I don't know how up to date they are.

I used google to ferret some out and I'm testing them now:

episodecalendar dot com
Free version limits to 20 shows.
Premiums for 1, 3, 12, or lifetime run 4, 6, 13, and $33 USD.

schizoduckie dot github dot io/DuckieTV/?from=duckie.tv/
This is a Windows stand-alone app which I'm runing on a test system.
Two extensions are available for Google Chrome.

Duckie's background is sold black, no options.  There is no print-out for the calendar so a screen shot print-out would waste too much toner.  So, it's not a fav so far.  The stable app is dated September 17, 2017.  But the nightly releases on GitHut are right up to... today.

trakt dot tv
I'll look into this if either of those two don't pan out.

Or epCheck returns!

5

N.A.N.Y. 2014 / Re: NANY 2014 Release - epCheck

« on: November 16, 2019, 12:26 PM »

erases all the existing data

-msteph (November 16, 2019, 09:35 AM)

Same here.  Those thetvdb forum discussions are way over my pay grade but it does show it's not just us epCheck users. Hope the problem gets resolves soon.

Thanks for posting up.

6

N.A.N.Y. 2014 / Re: NANY 2014 Release - epCheck

« on: October 19, 2019, 05:15 PM »

you can manually add a show using this process

-skwire (October 19, 2019, 10:52 AM)

That did it!

I tried something like that last week but it didn't work, no doubt being ignorant of the correct steps to take.

Thanks so much for the insight and exacting details.  I've saved 'em as a txt file in my epCheck folder; I'm sure in the probably unlikely event I'll need to repeat the process for some other program.

Good health and prosperity to you and yours.

7

N.A.N.Y. 2014 / Re: NANY 2014 Release - epCheck

« on: October 19, 2019, 12:37 AM »

Greetings.  Been a long time.  Good to see activity here continues because...

epCheck 1.1.5 b166 has been working great, seems like forever.

I've been trying to add HBO's Watchmen but Search returns only Watchmen: Motion Comic from 2009.  I checked in TheTVDB and that's there with Watchmen (2017) and the HBO Watchmen with their three IDs.  Never had any issues with HBO; just added His Dark Materials a few days ago.

Is there a way to add a series by its ID?

Thanks!

8

N.A.N.Y. 2010 / Re: NANY 2010 Release: ClipTrap

« on: August 30, 2015, 05:08 PM »

A few months ago, I copied my Windows 7 ClipTrap folder to a system running in a Windows 10 x64 environment (then Tech Preview and currently RTM) and it's been running A-OK.  So, Windows 10 compatible!    Just thought I'd post that up as an FYI.  Cheers.

9

N.A.N.Y. 2014 / Re: NANY 2014 Release - epCheck

« on: August 30, 2015, 05:05 PM »

A few months ago, I copied my Windows 7 epCheck folder to a system running in a Windows 10 x64 environment (then Tech Preview and currently RTM) and it's been running A-OK.  So, Windows 10 compatible!    Just thought I'd post that up as an FYI.  Cheers.

10

N.A.N.Y. 2014 / Re: NANY 2014 Release - epCheck

« on: May 19, 2015, 03:51 PM »

Thanks for the fast reply!  Not really all that frustrating - it's the first time I experienced a failed search and it was interesting to note some one else did, too.  I've got 72 shows in three profiles and things work just great.

I got stuck on step one in those instructions as one can't add a show if it doesn't show up in the search results for selection thus activating (un-ghosting) the "Add series" button.  I made a nice screen shot of the Search results pane showing that, but... no attachments here. 

But I did pick up on how you work it and added the data to the profile txt file having retrieved the ID from the theTVDB Web page.  I also created a folder named for the ID but I'm not sure if that was necessary.

I opened epCheck and the show is now under Series in the profile and it refreshed with the relevant data A-OK.  Pretty slick.

There was a "profile - copy" containing the pre-edit data; easily deleted.

Cheers!

11

N.A.N.Y. 2014 / Re: NANY 2014 Release - epCheck

« on: May 19, 2015, 01:52 AM »

1.1.5b166 Win7x64

When searching for new shows, sometimes there are numbered episode lists without titles or air dates/time2 or even no listings at all, reflecting the current data as posted on the new shows' respective TheTVDB pages.  (Humans and Supergirl are the most recent examples.)

There's no problem adding those to my epCheck profiles to await updated data refreshes as time goes on.

All else is OK.  Except...

Dennis Leary's new series "Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll" (yes, all one string) is posted up at TheTVDB and lists the first ep on July 18.  Doing an epCheck search finds a multitude of shows about, ahem, cough cough... sex.  But not Leary's.

I'm wondering if there's a problem on TheTVDB's side or if epCheck's search is having an issue with one long string of text with three ampersands glommed in?

Any thoughts?  Cheers.

12

N.A.N.Y. 2014 / Re: NANY 2014 Release - epCheck

« on: February 12, 2015, 04:05 PM »

Thanks for the feedback.

I have "Request every # of days"  set to zero (disabled) and use the “Refresh all series data now” button every couple of weeks or so.  Do I understand correctly that though the status bar shows it's checking those long ago ended shows in my "Legacy" profile, their data is not being downloaded again and again?  Related to that, a continuing series, say for example one with six previous seasons, downloads only the when-made-available data for the seventh season?

Very interesting presentation on time zones.  As some one who supported globally networked servers and workstations, I'm familiar with some of those issues but I never ran into anything having to deal with the 16th Century or Great Britain's WWII era 2-hour silliness.  I get the point, but the fellow does go a bit overboard.

Wouldn't epCheck need to handle just the USA zones and the Arizona no-DST odd-ball?  Just curious; no pressure.

With apologies to Delmore Schwartz... Time is the fire in which we get burnt.

Cheers! 

13

N.A.N.Y. 2014 / Re: NANY 2014 Release - epCheck

« on: February 11, 2015, 04:56 PM »

1.1.5.166 is working great.  How goes 1.1.6?  Soon?

Could make a way to select individual series or a profile from the “refresh all series data now” process?  I have a profile, Legacy, where I've placed about 20 old series (i.e. Rescue Me, Firefly) so I can jog my memory on certain episodes, seasons, whatever.  They're not necessary to refresh so eliminating that profile from refresh would be advantageous.  If not by profile, then selecting each individual series regardless of profile would work, too.

I won't bother you with yet another request for other-than-EST time zones.  Oops.  I just did, didn't I? 

What, BTW, is the purpose of the @ column and its ballot boxes in the episodes panel for each series under the Series tab?

Cheers!

14

N.A.N.Y. 2014 / Re: NANY 2014 Release - epCheck

« on: January 30, 2015, 03:20 PM »

I re-read my post and I didn't mean to imply the zero didn't work in epCheck - I didn't try it at all which is why I posted up the question.  What I meant by "in memory" was my experience with software over the ages.  Zero is a tricky thing.    And welcome in epCheck.  Thanks!

15

N.A.N.Y. 2014 / Re: NANY 2014 Release - epCheck

« on: January 29, 2015, 04:26 PM »

Jody, I've had no issues at all with 1.1.5.163.

-msteph (January 25, 2015, 03:41 PM)

Ditto.  I agree most of the problems I experienced were TheTVDB related.  Very smooth now.

I'd like to disable the "Refresh data every...days"  Can I set that to zero, or just set to, say, 14 0r more days which would have the somewhat same effect as I pop into epCheck mostly every 7-10 days?  I prefer to do the refresh manually.  (Yes, I know... zero makes sense.  But there's too much in memory as to recall how well zero doesn't work.)

Thanks!

16

N.A.N.Y. 2014 / Re: NANY 2014 Release - epCheck

« on: January 14, 2015, 07:22 PM »

So I came over here and found 1.1.5.163 and that seems to unzip all the data but epCheck does enter into (Not Responding) a half a dozen times or so.

-dallas7 (January 13, 2015, 05:06 PM)

The problem is two-fold:

• I use the 7-zip application to handle the unzipping so while it's actually unzipping a file, epCheck can't do anything but wait.  However, most of the zips are pretty small so the waits here shouldn't affect things much.
• The bigger issue at hand is that the TVDB.com site has been really slow lately.  Most of the Not Responding is epCheck simply waiting for the zip downloads to finish.

It's rather frustrating as there isn't a whole lot that I can do about it.  Sadly, the best advice I can give is to simply leave epCheck alone while it's doing the updates.

-skwire (January 13, 2015, 06:28 PM)

Got it.  Thanks for the explanation on the (Not Responding).

I was reporting, verbose as it was, no more unzipping errors as you requested in your #243, “...let me know if you see the error again.”

Is 1.1.5.163 “it” or should we be checking back for 1.1.6 cited in changelog.txt?

17

N.A.N.Y. 2014 / Re: NANY 2014 Release - epCheck

« on: January 13, 2015, 05:06 PM »

Howdy. 1.1.5.1 spent a considerable amount of time (Not Responding) and then presented the "problem unzipping" message.  And I had to close it with Task Manager.  So I came over here and found 1.1.5.163 and that seems to unzip all the data but epCheck does enter into (Not Responding) a half a dozen times or so.  Actually, then, not so sure all the data gets unzipped...

The calendar is a big  

Anyhow, I created an account here so I don't have to bother you with emails as I did when we worked on ClipTrap's timed clearing over at my gmail account.    I'll turn on the "notify me" to this thread.  I'll keep an eye out for any more betas or if you need more info. -Dallas E.

Cheers.

UPDATE:
Responding to an epiphany, after moving out my Data folder, I created an empty Data folder and dropped in only the MyShows.txt file.

After several “Refresh all series data now” and restarts, all seems to have settled down and the data for all series appears complete.

I did disable Banners, but I’ve been wanting to do that for a while.  All 35 folders were re-built with the three xml files in each.  As well as TVDB_Languages.xml and watched.ini.

I’m going to use epCheck again next week and see what pans out.