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Programmes missing from PVR index

user-910

I've got 2.92 running under Windows 7, and for the most part it's working fine. However there are a few specific programmes (mainly on BBC4) which don't seem to appear under the PVR TV index, and so can't directly be viewed/recorded via either the command line or the web PVR. However they are available to view on the iPlayer website, and if I use the URL I can view/record them via either web PVR or command line.

Current examples are The Secrets of Bones (http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b03...to-the-air) and Inside the Medieval Mind (http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00...-knowledge). Neither are in the TV index, but both can be viewed or recorded via the links.

Is there a specific reason why they don't appear in the PVR index, or is it a bug or issue with the scraping of the site? Can anyone shed any light as to what is going on, as it seems to be quite specific and mainly affecting BBC4.

user-2

Those two programmes work fine here. No way to know what is wrong at your end. The obvious guess is that somehow your cache hasn't been updated. Perhaps there is something wrong with your search criteria. Refresh your cache (
Code:
get_iplayer --refresh
) then search for the PID to check that the programme really is missing (
Code:
get_iplayer  pid:b03x3zfs
or
Code:
get_iplayer  pid:b009s80l
).

user-910

I have a batch file that runs twice a day, which to my thinking should have been doing the cache update:

Code:
cd C:\Program Files (x86)\get_iplayer
perl.exe get_iplayer.pl --refresh --type=tv,radio,podcast
perl.exe get_iplayer.pl --pvr





Anyway I tried doing it manually (just with --refresh) and then your PID line, and got the following:

Code:
c:\Program Files (x86)\get_iplayer>get_iplayer pid:b03x3zfs
get_iplayer v2.92, Copyright (C) 2008-2010 Phil Lewis
  This program comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details use --warranty.
  This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it under certain
  conditions; use --conditions for details.

INFO: Search term 'b03x3zfs' is a non-existent pid, use --pid instead and/or specify the correct programme type

INFO: 0 Matching Programmes



I guess the pid is no longer valid as the program itself has expired (what happened to 30-day expiry dates on everything BBC?!?!?!)

But now it does seem to see both the latest episodes of both series, so the refresh looks to have done some good. I'll change the script to remove the --type element and see if that helps things along. But I'm sure I did a cache refresh via the web interface too and that didn't help (done prior to my original post).

Anyway job looks good for now. So suffice it to say thanks for the help, and of course for the great program :)

user-2

That just means the programme is no longer available in the local cache, not necessarily that it is no longer available from iPlayer. Do as instructed and use
Code:
--pid
.

user-910

Yes, that worked (it's already in my history as I downloaded it before via its URL

Code:
c:\Program Files (x86)\get_iplayer>get_iplayer --pid b03x3zfs
get_iplayer v2.92, Copyright (C) 2008-2010 Phil Lewis
  This program comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details use --warranty.
  This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it under certain
  conditions; use --conditions for details.

INFO: Secrets of Bones - 3. Into the Air (b03x3zfs) Already in history (C:\Users
\Darren/.get_iplayer/download_history) - use --force to override



Out of interest I just did a normal search for the programme by name, and it only found the current episode

Code:
c:\Program Files (x86)\get_iplayer>get_iplayer "secrets of bones"
get_iplayer v2.92, Copyright (C) 2008-2010 Phil Lewis
  This program comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details use --warranty.
  This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it under certain
  conditions; use --conditions for details.

Matches:
1338:   Secrets of Bones - 4. Sensing the World, BBC Four, Factual,Nature & Envi
ronment,Science & Nature, default

INFO: 1 Matching Programmes



But if I look on the iPlayer website, all 4 are available to watch. So it looks like there's something odd with the original 3 episodes appearing in my cache somehow?

user-2

user-910

Thanks. Covers it nicely, will have a good look around what else is there, didn't know it existed.

There's a similar problem with accessing some programmes on the Pi iPlayer add-on, which I would guess has a similar root cause (I know it's not your add-on, just rung a bell from a previous observation).

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