foxtel.com.au no longer working

Yes having the same problem here with Foxtel data no longer being downloaded due to "The underlying connection was closed:..." error for each channel. My current config:

• Windows 7 32bit
• Latest none beta WebGrab+Plus V2.0 (13/02/2017)
• Latest foxtel.com.au.ini (Revision 6 - [23/05/2017])

I was running WebGrab+Plus v1.1.1 when this started to happen earlier this week so I thought upgrading to latest v2.0 & latest foxtel.com.au.ini might solve the problem (which I did yesterday) but unfortunately it hasn't.

QUESTION:
Blackbear199 are you 100% sure it's a WebGrab problem and can only be fixed by a new release?

RE SSL Problem:
You also said "it seems to be an SSL certificate problem" so I was thinking perhaps my Trusted Certifcate List (TCL) is out of date (since I have Windows updates turned off on this particular PC since I don't want any updates to break my MediaCentre) so perhaps updating my TCL may fix this problem though I'm not sure how to do this without turning Windows Updates on (which I don't really want to do) OR perhaps TCL is updated regardless Windows Update settings. I have just read that from Vista and latter Windows versions IE autoupdates TCL in the background when you browse to websites that don't have a recognised Root certificate. FYI These type of Events are logged in Event Viewer in Windows Logs\Application with a Source of CAPI2.
I'll check my eventlog when I get home and report back here.
UPDATE: I used IE to view https://www.foxtel.com.au/tv-guide/grid and checked the certificate path (clicked the lock icon in IE) and all 3 certificates in the path showed OK so it looks like this is not a problem due to the TCL.

philzgr8 wrote:

Whatever the issue, I've now moved over to yourtv.com.au which seems to be pretty good and I notice it no longer needs cookies. That will do me for now.

have you got all the foxtel channels the xml channel list hasnt many of the channels in there

do you think the foxtel issue is fixable or is it done for

philzgr8 wrote:

I certainly have everything I had from Foxtel.com.au 

where did you get your channel list

not sure about that

i used the Sydney xml channel list it seemed to download & create the xml file ok but seems to be about an hr out timewise

also i imported into media centre with big screen epg & it deleted most of my fox channels

did you change that in the top few lines of the ini file

ok so i changed the timezone & it seems ok

Cheers Glenn

Guys I'm located in Melbourne and last night (actually finished at 2am this morn) switched from foxtel to the yourtv.com.au website for my epg data due to the “The underlying connection was closed:..." error.
Thanks philzgr8 for your suggestion to switch to yourtv.com.au .
Note: I had to reset my Media Center EPG database as I was experiencing hangs with a resultant "Restart" message in Media Center when I was trying to link the new epg listings to my channels however hopefully this problem is specific to me due to different epg sources, changes and hardware capture card upgrades I've done over the last few years so haven't included those notes. Just mentioning in case it happens to anyone else so you know what to do. Below are some notes I made that you may find helpful.

IN IE:
Went to https://www.yourtv.com.au/guide/ and clicked location pin & selected Melbourne region then located their cookie, renamed to yourtv.com.au_cookies.txt and copied to into the same directory as the .ini (for steps see yourtv.com.au_readme.txt).
Note: philzgr8’s post on 2017-6-15 here said you no longer require the cookie but I did it anyway.

IN WEBGRAB
Configured to download my Foxtel channels from yourtv (for steps see yourtv.com.au.ini & yourtv.com.au_readme.txt files).
If Melbourne or Sydney remember to change timezone from UTC+08:00 to timezone=UTC+10:00 in the WebGrab++.config.xml file.

Notes:

• I generated my own channel file for Foxtel Melbourne using instructions in the files mentioned above however I found the resultant channel list didn’t have a couple of channels (such as Lifestyle Channel) so I just copied missing channels from yourtv.com.au.sidney.channels.xml (found in siteini.pack folder ) and replaced Sydney with Melbourne before pasting into WebGrab++.config.xml file. On hindsight I could’ve just used the channels in yourtv.com.au.sidney.channels.xml file and done a find/replace Sydney->Melbourne as other than that the channel info is the same for both cities.
• In Media Center I had to edit numerous channels to link new guide data to the correct channel.

CLEANUP:
Once you are happy your data is downloading correctly you may like to change these parameters in the WebGrab++.config.xml file:

  <logging>off</logging> (turns logging off)
  <timespan>6</timespan> (default is 0 (=1 day of data), I use 6 which gives 7 days since that’s the max yourtv has)
  <update>i</update> (default is f. I use i for incremental so only changes are downloaded)

Then setup Task Scheduler (see here for details) to run WebGrab followed by whatever program you use to push new EPG data into your PVR.
(My PVR is MS Media Center so I use a program called Big Screen EPG available here).

Hope you find that helpful.
A big thanks to WebGrab developers, I will be donating for the third time as a thank you for continued development and urge others do the same as these guys have done a great job and we'd be stuck without them.
Regards Nigel

I agree

the whole media centre setup is pretty redundant without the EPG

Big thanks to these guys as well

not really comfortable with the code jargon but i work throught it with some help from this forum

i thought i wold try Yourtv as well after reading philzgr8 post as well

i didnt set up the cookie file but it worked anyway

anyway fingers crossed

Cheers Glenn

philzgr8 wrote:

Cheers Guys. Glad most of us seem to have something workable. Hey Glenn, as far as losing your fox channels after importing with BSEPG, I'm not sure if you're aware that the callsign that BSEPG uses to channel match can vary between websites. This is true when you compare foxtel.com.au to yourtv.com.au. Sadly, that means that you need to delete your source in BSEPG and then go through the process of re-adding and channel matching when you switch from one to another. It's pretty painful but I've always had that issue. Last time I rebuilt Media Centre I tried as hard as I could to get callsigns across the Hauppauge MCE solution, Webgrab and BSEPG identical but it was a big job and ultimately I'm now back where I started unless I want to do it all again. Very frustrating!

Cheers as well to you guys

Not really understanding what you mean about the BSEPG callsign but you are right very frustrating

What did you mean about Hauppage mce solution?

not sure how many people from Aust use Webgrab?

i have only seen a few names on the site from OZ

i came across it while looking for a replacement epg after the aust media centre site went down

Glenn

RE Callsign:
Its an XML variable used in the guide.xml file (generated by WebGrab) and in your capture card's channel configuration XML file in Media Center.
I use a Hauppage HD PVR v1 box (see here) to capture my Foxtel box video input and its Media Center channel configuration XML file is located here:
C:\program data\Hauppauge\MediaCenterService\{xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx}.XML
{xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx}. above is going to be a random series of characters on your pc (technically a GUID)

If you ensure the "Callsign" variable assigned to the channel in both of these files matches then when you push the guide.xml data into Media Center the guide data listings should be automatically assigned to the correct channel in Media Center thereby saving you from having to use Media Center's "Edit Channel" menu to maunally assign each channel listing to each channel. If you would like details on all the variables used in the guide.xml file see the Microsoft doco here.

RE Hauppage mce solution:
He's referring to whatever hardware solution you're using to capture your Foxtel video as I explained above.

RE How many people from Aust use Webgrab:
I'm one and assume there would be quite a few Aussie's since the monopolistic & colluding TV companies in our country stopped Microsoft from automatically providing EPG data to Aussie Media Center users right from the start so we had to go straight to a 3rd party solution rather than being able to use the automatic solution buitin to Media Center. To add insult to injury they are now complaining to the government that they want more anti-monopoloistic legislation removed (so they can become even more monopolistic) citing Channel 10's financial woes as the reason when the actual reason is that the channel 10 executives continued to pay themselves huge salaries and bonuses even while profits were down leaving nothing in the bank... then like all big business in Australia run to the government aka Tax payer asking for bailouts and special concessions. Of course this happened in the US aswell with all the big banks during the so called "global financial crisis"... they all got bailed out by the tax payer whilst not ONE cent was paid back by over paid execs and wall street traders... if you haven't seen it already check out the movie "The Big Short"...oops I think I've gone off topic

Works agian, with the help of a PHP file

Neede files are attached.

Do not forget to edit tje SiteIni file with the PHP server where the script can be found:  (here: http://192.168.178.30) to suit your setup.

Willy

RE I use the Hauppauge Colossus with the setup from TGB here.
I wrote those instructions .

RE Foxtel for the ridiculously useless hardware/software combo
Yes their UI is sooo unfriendly... there isn't even a skip button so you can skip thru adds like you can in MC... probably by design so you have to watch all the time wasting adds and cross promotions.

RE If only they would do the same for Foxtel
Most likely Foxtel won't allow them to use their epg data - same monopolistic practice they used against Microsoft to stop them providing guide data.
The lack of easily accessible guide data probably played a role in preventing MC getting a greater adoption rate.

RE Kill off Foxtel
Yes I only have it for Rugby Union. I hate how you can't buy JUST the Sport channels you want. Of course its all done on purpose to give the illusions you're getting a whole lot more for your money so they can justify the high price. Even if a found a streaming solution for Rugby (there are some none official ones already) I would still like to keep MC due to its great UI and the fact we can easily use the Xbox 360in the lounge as a MC extender... in fact that's all it's used for.

probably all getting a bit off topic for this forum but no harm i guess

First of all thanks for the info it helps to understand some things

i agree with Nigeltek that WMC its UI is far superior to foxtel & it just works

I was attracted to media centre in the 1st place because you could have all your media & TV in one place & use one remote

given what it had to offer especially in the earlier times & probably should probably had a lot more mainstream users

probably a bit dated but i have two Hauppage 2205 cards & a Compro card for Foxtel input W7 32b (It all works ok)

i had DVRMSToolbox & showanalyser running for a while to skip ads in recorded Foxtel & i loved it given the ads where nearly five mins

couldnt get it to work next time but i was a over the whole setup at the time

anyway good feedback guys

Cheers Glenn