[Atomic Taco]

Yesterday I started seeing this:

This morning the exception was gone, but I'm saw Search error: Not Found instead of the list of shows. I don't see any major changes to theTVDB API docs to indicate something changed there
I closed the application, deleted the C:\Users\me\AppData\Roaming\Metagenerator folder and relaunched the application but still saw the same error.
Now the exception is back

 

[dlfl]

@Atomic Taco
Not seeing these issues. However, I notice the programId search finds no results for "Deadliest Catch", but no error message, just no PID's, although it does find a seriesID.

 

[Atomic Taco]

@Atomic TacoNot seeing these issues. However, I notice the programId search finds no results for "Deadliest Catch", but no error message, just no PID's, although it does find a seriesID.

What endpoint does the search hit? I want to try it from that machine. I know Win 7 is long abandoned and I should update that machine; maybe root certs could be to blame.

 

[elprice7345]

@Atomic Taco Make sure your using the correct seriesId, SH0045266952. I don't get any errors, but I found 2 seriesIds that match "Deadliest Catch". The "bad" one is SH0441900122.

Using the correct seriesId, I was able to find almost all of the programIds.

@dlfl The TiVo domain token I used recently didn't work today. I logged into TiVo.com, copied another token and the programId search worked.

Is this expected behavior? Do we need a new TiVo domain token every time we search for programIds?

 

[Atomic Taco]

@Atomic Taco Make sure your using the correct seriesId, SH0045266952. I don't get any errors, but I found 2 seriesIds that match "Deadliest Catch". The "bad" one is SH0441900122.

Using the correct seriesId, I was able to find almost all of the programIds.

That's not possible. The exception is thrown immediately upon clicking the search button. It's not possible to select a TV series (because none are ever returned) much less select a series and enter the seriesId.

 

[dlfl]

@Atomic Taco Make sure your using the correct seriesId, SH0045266952. I don't get any errors, but I found 2 seriesIds that match "Deadliest Catch". The "bad" one is SH0441900122.

Using the correct seriesId, I was able to find almost all of the programIds.

@dlfl The TiVo domain token I used recently didn't work today. I logged into TiVo.com, copied another token and the programId search worked.

Is this expected behavior? Do we need a new TiVo domain token every time we search for programIds?

Best I know is the tokens are good for a week or two. Typical behavior would not be requiring a new one every time you search. Maybe just random bad luck (i.e., it was about to expire anyway).

On my machine the RPC seriesID search for “Deadlest Catch” returns just one ID, presumably the bad one. Haven’t tried “deep search” though. I think these search results are dependent on recording/tuning history of your TiVo account. It’s a black box to some extent — I’ve never understood it fully.

 

[dlfl]

@Atomic Taco , @elprice7345 I think you two are talking about two different kinds of search. I believe @Atomic Taco is concerned with the original series search using theTVDB.com failing, at least specifically for “Deadliest Catch”. I will provide the endpoint for that search the next time I’m logged onto my development PC. IIRC you also have to use an authentication endpoint first, which requires a key that has been granted by theTVDB.com.

 

[dlfl]

@Atomic Taco
Here is a "Swagger" page that documents, and allows testing of, the TVDB API used by MG3:

Swagger UI

thetvdb.github.io

Instructions are at the top but I see you have to have an API key to do anything. MG3 obviously has such a key but unfortunately it must remain private. I'm not sure how hard it would be to get a key for personal/testing use but you could check into that. The series search that fails for you uses the /series endpoint.

If these searches depend on some certificate on the local machine, I am unaware of that. I would be surprised if MG3 did not work on a Wn7 machine, but can't test that.

Do all your theTVDB searches fail? Do searches using tmdB succeed?

 

[elprice7345]

Best I know is the tokens are good for a week or two. Typical behavior would not be requiring a new one every time you search. Maybe just random bad luck (i.e., it was about to expire anyway).

I wasn't aware that the token is only temporary ... not a big deal. It has been at least a couple of weeks since I last tried a programId search, so that makes sense.

 

[elprice7345]

That's not possible. The exception is thrown immediately upon clicking the search button. It's not possible to select a TV series (because none are ever returned) much less select a series and enter the seriesId.

@Atomic Taco Sorry about that! I didn't read your post closely enough!

MG3 finds 2 seriesIds for Deadliest Catch (as noted above). I get results using either TVDB or TMDB.

Once I get series results, I'm able to get programIds without any problem.

Do all your theTVDB searches fail? Do searches using tmdB succeed?

I agree with @dlfl , let's see if your issue is something peculiar to this series or a broader issue.

 

[Atomic Taco]

I want to clear the air and explain a little bit more about what's going on here...

First is a domain token. This is generated by TiVo Online by each individual user. This allows MG3 to query TiVo Online as though it were that user logged in to the browser and retrieve series and episode IDs.

Then there is an API key for TheTVDB. These are issued per project and like @dlfl mentions they are secret to the project. It should only be visible by those compiling the source of MG3.

As has been diagnosed above my problem was not with the TiVo domain token but the search that is performed against TheTVDB.

The link above to the docs tells me that MG3 hitting the v4 API and not the v3 API. I've tested calls to the API server both via a browser and command-line cURL and don't see any certificate issues. My theory was that the root certificates on my machine had expired and were not updated, which means that my machine would not be able to validate a certificate presented by any website. A client does not download the certificate (per se); it's the trust chain against the root CAs that was my thought. But that's not it.

The error isn't specific to any one show; it happens on all searches. Searches against TMDb and TheMovieDB work fine.

I downloaded MG3 4.03 on to a Win10 machine and series searches against TheTVDB work as expected. So everything works, there's just something environment specific.

Looking deeper in to the stack trace it seems like the data coming back from TheTVDB is not in an expected format. Could it be an expired TVDB token causing the API to return an authorization failed message instead of the expected search results?

Besides deleting the Metagenerator folder in AppData is there anything I need to do to have the app run like a clean "install"?

 

[dlfl]

@Atomic Taco
Deleting everything in the appdata folder is all that is required.

Just to clarify my understanding: The problem is theTVDB searches fail on a Win7 PC but are OK on a Win10 PC. Correct?

One possible candidate:

A commit message in the MG3 repo dated 17 Dec 2021 is:
"TVDB V4 needs .net 4.7.2 for TLS 1.2"
MG3 is targeted to .NET Framework 4.7.2.for this reason..

There is a CL option -tvdbv3 that forces the use of theTVDB API V3. This API version is deprecated but I tried this and searches seemed to work. I'm not sure how long, or how well, theTVDB will continue to suppport V3 however.

Out of curiosity I googled "tls 1.2 windows 7" and found what appears to be a very helpful link:
Enabling TLS 1.2 on Windows 7 | Runbox Help
Note it says TLS 1.2 is not enabled by default in Win7, but tells how to enable it.
Hope that helps!

 

[Atomic Taco]

Just to clarify my understanding: The problem is theTVDB searches fail on a Win7 PC but are OK on a Win10 PC. Correct?

To quote David Puddy: "yeah, that's right"

One possible candidate:

A commit message in the MG3 repo dated 17 Dec 2021 is:
"TVDB V4 needs .net 4.7.2 for TLS 1.2"
MG3 is targeted to .NET Framework 4.7.2.for this reason..

What an excellent find! This seems to be the issue; after following the instructions in the linked doc for adding the reg keys searching works again on the Win7 machine. Thank you!

 

[leswar]

I found an easier way to refresh my domain token. If you are also using kmttg just go into its config.ini file using Windows wordpad(write) and scroll down until you come across its domain token - highlight and copy then paste same into MetaGenerator. Its also very easy to refresh the domain token using kmttg under file>cofigure>Tivos>chose "Refresh Token". Beats the pain of logging in to tivo online nonsense.

 

[elprice7345]

@leswar - Nice tip!

One note: to use the tip from @leswar, you have to upgrade to the new version (2.5-l) of kmttg available here: New program for 1 step TTG downloads, decryption...

 

[Soapm]

I found an easier way to refresh my domain token. If you are also using kmttg just go into its config.ini file using Windows wordpad(write) and scroll down until you come across its domain token - highlight and copy then paste same into MetaGenerator. Its also very easy to refresh the domain token using kmttg under file>cofigure>Tivos>chose "Refresh Token". Beats the pain of logging in to tivo online nonsense.

Thanks, that is an awesome tip. I've been dreading each time I have to change the token, but no more. Now it'd be nice if Meta could look in the KMTTG config file. But I won't be that lazy... ROFL

 

[dlfl]

Thanks, that is an awesome tip. I've been dreading each time I have to change the token, but no more. Now it'd be nice if Meta could look in the KMTTG config file. But I won't be that lazy... ROFL

The ideal solution would be to port the Java code in KMTTG that gets the token to C# code so as to be integrated into MG3. However that is not a simple task and not even guaranteed to be possible.

Having MG3 get the token from the KMTTG config file is easy but MG3 has to know where the .ini file is. Is it always in a predetermined location? Or would MG3 users have to browse to it in order to set it? I don’t use KMTTG so don’t know this info. If someone could attach an example of a .ini file, that would also be helpful.

 

[elprice7345]

Is it always in a predetermined location? Or would MG3 users have to browse to it in order to set it? I don’t use KMTTG so don’t know this info. If someone could attach an example of a .ini file, that would also be helpful.

The file is always in the kmttg root directory, but users can install kmttg wherever they want, so the user would have to supply the directory.

I've attached a copy of my config.ini with (hopefully) all the sensitive info deleted.

 

[dlfl]

The file is always in the kmttg root directory, but users can install kmttg wherever they want, so the user would have to supply the directory.

I've attached a copy of my config.ini with (hopefully) all the sensitive info deleted.

Thanks, but the attachment isn’t showing up in my browser. (??)

 

[leswar]

dlfl -- I sent one in private message.