TheTVDB API v3 released, v1 & v2 currently broken

[IT Troll]

So it would seem that TheTVDB released v3 of their API on Thursday.
https://forums.thetvdb.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=60048

And in the process completely broke the v1 and v2 API.
https://forums.thetvdb.com/viewtopic.php?f=122&t=60034

This means RecordedTVHD and many other client apps are no longer working. Hopefully TheTVDB will fix the issue on their side so that RTVHD doesn't require an update.

[IT Troll]

Latest from TheTVBD devs:

"We are currently updating our Webpage and against our Expectations the Scrapers don´t work correctly. This affects everyone with every System. The Dev´s are on it, i can´t tell you when it will work again. This is a known Issue btw.."

Sounds like they need to brush up their change management.

[IT Troll]

TheTVDB devs are saying they have fixed as much as they are going to fix. Unfortunately RecordedTVHD is still not working. This make me very sad.

Requests using API v1 & v2 are supported but they are using 301/302 redirects and now require SSL. They are saying it is up to the client app developers to ensure their apps support these things. More on the SSL issues here:
https://forums.thetvdb.com/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=60223

Hopefully Mark will come to the rescue again.

[IT Troll]

I did a little digging and discovered that RTVHD actually uses a library called TvDbSharper from another developer to access the TheTVBD API. RTVHD uses TvDbSharper v1.0.1, but v2.0.0 was released last year.
https://github.com/HristoKolev/TvDbSharper

However, is sounds like this newer version still has some issues following the recent changes to TheTVDB.
https://github.com/HristoKolev/TvDbSharper/issues/14

I did try swapping out the dll with the newer version but this just caused the RTVHD service to fault when attempting to start.

[IT Troll]

TheTVDB is currently fubared. No apps which are using the old APIs are working correctly (without workaround fixes). TheTVDB forums are full of issues. Each day changes are being made which fix some things whilst breaking others. There is no point trying to fix RTVHD until things stabalise. Hopefully, RTVHD will start to work again, without requiring any changes, once the many API bugs are fixed.

[IT Troll]

So TheTVDB have rolled out a number of API fixes but none of these have helped Recorded TV HD. It is still failing to search or download images. I don't think it is going to start working again unless some development work is done.

In the TVDbSharper issue log there is  the following report which seems to indicate that with some minor changes the API could be made to work again.

I got the Images back again, by changing the Base URL to:
https://artworks.thetvdb.com/banners/
then I just concatinate the resulting Imagepath.

I stopped to use the "derefferer" in the URL's, if I wanted to go to a certain link like Season by number or the Series URL.

Also to note. Sometimes the "Slug"-Value is not a String, it is just the TVDBID, so please do a check beforehand.

But the TvDbSharper seems to work still correct against the API.

Hopefully Mark can find some time look at this. It would be great if the syntax for the API commands could be held in one of the configuration files so it is possible to amend things like the URLs and other parameters with needing to compile a new executable (which is not possible without the source).

[IT Troll]

Artwork is now returned if the TVBID is already known and the language of the image has been set. However, artwork is not returned when the language is null (this is a known TVDB API v1 bug which will be fixed).

The TV show search function still fails for new series/episodes.

I see this thread has had around 100 views but no one else has posted. Please post if you are affected by this issue so that interest can be determined.

[qwkteg125]

Hi thanks for your continued support of this program. I just noticed I am no longer getting artwork for recorded shows anymore. I just assumed it was due to the switchover to epg123 but I guess it's something else then?

[IT Troll]

It is nothing to do with EPG123, I've been using EPG123 for more than two years now. The problem is that TheTVDB which provides the images have updated their API. This means that Recorded TV HD will need to be updated by the developer to support the new v3 API.

Further more, TheTVDB have announced that they intend to remove legacy SSL support.
https://forums.thetvdb.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=61687

The good news is that the TvDbSharper library which Recorded TV HD uses has just been updated to support the v3 API. So hopefully the developer can find a little time to incorporate this and release a fix.
https://github.com/HristoKolev/TvDbSharper

[MJT Software]

Anybody want to beta test this version:
http://www.recordedtvhd.com/download/beta/RecordedTVHDSetup-2.0.3.msi

[IT Troll]

Awesome news! This beta is mostly working well. Shows are now being recognised again and artwork is being downloaded. The only issue I have found so far is that episode thumbnails are failing to download. I think perhaps just because it is using the old URL format and so hopefully is a simple fix.

Many thanks to MJT for taking the time to fix this.

[dafunk60]

Thanks guys!  Giving the beta a try now, at first look everything is working.

[qwkteg125]

I think it is working again, although for one show I had to manually merge with previously recorded episodes to get the artwork. Thanks!

[CRF]

First, I too would like to thank MJT for the update.

I had to move a lot of files to an archive before the API change, and lost all the episode information.  The beta version fixed all of those files as well as all the new programs that have been added since the API change.

I had four new shows added (three via keyword "Pilot" and one manually).  None of them was identified.  I know for sure that I had to manually Override three of the shows and maybe the forth as well.  They were

Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist
Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt for the Bone Collector
9-1-1:Lone Star
FBI: Most Wanted

Not sure if the special character in the title cause problems or not.  Once I add the TVDB.com ID, the settings program was able to download the Backdrop and Poster without problems, and generate the correct episode data for new programs.

Speaking of the Recorded TV HD Settings program, could you make two minor changes to it.  First, the interface to TheTVDB.com for finding a program (Series Override) has changed.  The new way is (https://thetvdb.com/series/fbi), and show names with spaces, the space is converted to '-'.

The second change, can you modified Episodes Override so that we can input the SeasonNum and EpisodeNum values.  You removed that feature when you moved that to the main program, but since you have now removed from the main program, there no easy way to update those values.  It not often that I have to do that but every one in a while the main program sometimes gets it wrong (mostly for old English series that run for the first time in the US).

Thanks
Carl

[IT Troll]

CRF wrote

The second change, can you modified Episodes Override so that we can input the SeasonNum and EpisodeNum values.  You removed that feature when you moved that to the main program, but since you have now removed from the main program, there no easy way to update those values.  It not often that I have to do that but every one in a while the main program sometimes gets it wrong (mostly for old English series that run for the first time in the US).

The Episodes Overide screen still has this ability. Unless I am misunderstanding what you mean. Special characters have always been problematic though for the auto match.

[IT Troll]

jachin99 and Hobbes from The Green Button forums also send their thanks. Both said that they couldn't register for an account here.

[CRF]

OK, I have figured out my problem with Episodes edit.  On my HT system, I only use it for WMC, so I have the Display scaling factor set to "Larger - 150%", which causes the "Edit" button to be pushed off the bottom of the Episodes Override screen.  I see that the Series Override has the same problem, but for Series Override, double clicking on a Series causes the system to edit that Series.  The same thing doesn't happen for Episodes Override, so I have been forced to do editing via SQLite.

Thanks, Carl

[qwkteg125]

Just had some new shows recorded and all the artwork and descriptions and episode numbers are all there. Thanks so much for your continued support!