Here is the log entry information:

10/07/09 02:12:04   TVShows Error: #<OpenURI::HTTPError: 404 Not Found>
    /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/open-uri.rb:277:in `open_http'
    /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/open-uri.rb:616:in `buffer_open'
    /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/open-uri.rb:164:in `open_loop'
    /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/open-uri.rb:162:in `catch'
    /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/open-uri.rb:162:in `open_loop'
    /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/open-uri.rb:132:in `open_uri'
    /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/open-uri.rb:518:in `open'
    /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/open-uri.rb:30:in `open'
    /Users/mmm/Library/Application Support/TVShows/TVShowsScript/TVShows.rb:61:in `download'
    /Users/mmm/Library/Application Support/TVShows/TVShowsScript/TVShows.rb:312:in `getNewEpisodesWithKey'
    /Users/mmm/Library/Application Support/TVShows/TVShowsScript/TVShows.rb:302:in `each_pair'
    /Users/mmm/Library/Application Support/TVShows/TVShowsScript/TVShows.rb:302:in `getNewEpisodesWithKey'
    /Users/mmm/Library/Application Support/TVShows/TVShowsScript/TVShows.rb:165:in `getNewEpisodes'
    /Users/mmm/Library/Application Support/TVShows/TVShowsScript/TVShows.rb:425:in `getNewEpisodes'
    /Users/mmm/Library/Application Support/TVShows/TVShowsScript/lib/plist/parser.rb:79:in `each_with_index'
    /Users/mmm/Library/Application Support/TVShows/TVShowsScript/TVShows.rb:422:in `each'
    /Users/mmm/Library/Application Support/TVShows/TVShowsScript/TVShows.rb:422:in `each_with_index'
    /Users/mmm/Library/Application Support/TVShows/TVShowsScript/TVShows.rb:422:in `getNewEpisodes'
    /Users/mmm/Library/Application Support/TVShows/TVShowsScript/TVShows.rb:443

Thank you the detailed report. :) I'll be sure and add a check to the torrent creation code so that it doesn't create torrents for 404/503 errors.

There may be some decisions to make here, especially if ezrss.it never fixes their link.

In that case, do you:
• Stop all future downloads until the bad link is fixed (which may be never)
• Skip the episode altogether - 1 try and it is done
• Keep trying to get the bad link episode while downloading newer episodes

And how will you alert the user since you run as a faceless background application.

Just some thoughts...

Agreed. There's a lot of thought that's going to have to go into this and I'm afraid I don't have an immediate answer to this problem.

Unfortunately it's not just a TVShows issue. No matter the program, most people are going to be using the ezRSS feeds to download shows. They're running into the same exact problems. Even worse, though, is that some of these 404 links are coming directly from EZTV. Viewing the NCIS: Los Angeles page on the EZTV site gives two different torrent links which both return error 404s.

Still (no offense to their hard work) the ezRSS site certainly does have a fair number of issues that seem to never get resolved. I'm trying to find the best way to go about scraping the EZTV website without causing a large bandwidth spike and I haven't found a good solution yet. I honestly think that it's the only way to be sure we're downloading new episodes of shows, at least until the ezRSS site gets its act together. For instance, see shows like The Big Bang theory where Ep3 still hasn't been posted on ezRSS but does happen to be on the EZTV website.

Perhaps it might be time to start looking into a way to use multiple source feeds (Mininova, Pirate Bay, etc) for the same show. Merge the feeds together somehow and remove duplicate episodes, with working ezRSS links having top priority.

If you add the web page scraping, it would be nice to allow that to be turned on/off via a program preference. Additionally, if it generates network spikes it might be nice to offer the ability to schedule it (like once a day at 3 am for example).

Multiple sites would help eliminates the issue of "what if ezRSS goes away". I think that type of issue came up with the original TVSHOWS. So that would be interesting. Again, a preference to allow the user to pick which sites might be in order for anyone loving Mininova but hating Pirate Bay (or whatever their personal preferences are).

Keep up the good work.

Unfortunately this seems to be an issue of the torrent links returning a 404 error. I'll be adding an error check in the next version to make sure this doesn't happen again.

Thank you for reporting the issue, and especially for listing the shows. :)

Quite possible, and it should be fairly easy for me too add. :)

But make it an option, please. I prefer to download my shows in an "Inbox" folder and only move them to their corresponding folder when I've seen them.

I planned to. Don't worry. :)

+1

... but in the meantime there is a log file maintained in the ~/Library/Application Support/TVShows folder, called TVShows.log, which you can view.

I guess this should by rights be moved somewhere where console can be used to view it easily and also it could be monitored for size by the system scripts.

HTH

Craig

What an odd bug, but I'm glad to hear that your subscription was saved on subsequent runs. I'll be sure and check this out since it's certainly not a great first impression. Thanks for submitting it. :)

What shows is this happening with?

it seems like it only happens once, and randomly. it [happened] with desperate housewives, hell's kitchen, and a few others ....