For David... Show on wrong day in iCal feed

I had noticed a similar problem as programs were coming back from the winter break. If a program was set to start one week and the network later changed the date, the program would be accurate on TV Maze but the date would never correct itself on the Google calendar I had set up, even waiting a few days to see if it would sort itself. I've never used a ical feature before so I wasn't sure if there was something I was doing wrong, if Google wasn't getting an update from TV Maze (does it work like that?) or if the ical feed just never updated. I eventually just deleted the calendar at Google. My examples would be Castle and Hawai'i Five-0 where the dates just never corrected on the Google side.

Not sure if that helps narrow the problem down for anyone, but at least you know you aren't alone with the issue mrtouchedme. :)

Not exactly the problem I'm having. The only issue I have with incorrect date and time is with the show 11.22.63...all the rest of the shows in my iCal feed from tvmaze show the correct date and time, always have. Even on their website calendar, this one show switches to the wrong date if I check off the "show in my timezone" option, none of the other shows change date or time, just 11.22.63...everything else is correct whether that option is enabled or not. This admin David replied to my other thread saying it was Google calendar time zone settings, but if that were the case all the shows in my tvmaze iCal would be messed up... His fix was for me to change my time zone in Google calendar to one that would put this one show on the correct day, while messing up every other show and event in my calendar. I'd basically have to pick a timezone that throws off all my other calendar events by hours. Thats not a solution. Fix one thing, by messing up hundreds of other calendar entries

I'm assuming it has to do with this part of the episode Metadata/info guidelines I found on the site.

"Special care should be taken when episodes air after midnight. To ensure that the episode airdates on TVmaze are in line with the dates used by TV guides and listings worldwide, episodes that air after midnight are considered part of the previous day. For example, if an episode airs after midnight between Monday the 1st and Tuesday the 2nd, the airdate should be set to the 1st; even though technically the proper date would be the 2nd. (API users should take note that the property "airdate" uses the date as described here; while "airstamp" uses the technically correct date)."

According to this, the air date should be set to February 21, since the air time is 00:01... Not the 22nd like it's set in the show info. I'm guessing this is the reason I'm having this problem. Can I edit it? Or is this something the site admins need to do?

*edit... I tried to change it, I get an error telling me it's the wrong date and it even explains in the error message that shows airing after midnight need to be set to the previous day, but it won't allow me to do that. Same with house of Cards. I just checked and it's showing on the wrong date too. The problem seems to be any show that has 00:00 or 00:01 set for the air time on the site. This is causing them to be listed on the next day.

So, I guess, technically it's not a bug on the website, this is just how the website works... But it's not allowing people to follow the guidelines they have set up to show the correct dates and times for shows airing after midnight. This is the problem, what is the fix for this David?

Oh, my apologies. In your previous thread, I thought you were having a generic problem with the iCal timezones instead of something specific to 11.22.63.

Airtimes for web channel shows like on Hulu are a complicated topic, since web channels rarely announce the exact time when episodes are released - if there is any consistent timing at all.

Though you raise an interesting point. The system that treats episodes airing between 00:00 and 04:00 as part of the previous day makes sense for (network) TV shows, but perhaps not so much for web channel shows..

No worries, I felt like that was what you were thinking, and just wanted to clarify the problem was just that one show.

So, I guess, the problem is the air times that have been set for these Web shows. Is there any way to change them, or change the date to follow the site guidelines for air dates? I tried and it wouldn't let me. Tricky or not, the time being set for midnight or just after, is causing them to show on the wrong date in iCal. Perhaps changing the time to after 4am on the air date, because I realize most Web channels only post a release date, and not an exact time... Wouldn't it make sense to modify the time and have the date correct for iCal, too?

It let me change the air time, 4:01 didn't do it, though. But, changing to 5:01 seems to have fixed it. Hopefully, something will be updated to make people more aware of this when they add the shows and episodes.

We had a discussion in the past about whether we should store times for web channel shows at all. It was unresolved though because the situation is pretty complicated.

This complexity might be another argument to get rid of them alltogether.

Worth revisiting, hopefully they will do something permanent to enable the shows to populate on the correct days in iCal. Thanks for your time and help.

mrtouchedme wrote:
It let me change the air time, 4:01 didn't do it, though. But, changing to 5:01 seems to have fixed it. Hopefully, something will be updated to make people more aware of this when they add the shows and episodes.

Changing it to an imaginary airing time is not worth it. Please do not do that.

Yeah, please hold off on making any changes for now.

Thomas wrote:
Changing it to an imaginary airing time is not worth it. Please do not do that.

Then people need to follow the site guidelines and set the air date for the previous day on shows with airtimes set between 12-4am. Doing this incorrectly is messing up the site, the imaginary airtime as you call it, is fixing the airdate problem. Especially for shows without a set airtime, just a date, so an airtime change shouldn't matter...showing The correct date is more important, it's pointless having shows on the wrong date.

Fine, fix it then. Or I'll just go back to tvrage. I don't need these shows coming up in the wrong date all the time. That defeats the purpose of having them imported to my calendar, if it's not going to be correct.

Woah, we're in the middle of discussing a proper way to deal with this instead of using incorrect workarounds. If you can't find a little patience for that, please show yourself out.

Haha, funny, coming from someone that jumped to the wrong conclusion and immediately closed the first thread about this without taking the time to read or understand. But, ok, wasn't being impatient, just want it fixed and follow your own sites guidelines about this, or I will show myself out.

Thanks again, for you time and attention to this, I didn't mean to offend you or hurt your feelings. And I apologize for changing the air times, I'll put them back if that helps, I didn't mean to cause problems or get this sensitive Thomas person all butthurt and private messaging me. I won't reply anymore, I thought I was helping by fixing the times to display the show correctly in the website calendar and iCal. I'll let you handle it. You can lock this thread now too. Or delete it, since you've now taken the time to realize what the real issue is.

I acknowledged you were right and I'm happy you brought it to our attention. :)

But changing the times to 05:00 is not a fix but a workaround, which might cause problems elsewhere. Doing so without properly addressing and explaining it also isn't very fruitful, as it's likely to just be changed back by other users. That's why I asked you to hold off for now.

And I did hold off after you asked me to stop editing them. I'd prefer a better fix, of course. But again, your own sites guidelines state the airdates need to be set to the previous day for shows airing after midnight. These shows aren't following this guideline, other users should read these guidelines. Like I said, not trying to cause problems for you, and I will fix anything I've changed, if that helps.

http://www.tvmaze.com/threads/4/api-changelog?page...

The same will apply to the iCal feeds. :)

Thank you, David. I appreciate the effort.

This is live now. Let us know if you have more problems. :)