How to Migrate Scheduled Recordings (Recording Schedule)

artm

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#41

Post by artm » Thu Feb 02, 2017 6:45 pm

So, I used the import MXF command to do this. The listings showed up under "Series" but there were no scheduled recordings.

I had to click on each series, click "series settings", click "save", click "ok". That populated the schedule. Sometimes, I guess because there's no acive listing for the series, clicking on "save" brings you back to "series settings". Just go back to the series listings page and continue to the next listing.

After doing this the schedule was duplicated correctly.
-Art --
Win7 Ultimate x64 (NO UPDATES!), EPG123 v1.1.19, Schedules Direct, HDHomerun Prime,
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rknox

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#42

Post by rknox » Tue Nov 28, 2017 12:23 am

DavidinCT wrote:
GnatGoSplat wrote:
.Nico wrote:1. Backup the following folders from the existing installation: C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\eHome\backup\recordings
2. Install the new Windows 7 media center
3. Copy the files/folders from step 1 onto the new system
4. run the following command: C:\Windows\eHome\loadmxf.exe -i C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\eHome\backup\recordings
5. download the latest EPG info from within media centre
I get:
"Error: c:\ProgramData\Microsoft\eHome\mcepg3-0\backup\recordings does not exist or can not be opened for reading. Aborting."
I come back to this thread every time I need to reinstall WMC but want to restore my recording schedule. I believe the error above is because the actual files in the recordings directory must be referenced explicitly. It is possible for some there is only one file under recordings, and maybe that works as above. For me, there are typically 3 files, whose names are like: 20171126_123456. So, to rebuild/restore the Recordings schedule, I do the following, where file1 is the oldest and file3 is the newest:

C:\Windows\eHome\loadmxf.exe -i C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\eHome\mcepg2-4\backup\recordings\file1
C:\Windows\eHome\loadmxf.exe -i C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\eHome\mcepg2-4\backup\recordings\file2
C:\Windows\eHome\loadmxf.exe -i C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\eHome\mcepg2-4\backup\recordings\file3

Hope this helps anyone trying to use this approach.

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StinkyImp

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#43

Post by StinkyImp » Tue Nov 28, 2017 2:18 pm

I guess over the years I've become spoiled with point and click options versus command line entry. This year I've had a few hiccups with my system that required that I reload my recording schedule. The last time this happened I realized that GaRyan2 had included a little utility in his package called "epg123Transfer". I opened it up and this is what I found...

A point and click tool to import your recording schedule!

The right side shows what's currently in WMC (if any) and the left column allows you to open the files from C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\eHome\mcepgx-x\backup\recordings\ and then easily import them into WMC.

In my case, I have the "...\mcepgx-x\backup\recordings\" directory backed up every night to my secondary drive (in contribute mode) so I'll be able to access them even if I have to do a total rebuild.

As far as I can tell it's a standalone program and can be extracted from his zip archive. Maybe GaRyan2 can shed some additional light on it?

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DavidinCT

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#44

Post by DavidinCT » Tue Nov 28, 2017 4:32 pm

Yea, the ONLY funky thing. If you backup a Windows 7 machine... and you try to restore it to a Windows 8.1 machine, they wont work...

You can manually edit the files and change the Windows version on it and THEN import them in to 8.1. This will work. (they are just XML files)

Ran into this when I setup my dual boot HTPC (no start up menu, you need to manually change the OS, I have it batched out). And I wanted to mirror recordings on each partition.
-Dave
Twitter @TheCoolDave

Windows Media Center certified and WMC MVP 2010 - 2012

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garyan2

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#45

Post by garyan2 » Tue Nov 28, 2017 6:17 pm

StinkyImp wrote:I guess over the years I've become spoiled with point and click options versus command line entry. This year I've had a few hiccups with my system that required that I reload my recording schedule. The last time this happened I realized that GaRyan2 had included a little utility in his package called "epg123Transfer". I opened it up and this is what I found...

A point and click tool to import your recording schedule!

The right side shows what's currently in WMC (if any) and the left column allows you to open the files from C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\eHome\mcepgx-x\backup\recordings\ and then easily import them into WMC.

In my case, I have the "...\mcepgx-x\backup\recordings\" directory backed up every night to my secondary drive (in contribute mode) so I'll be able to access them even if I have to do a total rebuild.

As far as I can tell it's a standalone program and can be extracted from his zip archive. Maybe GaRyan2 can shed some additional light on it?
Yup, completely stand-alone, but will not transfer a Rovi based series ID. That would kind of defeat the purpose of the utility.

To address the original poster's issue, I believe what was missing was running the PvrSchedule task. It is basically the indexing of your scheduled recordings. By "saving" each series request, the poster was forcing the indexing of that specific series. If the task was run, all series recordings would have been indexed and everything would be as it should. This is something I had to include in that utility for this very reason.
DavidinCT wrote:Yea, the ONLY funky thing. If you backup a Windows 7 machine... and you try to restore it to a Windows 8.1 machine, they wont work...

You can manually edit the files and change the Windows version on it and THEN import them in to 8.1. This will work. (they are just XML files)

Ran into this when I setup my dual boot HTPC (no start up menu, you need to manually change the OS, I have it batched out). And I wanted to mirror recordings on each partition.
Actually, it is the other way around. You can import a Win7 file into a Win8 machine, but can't import a Win8 file into a Win7 machine without editing the version number in the file. For all version of EPG123, the MXF files that are imported all have the Win7 versions to be upward compatible and work with Win7, Win8, and Win8.1 (Win10) version of WMC.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

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DavidinCT

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#46

Post by DavidinCT » Tue Nov 28, 2017 7:16 pm

garyan2 wrote: Actually, it is the other way around. You can import a Win7 file into a Win8 machine, but can't import a Win8 file into a Win7 machine without editing the version number in the file. For all version of EPG123, the MXF files that are imported all have the Win7 versions to be upward compatible and work with Win7, Win8, and Win8.1 (Win10) version of WMC.
Maybe it was Seans WMC backup... but, when moving over to 8.1 (trying to import my recordings into 8.1 from 7), it failed. After editing the XML and changing the 6.1.xxx to 6.3.xxx it was able to import...

Never tried it manually at least I don't remember (might of years ago in the WMC beta, as beta builds were complete re-install)
-Dave
Twitter @TheCoolDave

Windows Media Center certified and WMC MVP 2010 - 2012

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garyan2

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#47

Post by garyan2 » Tue Nov 28, 2017 8:54 pm

DavidinCT wrote:
garyan2 wrote: Actually, it is the other way around. You can import a Win7 file into a Win8 machine, but can't import a Win8 file into a Win7 machine without editing the version number in the file. For all version of EPG123, the MXF files that are imported all have the Win7 versions to be upward compatible and work with Win7, Win8, and Win8.1 (Win10) version of WMC.
Maybe it was Seans WMC backup... but, when moving over to 8.1 (trying to import my recordings into 8.1 from 7), it failed. After editing the XML and changing the 6.1.xxx to 6.3.xxx it was able to import...

Never tried it manually at least I don't remember (might of years ago in the WMC beta, as beta builds were complete re-install)
Hmm... I'll check again. I might not have run through this particular scenario for the schedule transfer, but I'm pretty sure I change it to 6.1 and it still works for Win8/8.1. Might have to add a feature for the utility to verify the version number as well and set accordingly.

I'll put it on my list. Thanks!
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

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