UK EPG Licence Expiring

[STC]

^
http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... 792#p95792

You have to have an account. The fact you are not informed of this when trying to access the Connect page is comical.
Sometimes I wonder just how the heck they function...


/rant over

[Devonian1180]

I am suffering the same issues. See https://connect.microsoft.com/site1145/ ... ls/1728506

Dont bother reloading WMC etc the problem is with Microsoft and Ericsson Broadcast & Media Services (who tookover provision of EPG in UK around May this year from Broadcast Data Services UK Ltd). You can Google this for the exact date when Ericsson bought BDS.

I have tried contacting Ericsson in UK and Hilversum without any luck. Even spoke to head of EBMS in Guildford (he's on LINKEDIN!!) he denied all knowledge even though he worked for Red Bee Data Services before that!!

Next tried to contact jkweston@microsoft.com. This is the email given in the WMC term & conditions. Guess what, he doesn't exist either. What made me buy a product from such a customer unfriendly company. I'm moving to Apple!!!!

[IT Troll]

I've sent a couple of tweets to @GabeAul

The issue has gets a mention here:
http://thedigitallifestyle.com/w/index. ... rs-return/

The real problem is Microsoft has previously stated that they are no longer actively supporting the EPG or monitoring the Connect site. We don't have an official route to report these issues. See my post from the last time this happened:
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/wind ... f897459e61

Are there any other utilities / sources we can use to inject guide data into Media Center?

[IT Troll]

I've sent JonFincherMSFT a PM asking him to respond to this thread seeing as we have had nothing through Connect.

[harakan]

If you are using FreeView, the OTA transmission should still give you 7 days of guide data for non-HD channels until Microsoft fix this. If you use HD channels, there is a workaround here that allows you to copy the non-HD listings:

http://connecteddigitalworld.com/2010/1 ... ia-center/

It's certainly not a great solution - MS REALLY need to sort this ASAP - but should keep you from missing too much in the meantime.

[ricardoroberto]

The 7 day over air EPG info is very useful as I was not aware of that.

Shame it doesn't work for Vista but if it's not sorted then I will simply install 7 on the ones I use for recording.

From memory it was a good 2-3 weeks before they got it sorted last time.

Let's face it with MS making a big push with W10 they will regard everything else as legacy software and won't be knocking themselves out over it. I could understand it if W10 had WMC but it doesn't so they should really still be honouring customers who still rely on WMC.

[IT Troll]

I have found that the OTA EPG only populates if you actually watch a channel that carries the data. So if like me you only watch/record HD channels you don't get anything. Which is why I asked about third party tools and sources. A couple of things come up in Google but I've not tried either yet.

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/pclare/DVBGuide/

http://sourceforge.net/projects/xmltv/

[IT Troll]

I have found another one which sounds like it supports the Huffman EPG encoding used on HD channels (on satellite and Freeview). I'm going to give it a try later today.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/epgcollector/

Some of the utilities have import tools for Vista and XP for those on older setups.

[IT Troll]

Well I messed about with EPG Collector for a couple of hours but I couldn't get it to work. The channel scan picks up the channels OK but when I try to capture the EPG I just get CRC errors. I get the same regardless of whether I enable Huffman text or not.

[EricTViking]

I have the same problem here in the UK. Have upvoted the Microsoft Connect page to add some more weight to the issue.

Will let you know if I find a way around it.

[jlmj2009]

Well, just discovered this thread - Thought it was my installation playing up, but now see that my guide data expires today!!!

I don't really understand how Microsoft can just cut us Windows 7 Media Center users guide data off AGAIN - We've all paid (or at least I have) for a legitimate copy of Windows 7/8/8.1 and the guide data should be available until its "End of Life" - i.e. when support finally ends.

Anyway, I wasted several hours of my life on 'EPG Collector' and didn't have much luck as other have said, I got the "Huffman text" message or incomplete listings.

I then switch to, and am using, DVBGuide. I tried all the versions and for me at least, only the beta v96 works. Previous beta versions would not import the .mxf file into Media Center. The stable version 90 doesn't support Windows 7 MC. With the .96 version, I had to edit the produced .mxf file and change the 'Version 1.1' to 'Version 1.0' (or just remove the first line). Also, the newly imported DVBGuide EPG data is a separate record in the database, so I had to edit my guide data to use DVBGuide channel data. I just use it for the HD channels and use the broadcasterslistings for SD channels.

Also, in case its useful to anyone else, I found that running the ObjectStoreRecoveryTask in Task Scheduler clears the guide data without having to setup all the channels from the beginning.

[Mujja]

Also, the newly imported DVBGuide EPG data is a separate record in the database, so I had to edit my guide data to use DVBGuide channel data.

Hi

I've generated a .xml file and imported the data but I don't see anything the Guide. Please explain where the Guide data was edited.

Once I have it working I'll post up a guide.

[Keks22]

For me it is working again and the end date is now 19/09/2015.

[jlmj2009]

@ Mujja

To edit the channels, I do this:
Press Guide > Scroll to the left to highlight the Channel number (i.e. BBC ONE HD) > Press Info button on the remote > Edit Channel > Edit Listing > Scroll though the data until you find the channel with the DVBGuide data (i.e. BBC ONE HD-DVBGuide) > Select it and Save.

If it helps anyone, Im using this batch scrpit, which can be added as a task in Task Manager:

Note, 770000 is the frequency, which you will need to edit and switch "ft" is for Media Center 7 format, and "o" puts the data out in file format.
--------
@echo off
DVBGuide.exe -c770000 -ft -o mcguide.mxf

echo Removing first line...
type "mcguide.mxf"|findrepl /v /o:1:1 >"mcguide-new.mxf"
if exist mcguide.mxf del mcguide.mxf
rename mcguide-new.mxf mcguide.mxf

%windir%\ehome\loadmxf -v -i mcguide.mxf
if exist mcguide.mxf del mcguide.mxf
-------

The findrepl batch file , used to delete the first line, file can be downloaded from here (Its overkill, but does the job!):
http://www.dostips.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=4697

(Hope external URLS are allowed)


@ Keks22
My guide data still shows 6th Sept 2015 even though Ive just updated the guide listings...

[Pixelz]

For me it is working again and the end date is now 19/09/2015.

Assuming you did download real EPG data, rather than just an updated end date, and you have listings on the HD channels for today, can you let us know what Headend Id are you using (from Tasks|Settings|TV|Guide|About Guide Listings) please?
It's the 6-digit ID number on the third line down.

Reason I'm asking is I just tried several different Id's for Terrestrial and Satellite, but they all still have no data beyond 6 Sep.

[IT Troll]

@ jlmj2009
Many thanks for your post. I was going to wrestle with DVBGuide today but you have put in the ground work for us. The tip about the XML version is extremely helpful. It is much easier to use than EPG Collector and it actually works! With your script we can automate the updates and limp along with 7-day EPG for Freeview HD until Microsoft (hopefully) fix it. There are a couple of things to watch for:

• The frequency required will vary by region/transmitter. For me it was 474000. You can identify what frequency will work for you by checking the Source for a HD channel in the Media Center Guide Setup.

• If you use My Channel Logos, the DVBGuide listing breaks the logo for that channel. My Channel Logos doesn't seem to be able to see the channels.

The utility works will all tuner types and so the same technique should in theory work for Freesat which uses the same Huffman encoding. Perhaps someone with one of these tuners can give it a try and report back?

@ Keks22
Like others, I'm still not seeing anything beyond 6th September with the Microsoft listings. Looking back through your posts I think you are outside of the UK. Given that this is a thread about the UK EPG I think your post could cause confusion.

[IT Troll]

The findrepl batch file , used to delete the first line, file can be downloaded from here (Its overkill, but does the job!):

A simpler way to strip the first line, which just uses built-in commands is to use more. So findrepl can be replaced with:

more +1 mcguide.mxf > mcguide-new.mxf

[Vistaar]

For me it is working again and the end date is now 19/09/2015.

When a member in Europe or the UK gets a guide update in the customary way, it would be interesting to know whether the provider is BDS, Rovi or another party, and whether the PC is running Windows 7/8 or Vista.

[jlmj2009]

The findrepl batch file , used to delete the first line, file can be downloaded from here (Its overkill, but does the job!):

A simpler way to strip the first line, which just uses built-in commands is to use more. So findrepl can be replaced with:

more +1 mcguide.mxf > mcguide-new.mxf

No problems, pleased to be able to help a little back and figured it may give other MCE users a head start.

Thanks for the "more" tip, did see this method, but read that it was limited to @ 65535 characters or that it may corrupt the guide data if tabs were present, so didn't try it, but maybe Ill give it a go.

Its slightly annoying that we need to edit the mxf file... Really the DBVGuide utility should work as is, but it seems the latest beta has been updated to use XML schema 1.1 which MCE doesn't support, so that's where the defect lies, but its a workaround and Ill take that right now. So for me, its all automated, using the batch file above in a scheduled task and so far its updated twice without any interruptions to the TV viewing - So the wife's happy.

The only issue I've noticed so far is on Recorded TV, when you highlight a recording, it has "3 <missing> Date Length", so the channel name is missing. Its minor so doesnt bother me.

[EricTViking]

I've just got EPG Collector up and running and working for me. Didn't have any luck with DVBGuide - couldn't get it to recognise the correct carrier frequency.