After EPG123 install unable to do DVB-2 single scans

[nairnmonster]

Hi,

Like many in the UK in the last two weeks our EPG has again gone... I have had enough of this and sought out EPG123. Looks exactly what I needed and for £20 for a year of no issues and fantastic and fully updated EPG it was perfect. So I followed the PDF install guide word for word, after my channel scan and EPG update it was all looking great.
However, it appeared that all the DVB-T channels had scanned 140+ as expected with the regional variations, but the DVB-S was missing a very large amount. I do use mostly DVB-T for SD channels, but as I have a surround system I prefer to have DVB-S2 for the HD channels (DD5.1).
I have a file with a list of the frequencies for the regional FreeSat channels I use so I can do a single transponder scan. This is where the issue is happening; none of the regional channels on DVB-S are scanning. Keeps returning with no channels found. I have checked on all the normal sites to confirm the frequencies I still have are current and up-to-date.
I have nuked the system, and doing a fresh install to test from new to make sure this is completely related to the "install/addition of EPG123.

Does anyone have a similar issue or any advice should this happen again?

Many thanks

Steve

Win7 x64
BGT 3602

[garyan2]

the DVB-S was missing a very large amount.

I'm going to focus on this part for a second to see if I can help quickly. Need to better understand if the channels were not scanned (not in the tuner scan), or there is no guide listing for the channel. If there is no guide listing for the channel, then it sounds like the lineup from Schedules Direct is not complete.

I would take a look at the DVB-S lineup in the epg123 GUI and verify it is complete/incomplete. Also of note, I don't know what the channel numbers look like, but if you have duplicate channel numbers between the 2 lineups, there will be some complications and some needed manual intervention.

[nairnmonster]

Thanks for replying, I have set a new build and before I setup media center. Do you recommend following the EPG123 install guide, or setup MCE as I would normally?

[garyan2]

Thanks for replying, I have set a new build and before I setup media center. Do you recommend following the EPG123 install guide, or setup MCE as I would normally?

Depends ... a little story first.

I just got done finding a method for Hauppauge HD PVR/Colossus users to configure and use WMC without any MS/Rovi contamination. They were a special situation because the "tuner" was not a real tuner ... it was a software tuner. Since it didn't actually tune anything, it relied on the lineup supplied by MS/Rovi during TV Setup to build the tuner channels that would be "discovered" during a scan. When the ToS was declined during TV Setup, the HD PVR would not get the lineup information from MS/Rovi so therefore there wouldn't be any channels found during the scan. I found where the software kept that lineup information (as well as registry settings) to build a file that would make it so 9999 channels were available from the software tuner.

If in your case, after a clean install and declining the ToS your DVB-S tuner discovers 0 channels, then I suspect your situation is similar to the one above. I see a couple immediate choices.

1) Perform a normal setup, find where the tuner/channel information is kept and if it is a file, make it read-only. Then go through the clean install of epg123 and see if that works.

2) epg123 can coexist with MS/Rovi with just a few quirks in the movie guide and category searches ... your guide will still be complete and accurate with the Schedules Direct information. You can go ahead and do a normal setup to be followed by Step 3 of the epg123 setup. epg123 will push the Rovi guide to a secondary position and out of the way.

If you could, let me know what your hardware and lineup is so I can see about setting up a test bench and finding the best solution. Thanks.

[nairnmonster]

The hardware is a BlackGoldTech 3602 dual DVB-T2 & dual DVB-S2 tuner. As for the lineup, i'm not sure what you mean and how do I provide you with this?

[nairnmonster]

I have my guide setup in the following way below, is there a way for me to set it like that below then manually assign the guide to each channel rather than have to re-sort it all and re-name?

FS = FreeSat & FV = Freeview.

1. Bbc one hd FS
2. Bbc two hd FS
3. Stv hd FS
4. Channel 4 hd FS
5. Channel 5 hd FS
6. Channel 5+1 FV
7. Channel 5+24 FS
8. 5 USA FV
9. 5 USA +1 FS
10. 5star FS
11. 5star +1 FS
12. Bbc four hd FS
13. Stv +1 FV
14. Itv 2 FS
15. Itv 2+1 FS
16. Itv 3 FS
17. Itv 3+1 FS
18. Itv4 FS
19. Itv4+1 FS
20. ITVBe FS
21. Channel 4+1 FS
22. E4 FS
23. E4+1 FS
24. More 4 FS
25. More 4+1 FS
26. Film 4 FS
27. Film 4+1 FS
28. 4Seven FS
29. 4Music FV
30. Dave FV
31. Dave ja vu FV
32. Yesterday FV
33. Spike FV
34. Quest FV
35. Quest +1 FV
36. Challenge FV
37. Really FV
38. Pick FV
39. Drama FV
40. Food Network FV
41. Movie Mix FV
42. True Entertainment FV
43. BBC News 24 FS
44. Sky News FV

[nairnmonster]

Okay so things have taken a turn for the worst, I added my channels after a rebuild. I then let EPG123 do its thing, all the channel arrangement changed as expected. However, again channels missing, and number 1 has gone and I cannot assign the channel number either. I'm totally confused, I really don't know how to get this right. Should I have scanned channels, ran epg123 then done my arrangement?

Is there a easy way to undo all changes to start fresh with the last known scan or do I need to rebuild again?

[nairnmonster]

Hi again,

While at work, I was thinking how I could resolve this matter.
So I have come up with this to get what I want and tested on my lunch break with success. It might not be the best way to do this and there might well be a much easier and quicker way. But it worked and got me what I was after.

So, I returned the guide back to default line-up and naming. Removed all EPG123 guide data, then re-arranged the guide into the order I have above with the mixed DVB-T & DVB-S tuners. I then moved each channel from the custom line-up to an un-used number slot in order i.e. 500, 501, 502 etc. Then keeping the channels in that order changed their names to Test 1, Test 2 and so on keeping a note of which channel was which in regards to their new name.
This then left all the duplicate channels that are not on my normal guide setup free for EPG123 to populate the guide data too. I then again moved all the newly named Test channels back into their original slot and returned the names back. I then edited the listings for these channels to copy from the newly populated EPG data on the matching un-used channels.

So I now have an EPG with the custom setup I have used in the past and it also has a perfect EPG listings.

The only real question I have now, when the EPG comes to update in two weeks and whenever it does the update. Will this affect the above system for setup I have done or will everything remain the same and only the channels that are un-used and play home to the EPG123 guide data be updated then replicate to the channels I have set the copy EPG data from?

Thanks

[garyan2]

Okay, this should be much, much easier than what it looks like you went through if I understand what you did correctly. Considering the amount of renumbering/reordering you are doing and evidently not having a lineup available from SD for Astra 28.2, I recommend the following:

1. Perform epg123 Step 1 for clean install.
2. Perform epg123 Step 2 for TV Setup.
3. Perform epg123 Step 3 and ensure that the 'Automatch' feature is disabled.
4. Use Guide Tool to quickly match epg123 lineup station with DVB-S/DVB-T tuner channels. You can either go ahead and renumber the channels to get the order you want, or do that in WMC.

BTW: I could have swore that Astra 28.2 was available when I was initially developing the code... maybe I was imagining.

[nairnmonster]

I knew there would be a easier way at haha. Thanks, so how do I disable auto matching?
Also, I'm a little apprehensive to do a clean install again as that's what caused issues with scanning dvb-s channels previously (I think)

[garyan2]

Understand the apprehension. How did you get the DVB-S channels back?

In the configuration panel of the epg123 GUI, there is a checkbox for "Automatch stations to channels" ... un-check that.

[nairnmonster]

Format and os rebuild. Since it's an htpc only takes a couple of hours to complete. It's the lineup and channel scanning that takes most work and time

Will have a look at that when I get in

[rkulagow]

We have Astra 28.2E available, but it's stale because it's a custom lineup. If there's interest in 28.2E and others, like Hotbird 13.0E, then they can be built as long as we have data for the stations in the master database.

[nairnmonster]

Okay, this should be much, much easier than what it looks like you went through if I understand what you did correctly. Considering the amount of renumbering/reordering you are doing and evidently not having a lineup available from SD for Astra 28.2, I recommend the following:

1. Perform epg123 Step 1 for clean install.
2. Perform epg123 Step 2 for TV Setup.
3. Perform epg123 Step 3 and ensure that the 'Automatch' feature is disabled.
4. Use Guide Tool to quickly match epg123 lineup station with DVB-S/DVB-T tuner channels. You can either go ahead and renumber the channels to get the order you want, or do that in WMC.

BTW: I could have swore that Astra 28.2 was available when I was initially developing the code... maybe I was imagining.

One thing with this, I noticed before a lot of the channel names changed after this and quite a few were incorrect. Was this part of the auto-matching issue?

[garyan2]

Correct. If it matches a station to an incorrect channel, the wrong Callsign and wrong Listings will follow.

[nairnmonster]

Hi,

Just wanted to let you know, I now have my custom guide with rich and detailed listings. It didn't take much work after you pointed out the correct way of doing it. I cannot thank you enough for your help regarding this. I don't have much money, but I thought you deserved what I could afford through the donation on your page. Fantastic application!!!

I have also donated to Guide Tool and bought a year on Schedules direct as they are part of a trio that without, I would still be sitting with "No Data Avaialble".

Thanks again

Steve

[nairnmonster]

One more little thing, for some reason even after I have made my custom guide. It is still adding channels to the guide that have been disabled. Is there a way to stop this?

[garyan2]

One more little thing, for some reason even after I have made my custom guide. It is still adding channels to the guide that have been disabled. Is there a way to stop this?

Need a little more information. The channels are disabled how?

Are they unselected in the epg123 GUI? or disabled in WMC with/without epg123 listings?

[nairnmonster]

They are not selected in epg and also used wmc to disable channel in guide editor

[garyan2]

This last time around on setting up epg123, did you do Step 1? If you did, I'm wondering if for some reason background scanning is bringing these back. To disable background scanning change the below registry setting.

Code: Select all

[HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Service\BackgroundScanner]
“PeriodicScanEnabled”=dword:00000000
“PeriodicScanIntervalSeconds”=dword:7FFFFFFF