Following Import of Recording Schedule, Nothing Records

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packetdog

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Following Import of Recording Schedule, Nothing Records

#1

Post by packetdog » Sun Feb 12, 2017 4:12 pm

Hi Folks,

Other than the $25 annual cost for SD Membership, this solution seems to be elegant, and just fantastic. I really like something that does better than the original. Very impressive.

I'm encountering an issue however that I'd like to outline. Put simply, nothing will record. Here's the steps I took:

Download/Extract EPG123 to C:\EPG123
Run EPG123Client.exe and run Clean process. Confirm successful setup by Media Center loading (took 2 tries.)
Setup tuners/live TV setup- confirm 'I do not agree' to WMC EPG agreement. Successful TV setup, can tune Live TV.
Confirm -nothing- is in the View Scheduled screen, including on the Series 'tab'.
Import Scheduled Recordings via C:\Windows\ehome\loadmxf.exe -i "<recording backup file saved prior to clean step above>" - Import successfully 100%, shows programs (and correct channels) in View Scheduled > Series. Nothing shows as scheduled as of yet.
Run and setup EPG123.exe. Add SD Login, specify options, Setup scheduled task. Save & Execute. This completes successfully, guide data is visible and accurate in WMC.
Nothing shows scheduled to record.

Additionally I attempted to run the mcupdate_scheduled and mcupdate tasks, in that order. I also restarted the computer.

Other info: I'm running a single Ceton InfiniTV card that can sometimes be finicky. I just ordered 2 HDHomeRun Primes which I will add when they get here. PC is an i5-3770K (not overclocked), 256GB SSD Boot Drive, and 3TB 'data' drive for Recordings, 16GB of RAM. It's been a fine machine until this latest scheduling debacle. I decided to upgrade the boot drive around the same time the schedules stopped downloading in January.. So I thought it was something happening due to the OS reinstall. Once I figured out that it was an issue on MS's end, I started looking for alternatives, where I found EPG123. Again excellent work.

SO, how can I get Media Center to actually schedule the recordings? There has to be something I'm missing.

Additional note: It will schedule the recordings if I purge EPG123 (basically delete ehome), reimport schedules, and let the MS Guide download (now that it's fixed..although I still get the guide error sometimes) Not sure how to get it working with the EPG123 solution..

Any ideas that anyone has I'm open to trying. :)

Thanks so much everyone,
-pd

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garyan2

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#2

Post by garyan2 » Sun Feb 12, 2017 4:24 pm

packetdog wrote:Hi Folks,

Other than the $25 annual cost for SD Membership, this solution seems to be elegant, and just fantastic. I really like something that does better than the original. Very impressive.

I'm encountering an issue however that I'd like to outline. Put simply, nothing will record. Here's the steps I took:

Download/Extract EPG123 to C:\EPG123
Run EPG123Client.exe and run Clean process. Confirm successful setup by Media Center loading (took 2 tries.)
Setup tuners/live TV setup- confirm 'I do not agree' to WMC EPG agreement. Successful TV setup, can tune Live TV.
Confirm -nothing- is in the View Scheduled screen, including on the Series 'tab'.
Import Scheduled Recordings via C:\Windows\ehome\loadmxf.exe -i "<recording backup file saved prior to clean step above>" - Import successfully 100%, shows programs (and correct channels) in View Scheduled > Series. Nothing shows as scheduled as of yet.
Run and setup EPG123.exe. Add SD Login, specify options, Setup scheduled task. Save & Execute. This completes successfully, guide data is visible and accurate in WMC.
Nothing shows scheduled to record.

Additionally I attempted to run the mcupdate_scheduled and mcupdate tasks, in that order. I also restarted the computer.

Other info: I'm running a single Ceton InfiniTV card that can sometimes be finicky. I just ordered 2 HDHomeRun Primes which I will add when they get here. PC is an i5-3770K (not overclocked), 256GB SSD Boot Drive, and 3TB 'data' drive for Recordings, 16GB of RAM. It's been a fine machine until this latest scheduling debacle. I decided to upgrade the boot drive around the same time the schedules stopped downloading in January.. So I thought it was something happening due to the OS reinstall. Once I figured out that it was an issue on MS's end, I started looking for alternatives, where I found EPG123. Again excellent work.

SO, how can I get Media Center to actually schedule the recordings? There has to be something I'm missing.

Additional note: It will schedule the recordings if I purge EPG123 (basically delete ehome), reimport schedules, and let the MS Guide download (now that it's fixed..although I still get the guide error sometimes) Not sure how to get it working with the EPG123 solution..

Any ideas that anyone has I'm open to trying. :)

Thanks so much everyone,
-pd
The recording backup you are restoring is from MS/Rovi guide data. The series, episode, and service IDs are different between MS/Rovi and SD/Gracenote so as far as WMC is concerned, they are not the same. Though you will see the series listed after import, there are no matches in the new listings to schedule.

You will have to recreate all the series recordings using the new EPG123 guide listings to get the proper IDs.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

packetdog

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#3

Post by packetdog » Sun Feb 12, 2017 4:38 pm

garyan2 wrote: The recording backup you are restoring is from MS/Rovi guide data. The series, episode, and service IDs are different between MS/Rovi and SD/Gracenote so as far as WMC is concerned, they are not the same. Though you will see the series listed after import, there are no matches in the new listings to schedule.

You will have to recreate all the series recordings using the new EPG123 guide listings to get the proper IDs.
Hi Garyan2, thanks for the quick response. What would you suggest is best practice for this? Is there a way to export a list from the scheduled recordings file? I'm guessing there's no crosswalk for this where one could be converted to the other based on your reply. If I could get a listing (i.e. printout) then it wouldn't be so painful. Hmm. I'm open to suggestions. :)

Thanks,
-pd

packetdog

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#4

Post by packetdog » Sun Feb 12, 2017 4:41 pm

Also, it looks like the guide button is completely gone now in Media Center.. how odd. It's now showing 'Recorded TV" and "Live TV" but no guide. This is new.

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garyan2

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#5

Post by garyan2 » Sun Feb 12, 2017 4:44 pm

packetdog wrote:Also, it looks like the guide button is completely gone now in Media Center.. how odd. It's now showing 'Recorded TV" and "Live TV" but no guide. This is new.
I'll answer the easy one first. There is a registry setting that must be set for the Guide to show up. The registry setting is verified/set by epg123Client.exe (v1.1.0) or epg123.exe (v1.0.2 and below). WMC will have to be closed and reopened for the registry to take affect.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

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garyan2

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#6

Post by garyan2 » Sun Feb 12, 2017 4:51 pm

packetdog wrote:
garyan2 wrote: The recording backup you are restoring is from MS/Rovi guide data. The series, episode, and service IDs are different between MS/Rovi and SD/Gracenote so as far as WMC is concerned, they are not the same. Though you will see the series listed after import, there are no matches in the new listings to schedule.

You will have to recreate all the series recordings using the new EPG123 guide listings to get the proper IDs.
Hi Garyan2, thanks for the quick response. What would you suggest is best practice for this? Is there a way to export a list from the scheduled recordings file? I'm guessing there's no crosswalk for this where one could be converted to the other based on your reply. If I could get a listing (i.e. printout) then it wouldn't be so painful. Hmm. I'm open to suggestions. :)

Thanks,
-pd
The file you are restoring is a xml file so is mostly human readable, but not easy to understand... that would be the hard way. I haven't tried it, but Sean's WMC Backup will show you a list of scheduled recordings. I don't know how reliable/accurate it is. Some folks just write them down, or take screen shots to record the before to recreate them after.

For a way to convert one to the other, Schedules Direct and I were just talking about this yesterday. I think there may be a way for me to map all that out (of current guide listings) and make a tool. It probably won't be very pretty and require some user interaction and intervention, but I think those folks with dozens of scheduled recordings would appreciate it. This, I don't believe, will happen anytime soon.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

packetdog

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#7

Post by packetdog » Sun Feb 12, 2017 4:58 pm

packetdog wrote:Also, it looks like the guide button is completely gone now in Media Center.. how odd. It's now showing 'Recorded TV" and "Live TV" but no guide. This is new.
Ran EPG123 again, and for sure it completes the import 100%, then nothing. No guide showing inside Media Center. Freaky! Any ideas on next steps? Should I purge everything and start again?

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garyan2

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#8

Post by garyan2 » Sun Feb 12, 2017 5:05 pm

packetdog wrote:
packetdog wrote:Also, it looks like the guide button is completely gone now in Media Center.. how odd. It's now showing 'Recorded TV" and "Live TV" but no guide. This is new.
Ran EPG123 again, and for sure it completes the import 100%, then nothing. No guide showing inside Media Center. Freaky! Any ideas on next steps? Should I purge everything and start again?
I wouldn't think a do-over would be necessary. Below are the registry entries (from the epg123_guide.pdf) that allow the Guide to be visible.
Capture.PNG
Capture.PNG (4.92 KiB) Viewed 722 times
Those settings are checked whenever epg123Client.exe is opened. So I would suggest,

Close WMC.
Open epg123Client.exe
Verify [Registry] button status says Configured
Close epg123Client.exe
Open WMC.

Guide should be visible. If not, then the only thing I can think of is to nuke it and start over.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

packetdog

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#9

Post by packetdog » Sun Feb 12, 2017 8:17 pm

garyan2 wrote:I wouldn't think a do-over would be necessary. Below are the registry entries (from the epg123_guide.pdf) that allow the Guide to be visible.
Capture.PNG
Those settings are checked whenever epg123Client.exe is opened. So I would suggest,

Close WMC.
Open epg123Client.exe
Verify [Registry] button status says Configured
Close epg123Client.exe
Open WMC.

Guide should be visible. If not, then the only thing I can think of is to nuke it and start over.
So this is odd. I left it for a few hours, and uninstalled the infinitv driver software (since Media Center was going to get purged and reinstalled following that) and now the guide is showing up. Very interesting. So I'll purge the scheduled recordings in Media Center now, and start readding shows. I'll see how it goes. Thank you for the support, I appreciate it.

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