v1.2.1 Release

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garyan2

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v1.2.1 Release

#1

Post by garyan2 » Sat Jun 23, 2018 5:17 am

Minor update with 2 cool new features. You can now delete lineups in your database, and you can now have an EPG123 status logo in the WMC Start Menu showing, well, the status of your guide.
WMCStatusLogoWithUpdate.png
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

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#2

Post by embj » Sat Jun 23, 2018 7:06 am

Oh, this is awesome! Very much liking the status logo right there in the menu. :D

Not a huge deal, but the ability to change the status logo to a dark accent along with changing the opacity doesn't seem to be working for me with Win 8.1. It's stuck on either the light accent or turning it off altogether.

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#3

Post by garyan2 » Sat Jun 23, 2018 7:15 am

The status logo is not a live update. It only gets updated at the end of an import so you can either do another Save&Execute from the configuration GUI, or simply do a Manual Import of the current MXF file.

EDIT: Basically, the new settings will only take affect on next update/import.
- Gary
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#4

Post by IT Troll » Sat Jun 23, 2018 8:57 am

Great news on the status indicator. I’m away this weekend and so won’t be able to test it out for a couple of days.

In an early prototype it had the option to only show when there was an update/warning/problem. Any chance of a “hide if all OK” option?
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#5

Post by StinkyImp » Sat Jun 23, 2018 2:09 pm

garyan2 wrote:Minor update... you can now have an EPG123 status logo in the WMC Start Menu showing, well, the status of your guide.
Woo Hoo! Thank you for this!

This is perfect for me since I open the start menu at least once (and usually multiple times) per day.

+1 for IT Troll's suggestion of a “hide if all OK” option!

:D Thanks again for your continued improvement of an already awesome program!

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#6

Post by garyan2 » Sat Jun 23, 2018 5:20 pm

IT Troll wrote:In an early prototype it had the option to only show when there was an update/warning/problem. Any chance of a “hide if all OK” option?
StinkyImp wrote:+1 for IT Troll's suggestion of a “hide if all OK” option!
I don't think this is something I am going to pursue. I understand the intent, which is why I fully supported and developed the ability to adjust the transparency of the logo, but this is not a background service that will will be able to recognize something went wrong to make the logo suddenly reappear. The status logo is updated at the end of a guide import. If something goes wrong, either the import task is not running or the client crashes before it completes, then the logo will not get updated. If the logo is hidden from the last guide update, it will remain hidden giving the false impression there is nothing wrong. This scenario is actually the main reason why I added the date stamp to the logo. Even if the logo says everything was successful, if the date is more than a day in the past the user will know something is not right.

Having a status logo to relay information to the user is useful, but it is only useful if the user can trust what it tells them. A hidden logo will only tell the user that there were no issues the last time the guide was updated, whenever that was, but won't tell them if something stopped working. The user would still have to rely on the Event Viewer or the trace.log file to tell them that... making the status logo effectively useless.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

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#7

Post by mldenison » Sat Jun 23, 2018 7:05 pm

I just turned on the status indicator. It shows on the main WMC screen and has an '!' on it. The log indicates a number of time discontinuities listed. Also, the log has a line, 'The imported MXF file contained a WARNING in its status field'. I that's what causing the '!'? Anything I need to do about it?

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#8

Post by garyan2 » Sat Jun 23, 2018 8:32 pm

mldenison wrote:I just turned on the status indicator. It shows on the main WMC screen and has an '!' on it. The log indicates a number of time discontinuities listed. Also, the log has a line, 'The imported MXF file contained a WARNING in its status field'. I that's what causing the '!'? Anything I need to do about it?
The time discontinuities are the reason for the warning in the update task (epg123.exe -update). When the client imports the MXF file, it inspects the file and sees that the update task had a warning, so it carries it forward to the status logo. There is nothing to do for the time discontinuities except maybe notify SD they are there. They typically correct themselves in <24 hours.
- Gary
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#9

Post by mldenison » Sat Jun 23, 2018 8:58 pm

Thanks, Gary. That's what I thought. Pretty cool that it shows up and I can look at the log to see the issue.

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#10

Post by garyan2 » Wed Jun 27, 2018 6:54 am

Guess what I finally figured out how to do... This would have been my first choice.
guideStatus.PNG
- Gary
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#11

Post by lurch66 » Wed Jun 27, 2018 1:28 pm

Make it so #1

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#12

Post by IT Troll » Thu Jun 28, 2018 10:41 pm

Ooooh, interesting.

I only tend to go into the guide once a week though. So the the home screen has a better chance of alerting me earlier.
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#13

Post by garyan2 » Fri Jun 29, 2018 1:55 am

IT Troll wrote:Ooooh, interesting.

I only tend to go into the guide once a week though. So the the home screen has a better chance of alerting me earlier.
Yah, I knew this "BrandLogo" existed a long time ago, but didn't know how to use it. Obviously figured it out. The cool thing is it can be part of the mxf file, but if I want it to show the status like the OEMLogo, then it will need to be a separate file/import.

But you're right, if you don't watch any live TV (like me), then you will never see it. I guess we'll probably end up with both.
- Gary
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#14

Post by Sammy2 » Mon Jul 02, 2018 4:47 pm

Been on vacay for two weeks. Guess I need to take a gander here.

Thanks, Gary! For someone who states he's done (epg123 is a very polished product right now, BTW), you just keep plugging away at it and we appreciate it!

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#15

Post by StinkyImp » Tue Jul 03, 2018 11:13 am

garyan2 wrote:Guess what I finally figured out how to do... This would have been my first choice.
Wow! This would be perfect in my situation since I go into the guide every day to watch the news... Are you going to implement it in addition to the existing home screen alert?

+1 for Sammy2's post.

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#16

Post by garyan2 » Wed Jul 04, 2018 7:03 pm

StinkyImp wrote:
garyan2 wrote:Guess what I finally figured out how to do... This would have been my first choice.
Wow! This would be perfect in my situation since I go into the guide every day to watch the news... Are you going to implement it in addition to the existing home screen alert?

+1 for Sammy2's post.
I don't know if it will happen. I have to run more tests, but it appears that logo is very stubborn in updating/refreshing. Even though the logo will be updated by an mxf import, it is refusing to refresh... requiring WMC to be closed and reopened before it will show the "new" logo.

I was just running some proof of concept code, so I may have to develop it further to see if I can make it work. If it doesn't, then the logo will really just be a vanity plate ... and I'm not a vain person.
- Gary
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#17

Post by RobsterUK » Fri Jul 06, 2018 8:21 am

Just so happens i had to re-map all channels last weekend and checked to see if there was an update, which there was!
Loving the new addition of the status logo.

Very nice adition. Appreciate the hard work gary! :thumbup:

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#18

Post by Sammy2 » Fri Jul 06, 2018 3:43 pm

So I finally loaded WMC after installing v1.2.1 and there was no logo as there should be. This prompted me to look at the Guide Info in the settings. Lo and behold Rovi had infested my system again!! I'm not sure how this happened because when I switched to OTA from CableCARD I was very careful not to accept the ToC for WMC Guide Data and changed my lineup in epg123 Config. At any rate, I did a clean start from step one, preserving my recording schedule but took the opportunity to clean it up while I was at it.

I'm happy to report that I have vaccinated against Rovi and epg123 is back but the logo still does not show. Is this the issue of which you are referring, Gary?

Thanks!

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#19

Post by garyan2 » Fri Jul 06, 2018 4:03 pm

Sammy2 wrote:So I finally loaded WMC after installing v1.2.1 and there was no logo as there should be. This prompted me to look at the Guide Info in the settings. Lo and behold Rovi had infested my system again!! I'm not sure how this happened because when I switched to OTA from CableCARD I was very careful not to accept the ToC for WMC Guide Data and changed my lineup in epg123 Config. At any rate, I did a clean start from step one, preserving my recording schedule but took the opportunity to clean it up while I was at it.

I'm happy to report that I have vaccinated against Rovi and epg123 is back but the logo still does not show. Is this the issue of which you are referring, Gary?

Thanks!
I think you must have done something wrong the first time. If the guide ToS is declined, then WMC does not download a list of local providers. Even if it did, it still wouldn't be in your guide unless you selected a provider to populate it with (subscribe to). WMC isn't smart enough to select a lineup for you.

The logo issue I am working on is the logo in the guide (post #10) which is done by an mxf file import. The status logo that you should be seeing is like in post #1 which is done by registry.

Registry key: HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Start Menu, "OEMLogoUri" should be filled with the path to your status logo created by EPG123 (i.e. "file://c:\epg123\EPG123Status.png". Of course the status logo should exist in that location.

Do you use any WMC themer that could override showing this? I have noticed that it won't show if I RDP into my server, but I have not seen it fail to show in my test benches. Someone did say a while back that Win8/8.1 had a problem with showing it, but I could never verify that.
- Gary
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#20

Post by IT Troll » Sat Jul 07, 2018 8:41 am

garyan2 wrote:Someone did say a while back that Win8/8.1 had a problem with showing it, but I could never verify that.
That was me and was based on another post I saw in these forums. However, I can confirm that the logo shows fine for me on Windows 8.1 and I am also using Media Center Themer.
Are you a Recorded TV HD user or want to give it a try? Check out the new community-made update; Recorded TV HD v2.1.1

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