Introducing EPG123

An evolving, supported alternative to Rovi
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★ Download the latest EPG123 here: https://garyan2.github.io/ <> Setup guide here: https://garyan2.github.io/install.html
jriker1

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#1281

Post by jriker1 » Sun Sep 25, 2016 5:22 pm

Just switched over to EPG123 and Schedules Direct. Loving it and donations on the way. Hopefully have left this ridiculous loss of guide data frequently behind. Actually getting 20 days of data. Question. I have a custom monitoring app written in C# that parses the media center database and tells me how much guide data is there and alerts if it gets below a certain threshold. May not be an issue anymore, however on EPG123 config, there is an Expires date for Schedules Direct data. Is there any guidance on how to access that SD expires date so I can have my monitoring program alert me when it's a week away or whatever from expiring so I can renew?

Thanks.

JR

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garyan2

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#1282

Post by garyan2 » Sun Sep 25, 2016 5:50 pm

Not currently with epg123. When you login to Schedules Direct, epg123 queries the account and displays the subscription expiration date in the GUI. This is real-time query and is not stored anywhere.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

glorp

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#1283

Post by glorp » Sun Sep 25, 2016 5:56 pm

S-D is going to send emails to your registered account address anyway when your subscription is about to expire.

stuartm

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#1284

Post by stuartm » Sun Sep 25, 2016 8:24 pm

jriker1 wrote:Just switched over to EPG123 and Schedules Direct. Loving it and donations on the way. Hopefully have left this ridiculous loss of guide data frequently behind. Actually getting 20 days of data. Question. I have a custom monitoring app written in C# that parses the media center database and tells me how much guide data is there and alerts if it gets below a certain threshold. May not be an issue anymore, however on EPG123 config, there is an Expires date for Schedules Direct data. Is there any guidance on how to access that SD expires date so I can have my monitoring program alert me when it's a week away or whatever from expiring so I can renew?

Thanks.

JR
You could of course have your program go to schedules direct and retrieve the expiration date just like Gary does in EPG123

webminster

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#1285

Post by webminster » Sun Sep 25, 2016 9:47 pm

Seem to recall they send you an email when expiration was nigh, as well.
-Alan

jriker1

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#1286

Post by jriker1 » Mon Sep 26, 2016 1:25 am

garyan2 wrote:Not currently with epg123. When you login to Schedules Direct, epg123 queries the account and displays the subscription expiration date in the GUI. This is real-time query and is not stored anywhere.
Thanks garyan, ill check if there are any links on SD on this so i can code an app my monitoring tool can use.

chupon

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#1287

Post by chupon » Mon Sep 26, 2016 2:16 am

Just got home and found my guide data missing after working for two days. Media Center days something about a problem it fixed and all scheduled recordings are gone.

Joram

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#1288

Post by Joram » Mon Sep 26, 2016 2:56 am

Help! I followed all the steps in the EPG123 guide, but I keep getting "No data available" in the Windows Media Center program grid.

We're on Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 x64, with a Ceton InfiniTV 4 PCIe tuner card to watch and record digital cable from Comcast. Using the most recent (9/25) version of EPG123.

To anticipate one possible question (in hopes of speeding up the process), I made sure that automatic download and auto add channels were selected.

We can watch TV but of course there is no program information. I don't dare tell the wife she can still program recordings as if it was a VCR, she would knock me back into the last century. :)

Let me know if you need any other information about our setup.

UPDATE: I just tried running "Save & Execute" again in the EPG123. The console window closed itself at the end with an error message saying, "Object reference not set to an instance of an object." Event Viewer says there was an exit code of -1.

UPDATE 2: I started all over again with a second Clean Start (removing the ehome folder). Now I am even worse off than before I started, as WMC doesn't find any channels for me to tune to. Will I have to activate my CableCARD again? WMC is asking me to. Ignoring that in Setup eventually leads to the "encountered a serious problem" issue; neither relaunching WMC nor rebooting has helped.

What to do?? I'm about ready to throw in the towel and go back to a Comcast DVR after four years of WMC.

D*mn Microsoft, I was doing this EPG123 thing only because the regular WMC guide was down to hours left, with no indication that anybody at Rovi or MSFT gave a hoot.

Thanks in advance!

DSperber

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#1289

Post by DSperber » Mon Sep 26, 2016 3:24 am

Did you set up your channel lineup in the EPG123 configuration (for lineup #1) to match the Edit -> Channels you want in WMC?

For example, here's my own first page of channel lineup #1 along with the other options, all of which I've checked.

Image

Joram

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#1290

Post by Joram » Mon Sep 26, 2016 3:41 am

Thanks for the quick reply!

Yes, I selected "All" and included everything that showed up on the list. The box for every channel was (is) checked.

Also, for what it's worth, I didn't select (check) the "Prefix episode" but did select everything else in the left panel.

DSperber

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#1291

Post by DSperber » Mon Sep 26, 2016 3:58 am

I'm pretty sure that if you deleted the \ehome folder, you are going to have to go through the whole "activate cablecard" process again as per the instructions.

Joram

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#1292

Post by Joram » Mon Sep 26, 2016 4:06 am

All right, thank you very much. Tomorrow I will play Russian roulette with Comcast CSRs until I find one who knows about CableCARDs.

(Suggestion for the developer: It would be useful to add a notice about having to rerun CableCARD activation if you do a clean start.)

Will activating the CableCARD take care of the fundamental problem and not only bring the channels back, but also let the program listings populate?
Last edited by Joram on Mon Sep 26, 2016 4:12 am, edited 1 time in total.

DSperber

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#1293

Post by DSperber » Mon Sep 26, 2016 4:08 am

Joram wrote:Yes, I selected "All" and included everything that showed up on the list. The box for every channel was (is) checked.
Is that really what you want? 800+ channels? Do you really have any interest in EVERYTHING?

By reducing the checked channels to a much smaller subset, not only does the nightly update run faster (although that might not be important since you likely set it to run at 3AM or so) but the entry into Guide (from the HTPC and also from an extender) is faster and searching is faster, because there's less data to look through. For example, I only have 82 channels checked.

I don't know that this could be somehow involved with your problem, but it's probably worth an experiment to just start over and check just a few channels... to see if you can now get the Guide data for those few channels in WMC. It won't take long to do (once you go through the "activate cablecard" process again) since it's just a few channels.

webminster

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#1294

Post by webminster » Mon Sep 26, 2016 4:09 am

You should not have to go through a cablecard "activation", as in calling Comcast and going through that, the pairing will not be affected by this. If you deleted the eHome programdata folder, you will have to go back through the Live TV setup as documented - refuse the terms of service, etc. Then run the EPG123 process, double check your settings.

You might want to delete anything in the EPG123\cache folder if there's files there. Don't know what version you have, but 0-length files there could cause the stated error. You might consider posting your trace.log file so we can see the context.
-Alan

DSperber

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#1295

Post by DSperber » Mon Sep 26, 2016 4:17 am

Joram wrote:All right, thank you very much. Tomorrow I will play Russian roulette with Comcast CSRs until I find one who knows about CableCARDs.

Will activating the CableCARD take care of the fundamental problem and not only bring the channels back, but also let the program listings populate?
Wait... when I was agreeing that "activate cablecard" had to be done again, I was referring to going through the normal 1st-time WMC setup to identify your tuner card, etc. I was not talking about calling Comcast to pair your already inserted cablecard in your Ceton tuner. Presumably that already was done a long time ago when you first installed the Ceton card and set up WMC to use it.

The actual cable company pairing for your installed cablecard does not change, even if you delete \ehome and start over with WMC first-time. The cablecard pairing is a hardware thing, and it's already been done between Comcast and your Ceton card and inserted cablecard. This does NOT need to be done again. So when you get to that point in the WMC setup process you just say OK (or "next", or whatever) because the codes have already been imbedded into the Ceton card from when you did that a long time ago.

You're sure you went through the whole TV -> TV Signal setup with WMC from scratch? And TV -> Recorder? No issues during the process?

webminster

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#1296

Post by webminster » Mon Sep 26, 2016 4:23 am

And you didn't do anything else except follow the instructions exactly? Been a while, but I recall the InfiniTV driver package had a device web page, a diagnostic tool, you can doublecheck you didn't inadvertently damage the drivers or something while you were working. Maybe unlikely but... I think you need to recheck the procedure, you definitely should not need to get Comcast CSR involved for this.
-Alan

Joram

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#1297

Post by Joram » Mon Sep 26, 2016 4:25 am

That's the thing, I had deleted the ehome folder and then went through the TV Setup -- and that's when I got both the "serious problem, relaunch WMC or reboot" message AND the bit about setting up the CableCARD. This all happened the second time I did a Clean Start. After the original Clean Start, the only problem was that the program listings wouldn't install. So I feel like we're moving backwards.

I'm using version 1.0.2 of EPG123, the one that came out this weekend.

It's getting late over here, so I may have to wait till tomorrow to post the trace.log file.

Joram

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#1298

Post by Joram » Mon Sep 26, 2016 4:40 am

All right, the discussion is getting complicated so I'll start using the quote function so that everybody knows where we are. :)
DSperber wrote:Wait... when I was agreeing that "activate cablecard" had to be done again, I was referring to going through the normal 1st-time WMC setup to identify your tuner card, etc. I was not talking about calling Comcast to pair your already inserted cablecard in your Ceton tuner. Presumably that already was done a long time ago when you first installed the Ceton card and set up WMC to use it.

The actual cable company pairing for your installed cablecard does not change, even if you delete \ehome and start over with WMC first-time. The cablecard pairing is a hardware thing, and it's already been done between Comcast and your Ceton card and inserted cablecard. This does NOT need to be done again. So when you get to that point in the WMC setup process you just say OK (or "next", or whatever) because the codes have already been imbedded into the Ceton card from when you did that a long time ago.
Ah, cool, that saves one tedious step! :mrgreen:
DSperber wrote:You're sure you went through the whole TV -> TV Signal setup with WMC from scratch? And TV -> Recorder? No issues during the process?
I'm sure I went through the whole TV setup as given in the instructions in the EPG123 User Guide. The only issue during that process was that WMC asked me to activate the CableCARD and offered the card info to give to Comcast. But having seen that many times before, I ignored it (meaning: I didn't call Comcast) and continued with the setup. This worked OK after the first Clean Start (except that the program listings wouldn't install), but now after the second Clean Start I can't even tune to any channels.

About the TV --> Recorder step, is that in the User Guide? I don't remember seeing it there. Maybe that's the key?

Joram

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#1299

Post by Joram » Mon Sep 26, 2016 4:50 am

webminster wrote:And you didn't do anything else except follow the instructions exactly? Been a while, but I recall the InfiniTV driver package had a device web page, a diagnostic tool, you can doublecheck you didn't inadvertently damage the drivers or something while you were working. Maybe unlikely but... I think you need to recheck the procedure, you definitely should not need to get Comcast CSR involved for this.
Thanks, that's reassuring.

Yes, I read the User Guide three times before starting and then kept it in front of me as I carefully went through each step, then double-checked all the settings in the EPG123 GUI before telling it to "Save & Execute."

I didn't mention these before as I thought they'd been taken care of, but two glitches I had when starting out with EPG123 were (1) that I didn't right-click on the .EXE file so I couldn't get an updating time to stick; and (2) that Norton Internet Security intercepted epg123Client.exe as malware and I had to retrieve it from quarantine and make an exception for it, then start with the GUI again. Maybe this is a more important event than it seemed at the time, so I'm reporting it now.

Will check out the Ceton diagnostics page first thing in the morning.

DSperber

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#1300

Post by DSperber » Mon Sep 26, 2016 5:21 am

Joram wrote:About the TV --> Recorder step, is that in the User Guide? I don't remember seeing it there. Maybe that's the key?
No, this is unrelated to EPG123 and channels. It would be part of the standard initial configuration of WMC itself for a brand new setup, to indicate (1) what drive you want your primary \Recorded TV on for new recordings, (2) which optional additional \Recorded TV folders (on other drives) you want to add to your "Media Library", for use as additional playback storage where WTV files can be "offloaded" from your primary recording folder in order to make room for additional new recordings, and (3) recording defaults.

This doesn't have anything to do with channels, and to be honest I don't know if your previous setup would be lost by deleting \ehome or whether the setup is actually kept in the Registry or somewhere else. Anyway, I just wanted to know if you'd gone through that process (or maybe even just reviewed what it shows, to see if you have to set these things up again or not).

I don't know what else to suggest. Perhaps Gary will chime in with some ideas on Monday.

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