Future v1.1.0 Release

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
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garyan2

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#21

Post by garyan2 » Wed Nov 02, 2016 4:00 am

marvin-miller wrote:Hmmm....that doesn't explain all the bugs I see out of the corner of my eye.... :)
I'm interested in what you are seeing ... there shouldn't be any Rovi working in the listings (except for the above described AMG extended movie information). Of course this is assuming you did a clean start.
marvin-miller wrote:Not to belabor the point, and just out of my own interest, is is even possible to make everything go through SD and not loose any functionality or is it that SD doesn't support the stuff from IMDB ?
You can effectively disable retrieving the extended movie information in WMC settings like below. Just uncheck the 'Retrieve CD album art...' Path to the setting is [settings]->[General]->[Automatic Download Options]
dlOptions.png
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

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#22

Post by stuartm » Thu Nov 03, 2016 7:50 pm

You already have my feature requests from other threads. (Event log improvements, button somewhere in WMC menus to run a EPG fetch/update)
In general I would like to see tighter integration with WMC, i.e. perhaps GUI integration so everything could be done with a remote. (probably a big effort)
Other wishes are on the robustness front. e.g. automatic workarounds or recovery for things like the md5 mismatch and EPG123 handling things like this weeks world series
scheduling problem (I know it's due to the way WMC processes updates, perhaps the investigation of the alternate load mxf program may yield a fix at some point)
Also, it would be really nice if lineup changes (e.g. my earlier problem with my cable providers change of PAC-12 channels) could be handled automatically without the need
for the manual steps I went through. (this is one thing WMC when it used zap2it data used to handle seamlessly iirc)
All in all though EPG123 is great as it is so all this stuff would be icing on the cake. :D

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#23

Post by marvin-miller » Thu Nov 03, 2016 8:21 pm

garyan2 wrote:
marvin-miller wrote:Hmmm....that doesn't explain all the bugs I see out of the corner of my eye.... :)
I'm interested in what you are seeing ... there shouldn't be any Rovi working in the listings (except for the above described AMG extended movie information). Of course this is assuming you did a clean start.

Give me your address....I'll send you some crack! :lol:
marvin-miller wrote:Not to belabor the point, and just out of my own interest, is is even possible to make everything go through SD and not loose any functionality or is it that SD doesn't support the stuff from IMDB ?
You can effectively disable retrieving the extended movie information in WMC settings like below. Just uncheck the 'Retrieve CD album art...' Path to the setting is [settings]->[General]->[Automatic Download Options]
dlOptions.png
I was just curious if it would be possible to use Schedules Direct for that info? (just out of curiosity more then anything else).

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#24

Post by garyan2 » Tue Dec 06, 2016 6:23 am

Just to keep everyone in the loop ...

1) The transition from the 1.0.X to 1.1.0 for unique service names turns out to be quite simple ... just need to figure out how to make it bullet proof.
2) The new and improved epg123 client is shaping up. I think this is going to turn into a completely stand-alone tool for guide updates and maintenance.
  • Create a client task to:
    • a) Execute a command prior to import (ex. "c:\epg123\epg123.exe -update")
      b) Import any mxf file (ex. "c:\epg123\epg123.mxf")
    Automatch a selected lineup with merged channels using channel number or call sign
    Enable/Disable channels in guide
    Rename channels (call sign only)
    Delete channels
    Remove listings from channels
2016-12-05 (2).png
Obviously still have some work to do on the GUI (task part), but I may be getting some time later this month to get this completed.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

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#25

Post by marvin-miller » Tue Dec 06, 2016 6:28 am

Cool!

I just had to re-install Windows and I nailed Media Center with my Colossus on the first shot thanks to EPG.

Quick question, when I go into the MC GUI to edit channels all the ones that aren't selected show up as Z1, Z2, Z3 etc. Is that normal or did I miss a step somewhere?

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#26

Post by garyan2 » Tue Dec 06, 2016 6:37 am

marvin-miller wrote:Cool!

I just had to re-install Windows and I nailed Media Center with my Colossus on the first shot thanks to EPG.

Quick question, when I go into the MC GUI to edit channels all the ones that aren't selected show up as Z1, Z2, Z3 etc. Is that normal or did I miss a step somewhere?
That is normal. WMC would not let me have blank channel names so I needed to put something there. It was originally C1, C2, C3 ... but someone, can't remember who right now, suggested it change to Z1, Z2, Z3 so that you could sort by name and all the empty/non-used channels would be at the end of the list leaving only the epg123 channels at the top.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

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#27

Post by marvin-miller » Tue Dec 06, 2016 7:50 am

Good to know but the feed from SD has all the info in it. I only asked because last time I did the PEG123 install (that time several times until I got it right) they had all the call signs properly listed.

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#28

Post by garyan2 » Tue Dec 06, 2016 3:30 pm

Sorry, misunderstood what you were asking. The call signs in WMC will only be updated if you have selected those channels to be downloaded for import and match the listing to the channel. Otherwise, it will just be Znnnn.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

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#29

Post by Embiggens » Wed Dec 07, 2016 4:31 pm

Really cool, thanks for keeping at this!

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#30

Post by rmeden » Wed Dec 07, 2016 5:40 pm

Any idea if the new stand-alone program would work on Vista? THe Load_MXF on vista is broken. :(

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#31

Post by garyan2 » Thu Dec 08, 2016 2:12 am

Sorry, Robert. The biggest obstacle I have to even try is I don't have any Vista machines or images to work with and see what I would need to do.

Always up for the challenge though ... :roll:
- Gary
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#32

Post by garyan2 » Wed Dec 28, 2016 12:59 am

Hot off the presses. This is a fully functional, backwards compatible, new and improved, epg123Client.exe. Run the executable without any switches (i.e. "C:\epg123\epg123Client.exe") and check it out. Looking for some input from brave individuals before I release the complete 1.1.0 version. I'm not giving any detail on how it works since I would like to see how intuitive it is.

Files can be downloaded with the following links for Win7 and Win8+.
newClient.png
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

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#33

Post by Sancho » Wed Dec 28, 2016 4:55 pm

garyan2 wrote:Hot off the presses. This is a fully functional, backwards compatible, new and improved, epg123Client.exe. Run the executable without any switches (i.e. "C:\epg123\epg123Client.exe") and check it out. Looking for some input from brave individuals before I release the complete 1.1.0 version. I'm not giving any detail on how it works since I would like to see how intuitive it is.

Files can be downloaded with the following links for Win7 and Win8+.
newClient.png
I downloaded and ran the Win7 version. Auto-login to Schedules Direct is nice. The Client Mode radio button does nothing (i.e., it stays in Full Mode). No Save and Save & Exit buttons, but I suppose that's by design? Ah, this is different than "epg123.exe". I reckon I'm not the best tester, then :oops: Yeah, definitely not, since I renamed the v1.0.2 client back, ran it, and it did nothing except put an entry in trace.log. Since I'm rarely directly interacting with epg123 anymore (that's a good thing!), I was expecting what I see with epg123.exe (1.0.2). Sorry I couldn't be more helpful.

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#34

Post by garyan2 » Wed Dec 28, 2016 5:16 pm

Sorry, Sancho... guess I should have at least stated the intent here. The new epg123Client does not replace epg123.exe ... merely the epg123Client.exe. The new file is to manage all client functions (import mxf, match channels, enable/disable channels, delete channels, configure registry, perform database wipeout or rebuild, scheduling daily task ...) The epg123.exe will be strictly about the MXF file generation.
- Gary
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#35

Post by garyan2 » Wed Dec 28, 2016 5:24 pm

Sancho wrote:I downloaded and ran the Win7 version. Auto-login to Schedules Direct is nice. The Client Mode radio button does nothing (i.e., it stays in Full Mode). No Save and Save & Exit buttons, but I suppose that's by design? Ah, this is different than "epg123.exe". I reckon I'm not the best tester, then :oops: Yeah, definitely not, since I renamed the v1.0.2 client back, ran it, and it did nothing except put an entry in trace.log. Since I'm rarely directly interacting with epg123 anymore (that's a good thing!), I was expecting what I see with epg123.exe (1.0.2). Sorry I couldn't be more helpful.
Actually, you've already pointed out something that needs improved. The task radio buttons, text boxes, et al are only active when running with elevated privileges (no shield) and a task does not already exist. They are otherwise read-only which is not visibly apparent. I'll find a way to improve that. Thanks! :thumbup:
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

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#36

Post by Sammy2 » Thu Dec 29, 2016 2:48 am

It looks like you've been busy there, Gary. Looking pretty polished. I wish I could test this for you but I use epg123 on my daily driver only and am concerned about borking my guide going forward. I have to sit it out a bit until you get more feedback on this but man it looks nice.. Some kind of re-work on guide tool with epg123 functionality is what it looks like.. Keep up the good work and maybe after the 1st, I'll try it out on my PC running Win7x64Pro on which I'd have to do a full installation to kill off Rovi on that machine.

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#37

Post by garyan2 » Thu Dec 29, 2016 4:21 am

A little busy. The GUI itself was another 1200 lines (including whitespace). What hurt a little was I had to redo the Scheduled Task code completely due to differences between Win7 and Win8+ .NET requirements. I didn't want differing code between the 2, so I took a different approach to creating the tasks that wasn't .NET dependent.

Speaking of the GUI ... it is separate from the epg123Client program. This means you could actually copy the new file over the current epg123Client and it won't affect anything. Running the program without any switches will bring up the GuideTool like GUI. The risk to stay away from, unless you really want to, is delete any channels. You could delete/create tasks, but I've already modified that code a little from last night which will make it even better. :)
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

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#38

Post by choliscott » Fri Dec 30, 2016 12:40 am

I took a quick glance at the new ClientGuideTool & noticed a couple of items

1) When I ran it in the same folder as EPG123.Exe, it wouldn't let me select "Client Mode". I assume the client guide file would need to be ran in a separate folder to enable client mode?
2) I'll try this later but if someone sets up WMC to use EPG123 & client mode, will this automatically set the registry entries that need to be changed or would they still need to either manually set them or use the regular version of EPG123 initially?
2) Before when multiple channels had the same call sign, both channels would be selected, it looks like this allows for only the particular wanted channel to be selected?
3) One Issue I'm seeing (not sure if this is intentional or not). If I select one or a group of unsubscribed channels on the left, the only option I can select is "Unsubscribed" However If I select one of the channels on the right side & left click to bring up the "Subscribe" option. If I click do not select subscribe & I go back to the left side to select one or a bunch of channels, it gives me the option to subscribe or unsubscribe

Besides that, it's looking really good..

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#39

Post by STC » Fri Dec 30, 2016 1:23 am

THEBLACKBOX....


is it orange?
By the Community, for the Community. 100% Commercial Free.

Want decent guide data back? Check out EPG123

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#40

Post by garyan2 » Fri Dec 30, 2016 1:43 am

choliscott wrote:I took a quick glance at the new ClientGuideTool & noticed a couple of items

1) When I ran it in the same folder as EPG123.Exe, it wouldn't let me select "Client Mode". I assume the client guide file would need to be ran in a separate folder to enable client mode?
No, that shouldn't matter. I think maybe you already have an existing epg123_update task scheduled. If a task already exists, all the options in the group are read-only. I've changed the code to disable the buttons and checkboxes instead when a task exists to make that clearer.
choliscott wrote:2) I'll try this later but if someone sets up WMC to use EPG123 & client mode, will this automatically set the registry entries that need to be changed or would they still need to either manually set them or use the regular version of EPG123 initially?
I'm going to have the client handle all the lifting. The regular version (epg123.exe) will only create the MXF file, not much else. I'm still working on the relationship between epg123.exe and epg123Client.exe and what the architecture will look like.
choliscott wrote:3) Before when multiple channels had the same call sign, both channels would be selected, it looks like this allows for only the particular wanted channel to be selected?
The client GUI doesn't handle the station download selection from Schedules Direct. It will handle the manual matching of the downloaded channels (from epg123.exe). Think of the client as being the receiver of the guide listings to then import and match in WMC.
choliscott wrote:4) One Issue I'm seeing (not sure if this is intentional or not). If I select one or a group of unsubscribed channels on the left, the only option I can select is "Unsubscribed" However If I select one of the channels on the right side & left click to bring up the "Subscribe" option. If I click do not select subscribe & I go back to the left side to select one or a bunch of channels, it gives me the option to subscribe or unsubscribe
By design. The subscribe option will only be available if you have 1 or more items selected on the left (merged channels) and a station selected on the right (lineup channels). If nothing is selected on the right, there is nothing to subscribe to.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

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