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
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LeonMc

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#1421

Post by LeonMc » Mon Feb 06, 2017 9:09 pm

AndyS wrote:I couldn't resist. I went ahead and added my OTA tuners and when I did, I put in the 00000's for zip. We'll see how that goes.
AndyS, please let me know if you have success at getting the Ceton InfiniTV 4 working with EPG123. I have the same setup, but no OTA card. I would like to convert, but don't want to waste a lot of time. So if you can, tell us what gets it to work with the EPG123 product.

Thanks,

--Leon
--Leon

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Scallica

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#1422

Post by Scallica » Mon Feb 06, 2017 9:34 pm

LeonMc wrote:
AndyS wrote:I couldn't resist. I went ahead and added my OTA tuners and when I did, I put in the 00000's for zip. We'll see how that goes.
AndyS, please let me know if you have success at getting the Ceton InfiniTV 4 working with EPG123. I have the same setup, but no OTA card. I would like to convert, but don't want to waste a lot of time. So if you can, tell us what gets it to work with the EPG123 product.
EPG123 does not care what tuner you use. If you are concerned about wasting time, be sure to take a snapshot backup of your system before making any changes.
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AndyS

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#1423

Post by AndyS » Mon Feb 06, 2017 11:21 pm

Scallica wrote:
LeonMc wrote:
AndyS wrote:I couldn't resist. I went ahead and added my OTA tuners and when I did, I put in the 00000's for zip. We'll see how that goes.
AndyS, please let me know if you have success at getting the Ceton InfiniTV 4 working with EPG123. I have the same setup, but no OTA card. I would like to convert, but don't want to waste a lot of time. So if you can, tell us what gets it to work with the EPG123 product.
EPG123 does not care what tuner you use. If you are concerned about wasting time, be sure to take a snapshot backup of your system before making any changes.

He may be referring to my previous posts about after doing the "clean start" option not having the tuners ever show back up as installable when doing a new TV setup within Media Center. And the Ceton Diagnostic tool after resetting the tuners told me to reinstall drivers, which I did and it still didn't help.

Might have just been something weird in my system. But yes, I did just do an image prior to testing EPG123, so in about an hour, I'd reimaged back to the stock guide setup and working tuners. That's why I didn't do a clean start the second time, and just did the "00000" zip as suggested.

Right now, things seem to be working fine this way without the full clean start. So I'd just suggest LeonMC do an image of his OS drive (I used the free EaseUS software), just in case. Then if something goes wrong, it's easy to revert quickly.

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LeonMc

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#1424

Post by LeonMc » Tue Feb 07, 2017 3:09 pm

AndyS wrote:He may be referring to my previous posts about after doing the "clean start" option not having the tuners ever show back up as installable when doing a new TV setup within Media Center. And the Ceton Diagnostic tool after resetting the tuners told me to reinstall drivers, which I did and it still didn't help.

Might have just been something weird in my system. But yes, I did just do an image prior to testing EPG123, so in about an hour, I'd reimaged back to the stock guide setup and working tuners. That's why I didn't do a clean start the second time, and just did the "00000" zip as suggested.
Thanks Andy, you got my point right. I wasn't sure if you were seeing a one time anomaly or not. I appreciate you updating that it is going well with the "no clean start" approach and zero zip code. I just spent my entire weekend dealing with a cloning of the OS drive problem with EaseUS (probably 6-8 hours wasted) which was not directly connected with EPG, but because my OS disk was old and full and I didn't want to start the EPG123 upgrade with a full disk. So, I wasn't anxious to spend more hours down and struggling with Ceton problems too.

Now that the Rovi EPG is working again, I can approach EPG123 more methodically when I have time (another weekend). But it is has to happen, MS will not supply Rovi forever and it isn't going to get any better in the quality department.
--Leon

AndyS

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#1425

Post by AndyS » Tue Feb 07, 2017 4:50 pm

LeonMc wrote:
AndyS wrote:He may be referring to my previous posts about after doing the "clean start" option not having the tuners ever show back up as installable when doing a new TV setup within Media Center. And the Ceton Diagnostic tool after resetting the tuners told me to reinstall drivers, which I did and it still didn't help.

Might have just been something weird in my system. But yes, I did just do an image prior to testing EPG123, so in about an hour, I'd reimaged back to the stock guide setup and working tuners. That's why I didn't do a clean start the second time, and just did the "00000" zip as suggested.
Thanks Andy, you got my point right. I wasn't sure if you were seeing a one time anomaly or not. I appreciate you updating that it is going well with the "no clean start" approach and zero zip code. I just spent my entire weekend dealing with a cloning of the OS drive problem with EaseUS (probably 6-8 hours wasted) which was not directly connected with EPG, but because my OS disk was old and full and I didn't want to start the EPG123 upgrade with a full disk. So, I wasn't anxious to spend more hours down and struggling with Ceton problems too.

Now that the Rovi EPG is working again, I can approach EPG123 more methodically when I have time (another weekend). But it is has to happen, MS will not supply Rovi forever and it isn't going to get any better in the quality department.
Sounds like a plan. My old OS drive died a year or so ago, so can understand trying to deal with non-optimal situations :) I fortunately had a spare SSD laying around that I'd upgraded from, so now a lot of this OS level stuff is a bit quicker.

If I hadn't had data on some of the major networks running out right after the Superbowl on Sunday, I'd have probably held out myself to see if we'd have gotten a fix by today when the rest of my guide expired. Redoing all our recording schedule is a pain I've not had to think about for awhile. I still am thinking about reverting to my Rovi image for a bit, but so far I've held strong. Will have to pay for SD soon I guess.

romperroom

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#1426

Post by romperroom » Tue Feb 07, 2017 10:33 pm

noslack wrote:
garyan2 wrote:
romperroom wrote:Gary, since you have such a good handle on how WMC works, you should come up with a program to backup recording schedules and channel selections. I know that there are a couple out there (like Sean's WMC Backup) but they really don't work well at all. Just a thought..... :thumbup:
The recording schedule is actually the easiest thing to backup/restore. The tuners look to be a bit harder to ensure it works, but it may be doable. I've been looking into what it would take to basically take a "snapshot" of WMC tuner/recording to be archived for later use. Here is a manual method until I can create something.

Copy/archive the latest file from C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\eHome\mcepgX-Y\backup\recordings (X-Y is typically 2-0 for Win7 and 3-0 for win8+, but the Y can be any number based on database "recoveries"). The file has no extension, but is a simple XML file.

To restore your recordings, just run "C:\Windows\ehome\loadmxf.exe -i [archived file from above]" and your recordings will be restored. Once the guide listings have been imported and a reindex job complete, everything should look correct.

The same procedure can be used for the lineup (tuners), but this will really only work for the same machine/tuners. This is not something, I believe, that will work for multiple machines with the same file.
Have you made any traction at all on this Gary?

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#1427

Post by rjj21 » Wed Feb 08, 2017 2:54 am

LeonMc wrote:
AndyS wrote:I couldn't resist. I went ahead and added my OTA tuners and when I did, I put in the 00000's for zip. We'll see how that goes.
AndyS, please let me know if you have success at getting the Ceton InfiniTV 4 working with EPG123. I have the same setup, but no OTA card. I would like to convert, but don't want to waste a lot of time. So if you can, tell us what gets it to work with the EPG123 product.

Thanks,

--Leon
I did an install this weekend on Windows 7 Media Center with on Ceton InfiniTV 4 PCIe and two SiliconDust HDHomeRun Primes. I made a copy of my ehome directory, documented all of my series recordings, then performed step 1 from the guide to perform a clean start. Upon reboot, I ran the Silicon Dust HDHomeRum Prime installer. After that I ran the latest Ceton Windows installer. Ceton is always second for me because its installer does the same thing as TunerSalad and lets Media Center see more than four tuners. Note: I never reboot the computer as I sometimes have issues with the Ceton not being recognized. Instead I shutdown the computer, turn off the power supply, bleed off any remaining voltage by pressing power button, turn on power supply and boot computer. Next I ran the Windows Media Center setup with my zip code and it found all ten tuners. Finally I performed the EPG123 setup per the instructions. Guide came up with 21 days. I went through and created my series recordings and scheduled recordings began as expected. Process took me far longer than the 15 minutes I have seen others quote, but I'm happy I don't have to deal with Microsoft not producing guide updates and my guide data is finally accurate compared to the garbage Rovi was producing.

--RJJ21

Odi

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#1428

Post by Odi » Wed Feb 08, 2017 8:06 pm

I did EPG123 clean start on a Ceton 6 ETH, on initial setup, I only got 4 tuners. I read somewhere else to force the discovery from Ceton Diagnostics (Clear Tuner Configuration + Discover Tuners). So I did that and got 6 tuners, and chose to decline the built in guide, instead using EPG123 to populate it.

Maybe instead of using EPG123 clean start,it is sufficient to change registry values yourself and then use Ceton's method?

dkrom

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#1429

Post by dkrom » Thu Feb 09, 2017 12:02 am

I'd like to incorporate the logos that epg123 downloads, but I don't have My Channel Logos - how do you go about adding them without My Channel Logos? I've scoured the internet and have yet to find directions, but the directions for epg123 say that it's possible. I have no qualms editing files, the registry, etc.

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garyan2

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#1430

Post by garyan2 » Thu Feb 09, 2017 1:06 am

dkrom wrote:I'd like to incorporate the logos that epg123 downloads, but I don't have My Channel Logos - how do you go about adding them without My Channel Logos? I've scoured the internet and have yet to find directions, but the directions for epg123 say that it's possible. I have no qualms editing files, the registry, etc.
I download the logos linked by Schedules Direct and place them in a sub-folder \sdlogos. From there, you can take any of the logos and edit them for size, aspect, and even color to make it look good in the guide. Once you are done, all you have to is place the finished logo and place it in a different sub-folder \logos. The logo must be a .png and the name must be the call sign of the station it is for.

The MCL website defines how to make the logos look right here. The takeaway from their instruction is:

Code: Select all

Size
42 px tall by 96 px wide for regular logos. 75 px tall by 225 px wide for big logos
If your logo is not wide enough: Do not center a blank space. Cut the width down so it just fits the logo. No padding!
If your logo is not tall enough: Center the logo vertically in a transparent 42 x 96 pixel background (or 75x225px background)
The next time a MXF file is created, it will use the logos in the .\logos folder if you have the option selected.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

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dejavux2

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#1431

Post by dejavux2 » Fri Feb 10, 2017 10:29 pm

I finally did the clean start with EPG123, and I am so happy I did....

I have Ceton InfiniTV 4 PCIe...did not have to change a thing... No reinstalling drivers, nothing

I have Media Center Studio for the Menu Strips and Themes...did not have to change a thing... I did not have to reapply my Menu Strips or the Theme.

I did, however, make a backup of my recording schedule (series list) before doing the clean start. I just had to do the "loadmxf.exe" to reload the recording schedule (series list).

I opened MyChannelLogos and hit "Auto populate logos"...all done!

Beautiful...LOVE IT...


Here's what I did to backup/restore my recording schedule (series list): http://www.jamesrchadwick.me/2013/06/ba ... edule.html

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#1432

Post by Space » Fri Feb 10, 2017 11:24 pm

You may have been able to load your series list from the old backup, but did it actually schedule shows to record? From what I understand the programIds used with old Rovi data are different from those used by Gracenote, so loading the old series list is not supposed to work (and actually schedule shows to record). You would have all your Series listed, but they would not actually record anything.

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#1433

Post by stuartm » Fri Feb 10, 2017 11:31 pm

That is my understanding as well. The backup/restore would only work when going from Rovi to Rovi or Gracenote to Gracenote but switching guide data providers will mean different program IDs and it won't schedule any recordings.

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garyan2

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#1434

Post by garyan2 » Sat Feb 11, 2017 1:15 am

This is true. The series will be listed in the series recordings, but there won't be any scheduled recordings since the Series IDs don't match from Rovi to Gracenote.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

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Doctor Feelgood

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#1435

Post by Doctor Feelgood » Sat Feb 11, 2017 3:09 pm

Just wanted to post a thanks for this! I finally made the jump last weekend since I was going to be away all week and didn't want the guide to run out while I was away and the rest of the family potentially lost their minds without their precious TV! :crazy:

The switch went easy except for the panic that set in since the monitor attached to my media center host system apparently couldn't handle safe mode resolution and just showed a black screen... Ooof. Once that was identified, it was quick and easy, and there wasn't any more cursing. The 6 tuners from my two Primes were back in business after I used Tuner Salad again to bump the limit over 4, and My Channel Logos rematched everything perfectly.

And I managed to go away and come back a week later with no complaints from the family and everything running just fine!! :D

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#1436

Post by Hagrinas » Mon Feb 13, 2017 6:43 pm

I upgraded to 1.1.0 and am now having problems. I ran the epg123utility. I got into epg123client and imported epg123utility.mxf. I then saw everything doubled up on the right side. Over the past few days, epg123 has run several times. But I'm not seeing anything additional added to the guide. It's stuck where it was. Also, the doubling up, which the instructions said would go away, is still there. What do I need to do to fix things?

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#1437

Post by Sancho » Mon Feb 13, 2017 6:54 pm

Hagrinas wrote:I upgraded to 1.1.0 and am now having problems. I ran the epg123utility. I got into epg123client and imported epg123utility.mxf. I then saw everything doubled up on the right side. Over the past few days, epg123 has run several times. But I'm not seeing anything additional added to the guide. It's stuck where it was. Also, the doubling up, which the instructions said would go away, is still there. What do I need to do to fix things?
Did you delete the scheduled task, then recreate it? I think that might be integral to the transition (no doubt Gary will correct me if I'm wrong). After importing the utility MXF, I ran the main GUI, deleted the task, recreated it (checked auto-match and auto-import, since my HTPCs are standalone), and finally did Save & Execute. Doesn't hurt to check the log once that final task completes.

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#1438

Post by Hagrinas » Mon Feb 13, 2017 7:26 pm

Sancho wrote: Did you delete the scheduled task, then recreate it?
I tried it and it didn't help. I finished backing up the whole system so I tried Rebuild WMC Database and things seem to be working now. I'm still not sure why they weren't working before but it's a moot point.

On an unrelated note, I found another glitch. It's minor enough that I wouldn't care if it's addressed but I might as well point it out. In EPG123, channel numbers are sorted like decimal numbers, which is wrong. Doing so might give 1.10,1.1,1.2, instead of 1.1,1.2,1.10. In most markets I wouldn't expect enough subchannels for it to matter.

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garyan2

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#1439

Post by garyan2 » Mon Feb 13, 2017 7:27 pm

Sancho wrote:
Hagrinas wrote:I upgraded to 1.1.0 and am now having problems. I ran the epg123utility. I got into epg123client and imported epg123utility.mxf. I then saw everything doubled up on the right side. Over the past few days, epg123 has run several times. But I'm not seeing anything additional added to the guide. It's stuck where it was. Also, the doubling up, which the instructions said would go away, is still there. What do I need to do to fix things?
Did you delete the scheduled task, then recreate it? I think that might be integral to the transition (no doubt Gary will correct me if I'm wrong). After importing the utility MXF, I ran the main GUI, deleted the task, recreated it (checked auto-match and auto-import, since my HTPCs are standalone), and finally did Save & Execute. Doesn't hurt to check the log once that final task completes.
I would also add that if you are running Win10, then there is a change that needs to happen in the Scheduled Task to work around a Win10 bug feature. http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... 99&t=10653
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

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maize1951

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#1440

Post by maize1951 » Mon Feb 13, 2017 8:33 pm

I had no trouble when I updated from a older version of EPG123 and clicked and dropped new version of EPG123 (new version 1.1.0 confirmed) on old version and it updated automatically without using the EPG123 utility. Am I missing something here?

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