Is there any way to retain series when switching to EPG123?

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illuminated

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Is there any way to retain series when switching to EPG123?

#1

Post by illuminated » Wed Jul 05, 2017 3:12 am

I am suffering from the "no data available" problem like so many others and it seems like the time has come to make the investment in EPG123.

Is it possible to retain the scheduled series in any way? I've tried searching for this and have read the manual. As far as I can tell, they will be completely lost.
I don't expect them to be functional-- if they can stay in MC for reference so that I can replaced them, that is good enough.
Even If there were a way to dump just what shows up in the MC UI to a file, I'd be happy with that. Writing down what is on the screen is what I am trying to avoid.

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#2

Post by garyan2 » Wed Jul 05, 2017 3:20 am

There is a file located in C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\eHome\mcepgX-Y\backup\recordings\ . The filename is simply the date/timestamp with no extension in format YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS. The newest file is your current scheduled recordings. If you copy that file somewhere else for safekeeping you will have what you are asking for. I would rename the file to ScheduledRecordings.xml or something. Adding the .xml extension will make it easier to double-click and view within a browser.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

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#3

Post by dkrom » Wed Jul 05, 2017 3:20 am

I took a picture of the screen with my iPhone, scrolled, took another pict, etc until I had them all. Did it as well with my selected tv stations. Much easier than writing everything down.

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#4

Post by dkrom » Wed Jul 05, 2017 3:22 am

garyan2 wrote:There is a file located in C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\eHome\mcepgX-Y\backup\recordings\ . The filename is simply the date/timestamp with no extension in format YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS. The newest file is your current scheduled recordings. If you copy that file somewhere else for safekeeping you will have what you are asking for. I would rename the file to ScheduledRecordings.xml or something. Adding the .xml extension will make it easier to double-click and view within a browser.
Ah! Wasn't aware of that file. Might be something it include in epg123 directions (or did I miss that)?

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#5

Post by Space » Wed Jul 05, 2017 3:31 am

There is no current way to retain the Series that were generated with Rovi data and have them work with EPG123 (Gracenote) data.

However a backup of all your Series is stored in an XML text file. You can view this file yourself (or parse it with XML tools) to get the info you need, or it can be imported in to WMC. However if you import Series that were made with Rovi data they will not work with Gracenote data, but you can still do this and have them as a reference.

Here is a document about it:

http://www.jamesrchadwick.me/2013/06/ba ... edule.html


You can look at the raw XML, but it can be difficult to extract the data that you want that way.

I've used this web site in the past to extract Series data from the backup file (as if it were a database):

http://www.freeformatter.com/xpath-tester.html

It makes it easier to extract just the data you are looking for.

Here are some sample queries:

Code: Select all

XPath expression to find all recently deleted Series:
/MXF/SeriesRequest[@complete="true"]

XPath expression to find all active Series:
/MXF/SeriesRequest[@complete="false"]

Display the title of the active Series, Wishlists, and One time records:
/MXF/SeriesRequest[@complete="false"]/series/@title
/MXF/WishListRequest[@complete="false"]/@keywords
/MXF/OneTimeRequest[@complete="false"]/@prototypicalTitle  (also lists some inactive ones)
I was just really messing around with it and figuring out how it works, you can do more sophisticated queries I think.

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#6

Post by garyan2 » Wed Jul 05, 2017 3:36 am

No, you didn't miss anything ... not in the guide. I do, however, back those files up whenever the Step 1 button is clicked for a clean start. Basically the files that are backed up will allow you to restore your configuration to what it was before the wipeout.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

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#7

Post by nymichael » Wed Jul 05, 2017 8:50 pm

Hi Gary, Thanks for helping everybody, you're awesome. Same problem, Comcast FL and no HD listings. There's a program called Sean's WMC Backup that allows backup and restore of scheduled programs. Would that program work with EPG123?

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#8

Post by garyan2 » Thu Jul 06, 2017 12:21 am

nymichael wrote:Hi Gary, Thanks for helping everybody, you're awesome. Same problem, Comcast FL and no HD listings. There's a program called Sean's WMC Backup that allows backup and restore of scheduled programs. Would that program work with EPG123?
Sean's backup program does the same thing as above. The problem is the unique IDs used by Rovi and the unique IDs used by Gracenote are not the same. Any restore you do from a Rovi backup will not work in a EPG123 guide. You will see the titles of the series you want to record, but it won't record anything.
- Gary
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#9

Post by nymichael » Thu Jul 06, 2017 12:34 am

Thanks Gary, I just went ahead and put the shows back in.

Your program is amazing, installed and worked perfectly. Will definitely get the one year subscription to Schedulesdirect.org. We're FL Comcast Win7; it's been a nightmare with the Guide for so long. This is a great solution and totally recommend it. Thanks for creating it and helping everybody.

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#10

Post by SwissCheese » Thu Jul 06, 2017 9:09 pm

Hi!

I've been following the development of EPG123 from
the beginning. It is an impressive piece of work!

Now with the recent guide data problems it looks like
the time has come to try EPG123.

There are a few questions though that come to mind:

1) Are the registry changes documented somewhere?

2) Does the EPG123 uninstaller return the registry keys
back to their original state?

Just in case I have to uninstall, I'd like to be able
to get my PC back to the way it was.

I'll make an image backup anyway, but it would be convenient
if I could just undo the registry changes.

3) The instructions mention having to manually enter
OTA VHF channels 2-13 because they don't get scanned.

Is manual entry required because of something about EPG123?

I have signals on all the high-VHF channels 7-13 and did not
have to manually enter them before (ie KABC HD in Los Angeles
is on VHF ch7).

Maybe lack of scanning depends on the type of OTA tuner.
It's not a big problem, I'm just curious about it,

4) I have around 100 scheduled recordings that are going to take some
effort to re-enter.

Only about 10 are for specific TV shows that I assume depend on
guide ID numbers.

The remaining 90 are "wish-list" items that record shows by
title or actor keywords that perhaps do not depend on guide IDs.

Could I somehow copy-paste these wish-list items so I don't
have to retype them all?

Thank you!

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#11

Post by garyan2 » Thu Jul 06, 2017 9:42 pm

SwissCheese wrote:There are a few questions though that come to mind:
Wow, all very excellent questions. I'm going to have to ask for some patience for my reply ... I'm still at work and don't have access to detail #1 for you, and number 4 intrigues me and I want to run a simulation before answering definitively. I should have an answer late tonight for you.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

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#12

Post by garyan2 » Fri Jul 07, 2017 3:17 am

SwissCheese wrote:1) Are the registry changes documented somewhere?

2) Does the EPG123 uninstaller return the registry keys
back to their original state?

Just in case I have to uninstall, I'd like to be able
to get my PC back to the way it was.

I'll make an image backup anyway, but it would be convenient
if I could just undo the registry changes.
These re-enable the Guide after the Program Guide TOS has been declined ... the same as if you had accepted the TOS. Nothing to restore since it will be overwritten next time you perform a TV Setup.

Code: Select all

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Settings\ProgramGuide]
"fAgreeTOS"=dword:00000001
"strAgreedTOSVersion"="1.0"
These establish EPG123 and EPG123Client as sources for Media Center event log sources. No harm in leaving them ... does not affect Media Center logging at all.

Code: Select all

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\EventLog\Media Center\EPG123]
"EventMessageFile"= [ string pointing to location of EventLogMessages.dll ]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\EventLog\Media Center\EPG123Client]
"EventMessageFile"= [ string pointing to location of EventLogMessages.dll ]
These are mainly for Hauppauge HD PVR users to make sure background scanning is disabled. The values appear to be default values but can be changed by tuner software and drivers. Right now this is global and always, but I may change this to be only for HD PVR users. I just have never trusted background scanning and have suspected it for some problems in the past.

Code: Select all

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Service\BackgroundScanner]
"PeriodicScanIntervalSeconds"=dword:7fffffff
"PeriodicScanEnabled"=dword:00000000
I don't have the uninstall do anything other than removing the files and the program registry entries for Add/Remove. There really isn't anything to restore. I do reserve the right to add some program registry entries for future growth, but they would be specific to EPG123 and will be removed on uninstall.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

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#13

Post by garyan2 » Fri Jul 07, 2017 3:24 am

SwissCheese wrote:3) The instructions mention having to manually enter
OTA VHF channels 2-13 because they don't get scanned.

Is manual entry required because of something about EPG123?

I have signals on all the high-VHF channels 7-13 and did not
have to manually enter them before (ie KABC HD in Los Angeles
is on VHF ch7).

Maybe lack of scanning depends on the type of OTA tuner.
It's not a big problem, I'm just curious about it,
The manual entry is needed for VHF channels because of WMC. I have no idea why, but evidently Microsoft decided the HDTV stations would only ever be on UHF channels so it doesn't scan VHF channels at all in Win7. Oddly enough, WMC scans VHF channels in Win8/8.1, and detects them, but does not enter them into the database.

During TV Setup with MS/Rovi, after accepting the Guide TOS and selecting your provider, the information downloaded contains the tuner setup for your lineup. You didn't have to perform a tuner scan at all since all the information was provided in the download and included the VHF channels. That is why you never had to manually enter VHF channels in the past.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

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#14

Post by garyan2 » Fri Jul 07, 2017 3:35 am

SwissCheese wrote:4) I have around 100 scheduled recordings that are going to take some
effort to re-enter.

Only about 10 are for specific TV shows that I assume depend on
guide ID numbers.

The remaining 90 are "wish-list" items that record shows by
title or actor keywords that perhaps do not depend on guide IDs.

Could I somehow copy-paste these wish-list items so I don't
have to retype them all?
Good news ... the wish-list items will transfer no problem! Here are the steps to make it happen.

1) Copy to a safe place the most recent backup recording file located in C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\eHome\mcepgX-Y\backup\recordings ... the filenames are date/timestamps. Give the copied file an extension of .mxf.
2) Perform EPG123 installation
3) Open the EPG123 Client GUI and click the [Manual Import] button. Browse to the copied file and select it for import.

In WMC, you will have to delete and recreate the ~10 specific TV shows, but everything else should work as expected.

Thanks for asking that question! Learned something new today. :thumbup:
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

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#15

Post by Sammy2 » Fri Jul 07, 2017 7:29 pm

I had forgotten having to make registry hacks back in the beginning of epg123.

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#16

Post by SwissCheese » Fri Jul 07, 2017 8:37 pm

Hi Gary!

Wow, that was a prompt, detailed, and thorough response!

It is welcome news that my wish-list shows don't
have to be redone. Thanks for testing it.

I guess it's time for me to go install EPG123...

Thank you sir!

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#17

Post by William the Pleaser » Sun Jul 09, 2017 5:20 pm

I put together a little script to generate click-to-record files from the schedule backup: https://superuser.com/questions/1226882 ... ide-to-epg

Not a perfect solution by any means, but saved me a few hours of typing.

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#18

Post by garyan2 » Sun Jul 09, 2017 5:28 pm

William the Pleaser wrote:I put together a little script to generate click-to-record files from the schedule backup: https://superuser.com/questions/1226882 ... ide-to-epg

Not a perfect solution by any means, but saved me a few hours of typing.
This sounds great and I'll evaluate it later. I will not right off that when the [Step 1 - Clean Start] button is clicked, I automatically backup the backups to a zip file in epg123\backup\ folder named backups_YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS.zip.

I can't wait to give it a test run!
- Gary
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#19

Post by garyan2 » Sun Jul 09, 2017 5:52 pm

Okay, just took a peek ... I like it. This is a very creative way to address this particular need. :clap: :thumbup:

I still want to exercise it a bit to see where the gotchas and caveats are, but I think it is very promising.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

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#20

Post by garyan2 » Sun Jul 09, 2017 6:38 pm

I did just think of one thing, this method relies heavily on the series titles being the same for Rovi and for Gracenote. For the most part this is true, but there are some the just won't match up.

European Tour Golf vs. European PGA Tour Golf
Peg + Cat vs. Peg Plus Cat
ABC World News With David Muir vs. ABC World News Tonight With David Muir
Rescue Me With Dr. Lisa vs. Dr. Lisa to the Rescue
The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show vs. The Burns and Allen Show
Zane Grey Theatre vs Zane Grey Theater
Justice for All With Cristina Perez vs. Justice for All With Judge Cristina Pérez

I think you see my point ... but this solution would probably get us 80%-90% there.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

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