EPG123 Bug Reports

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garyan2

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#661

Post by garyan2 » Sun Oct 22, 2017 5:33 pm

Alan G wrote:Not sure that this is a bug or not but didn't want to open a new thread. My PC shut down sometime last night after doing the schedule update so I missed a soccer match recording this morning (not a big deal). I can't find anything in the Windows log that will tell me about the shutdown but I did notice that the EPG123 Trace logfile was only about six lines long and that there is now a second trace file 'trace20171022_041043' that looks like the archived previous trace file which over the weeks since I've had EPG123 installed has grown to a MB in size. Is this a feature of EPG123? Can I delete this archive file? Everything points to a successful update last night.
Yes, once the trace.log file reaches 1MB, EPG123 renames it and starts a new one. There will be no more than 2 log files in the folder (1 current + 1 old) and any more will be deleted.

It is safe to delete either/all log files ... EPG123 will just start a new one next time it runs. It all depends on how much history you want to maintain on the drive.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

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#662

Post by Alan G » Sun Oct 22, 2017 5:42 pm

garyan2 wrote: Yes, once the trace.log file reaches 1MB, EPG123 renames it and starts a new one. There will be no more than 2 log files in the folder (1 current + 1 old) and any more will be deleted.

It is safe to delete either/all log files ... EPG123 will just start a new one next time it runs. It all depends on how much history you want to maintain on the drive.
Thanks. Space is not an issue and I just wanted to confirm what I thought to be the case. Just to add I have not had any issues at all with updates during the time I've been using EPG123 which is almost three months now.

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#663

Post by technodevotee » Tue Oct 24, 2017 7:14 am

Hi Gary.

I finally made the switch to EPG123 on one of my PCs yesterday and am pretty impressed with your program.

Except....

All my channels have been renamed to the station call signs in CAPITAL LETTERS. I'd really like to have kept the original names.

I tried to import scheduled recording with the tool and out of 50 odd series recordings that were scheduled there was only two shown.

I have a custom scaling of 125% and the server application is too big for the window it opens in and can't be resized so you have to use the scroll bars to move it around. It isn't a big deal but it looks horrible.

My PC was recording when the scheduled update happened this morning so the task was still running with a zombie instance of the client application active. I had to kill it so that I could run it manually.

There is only a few days data for BBC4 HD and after that, it just says to be advised. Is this normal for Schedules Direct?

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#664

Post by garyan2 » Tue Oct 24, 2017 8:11 am

technodevotee wrote:I finally made the switch to EPG123 on one of my PCs yesterday and am pretty impressed with your program.
Thanks. If I recall, you have a pretty complex setup to navigate and I really hope EPG123 can get you most of the way there if not all the way. Thanks for the feedback as well ... it really helps.
technodevotee wrote:All my channels have been renamed to the station call signs in CAPITAL LETTERS. I'd really like to have kept the original names.
The call sign comes with the guide listings when it is assigned to a channel. Not optimal, but you can rename all your station call signs to your preferred names manually in the client or within WMC.
technodevotee wrote:I tried to import scheduled recording with the tool and out of 50 odd series recordings that were scheduled there was only two shown.
Unfortunately the tool is primarily targeted to USA users. It takes a lot of time/energy to create and update the transfer database which links MS series IDs with Gracenote series IDs. Because of that, I have limited myself to only 4 providers in 2 large markets and all 4 being inside the US.

What do you mean by "only two shown" ... was there only 2 that were green to transfer? or were there literally only 2 shown on the left side? If the latter, could you send me your recordings file so I can take a look? Not sure why that would happen at the moment.
technodevotee wrote:I have a custom scaling of 125% and the server application is too big for the window it opens in and can't be resized so you have to use the scroll bars to move it around. It isn't a big deal but it looks horrible.
I'll be re-enabling the maximize button and allowing the form to grow larger than 800x600. This should make it work better with the 125% and 150% settings. Thanks for reminding me to revisit this.
technodevotee wrote:My PC was recording when the scheduled update happened this morning so the task was still running with a zombie instance of the client application active. I had to kill it so that I could run it manually.
There shouldn't have been a zombie instance ... the client is supposed to "sleep" and wake when the current recordings are scheduled to end or within 1 hour, whichever is sooner. A manual import, of course, does not have that limitation. I plan on creating a task bar icon in the system tray for the client so users can know when the client is sleeping and waiting its turn. Hopefully in next release.
technodevotee wrote:There is only a few days data for BBC4 HD and after that, it just says to be advised. Is this normal for Schedules Direct?
My understanding is the updates for some markets over there get updated only once a week (Thursdays?) and will typically have 2 weeks at that time. The guide will eventually be reduced to 1 week until the next update which goes back to 2 weeks. If some other UK users can fill in or correct me, feel free.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

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#665

Post by technodevotee » Tue Oct 24, 2017 9:52 am

The PC I switched over is actually a straight forward setup with a quad DVB-T2 card. Setup was straightforward other than the issues mentioned.

I wonder whether the problem with the import tool was due to the fact that I had been using EPG Collector?

To get round the problem, I restored the database and manually ran the import. I now have most of the series recordings there.

WRT 'zombie instance of the client', the programme being recorded wasn't due to finish for hours so maybe it was just sleeping.

I am waiting for a lull I'm recording activity so that I can switch my Living Room PC over.
That is the one with two DVB-S2 cards and three satellites. I'm not in such a hurry on that one because EPG Collector is working reasonably well (for Astra II only) on there at the moment. Should be interesting.

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#666

Post by garyan2 » Wed Oct 25, 2017 3:36 am

technodevotee wrote:I wonder whether the problem with the import tool was due to the fact that I had been using EPG Collector?
Possibly. I'd have to see the recordings file and look at my code to see what is not working.
technodevotee wrote:To get round the problem, I restored the database and manually ran the import. I now have most of the series recordings there.
You might want to make sure they are valid and active. You can have your old scheduled recordings in the list, but if they don't have the same series ID (series title isn't enough) then they won't record anything. Restoring your old database may have some side effects ... don't know.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

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#667

Post by technodevotee » Wed Oct 25, 2017 6:43 am

That PC crashed yesterday and wouldn't boot. All attempts at repair failed so I copied everything recent to a USB drive, restored from a backup taken a week or so before I switched and put back the recent stuff from USB.

I re-ran the epg123 import and used the transfer tool (on a different recordings backup file) to import all the scheduled recordings.

Everything I would expect to be working now seems to be working so it looks like the transfer tool does work after all.

I take my hat off to you sir.

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#668

Post by technodevotee » Thu Oct 26, 2017 8:07 am

technodevotee wrote: Everything I would expect to be working now seems to be working so it looks like the transfer tool does work after all.
Perhaps I should elaborate on this statement.

The transfer tool brought all my scheduled recordings in but I realised afterward that most of them are keyword recordings that were recreated when I switched to EPG Collector so those will work of course. But the handful of series and individual ones don't work because the series and/or programme id's won't match. It was a simple job to recreate those.

Anyway, buoyed with success, I took the plunge and downloaded the ASTRA II data from Schedules Direct with EPG123 and imported it into my Living Room PC using EPG123Client last night.

The channel details on the left hand side don't match up with what is shown in my guide so I wasn't able to map the channels to the imported data using the client but I managed to map the most important channels using Guide Editor 2.2. Then I recreated the dozen or so series and individual recordings in the schedule that weren't working.

I am a very happy bunny indeed.

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#669

Post by technodevotee » Wed Nov 01, 2017 9:25 am

I have just finished remapping my ASTRA 2 channel listings to the EPG123 listings and everything seems to be working.

However:

I had to use guide editor because the channels shown on the left hand side in the EPG123 Client don't tie up with the channels shown in my guide. There are a number of channels that aren't shown, a number of channels that have different names and a number of channels that have different numbers.

When I ran mcupdate.exe -dbgc to clean up the database, I got an error message stating 'Failed to retrieve EpgListings (Error: HeadendId 42 is invalid.)'. Just checked the other machine I switched over last week and I get the same error on that one as well. I have never had message this before.

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#670

Post by garyan2 » Wed Nov 01, 2017 1:29 pm

technodevotee wrote:I had to use guide editor because the channels shown on the left hand side in the EPG123 Client don't tie up with the channels shown in my guide. There are a number of channels that aren't shown, a number of channels that have different names and a number of channels that have different numbers.

When I ran mcupdate.exe -dbgc to clean up the database, I got an error message stating 'Failed to retrieve EpgListings (Error: HeadendId 42 is invalid.)'. Just checked the other machine I switched over last week and I get the same error on that one as well. I have never had message this before.
Could you post a picture of your client GUI... I'm not fully understanding everything that is wrong, that could be wrong.

The 'Failed to retrieve EpgListings (Error: HeadendId 42 is invalid.)' is because I use an Id of 42 for the EPG123 listings that are imported. WMC is trying to reach out to the MS servers to download '42' and can't because it is truly invalid. This is expected.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

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#671

Post by technodevotee » Wed Nov 01, 2017 2:21 pm

This is what I see in Guide Editor:
guide editor.jpg
guide editor
This ties up with the Media Center Guide

And this is what EPG123 Client shows:
epg123 client.jpg
EPG123 Client
This doesn't tie up with the Media Center Guide.

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#672

Post by garyan2 » Thu Nov 02, 2017 4:56 am

Wow... I can see the confusion. There are still some things I don't understand, but I can lay out some "rules" for the client and for Guide Editor.

The EPG123 Client will only show the original channel numbers and the custom call signs if they exist; otherwise the call sign from the lineup.
The Guide Editor will only show the original/custom channel numbers if they exist and only show the call sign from the lineup.

So let's see if I understand this myself and I'll walk you through... looking at the screenshots and talking to the client:

Channel 102, BBC2HD - BBC Two HD appears in your guide as channel 102, call sign BBC 2 HD, and is tuner channel 102.
Channel 916, BBC1WSM - BBC One (West Midlands) appears in your guide as channel 106, call sign BBC 1 HD, and is tuner channel 916.
Channel 108, BBC2 - BBC Two appears in your guide as channel 108, call sign BBC2, and is tuner channel 108
Channel 148, BBC4 - BBC Four appears in your guide as channel 110, call sign BBC4? and is tuner channel 148
Channel 125, E4 - E4 appears in your guide as channel 122, call sign E4, and is tuner channel 125.
Channel 126, E4P1 - E4 + 1 appears in your guide as channel 123, call sign E4P1, and is tuner channel 126.

Channel 148 fell apart on me... in the client GUI it shows 148 is BEN from your DVB-S Astra 28.2 East lineup.

I also am not sure why you are not seeing channels 113, 117, 124, 127, 132, or 134 in the client GUI. Is there any information in the trace.log file? I report some possible errors when populating the merged channels in the listview. There is also a lot of -1 channel numbers according to Guide Editor, so not sure what is going on there.

I would like you to send me a copy of your latest lineup backup file from the C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\eHome\mcepgX-Y\backup\lineup folder. I will import that into a virtual machine to try and determine why the client shows some stuff that it does, and doesn't show some stuff the it don't. I'll send you a private message with my email.
- Gary
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#673

Post by garyan2 » Fri Nov 03, 2017 1:30 am

Okay. Pretty much like I said above in that the client only shows the original channel number which is leading to some confusion in your particular setup. I am currently working on code that will allow you to toggle between displaying the original numbers or the custom numbers. Since I am doing this, I'll also put in code to allow you to create custom numbers for the channels which I'm sure there are quite a few people who will appreciate that.

I'm just trying to find the most user friendly way to implement. I may just be lazy and end up adding another column for the custom numbers.

Stay tuned. I might have something released this weekend.
- Gary
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#674

Post by technodevotee » Fri Nov 03, 2017 8:05 am

Thanks very much.

I think the problem comes from the fact that Media Center is so out of date that when it is configured on a DVB-S tuner a lot of the channel numbers assigned are incorrect and, in my case, sixteen transponders are missing and have to be added by manually scanning them, which means that the channels found are assigned numbers at the end of the list.

The result is that a lot (most) of the ASTRA 2 channels need to be renumbered to match the FreeSat numbering scheme.

There are so many channels on ASTRA 1 and Hotbird, I don't bother renumbering them, I just switch the EPG sort mode to find them.

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#675

Post by technodevotee » Fri Nov 03, 2017 10:04 am

garyan2 wrote:I am currently working on code that will allow you to toggle between displaying the original numbers or the custom numbers. Since I am doing this, I'll also put in code to allow you to create custom numbers for the channels which I'm sure there are quite a few people who will appreciate that.
Can you tell me why do I need to be able to see the original numbers? Surely I need to see the numbers that are shown in Media Center, which is how Guide Editor and Guide Tool show them?

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#676

Post by garyan2 » Fri Nov 03, 2017 2:52 pm

technodevotee wrote:Can you tell me why do I need to be able to see the original numbers? Surely I need to see the numbers that are shown in Media Center, which is how Guide Editor and Guide Tool show them?
The original numbers is what EPG123 uses for the automatch routine. Those of us fortunate enough to have the lineup channels from SD agree with our tuner channels can use the feature always. To avoid incorrect listing matches, I limited the view to the original numbers so that users could customize their channel numbers without impacting the function of the automatch. It was not my intention to replace Guide Tool, though their capabilities overlap some, I just needed something for EPG123.

Here is a preview of next tool release to compare with what you currently see.
clientCustom.png
- Gary
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#677

Post by technodevotee » Wed Nov 08, 2017 11:36 am

Hi Gary,

Did you get the new backup file I sent you?

Just wondered if you'd had any luck as there are a few channels I cant get switched over because I can't find the EPG123 versions in Guide Editor.

Thanks in advance.

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#678

Post by garyan2 » Wed Nov 08, 2017 2:46 pm

I did. Sorry I didn't get the new version released this weekend, but the stars haven't been aligning for me lately. I did however send you a beta version of the client to see if that works for you. There are some other modifications to the gui I want to do before the next release but the custom numbering is good-to-go.
- Gary
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#679

Post by technodevotee » Wed Nov 08, 2017 3:00 pm

No problem - I'm sure you have enough on your plate as it is.

I didn't get an attachment but there was an in-line link to a png file that didn't work. Anyway, don't worry about it to much, it isn't killing me to live with it as it is.

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#680

Post by garyan2 » Thu Nov 09, 2017 3:25 am

technodevotee wrote:No problem - I'm sure you have enough on your plate as it is.

I didn't get an attachment but there was an in-line link to a png file that didn't work. Anyway, don't worry about it to much, it isn't killing me to live with it as it is.
That's weird. I just check the email I sent you and it has the 7zip file attached (epg123Client.7z). I have no idea why you would only see a link to a png.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

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