Undelete Scanned Channels

[garyan2]

Whomever provides the lineups to Gracenote (or even Gracenote themselves) control the lineups and will add/remove stations or create new station IDs for existing stations.

In the client GUI there is a [Satellites] button to help you guys.

1. (optional) Before performing a TV Setup, you can click the [Update] button to import a more recent list of satellites and active transponders. It will not include any channel/station information.
2. Once you have all your channels scanned and mapped, you can click the [Create] button to create an mxf file that is saved in the [epg123]\satellites folder.

With that file, anytime you perform a [Client Setup] and TV Setup, your tuners will be configured exactly as when the mxf file was created. No need to scan transponders or number channels. The channels will retain the callsign of the mapped guide so when you import the guide listings they should be automatically mapped. If not, all it would take is to click the Match by: [Call Sign] button and you're done.

The mxf file can be copied into any HTPC [epg123]\satellites folder and you can click the [Import] button prior to performing TV Setup and follow the above. Simple as that.

[cmal]

not sure I understand; I did try this function once, but it did at that point of time not work for me as expected... maybe that changed meanwhile.
In any case, I don't want to setup my TV all the time...
today I lost again 2/3 of the channels; that is already the second time this week alone; in the past this happened just once every several weeks...

also the "Undelete scanned channels" function does not work as hoped for; it restores the channels in random positions (each channel somewhere else), like for example at the end of of the epg; or it doubles numbers;
for me the question is not clarified: who deletes and why; if something changes in the SD-lineup, why delete the channel? why not just unsubscribe the epg-data for it but leave the channel active so that it remains in place and functions normally and only in the MC epg the "no data" remark is shown...?

[garyan2]

Unfortunately, the undelete doesn't actually undelete the channel but creates a duplicate channel. I could not find a way to reactivate a channel that had been removed from a scanned lineup. With satellite, that may mean that WMC will assign whatever channel number it wants to, but I can try to look and see what more I can do about that.

A couple years ago my method of matching/unmatching channels worked pretty well but the code was really ugly and hard to understand/maintain. It mimicked what WMC does internally when subscribing and unsubscribing channels. I then decided to clean up the code and start using methods WMC exposes. In theory doing this would have been more reliable, but I'm starting to think this may be the cause of some folks' problems. When MS provided guide listings, they also provided the tuner channels... so when a station was removed the tuner channel is also removed (actually orphaned in the database).

So the intent is not to allow the channel to be deleted and in the past it wasn't. WMC is deciding to do so when the station is removed from the guide lineup.

All that said, though possible, I find it hard to believe your lineup is changing that much and that often. There might be something else going on.

[cmal]

...today again ALL channel lost... will downgrade from 1.7.2.1... to 1.7.1.xx ...

[garyan2]

I'm working on reverting some of the subscribe/unsubscribe methods back to a couple years ago. Could you send me your log file so I can take a look at it? See if there is something else going on. email support@garyan2.net.

Thanks.

[garyan2]

Could you also tell me how many lineups you have listed in the client right-side pull-down? Looking at the log you posted earlier in the thread, nothing is making sense as to why it thinks all the stations you just downloaded and imported have been removed.

[garyan2]

Okay, I think I may have found the issue. Your lineup is changing channel numbers for your stations like crazy. This is tricking my code into thinking the station has been removed from your lineup. If automatch was viable to use in your case, the "new" stations would have replaced the old and you wouldn't see a difference.

Roll back to version 1.7.1.12 and you will be okay for now. I am working on a new release to avoid being tricked with a channel number change without automatch enabled.

[garyan2]

Sorry for bombarding this issue, but just trying to keep you up-to-date. The change in channel numbers isn't tricking epg123 with anything. WMC is removing the channel because of the new channel number which is a new channel ID in the mxf file.

Technical:
The way it works is each lineup contains channels, and each channel contains a service (station with schedule entries). In order for automatch to work, the channel ID is a combination of the station ID and the channel number to make them unique. This is in case a lineup contains the same station on multiple channels. So when a station changes channel numbers, the original channel is removed and a new one created. Since you cannot use automatch the result is the guide channel loses its guide listings.

The only way to make it work in this situation is to ignore channel numbers in the lineup from SD and make them all '-1'. I just have to figure out how to make that happen.

[garyan2]

Just released a new version to add the option to discard channel numbers in individual lineups. The will set all stations with channel numbers of -1; it will never change regardless of the channel number in the lineup.

discard.png (7.11 KiB) Viewed 485 times

I would suggest updating to the latest version. You will still have to remap all the stations in your guide after the update, but it will be the last time you will need to do so no matter how many times they change the channel numbers.

[cmal]

super! I have done it and will report... thanks a lot!