v1.3.1 Release with HDHR2MXF

[garyan2]

For those that have an active DVR subscription with SiliconDust for their HDHR tuners, you have the ability to get 2 weeks of guide data from them at no additional charge. The guide won't be as rich and awesome as you get with EPG123 and Schedules Direct, but it is certainly functional. Also, since they use Gracenote as well, the Transfer Tool will work to transfer your current recording requests. The following post will have a spreadsheet showing differences. Currently, the JSON option is not available for EPG123 and may not be available in the future by SiliconDust. I'll need to get clarification on that. I'll get a page up on the website specific for the HDHR2MXF program.

Other than that, some minor fixes and improvement to the client GUI.

http://epg123.garyan2.net/

[garyan2]

[Space]

Love the "Microsoft January 2020" column, very informative

I also have some comments on the "Microsoft 2019" column, but since that is pretty much moot at this point, I will refrain (you make it look better than it is).

[garyan2]

(you make it look better than it is).

Yah, I didn't want to go near all the other issues for Microsoft 2019. Seems I would literally be beating a dead horse at this point.

[winterescape]

So this brings up a question regarding software maintenance and version upgrades, having just transitioned to EPG123 with the prior version, not having a DVR service with SiliconDust, and just now established with SD, would you recommend all users upgrade to the most recent version?

[garyan2]

For this particular update, I would recommend it, yes. The risk of the automatch routine failing in 1.3.0 could be a minor inconvenience, but the big benefit is in using cached image links again. This will significantly reduce the time it takes to update the guide and will reduce the load on Schedules Direct's servers by a lot. A user with hundreds of stations could download upwards of 100MB on each update in just image requests with the old version. Using cached links will probably take that down to around 10MB on each update. Multiply that by thousands of users daily and you start talking some real numbers that Schedules Direct has to pay for. Reducing their cost will help ensure membership costs stay low.

Most of my updates have been related to the installation routine and the reliability of the client tool. When I release an update, I will describe the significant changes and it is rare that one will actually alter how your guide looks. If you read the changes and don't see anything to benefit you, don't upgrade. There are still folks out there running a version of EPG123 from 3 years ago and the noticeable differences are minor.

If I hadn't improved the efficiency around series and movie images, I would have said no need to update.

[winterescape]

OK, done, Thank you Gary.....

[IT Troll]

[quote=Space post_id=134669 time=1576460909 user_id=4452]
Love the "Microsoft January 2020" column, very informative
[/quote]

I am not sure Reliability : Zero is correct. I think come January their feed will deliver nothing with perfect reliability.

Edit: Quoting is broken for some reason I cannot fathom.

[jd60983]

I downloaded v1.3.1 yesterday. HDHR2MXF seemed to work. It generated a new MXF file every time I ran it. However, it throws an exception when I run it now.

C:\Program Files\epg123>hdhr2mxf.exe hdhr2mxf.mxf
Found HDHomeRun PRIME HDHR3-CC (13116AA1) with firmware 20
HDHomeRun DVR Service is not active.
Using available 24-hour slice guide data from SiliconDust.
Processing HDHomeRun PRIME HDHR3-CC (13116AA1) with firmwa
--Processing station KWPX on channel 3.
--Processing station KOMODT on channel 4
[some output omitted]
--Processing station KINGDT2 on channel 331.
--Processing station KBTCDT3 on channel 334.
Exception Thrown:
Value cannot be null.
Parameter name: input

Generated .mxf file contains 1 lineups, 60 services, 556 series, 850 programs, and 0 people with 633 image links.
Execution time was 00:00:10.1718750

Thanks.

[garyan2]

I downloaded v1.3.1 yesterday. HDHR2MXF seemed to work. It generated a new MXF file every time I ran it. However, it throws an exception when I run it now.

C:\Program Files\epg123>hdhr2mxf.exe hdhr2mxf.mxf
Found HDHomeRun PRIME HDHR3-CC (13116AA1) with firmware 20
HDHomeRun DVR Service is not active.
Using available 24-hour slice guide data from SiliconDust.
Processing HDHomeRun PRIME HDHR3-CC (13116AA1) with firmwa
--Processing station KWPX on channel 3.
--Processing station KOMODT on channel 4
[some output omitted]
--Processing station KINGDT2 on channel 331.
--Processing station KBTCDT3 on channel 334.
Exception Thrown:
Value cannot be null.
Parameter name: input

Generated .mxf file contains 1 lineups, 60 services, 556 series, 850 programs, and 0 people with 633 image links.
Execution time was 00:00:10.1718750

Thanks.

This might be a little hard to troubleshoot at the moment. HDHR2MXF does not yet have a lot of error catching and reporting. Is channel 334 your last channel, or is there more after that? This will help me focus on where in the code it may be getting a null return where my code is expecting a value.

Would you be willing to run some engineering software to help? Thanks.

[jd60983]

I downloaded v1.3.1 yesterday. HDHR2MXF seemed to work. It generated a new MXF file every time I ran it. However, it throws an exception when I run it now.

C:\Program Files\epg123>hdhr2mxf.exe hdhr2mxf.mxf
Found HDHomeRun PRIME HDHR3-CC (13116AA1) with firmware 20
HDHomeRun DVR Service is not active.
Using available 24-hour slice guide data from SiliconDust.
Processing HDHomeRun PRIME HDHR3-CC (13116AA1) with firmwa
--Processing station KWPX on channel 3.
--Processing station KOMODT on channel 4
[some output omitted]
--Processing station KINGDT2 on channel 331.
--Processing station KBTCDT3 on channel 334.
Exception Thrown:
Value cannot be null.
Parameter name: input

Generated .mxf file contains 1 lineups, 60 services, 556 series, 850 programs, and 0 people with 633 image links.
Execution time was 00:00:10.1718750

Thanks.

This might be a little hard to troubleshoot at the moment. HDHR2MXF does not yet have a lot of error catching and reporting. Is channel 334 your last channel, or is there more after that? This will help me focus on where in the code it may be getting a null return where my code is expecting a value.

Would you be willing to run some engineering software to help? Thanks.

There are 117 more channels after 334.

I am ok with running debug version of the tool to help you track down the problem. Thanks.

[garyan2]

I hope I can get it to in time. I'm pretty sure it is a program, and since you are using JSON with only 24 hours, it might disappear on us. It will be about an hour or 2 before I can send you something.

[jd60983]

Thanks for the quick response. You are right. The exception is most likely triggered by the current guide data. We can lose this test case any time. Let's hope we can catch it.

[jd60983]

Gary,

I google'd around and tried to figure out how to get the raw guide data from HDHomeRun. Is this what you do?
http://my.hdhomerun.com/api/guide.php?D ... h=[omitted]

I saved the raw data. I can provide it to you if it is useful.

Thanks,
Joe

[garyan2]

Yup, that's the method I use for the JSON. The RAW data will certainly help... what did you capture it with?

I'm sending you a PM with the debug build to give some more information.

[garyan2]

HEADS UP: I just found a bug in v1.3.1 that breaks the XMLTV file creation. I'll have a fix out tonight along with the above issue with the 24-hour HDHR2MXF.

[garyan2]

Done. EPG123 v1.3.1.20 has been released with the 2 fixes. Fixed failure to create XMLTV file, and HDHR2MXF JSON method failure when a movie has no description/synopsis.

[gzarzycki]

Gary, I just tried to install v1.3.1.20 and no go for me. It errors saying it can't find the HDHR file, puts me in a loop I cannot get out of short of CTR/ALT/DEL and shutting down the install program and losses all the configurations.

[gzarzycki]

Here is my configuration in the epg123 client to retrieve my epg123.mxf file:
\\Exodus\c\ProgramData\GaRyan2\epg123\output\epg123.mxf

Here is the log showing it is looking at the wrong place:

[12/18/2019 12:31:43 PM] [ INFO] Error: C:\ProgramData\GaRyan2\epg123\output\epg123.mxf does not exist or can not be opened for reading. Aborting.
[12/18/2019 12:31:43 PM] [ERROR] Error using loadmxf.exe to import new guide information. Exit code: -1
[12/18/2019 12:31:43 PM] Exiting importMxfFile(). FAILURE.
[12/18/2019 12:32:20 PM] ===============================================================================
[12/18/2019 12:32:20 PM] Activating the epg123 client GUI. version 1.3.1.20
[12/18/2019 12:32:20 PM] ===============================================================================
[12/18/2019 12:32:21 PM] [ INFO] Successfully queried the Task Scheduler for status. Ready.The task has not yet run. Exit: 0x00000001

[garyan2]

QXX.

Gary, don't use the hdhr2mxf.exe program... why did you change your setup?

The hdhr2mxf.exe program will get you limited guide listings from SiliconDust (instead of Schedules Direct), if you have a subscription to their DVR Service, and save the file at C:\ProgramData\GaRyan2\epg123\output\epg123.mxf. It will take place of the server component (epg123.exe) in the creation of the MXF file. If you have the DVR service, then you would run hdhr2mxf on your \\Exodus machine and not on your clients.

I'm confused on a loop that you could be in? Where is this happening and what is showing?