v1.3.8 Release

[StinkyImp]

Hi Gary!

This release mentions that "This version will perform a database garbage cleanup every 5 days as part of the scheduled import."

Are there any existing tasks created by Microsoft that can be safely disabled now?

[garyan2]

I think, if you want, you can disable the mcupdate_scheduled task, but this is due to EPG123 handling it and it will actually not run. That task would run daily to download guide data and every 5 days for the maintenance. EPG123 disables the daily download by clearing the option in settings->General->Automatic Download Options->"Automatically download Windows Media Center...." EPG123 running the dbgc every 5 days automatically resets the countdown for the scheduled task so the task effectively never runs.

[Sancho]

Gary,

I read this statement on your site re: this update:

"NOTE: The garbage cleanup will not be run as part of a [Save & Execute] operation."

As usual, I installed the update and immediately ran a Save & Execute. I noticed the "performing database maintenance" flag on the epg123 tray icon. The log file shows this (the end of the previous update steps provided for context):

Code: Select all

[6/21/2020 11:17:58 AM] Exiting getAllSeriesImages(). SUCCESS.
[6/21/2020 11:17:58 AM] [ INFO] Completed compiling keywords and keyword groups.
[6/21/2020 11:18:01 AM] [ INFO] Completed save of the MXF file to "C:\ProgramData\GaRyan2\epg123\output\epg123.mxf".
[6/21/2020 11:18:01 AM] [ INFO] Downloaded and processed 1,009.921 KB of data from Schedules Direct.
[6/21/2020 11:18:01 AM] [ INFO] Generated .mxf file contains 528 services, 8655 series, 50558 programs, and 73569 people with 13832 image links.
[6/21/2020 11:18:01 AM] [ INFO] Completed EPG123 update execution. SUCCESS.
[6/21/2020 11:18:01 AM] [ INFO] epg123 update execution time was 00:00:31.7668169.
[6/21/2020 11:18:01 AM] ===============================================================================
[6/21/2020 11:18:01 AM]  Beginning epg123 client execution. version 1.3.8.0
[6/21/2020 11:18:01 AM] ===============================================================================
[6/21/2020 11:18:01 AM] [ INFO] Beginning epg123 client execution. 2020-06-21 15:18:01Z
[6/21/2020 11:18:01 AM] [ INFO] Import: True , Match: True , NoLogo: False , Force: False , ShowProgress: True
[6/21/2020 11:18:01 AM] Entering PerformGarbageCleanup().

Just thought you'd want to know.

[garyan2]

Well, that shouldn't have happened. I'll take a look... thanks. I DID check this out!

[garyan2]

Okay, downloaded and verified this is occurring. I'll investigate what happened and get that fixed. There's no harm, but shouldn't have happened.

[garyan2]

Found the problem. During cleanup I put a parenthesis in the wrong place. v1.3.8.10 out soon.

EDIT: Version v1.3.8.10 is released on the website.

[glorp]

EPG123 disables the daily download by clearing the option in settings->General->Automatic Download Options->"Automatically download Windows Media Center...." EPG123 running the dbgc every 5 days automatically resets the countdown for the scheduled task so the task effectively never runs.

Doing the same thing with those options manually makes the db maintenance only run every 5 days without ever contacting MS' old package update servers or attempting any downloads from MS. I wonder why you needed EPG123 to do it instead but maybe there was initial contact needed with those servers on new WMC installs to get things going? On any existing install, all someone needs to do is disable the 2 options in Tasks > General > Automatic Download Options. I've been running that way for years and db maintenance runs every 5 days, no errors or package download attempts. I'll turn off the EPG123 action with the -nogc switch. No big deal but seems like a problem with an easier fix?

[garyan2]

That was the problem. For new installs, WMC cannot download the maintenance package, so it will attempt to download the package daily but never perform the database maintenance. If you call dbgc directly, it will perform it just fine. For WMCs that already have the maintenance package, those will keep running the client maintenance as it was before ... every 5 days plus some random hours and minutes. So for those stations, you have a choice to let EPG123 handle it, or allow the task to continue as it always has up to this point.

[IT Troll]

I disabled the default mcupdate_scheduled task (mcupdate.exe -crl -hms -pscn 15) a while ago because I found it would sometimes corrupt my database, forcing a rebuild. I suspect it was something in the MS update package which was causing a conflict with the EPG123 guide data.

From other recent posts, I now understand that this will have also disabled the database garbage cleanup. So I don’t think -dbgc has been run on my system for quite some time. I haven’t noticed any performance problems with the guide as I only download a small number of channels and the database lives on an SSD.

Should I take some precautions before installing the new release?

[garyan2]

If you look through your Event Viewer for Media Center and don't see any entries for mcupdate with "Starting Client Maintenance" and "Client Maintenance has completed," then yes, it has not been performing any database cleanup. I think the fact that you can still successfully import the MXF file means your database is still okay and will probably be able to complete a -dbgc, though I suspect it will take a pretty long time to complete.

Wouldn't be a bad idea to use the [Backup] button in the client to be ready if it doesn't succeed. If it doesn't succeed, then you can use the [Rebuild WMC Database] or [Restore] button to quickly start a fresh one without your recording histories.

[StinkyImp]

Nice!

Code: Select all

EPG123 Log Parser (and Report Generator) - v 1.7.6 (64 bit)
Report Created on 06/22/2020 at 06:51:28
================================================================
[6/22/2020 12:15:22 AM] Entering PerformGarbageCleanup().
[6/22/2020 12:23:35 AM] Exiting PerformGarbageCleanup(). SUCCESS.

===== QUERY INFORMATION (Custom) ===============================
Logs used:		trace.log ONLY
Search String:		PerformGarbageCleanup
Date Range:		06/01/2020 thru 06/22/2020 (22 days)
Total results found:	2
Query time:		02 seconds

===== GENERAL INFORMATION ======================================
Log Path:		C:\epg123\
Logfile timespan:	5/19/2020 thru 6/22/2020 (35 days)
Total lines processed:	2488

[Sancho]

Found the problem. During cleanup I put a parenthesis in the wrong place. v1.3.8.10 out soon.

EDIT: Version v1.3.8.10 is released on the website.

Just ran it. Thanks for the quick fix

[IT Troll]

Wouldn't be a bad idea to use the [Backup] button in the client to be ready if it doesn't succeed.

So I ran a Backup, in preparation for garbage collection, but that in itself triggered the garbage collection.
I guess as part of the backup it checks the last maintenance date and runs it if required.

The database started at 251 MB, rose to 280 MB during the process, and ended at a trim 107 MB. It took 16 mins to run.

This explains the behaviour I saw when I last ran a manual backup in January and it took 49 minutes to complete. At that point the database was two years old and had never had maintenance, so clearly there was a lot of garbage to collect!

Anyway, hopefully it is now in a good place for the regular maintenance schedule.

[garyan2]

LOL. Yah, I guess I should have expected that (now). When mcupdate runs, it will check that registry value and run garbage collector automatically if overdue.

I guess I should change my client setup procedure to run "mcupdate.exe -b -nogc" to speed up the initial setup... I never realized that. I always wondered why some folks would say it takes a while for that initial database deletion to occur. Thank you for filling in that blank in my knowledge. That may also explain why some had trouble deleting the database the first time.

[SwissCheese]

Hi

A few quick questions about V1.3.8.10 and a couple of feature requests...


1) Is this the correct syntax for the epg123_update scheduled task
to prevent EPG123 from controlling garbage collection?

C:\EPG123\epg123Client.exe -i "C:\EPG123\output\epg123.mxf" -match -nogc


I wasn't sure if I needed quotes as in ” -nogc”

I tried adding -nogc without the quotes, then decided to take it back out.

I must have messed something up while editing the task, because after that I
was getting "could not run" errors.

It is difficult for me to edit the task using the media center 10-foot interface
and an on-screen keyboard.

I used the epg123 config GUI to delete and create a new task, so everything
is working now.

My installation is several years old and has apparently been handing garbage
collection by itself without issue.

I'd rather not have EPG123 do garbage collection because as it is, it adds an
unpredictable and possibly very lengthy delay to importing the mxf, and I worry
that messing with WMC might cause other problems.

Feature request:

Having a GUI button to select the -nogc option seems like it would
be much more in line with EPG123's user-friendly style.

Having the button set to use -nogc by default must certainly mitigate
concerns about new installation problems.


2) Is there a way with v1.3.8.10 to revert to the way version 1.3.7.30 retrieved
movie poster art?

Apparently now: "movie poster art will prioritize to be the actual poster art instead of the DVD art"

In the old way with DVD art, all the covers in my collection of 75 recorded movies look nice.

In the new way with poster art, a couple posters are downright ugly.

Feature request:

Having a GUI button to select between prioritizing poster art over DVD will
make *my* movie collection art look nicer. =:-)



3) Totally unrelated to any of the above....

What is the proper method for disabling stations to reduce the amount of data
downloaded from Schedules Direct?

I've doing it by un-checking stations in the lineup in the config GUI.

That seems to work, but when I open the client manually, I get hundreds of entries
in trace.log like this:

[6/2/2020 8:09:05 AM] ===============================================================================
[6/2/2020 8:09:05 AM] Activating the epg123 client GUI. version 1.3.7.0
[6/2/2020 8:09:05 AM] ===============================================================================
[6/2/2020 8:09:05 AM] [ INFO] Successfully queried the Task Scheduler for status. Ready. Last Run 6/2/2020 5:45:00 AM; Exit:

0x00000000
[6/2/2020 8:09:09 AM] [ INFO] There are no tuners associated with "86 : - 770 = { (86 : - 76E) + [ ] }".
[6/2/2020 8:09:09 AM] [ INFO] There are no tuners associated with "225 : - B46 = { (225 : - B44) + [ ] }".
[6/2/2020 8:09:09 AM] [ INFO] There are no tuners associated with "226 : - B4D = { (226 : - B4B) + [ ] }".
[6/2/2020 8:09:09 AM] [ INFO] There are no tuners associated with "227 : - B54 = { (227 : - B52) + [ ] }".


I want to disable about 600 of the 725 stations in my cable lineup,
but if I do that, I'll get 600 worrisome INFO lines added to trace.log every time I
open the the client.

If that's how EPG123 is supposed to work, that's OK, but it makes me
think I'm doing something wrong.


Thank you!
=:-)


Ugly Poster Art with v1.3.8


Pretty Poster Art with v1.3.7

[garyan2]

1) Yes, simply -nogc without quotes is the proper way. I am not sold on providing a method to enable/disable dbgc with the GUI and that may be explained here. Right now I encourage using EPG123 to perform the garbage cleanup because otherwise there is a possibility that an import will occur while a garbage cleanup is in process by the mcupdate_scheduled task... might cause a problem. By using EPG123 to do it, we are ensured that those 2 things don't happen at the same time. I think there has to be some risk that if mcupdate is performing the garbage cleanup and then EPG123 imports new database entries at the same time, bad things may happen.

2) No method to select the priority of movie art. Your attached images didn't show, so I can't talk to them, but if you go to Movies->movie guide are you saying the images are bad? or are you talking about your Movie Library? If it is the movie library, then that has nothing to do with EPG123 other than it will have artwork EPG123 provided if the recording took place while using EPG123/SD as a source. There is a caveat to this as well... if you have had to rebuild the database, or WMC recovered from a problem, then the movie library artwork will probably be lost.

3) The proper way to disable stations is with the configuration GUI like you've been doing. That will prevent EPG123 from downloading them so they won't end up as part of the import file and take up space in your database. Those tuner entries in the log file have nothing to do with downloaded stations but everything to do with the WMC merged channels in the database. Question, do those channels show up in the client GUI and is there an entry in the TuningInfo column for them? Do they show up in the WMC guide? If you have 2 channel 86's in the client, how many do you have in WMC edit channels?

Note that disabling the download of those stations should not result in those "no tuners associated" entries.