WMC dropping channels after setup

[Declan]

I have WMC installed on Win10. I'm using EPG123 to capture the channel guide.
All was working fine for about a month - both viewing and recording - when suddenly the local ABC Network disappeared from the guide. I've reloaded the guide several times and it still doesn't show up. I also reset the tuner as well. What is odd is that both my TV and my Hauppauge tuner pick it up just fine. I've talked to multiple people and no one has an answer on how to fix this.
Any suggestions?

[garyan2]

Has you local ABC changed frequency due to the RF spectrum repacking? If it is in the VHF band, then you will have to add it manually.

If you open the client, is your ABC station on both the right side and/or channel on the left side?

[Declan]

Hi Gary. I thought about that. I called the station and nobody knew what I was talking about. I have a call into engineering from several days ago but no return call yet.
The odd thing is that the whole ABC/channel listing just disappeared, not just the content section.
ABC in Houston is KTRK ch 13. The Guide now goes from 11.1, 11.2, 14.1, 14.2 - completely skipping 13.
The channel and network is on the left side and the time/content is to the right.
I asked what the frequency was and the customer service people didn't know that either. I'm sure they have a scaled back staff right now. To my knowledge the only studio talent is the weather folks since they need the computer graphics, but the talking news heads are all broadcasting from home. So I imagine a lot of the others are home as well. That would leave those who have no clue what I need to know trying to keep things going.
My only other thought at this point is to do a complete delete and reset of the channels, recording schedule, and all the metadata that goes with them - but I don't know how to do that. I hate losing all of that and starting over but if that would fix things I would do it.

[garyan2]

Could you take a picture of your EPG123 Client and post it? Maximize the size so we can see what your tuningInfo column shows for 13.x channels on the left side listview. Being on RF channel 13 means it is VHF.

[Declan]

When you say EPG123 Client, I presume you are talking about Windows Media Center.
These are two photos showing where ch 13 should be between 11 & 14.

[garyan2]

No, I meant the EPG123 Client Guide Tool ('EPG123 Client' shortcut), but what you captured is good enough. You will need to manually add the 13.x stations. In WMC, go to settings->TV->Guide->Add Missing Channels and add them there. Reference https://epg123.garyan2.net/tools/#vhfAddChannel on adding VHF channels.

Once they are added, they won't have any guide listings mapped to them, so you can open EPG123 Client and click the Match by: [# Number] button to take care of that.

[Declan]

I tried that, but I can't get the frequency from the station.
The manually added channels in WMC has a place for only two numbers, and every listing of frequencies I have seen have three numbers.
So that put me back to where I started.

[garyan2]

Your "Digital TV channel" entries will be 13.1, 13.2, and 13.3. Your "Assigned frequency" for all 3 will be 13... it is actually the RF channel, not a frequency.

[Declan]

That doesn't work, I've tried it a dozen times. WMC asks for a channel, then the frequency. I got a call back from the TV station and the frequency is 213 MHz. There is only a place for two numbers and not three. I've been doing multiple searches and this is a problem that is becoming more frequent. Nothing seems to work except deleting the contents of the eHome folder and rebooting. That will build the contents from scratch. You have to start all over in a completely new set up. And you will lose all previous stations, schedules, and related data, but you have to start over. It's the only way.

Thanks for trying. I see I need to go the nuclear option.

[garyan2]

You don't need to do that, and where are you getting that information? There's only room for 2 digits because the only possible entries are the numbers 2 thru 69. On the page after the 2 below, enter a name/callsign for the channel... whatever you want.

EDIT: Correcting the channel numbers above. I put 2-13 which is only VHF, UFH will take it up to 69.

[garyan2]

You can also do it in the EPG123 Client by click the green '+' button. Enter the information like below for all 3 channels (13.1, 13.2, and 13.3). In this case, you can leave the call sign blank if you want.

[Declan]

I see your photos, and I've tried that, many times. I even went into the EPG123 client and the channels are checked, just as you described. But it doesn't restore the missing channels. The glitch is in WMC not EPG123.

[garyan2]

I see your photos, and I've tried that, many times. I even went into the EPG123 client and the channels are checked, just as you described. But it doesn't restore the missing channels. The glitch is in WMC not EPG123.

Intersting. You say the channels are visible on the left side of the client? If you look under the TuningInfo column for those channels, are they blank? If so, delete them in the client and try adding them again.

I don't know why WMC sometimes loses the link between the merged channels and the tuning channels, but you have ability to delete those "corrupted" entries and add them back in manually.

[Declan]

Hi Gary,
I went through the process you suggested about resetting the channels in the EPG123 client. It scanned and reset the way you described. I opened WMC and I went to 'Guide > Edit Channels' and ch. 13 was still not there. Plus, this time I lost ch 2.

Really perplexed by now I decided to look through other WMC settings, thinking may it was signal strength that wasn't getting through. On a lark I looked at Settings > TV > TV Signal > Scan For More channels. I hadn't looked there since I was focused on the Guide. But I thought 'what the heck, why not give this a try as well?'

It started scanning through the full lineup of channels again - for both tuners on my Hauppauge card. I left it alone for about 30 minutes and I watched it scan multiple times. The first few times it didn't see either ch. 13 or ch. 2, but after about 5 scans there they were. I let it scan a few extra times to make sure the channels remained on the lineup. I exited WMC and then reopened it, then the Guide, and both were back. I rebooted the full computer, then reopened WMC, went to the Guide again and the channels were still there, along with the channel data and the recording schedule for those two channels.

That worked, everything is back to normal (fingers crossed). Whatever the problem it definitely resides in WMC. Finally I found something that works. If someone else comes along have them try this.

Thanks Again,
Declan.

[garyan2]

Wow, I don't even know where to begin to form a theory on that. I have never seen a manual add fail, even if you add the same channel multiple times.

I'll file this in my back pocket in case we see it again.

Thanks.

[davidhp]

I have had the same problem and had to load many channels manually. I have a listing I found online for Las Vegas area OTA channels including their call sign, channel number (3.1), RF (22) Network, HD or SD, Language, and Tower Location. The list is old and some of the UHF stations have either gone away and new ones have been added. My VHF stations require a different number for the RF from the channel number Examples:
VHF
KSNV-DT CH: 3.1 RF: 22 NBC
KSNV-DT3 CH:3.3 RF: 22 Charge
KVVU-DT Ch 5.1 RF: 9 FOX
UHF
KHSV-DT Ch: 21.1 RF: 2 Heroes and Icons
KHSV-DT2 Ch: 21.2 RF: 2 Decades
I have one UHF station that will not load manually and yield any schedule:
KVCW-DT5 Ch 33.5 RF: should be 29 like all the other KVCW subchannels But does not load.
I rescanned after May 26 when Las Vegas went to the New ATSC 3.0 broadcast system for NBC and CW stations.

[Declan]

David,
Frustrating - isn't it?
- Declan