EPG123 for other PVR solutions

An evolving, supported alternative to Rovi
Forum rules
★ Download the latest EPG123 here: https://garyan2.github.io/ <> Setup guide here: https://garyan2.github.io/install.html
Post Reply
jbhall56

Posts: 16
Joined: Sun Feb 05, 2017 7:56 pm
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

EPG123 for other PVR solutions

#1

Post by jbhall56 » Sun Jul 07, 2019 10:41 pm

After a hard drive crash I was told by Microsoft Tech Support that they could not help me recover my Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center. It seems that Microsoft has invalidated ALL of the Media Center keys for Windows 8.x. So while you can use the key to install Media Center, that installation deactivates your Windows 8.x installation and there is no way to fix the product key issue. As a result, I was wondering if the developers of EPG123 have thought about life after WMC and might support other PVRs such as Next PVR and MediaPortal? All of these solutions seem to only support the XML version of Schedules Direct and not the JSON version which supposedly contains more data. Just a thought.

User avatar
garyan2

Posts: 7438
Joined: Fri Nov 27, 2015 7:23 pm
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#2

Post by garyan2 » Sun Jul 07, 2019 11:02 pm

I already do as much as possible. That is why EPG123 has the option to create an XMLTV file along with the MXF file. You could say that the XMLTV file actually has a little more information than the MXF, but the XMLTV file is very inefficient and will be 2-3X larger than the MXF. It is up to the other PVR programmers to determine how to use the available information.

As far as extra data from the JSON server, stuff like actor images, awards, maybe reviews? I currently don't pull those since WMC doesn't have anything that can accommodate/use the data. I don't believe the XMLTV format will support that data either, so it would have to be a homegrown and a cooperative effort.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

choliscott

Posts: 598
Joined: Mon Dec 19, 2011 8:56 am
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#3

Post by choliscott » Sun Jul 07, 2019 11:19 pm

I can confirm that I was able to activate W8.1 media Center key as of last week.

1. Installed Windows 8.1 Pro
2. Activated normal Windows key
3. Went into Control Panel
4. Clicked add features to Windows
5. Put in WMC key that I obtained when they were giving them out for free

6. Rebooted. At this point, machine says it's not activated
7. Called automated activation line. Reactivated WMC key to current hardware

A few days later I took a system backup and tried reinstalling everything again. After I added WMC and the machine rebooted, it showed the machine was activated

jachin99

Posts: 1293
Joined: Wed Feb 24, 2016 3:36 pm
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#4

Post by jachin99 » Mon Jul 08, 2019 2:51 am

I use it for JRiver Media Center and it seems to work really well. There are still some issues I need to work out but overall I'm really happy with it.

DSperber

Posts: 359
Joined: Thu Jan 16, 2014 1:35 am
Location: Marina Del Rey, CA

HTPC Specs: Show details

#5

Post by DSperber » Tue Jul 23, 2019 7:25 pm

jbhall56 wrote: Sun Jul 07, 2019 10:41 pm I was wondering if the developers of EPG123 have thought about life after WMC and might support other PVRs such as Next PVR...
In passing, I mention that NextPVR has its own built-support for Guide info and presentation. It also supports user-developed plug-ins for enhanced functionality, and there is such a plug-in for "enhanced Guide".

As such, there already exists for user download and installation a "gold standard" Guide plug-in named "TV Listings" which (like EPG123) is a very elegant superset of the default Guide functionality showing a good deal more data and in a somewhat nicer presentation. There's really nothing to complain about in the basic product's Guide feature, but "TV Listings" does make some worthwhile improvements both in form and content, presenting more of the underlying available data. There is a dedicated "My Listings" sub-forum on the NextPVR community support forum, similar to how there's a dedicated EPG123 sub-forum here on TGB. This implies as much usage and appreciation of "My Listings" with NextPVR as there is for EPG123 with WMC.

Most significantly, NextPVR (which does NOT support Ceton tuners for cablecard-enabled copy-protected content) fully supports wonderfully complete and accurate and up-to-date Schedules Direct JSON data feed (for up to 21 days out), which of course is what makes EPG123 such a terrific improvement over Rovi-based standard WMC Guide functionality. So whether it is through the inherent built-in Guide functionality in NextPVR or through the enhanced functionality and cosmetics of the "My Listings" plug-in, the key is that the overall Guide feature information value available with NextPVR is that of the Schedules Direct JSON which we've all come to fully appreciate via EPG123.

A few months back my own personal research project to get WMC for my cablecard-enabled Ceton 6-tuner card running in a Win7 VM guest installed on a Win10 host machine, made use of NextPVR simultaneously installed "native Win10" on that same Win10 host machine in order to support my Hauppauge 4-tuner OTA/ATSC card. The project included running EPG123 for regular nightly WMC Guide updates in the same Win7 VM to support the Ceton card and Spectrum cable content in that Win7 VM, fed through my existing SD subscription but just with my SD Spectrum Cable channel lineup applicable to the Ceton card. I also configured NextPVR's Guide functionality to get its own nightly Guide data updates running native in Win10, from my same SD subscription but using my second SD OTA/ATSC channel lineup to support the Hauppauge card through NextPVR in Win10. I opted to use "TV Listings" plug-in for my Guide presentation because I like it, but the original default NextPVR Guide presentation of the exact same underlying Guide data retrieved nightly from SD JSON by NextPVR itself is also simultaneously available by simple selection choice from the main menu.

Recordings made in Win10 by NextPVR are TS files, which can be played as "Videos" through WMC running in Win7 VM. So recorded TV playback, either from NextPVR's TS files in its own "Videos" folder or from WMC's WTV files in its own "\Recorded TV" folder, is fully available for content recorded through both Ceton and Hauppauge tuner cards, through WMC extenders (supported by WMC running in the Win7 VM) which can play both "Videos" as well as "Recorded TV".

Bottom line: it is SD JSON which is really going to allow us to both continue to run WMC and EPG123 in Win7 VM and/or other products (e.g. NextPVR in native Win10), long after MS pulls the plug on Win7 come January 2020.

Post Reply