v1.3.9.0 -> v1.3.9.10 Release

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IT Troll

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#21

Post by IT Troll » Wed Jul 15, 2020 6:52 am

garyan2 wrote: Wed Jul 15, 2020 1:38 am Yes and No. Name changing didn't help, but minimizing/windowing and maximizing did to force a home page refresh.
Does going into another screen (e.g. The Guide) and then returning to the Home screen have the same effect? The weather add-in I used to use (Vista4Cast) managed to do it somehow.
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#22

Post by garyan2 » Wed Jul 15, 2020 3:06 pm

IT Troll wrote: Wed Jul 15, 2020 6:52 am Does going into another screen (e.g. The Guide) and then returning to the Home screen have the same effect? The weather add-in I used to use (Vista4Cast) managed to do it somehow.
No, tried that with pretty much every page in WMC and it never forced a refresh of the home page. I even watched some video and it still didn't force a refresh.

I'll keep looking for ways to force the refresh, but your weather add-in has an advantage of being able to access a lot of the ehshell functions that an external program cannot. It may just boil down to that fact.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

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#23

Post by Sancho » Wed Jul 15, 2020 3:32 pm

garyan2 wrote: Wed Jul 15, 2020 1:41 am
Sancho wrote: Tue Jul 14, 2020 10:44 pm Found this post:

"To get rid of the notification, set the following DWORD registry key to 1

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Settings\MCE.PerUserSettings]

epgDeprecationNoticeDoNotRemindMeAgain"

but I already had that set to '1'. And if I did that, vs. WMC changing it on its own at some point (can't recall), it did stop the annoying pop-up that everyone was getting multiple times after starting WMC. Sadly, it still pops up when I manually update the Guide listings from WMC\Settings\TV\Guide. No biggie, though, as I don't usually force a Guide update after the scheduled task does so early in the morning. Still a handy feature :-)
Weird. The only thing I can think of is your Windows up to date? Have you downloaded all the updates? I believe at some point it will give that checkbox to never show again but is probably KB related.
It is, both weird and all PCs fully updated to the bitter end. I was pretty religious about updating. One thing I meant to mention in the previous post was the last(?) post in that thread which mentioned rolling back some specific update(s), then reapplying some. I can't be bothered with that, but I do recall eventually getting the option to not have that nag pop up, which, of course, I checked.

Again, no biggie.

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#24

Post by IT Troll » Wed Jul 15, 2020 4:32 pm

garyan2 wrote: Wed Jul 15, 2020 3:06 pm No, tried that with pretty much every page in WMC and it never forced a refresh of the home page. I even watched some video and it still didn't force a refresh.
That's a bummer. I just tried a couple of other things:
  • Change image used by custom menu strip.
  • Change top right clock logo using Media Center Themer (thought this might refresh along with the time).
But they also don't reflect the change unless you close and re-open Media Center.
I guess the solution is a scheduled task to close and re-launch Media Center after the EPG123 task has run. Or even better, close Media Center, update the guide / run maintenance, then re-launch Media Center.
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#25

Post by garyan2 » Wed Jul 15, 2020 5:49 pm

I'll have to study this more. Right now my Win7 VM gets refreshed if I go into the guide and back to home. My Win10 machine will refresh if I minimize/window and return to full screen like I said, but it will also work if I [Alt]+[Tab].

EDIT: ... and now it is working in Win10 if I look at a program detail from the guide and go back out to the home page. :crazy:
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

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#26

Post by IT Troll » Wed Jul 15, 2020 8:31 pm

Could be differences in memory handling between the different operating systems. It may be hard to determine what circumstances will reliably cause a flush and reload.
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#27

Post by Rickt1962 » Thu Jul 16, 2020 1:27 pm

I have no trouble with 1.3.7 do I need to update it ?
Using Windows 7
HTPC W7 pro with HDhomerun with 6 tuners using Comcast scanned by MCEbuddy uploaded to network to be watched by KODI

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#28

Post by garyan2 » Thu Jul 16, 2020 6:49 pm

If you look at your Event Viewer and see mcupdate entries for starting client maintenance and client maintenance completed every 5 days, then there is no compelling reason to other that wanting the [Get Latest Guide Listings] to work for EPG123.

You can go through the release history to determine if you want to update or not.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

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#29

Post by Rickt1962 » Thu Jul 16, 2020 9:18 pm

garyan2 wrote: Thu Jul 16, 2020 6:49 pm If you look at your Event Viewer and see mcupdate entries for starting client maintenance and client maintenance completed every 5 days, then there is no compelling reason to other that wanting the [Get Latest Guide Listings] to work for EPG123.

You can go through the release history to determine if you want to update or not.
Thank you the update went in flawless !
HTPC W7 pro with HDhomerun with 6 tuners using Comcast scanned by MCEbuddy uploaded to network to be watched by KODI

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#30

Post by jrpdx2 » Fri Jul 17, 2020 2:12 am

Hi Gary, I just installed (not upgrade) v1.3.9.10 with the epg123Setup_v1.3.9.10.zip Installation package for Win7 WMC (successfully), but the Norton Security Suite that comes with Comcast Internet sees the .exe file as a threat and deletes it. This was not a problem, I just turned Norton off for the install and it's working beautifully. Thought you'd like to know. FYI JRPDX2

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#31

Post by garyan2 » Fri Jul 17, 2020 3:53 am

Yah, Norton has been a pain for a while now. It rates based on how many Norton users have EPG123 installed and since the number is small it is deemed high risk. Of course, if Norton doesn't let users install EPG123 then it can't really build a reputation.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

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#32

Post by dopdahl » Sat Jul 18, 2020 1:16 am

Is there an advantage to deleting guide channels vs. disabling guide channels?

Also had a random occurrence today. MediaCenter popped up and said, there was an issue with the guide data... but don't worry we fixed it.

Well, it was gone. all gone. No channels, no nothing.

I went into the EPGClient app and restored the database and config from a recent backup. Here's where I get confused...

What does 'save & execute' do in the EPG app, vs, Rebuild WMC database in EPG 123?

After monkeying around not really knowing what I'm doing, the database rebuilt, downloaded guide data and updated the database.

That went fine... However all of my series settings reverted to an old series lineup that I had literally about 7 years ago. All my current series were gone.

So I hate to hijack this thread (I was running 1.3.7...) but what's the proper sequence to do things in if MediaCenter shits the bed again?

Thx,
Dave

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#33

Post by garyan2 » Sat Jul 18, 2020 2:27 am

When WMC does a recovery, it creates a new database and uses the backup files from the old database to restore your tuners, recording requests, favorite lineups, and other things but it does not restore the guide data. You should have had everything except guide data, so you saying it was all gone is concerning.

Here is how to get everything back. This is a first option so if it doesn't work, let me know and I'll give a second option.

Determine what database number you had:
1) Close WMC and EPG123 Client.
2) Run 'regedit.exe' and navigate to [Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Service\Epg].
3) Change the "EPG.instance" to a number 1 less than the current number.
4) Open WMC and you should see your previous setup. If not, or if it "recovers" again, stop here and we'll try the second option.
5) Close WMC and open the EPG123 Client.
6) Click the [Backup] button and wait until complete.
7) Click the [Rebuild WMC Database] button and import your guide data when prompted (epg123.mxf file).
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

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#34

Post by garyan2 » Sat Jul 18, 2020 2:27 am

I'll answer all your other questions once we get you straightened out.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

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#35

Post by dopdahl » Sat Jul 18, 2020 1:10 pm

Thanks for the quick response... I've pretty much just reset up my scheduled recordings at this point... So I think I'll leave well enough alone. I also have a full drive backup from the day prior... So, I'm ok here.

To be clear, after this event... I had zero channels and the guide would not display. It was trying to run me through Guide Setup.

No channels or lineups in the EPG123 UI at all.

Restoring from backup and rebuilding the database resolved all of that. Just my series info was reverted to some 7 year old version.

I realize that by disabling channels they won't show in the guide, but I can still re-enable them in WMc. Deleting them from the EPG123 client would hide them from WMC complete (until added back in from the client if I want).

What I'd really like to know is if EPG download & processing will speed up if channels are deleted as opposed to merely disabled. I've got like 9000 disabled channels in my lineup. I'm simply trying to run a tight ship here.

And of course, my other questions...

Thanks again.. Love the tool... been using it flawlessly for a couple of years after Bill Gate's guide data was broken for weeks on end.

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#36

Post by garyan2 » Sat Jul 18, 2020 2:54 pm

1a) The best thing to do is to not download stations you don't want/watch/aren't subscribed to. This makes the imported guide listings smaller and your updates quicker. This is done in the configuration GUI.
1b) For channels that you think your provider will never use (i.e. channels 2000-9999), then you could delete those channels in the client which will make the client load time quicker.
1c) I would not delete any channels that could be used by your provider. Keeping the empty channels there is best for when your provider changes the lineup a bit and moves stations around or adds new stations. If the channels already exist then with the options to 'automatically download new stations in lineups' and 'automatically match stations to channels' enabled, the guide will be updated without any action required by the user.

2a) A [Save & Execute] is the same as running your scheduled update task. It will download the latest guide listings, build the MXF file, and import the MXF file into WMC.
2b) A [Rebuild WMC Database] will delete your current database and build a new one. Doing so will lose your past recording history so the new database will record Repeat shows you have already recorded. If having problems with the database, this is a quick way to get it running again.

3) When WMC does a recovery, it is basically doing a the same thing as [Rebuild WMC Database], but iterates the database number. The "old" database is still there but not used. The only thing the user needs to do is import the latest guide listings. For version 1.3.9.x, you will just need go to WMC settings->TV->Guide->[Get Latest Guide Listings]. That will run your epg123 update scheduled task on demand. For prior versions, you can do a [Save & Execute] from the configuration GUI, or you can do a [Manual Import] from the client GUI.

Recap:
  • Don't download stations you don't want to see in your guide.
  • You can delete a range of channels that are not likely to be part of your providers lineup.
  • A [Save & Execute] is the same as running your daily scheduled task.
  • A [Rebuild WMC Database] is effectively the same as a WMC recovery to build a new database.
  • If WMC does a recovery, you just need to import the guide listings again using [Get Latest Guide Listings], [Save & Execute], or [Manual Import].
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

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#37

Post by IT Troll » Sat Jul 18, 2020 5:03 pm

garyan2 wrote: Sat Jul 18, 2020 2:54 pm If WMC does a recovery, you just need to import the guide listings again using [Get Latest Guide Listings], [Save & Execute], or [Manual Import].
Worth adding that after an auto recovery you will lose the internal recording history which is used to avoid repeating recordings.

To retain this you need to go through the manual recovery process.
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#38

Post by Gripweed » Sat Jul 18, 2020 7:06 pm

Just testing out 1.3.9.10. You wrote "you will just need go to WMC settings->TV->Guide->[Get Latest Guide Listings]. That will run your epg123 update scheduled task on demand."

When I do that I get this...

Image https://imgur.com/a/leclX20

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#39

Post by Space » Sat Jul 18, 2020 7:37 pm

Note that losing the recording history is not a big deal if you use "New" on all your Series. It only really has significance if you use "New & Rerun" on one or more of your Series (and only then if reruns of that series are airing).

Gary,
The “mcupdate” task will be redirected to the client to capture calls from WMC for downloads and updates. This means that if you click the [Get Latest Guide Listings] in WMC it will now kick off the epg123_update task instead. You can update your guide without leaving WMC.
How is this accomplished? Did you change the program that WMC executes by modifying the WMC binary?
Prevents maintenance package download and reindexing task from running during a garbage cleanup
What was done to accomplish this? What arguments should I use with the mcupdate task to do garbage collection without any of the unnecessary stuff?

I am still running 1.3.6.20 and am looking at updating to the latest, but want to make sure my existing stuff still runs and does not interfere with any of the new stuff. I run my own garbage cleanup task, and just want to make sure I am using the correct arguments as well as not creating any conflicts with the new stuff in the newer versions of EPG123.

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#40

Post by garyan2 » Sat Jul 18, 2020 7:46 pm

Space wrote: Sat Jul 18, 2020 7:37 pm
The “mcupdate” task will be redirected to the client to capture calls from WMC for downloads and updates. This means that if you click the [Get Latest Guide Listings] in WMC it will now kick off the epg123_update task instead. You can update your guide without leaving WMC.
How is this accomplished? Did you change the program that WMC executes by modifying the WMC binary?
I modified the "mcupdate" task to use epg123Client.exe instead of mcupdate.exe. So WMC will send the update request with all the arguments to the client instead of running mcupdate.
Space wrote: Sat Jul 18, 2020 7:37 pm
Prevents maintenance package download and reindexing task from running during a garbage cleanup
What was done to accomplish this? What arguments should I use with the mcupdate task to do garbage collection without any of the unnecessary stuff?
Add the argument "-updateTrigger" to the mcupdate call. It will prevent trying to download the client maintenance package and will not perform the reindexing task at the end of the garbage cleanup.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

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