Introducing EPG123

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

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#1681

Post by McGary » Wed Dec 18, 2019 12:53 am

Definitely agree the OAD only makes sense for made-for-TV movies. Wouldn't make sense for a theatrical released movie.
I suspect there's only data for the made-for-TV movies anyway.

By the way, in reading the discussion about this, I was curious whether or not that OAD was indeed "... a function of the switch from Gracenote to Rovi data way back." ==> so, since we have a very extensive collection of recorded Hallmark movies, I simply looked back at movies we recorded back in 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, etc. … and indeed the movies recorded in 2014 and earlier show the year and do NOT have an OAD. Starting in 2015 all of the movies (I only looked at Hallmark, but I suspect the same is true for Lifetime and other made-for-TV recordings) show the OAD, as shown in the samples I posted earlier. I assume the switch to Rovi must have happened around that time.

I'll have to show this to my wife … maybe she'll be a bit less upset about losing that data :-)

But I agree it would be nicer to have both if it's reasonably possible.

McGary

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#1682

Post by McGary » Wed Dec 18, 2019 12:57 am

Just noticed that Gary said the switch to Rovi was in July 2015, so that's entirely consistent with what I just noted about earlier recordings. I'm sure if I look at movies I recorded in Jan - June of 2015 they'll only have the year; and those after that will show the OAD.

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garyan2

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#1683

Post by garyan2 » Wed Dec 18, 2019 1:07 am

I was going to come in here and say I didn't have an issue putting an OAD on a TV Movie, but I had to check the data I get from Gracenote/Schedules Direct. Unfortunately, all movies, including TV Movies, only have the year in the data... no "original-air-date".

This is consistent with what it was in the past, and is consistent with what you see on the Zap2it website. Movies only have the year.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

Space

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#1684

Post by Space » Wed Dec 18, 2019 1:46 am

OAD's from Rovi were often wrong anyway, so is it worse to not have them or to have incorrect ones?

McGary

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#1685

Post by McGary » Wed Dec 18, 2019 2:23 am

Well, if the data's not there, it's not there :-)
Thanks for looking at it.

FlukieStokes

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#1686

Post by FlukieStokes » Wed Dec 18, 2019 9:10 pm

Hello Gary
I want to thank you for doing this. I wanted to keep using Media Center after January but was not sure how. I am going to install EPG 123. It seems like a great option, even better than what Microsoft / Rovi was providing. I have a question. I am new to this forum and If I am posting this in wrong place, I am sorry. After January I am going to use my Win 7 PC strictly for Media Center. I am going to install Norton and use that instead of Defender. Does anyone have any advice about leaving it connected to the internet all the time? Should I just connect it once a week to download guide data? I am concerned about security. I don't know if this is extreme, but I was thinking if my Media Center PC becomes infected, due to lack of updates from Microsoft, it could spread to other PC's on my network. Thank you for any advice that you can offer :)

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Scallica

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#1687

Post by Scallica » Wed Dec 18, 2019 11:10 pm

FlukieStokes wrote: Wed Dec 18, 2019 9:10 pm I have a question. I am new to this forum and If I am posting this in wrong place, I am sorry.
See my comment here:
viewtopic.php?p=134806#p134806

EPG123 talk here only
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patrick0525

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#1688

Post by patrick0525 » Thu Dec 19, 2019 12:39 pm

Gary,
I successfully installed egpg123, but I have done multiple client installs on the same pc which wiped out the original wmc schedule recordings. Is there any way to recover the original wmc recoding schedule and then do a schedule transfer to epg123?

Found the answer:
Open the EPG123 Transfer Tool. The right panel will be populated with any recording requests currently in the WMC database.

Click the [Open recordings backup file] button to import a recordings backup file. The file can be a standalone MXF file or as part of the compressed ZIP file created by the Backup Current WMC Configuration procedure.



Restores to old scheduled backups!

sgbroimp

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#1689

Post by sgbroimp » Thu Dec 19, 2019 4:12 pm

What happens if you take your HTPC down for maintenance (in my case replacing the Raid1 Drives that hold my content, C drive with OS etc. not touched). In this case a daily update (1 AM for me) would be missed. Two questions: Will that trigger an error symbol on the status icon? Will this clear out once the HTPC is re-started and passes the very next 1 AM time point?

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garyan2

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#1690

Post by garyan2 » Thu Dec 19, 2019 4:45 pm

sgbroimp wrote: Thu Dec 19, 2019 4:12 pm What happens if you take your HTPC down for maintenance (in my case replacing the Raid1 Drives that hold my content, C drive with OS etc. not touched). In this case a daily update (1 AM for me) would be missed. Two questions: Will that trigger an error symbol on the status icon? Will this clear out once the HTPC is re-started and passes the very next 1 AM time point?
Initially, the status logo will simply show your last status with the date from the last update. So you may see green, but you will also see a date that is more than 24 hours ago. Once you turn the station on after maintenance though, the task scheduler should recognize that an update was missed and go ahead and perform an update when it can. When it completes the status logo will be updated with the current status and date. You shouldn't have to wait until the next scheduled update in this case.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

joe1275

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#1691

Post by joe1275 » Thu Dec 19, 2019 9:32 pm

I am ready to shoot myself in the head. I have installed and re-installed three times so far. The instructions seem to lead me down a rabbit hole every time. I am simply trying to install on a server only system (full mode). So far, I have managed to lose all my old WMC settings, but can't seem to get the system to allow me to set up a scheduled task. I have my trial running at Schedules Direct, but if I can't get this to work soon, I'll have to go old school and manually schedule recordings by time and day. How can I possibly be messing this up so bad?

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garyan2

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#1692

Post by garyan2 » Thu Dec 19, 2019 9:58 pm

Save your bullets. There has been some confusion on this, but I don't have a perfect solution.

In order to create a task, the GUI has to be run with elevated rights (as administrator). If the button has the shield on it, you are not elevated. Clicking the [Create] button with a shield on it does not create the task, but it restarts the form as administrator so that when you then click the [Create] button again, the task will be created.

If that is confusing, just start the form 'as Administrator' and then create the task.

That describes the task, what else is not working?
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

joe1275

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#1693

Post by joe1275 » Thu Dec 19, 2019 10:38 pm

Thanks for the quick reply, Gary. I ended up manually entering the schedule command you had provided on another thread. That appears to have worked and I can see it in the scheduler. I initially got an error when I ran EPG123, but by running them as administrator, it now shows the tasks (grayed out) scheduled to run, but not yet run.

I hope I didn't mess anything up, but the scheduler had it configured for "Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2", so I changed that setting only to "Windows 10" (which is what I am running).

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garyan2

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#1694

Post by garyan2 » Thu Dec 19, 2019 10:41 pm

As far as I've seen, changing that setting doesn't do anything. I'm not sure what it is supposed to do. I haven't seen any harm from doing it either, so....
Last edited by garyan2 on Fri Dec 20, 2019 7:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

sgbroimp

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#1695

Post by sgbroimp » Fri Dec 20, 2019 6:12 pm

garyan2 wrote: Thu Dec 19, 2019 4:45 pm
sgbroimp wrote: Thu Dec 19, 2019 4:12 pm What happens if you take your HTPC down for maintenance (in my case replacing the Raid1 Drives that hold my content, C drive with OS etc. not touched). In this case a daily update (1 AM for me) would be missed. Two questions: Will that trigger an error symbol on the status icon? Will this clear out once the HTPC is re-started and passes the very next 1 AM time point?
Initially, the status logo will simply show your last status with the date from the last update. So you may see green, but you will also see a date that is more than 24 hours ago. Once you turn the station on after maintenance though, the task scheduler should recognize that an update was missed and go ahead and perform an update when it can. When it completes the status logo will be updated with the current status and date. You shouldn't have to wait until the next scheduled update in this case.
That's a very good design software-wise, Gary. Excellent!

sgbroimp

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#1696

Post by sgbroimp » Sat Dec 21, 2019 7:10 pm

And last night upon re-starting the HTPC/WMC with the new drives I got the red symbol. This morning back to green so all good. Brilliant!

Michael3442

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#1697

Post by Michael3442 » Sat Dec 21, 2019 11:37 pm

Newbie alert! A quick question to start, more surely to follow: What is a MXF file? I've tried once to install this and my security apps had a fit and the install was corrupted. Fortunately I created a Restore Point before starting and imaged my C: drive. All my saved WMC recordings are on a separate drive. I'll be turning off the security apps for my next attempt. But what is a MXF file?

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garyan2

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#1698

Post by garyan2 » Sun Dec 22, 2019 12:11 am

The MXF file is simply the file that contains all the guide listings... it is essentially an XML file with a different file extension. The contents are described by Microsoft here.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

Michael3442

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#1699

Post by Michael3442 » Sun Dec 22, 2019 11:24 pm

Gary, thanks for your reply to my above MXF question. Another question: When the Client Guide Tool is opened, at the top under Scheduled Tasks it says ***Click here to set MXF file path***. With the 6 asterisks this seems to call out for immediate attention. Is this something that is supposed to be dealt with before anything else, like the Client Setup, or will this fall into place sometime later? Also, when I look at your video it starts with WMC open to the guide page and then WMC disappears at 38 sec. Are we supposed to start with WMC opened as shown? The video also shows at 1:41 the closing of the Examining TV Signals process before the process completed on its own, yet the Client Guide I believe suggests letting the process complete. Is there a right or wrong way or doesn't it matter?

I've now tried to set this up twice and am having no luck in following the directions; I hope you will bear with me as I'm determined to get this to work. I'm not a newbie to computers and have built 3 and currently have 4 operating in my home for various purposes. Fortunately, as mentioned previously, I've imaged my C: drive and will continue to do restores until I get this to work. Thanks for your patience.

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garyan2

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#1700

Post by garyan2 » Sun Dec 22, 2019 11:33 pm

Michael3442 wrote: Sun Dec 22, 2019 11:24 pm Gary, thanks for your reply to my above MXF question. Another question: When the Client Guide Tool is opened, at the top under Scheduled Tasks it says ***Click here to set MXF file path***. With the 6 asterisks this seems to call out for immediate attention. Is this something that is supposed to be dealt with before anything else, like the Client Setup, or will this fall into place sometime later? Also, when I look at your video it starts with WMC open to the guide page and then WMC disappears at 38 sec. Are we supposed to start with WMC opened as shown? The video also shows at 1:41 the closing of the Examining TV Signals process before the process completed on its own, yet the Client Guide I believe suggests letting the process complete. Is there a right or wrong way or doesn't it matter?

I've now tried to set this up twice and am having no luck in following the directions; I hope you will bear with me as I'm determined to get this to work. I'm not a newbie to computers and have built 3 and currently have 4 operating in my home for various purposes. Fortunately, as mentioned previously, I've imaged my C: drive and will continue to do restores until I get this to work. Thanks for your patience.
With the text box showing "***Click here to set MXF file path***," you performed a Client Only installation. Is that correct? If so, then it can wait until you will create your scheduled task.

Seeing WMC at the beginning of the video was just me showing that it currently had Rovi data in it. It is just the "before" to compare with the "after". WMC can be either opened or closed at the beginning of a Client Setup, but EPG123 will close it automatically when needed, and then open it again when needed.

I closed the Examining TV Signals process just to speed things along. You can let it take its course. WMC is using the tuners and tuning to specific channels to try and determine itself what type of tuners they are. In the interest of time, I just didn't want to wait.

So, where is it failing at, for you?
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

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