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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#1641

Post by McGary » Sun Dec 15, 2019 10:59 am

Your video does indeed make it look simple. Our system isn't scheduled to record anything that I can't delete between noon and 8PM Monday, so I'm planning to do this Monday … I'll let you know how it goes as soon as it's done. Sounds like I should have WMC running with the EPG guide in ~ 30 minutes or so, barring any significant problems. Hopefully that will be the case.

Hopefully getting used to the display changes in Recorded TV and Movies won't be too bad -- as long as we don't lose anything I'm fine with it. A LOT of our recordings don't usually show in Recorded TV, as they're stored in folders I don't list unless I want access to them [then I just add them to the recorded TV folder list and all the archived shows in that folder show up]. I'll have to add one of these after I've updated to EPG and see if they have display anomalies, but that's an issue for another day.

My plan for tomorrow (actually later today) is to finish writing down all the scheduled recordings and register for a Schedules Direct account … then do the switch Monday.

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#1642

Post by sgbroimp » Sun Dec 15, 2019 3:03 pm

garyan2 wrote: Sat Dec 14, 2019 8:04 pm ----If you performed TV Setup with only 4 tuners and applied the tweak afterwards, then yes, you will have to run TV Setup again to include the other tuners. After that is done your guide listings will be "detached" from the tuner channels so you will have to open the client and click the Match by: [# Number] for each lineup. I did the setup with 6 tuners as in the past. I got the message about too many tuners and did the set up with 6 tuners again, got the message and then clicked on the box to increase the tuners to up to 40. is there an easy way to tell if I have 6 tuners or the so called max of 4?

----I did a quick compare between Gracenote and Rovi lineups for Clinton Digital and Chester Digital and they look pretty much the same. If there are errors, please open a ticket with Schedules Direct. I think I will stand pat on this. I doubt there is much difference also and if yes, some obscure channel I never view. Will see how things go. Thank you.

----Could you describe what you did and what didn't work for the recording requests? I followed your helpful video for the entire set up but for the first series on the left side nothing showed on the two on the right including the Schedules Direct so I stopped. No big deal as I have now manually re-set up the missing series recordings.

----Open the client and right-click any channel on the left side that you want to renumber. You should see a selection to 'Renumber' and an editable text box will appear over the channel number. Enter the number you want and hit 'Enter'. Will do. Thanks.
Thanks also for the fast response. Impressed you work on weekends! This kind of service is hard to find nowadays.

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#1643

Post by McGary » Sun Dec 15, 2019 7:22 pm

garyan2 wrote: Sun Dec 15, 2019 5:46 am 1) go ahead and install EPG123... just run the setup file. This will not do anything to WMC and you will be able to use the tools to plan ahead.
2) open the EPG123 Client.
3) click the [Backup] button to make a backup of your current configurations
4) click the [Transfer Tool] button to open the transfer tool
5) click the [Open recordings backup file] and select the backup file you just created in step 3

Anything green on the right side is valid for the new EPG123/SD guide. Anything green on the left side will transfer automatically when you do the Client Setup. Anything pink/salmon may transfer over if theTVDB.com has the Zap2it ID in their metadata for the series. Anything orange will not transfer over... those will typically be your one-time recording requests for a specific episode, movie, sport event. My translation table is limited to series IDs only. Your other recording requests like wishlist, keyword, actor, director, manual... they will all transfer over.
I did as you suggested, and the resulting display looks promising. I assume all the "pink" on the right doesn't really matter, since most of what's shown on the left is green. Is that correct? Most of the stuff that's pink on the right is green on the left -- I assume that means that once I do the full setup those scheduled recordings will transfer just fine, so I won't have nearly as much work to do as I had once assumed. It's looking promising -- if we didn't have so many recordings scheduled today I'd just go ahead and do it -- but tomorrow afternoon is completely "recording free", so that's my "move to EPG" window :D

I registered with Schedules Direct, but didn't set up any lineups ... I presume I can simply do that during the EPG install -- correct?

Here's the display I noted from the transfer tool:
EPG Transfers.jpg

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garyan2

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#1644

Post by garyan2 » Sun Dec 15, 2019 7:44 pm

Certainly everything on the left that is green is good. I'm not so sure about the OneTime requests on the right. I'll have to look over my code to see if that makes sense. (I just did, and don't believe the green OneTime requests on the right side... I don't think they will transfer over.) Are those OneTime requests on the left side as well? They should be "LightSalmon" in color.

You can set up your lineup during the install. There nothing you can do on the website since that is only for the SD-DD server and we use the SD-JSON server.
- Gary
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#1645

Post by McGary » Sun Dec 15, 2019 7:58 pm

Wow -- that was a FAST response :-)

I'm not at all concerned with the one-time requests transferring. I figure once I switch to EPG, I'll just have my wife run through the guide for the next couple weeks and schedule all the stuff she wants (she's a huge fan of the Hallmark and HMM channels and all their movies -- that's probably half or more of the one-time movies). And virtually all of the series we record are shown in green on the left, so it's nice to know they'll just move over with EPG.

Definitely looking forward to getting this done -- and I'm pretty optimistic it's going to be a fairly smooth process.

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#1646

Post by garyan2 » Sun Dec 15, 2019 8:24 pm

It may be even smoother if I can get the next release done today. I keep finding "one more thing" to adjust or address.
- Gary
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#1647

Post by garyan2 » Sun Dec 15, 2019 11:08 pm

sgbroimp wrote: Sun Dec 15, 2019 3:03 pm
garyan2 wrote: Sat Dec 14, 2019 8:04 pm ----If you performed TV Setup with only 4 tuners and applied the tweak afterwards, then yes, you will have to run TV Setup again to include the other tuners. After that is done your guide listings will be "detached" from the tuner channels so you will have to open the client and click the Match by: [# Number] for each lineup. I did the setup with 6 tuners as in the past. I got the message about too many tuners and did the set up with 6 tuners again, got the message and then clicked on the box to increase the tuners to up to 40. is there an easy way to tell if I have 6 tuners or the so called max of 4?
Thanks also for the fast response. Impressed you work on weekends! This kind of service is hard to find nowadays.
A quick way to check would be to go to WMC Tasks->settings->TV->Guide->Edit Channels and click one of your channels (not the checkbox), click the [Edit Sources] button and count the tuners. If you only have 4, then you are not taking advantage of all your tuners.

If you only have 4, then do the below:

1) open the client and click the [Tweak WMC] button
2) Click the [Increase] button and then close the tweak form and the client.
3) Open WMC and run TV Setup WMC Tasks->settings->TV->TV Signal->Setup TV Signal and do another scan.
4) Close WMC and open the client.
5) Click the Match by: [# Number] button to get listings assigned to the "new" channels.

Done.

Are weekends still a thing? People still do that? :lol:
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

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#1648

Post by Space » Mon Dec 16, 2019 1:06 am

garyan2 wrote: Sun Dec 15, 2019 7:44 pm Certainly everything on the left that is green is good. I'm not so sure about the OneTime requests on the right. I'll have to look over my code to see if that makes sense. (I just did, and don't believe the green OneTime requests on the right side... I don't think they will transfer over.) Are those OneTime requests on the left side as well? They should be "LightSalmon" in color.

You can set up your lineup during the install. There nothing you can do on the website since that is only for the SD-DD server and we use the SD-JSON server.
This is good info as I plan to go through this soon.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but this screen cap is from a Transfer Tool that is running on a system that has not yet been converted to EPG123, so the entries on the right represent entries that are in the WMC database but are using Rovi/TiVo data. I would assume that the WMC database is wiped out during the normal install procedure, so the right side panel would normally be empty upon first running the tool after a normal install, and that running the tool with Rovi/TiVo data still in the WMC DB is not a normal thing to do (although it is helpful to see which OneTime entries may need to be create manually after the conversion is completed, assuming those types are not listed on the left side, see below).

Looking at the screen cap and knowing that the right side represents Rovi/TiVo data, I am not sure that the OneTime requests should be green, but in any case, unless you don't wipe out your WMC database, you should not see Rovi/TiVo requests on the right side anyway (after a normal install where you start with a fresh WMC database).

You indicate that you don't think the OneTime requests on the right side will transfer over, and I tend to agree, as NONE of the request on the right side are potential transfers, they are entries that are already in the WMC database. If you wipe the WMC database before you run this tool during the upgrade, those OneTime entries on the right will be gone.

For a OneTime request to be transferred after a normal EPG123 install, they would have to be on the LEFT side, and from the screen cap, I don't see any OneTime requests at all on that side. I assume this is because the tool does not handle OneTime requests at all, or it's because they are there but the cap does not show them due to them being down lower on the list.

So I guess one question would be, does the transfer tool handle OneTIme requests, or do they have to be noted and create manually afterwards? I don't see any mention of OneTime or WishList requests in the documentation, so it's not clear how they are handled (although I believe you mentioned that WishList requests transfer over fine; do they appear on the left side panel?). Perhaps a mention of how OneTIme and WishList requests are handled should be added to the documentation?

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#1649

Post by garyan2 » Mon Dec 16, 2019 1:53 am

Almost right on all counts, so hopefully I can make everything crystal.

The tool assumes that the WMC database it is looking at is EPG123/SD. It would therefore only make since that all the OneTime recording requests on the right side are good so they are showing green. The other thing about this tool is if requests from the backup file (left side) already exist within WMC (right side), then they will not be shown on the left side. Since all the WishList and Manual recording requests are guide provider agnostic, those are shown green on the right and not shown on the left.

What it will look like when EPG123 is actually installed, and the WMC database has been deleted, is...

All Manual recording requests will transfer automatically.
All WishList recording requests will transfer automatically.
All Series recording requests that are included in my translation database will transfer automatically.
All OneTime recording requests will be colored LightSalmon and will not transfer.

The remaining Series recording requests, which will be colored Pink, can possibly be changed to green using theTVDB to help with finding the Gracenote ID. A little note on this, I have been comparing and collecting Rovi and Gracenote IDs since July 2017... if I don't have the Gracenote ID for a series it will typically be because the series has not been shown on any major US channel since 2017 and you will probably be able to live without it.

So in the end, at the very least, you will see a list of every one of your OneTime requests on the left side to reference when you manually setup those recording requests within WMC.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

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#1650

Post by Space » Mon Dec 16, 2019 2:22 am

Ahh, I see, that explains why no OneTime or WishList entries were on the left panel. So they would show up on the left if the WMC database were deleted/cleared. In that left panel, WishList ones should be green (indicating they can be transferred over) and the OneTime ones will be LightSalmon (indicating they will not transfer).

You can run this tool at any time after the conversion to see the entries that did not transfer over so that you can resolve them through the tool (Series that did not automatically match) or manually add them yourself within WMC (all OneTime entries and Series that could not be resolved through the tool).

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#1651

Post by garyan2 » Mon Dec 16, 2019 3:02 am

Correct, and progressing a little further... for the OneTime requests, as you manually add them back into WMC, they will no longer be displayed on the left side. You will be able to see what is left if you don't do them all at once. For ease of use, you can also sort the Type column to group all the OneTime requests together in order separate out any Series requests that were not part of my translation table.
- Gary
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#1652

Post by McGary » Mon Dec 16, 2019 9:46 am

Nice discussion -- I now understand why all my one-time requests are shown on the right side … it's simply because I installed EPG, ran the database backup, and then ran the transfer tool as you suggested. I understand the only useful info from that little experiment is what's shown on the left side -- the right side is simply stuff in my current database, which is going to be wiped out. But the stuff that doesn't transfer will be displayed on the left (albeit in pink), so it'll be very easy to add those recordings back.

I did think of a couple more questions:

(1) Is this going to have any impact on my extenders? Will the "clean start" require that I re-add them, or will they still be "known" to WMC? Will their WMC interface still mirror what's shown on my main WMC PC, or will they still show the "vanilla" WMC pages?

(2) I presume the guide tweaks EPG allows, and the various EPG options (on the configuration page) can be changed after the install without any impact on WMC functionality … is that correct?

I'm looking forward to installing this in the afternoon. Hopefully it won't take more than an hour. I noticed your demo video shows a complete install in < 10 minutes; but I have cablecards instead of on-the-air tuners; and I won't abort the channel search like you do in the video, so I suspect this may take a bit longer.

By the way, I assume you were somewhat kidding what you said "... It may be even smoother if I can get the next release done today. I keep finding "one more thing" to adjust or address." ==> surely the install process itself won't change. I've got v1.3.0.0 that I downloaded and installed yesterday, which is what I'll use to do the install [although I guess I'll check just-for-grins just before I start the install to see if their actually is a newer version :-) ].

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#1653

Post by McGary » Mon Dec 16, 2019 9:49 am

Wow -- I guess you weren't kidding. Just checked your downloads page, and there is indeed a newer version (1.3.1.10) => so clearly I'll use that.

Did it actually change anything in the installation procedure??

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#1654

Post by McGary » Mon Dec 16, 2019 10:10 am

Okay, before hitting the sack I uninstalled v1.3.0.0 and started to install v1.3.1.0 => on the full install screen it shows 3 components selected, and an optional " HDHR.2MXF for Silicon Dust HDHR Tuners"

Do I need to check this option? I do have HD HomeRun tuners, but they're over 4 years old, so I don't know if this applies. According to my order page on Amazon, my tuners are "HDHomeRun PRIME" 3-tuner models, Amazon shows the model numbers as HDHR3-CC

I installed 1.3.1.0 without checking this option -- but if I should have checked it, I'll uninstall and reinstall it before I start the setup process.

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#1655

Post by garyan2 » Mon Dec 16, 2019 2:39 pm

McGary wrote: Mon Dec 16, 2019 9:46 amI did think of a couple more questions:
(1) Extenders will still work, but I can't remember if they need to be re-added or not. Everything will work as it did before and will be mirrored.

(2) Tweaks can be done at any time. Any WMC can use the tweaks, even if EPG123 guide listings are not used. The options can be changed at any time as well, they just won't be used until the next update and import.

Your setup will take longer with CableCARDs, so plan accordingly.

The install process is the same for v1.3.1. The only addition would be the HDHR2MXF program which has some discussion here. It is only relevant if you have a HDHR DVR Service subscription ($35/year). You can use HDHR2MXF to get 2 weeks of guide listings from SiliconDust rather than Schedules Direct for an additional ($25/year).

Note that it is not necessary to uninstall EPG123 to upgrade. You can just run the setup and it will copy over the files.
- Gary
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#1656

Post by McGary » Mon Dec 16, 2019 6:53 pm

Okay, it went VERY smoothly, although I had a few moments of concern. I ran your install video on my main PC, then just walked in to the family room and ran the EPG setup, while pausing the video frequently. For the most part, it worked basically as planned. I have a few things to resolve, but I DO have TV and we can set up all of the recordings we need to now, so life should be pretty good. Total time, even with my frequent pauses to look things up on this site and/or play another few seconds of the install video, was about 50 minutes. The only significant disconnect with the video was when the transfer tool popped up it was completely blank. But I just clicked on the "Open recordings backup file" and selected the backup file -- it only showed one -- dated yesterday -- so I wonder if that was the one I originally saved -- but it worked okay. It showed a LOT of green on the left, and was completely blank on the right, so I just clicked on the ">>>" button and all the green moved to the right. Then I just closed it -- didn't both to do any matching or adding of the one-time recordings … I can do that later.

I wasn't sure what to answer about setting up media center to use the cable cards, so I just said Yes, then clicked through the page about calling my cable company to activate; and it appeared to work fine -- clearly it did, but when it showed the 6 cable card tuners it was "spinning" for a long time to set them up -- after 5 minutes I went into my study to see if I could find any discussion about this, but when I returned to the HTPC it had finished, so I just continued and all went well.

My main issue right now is it doesn't show any of our HD channels. The guide only shows data up through channel 98, but we have a lot of HD channels in the 2xx and 12xx range. If I go to the WMC Guide settings page and edit the channels, it DOES show all of those higher channels -- but the descriptions are blank. If I add a channel, it works fine … but it just shows as a blank entry in the guide. For example, our local CBS affiliate is on channels 5 and 1209 (1209 being the HD channel). My guide just showed channel 5, with all appropriate program data. I "ticked" channel 1209 in the guide setup page, and now the guide shows 1209 with no program info. If I click on it, it tunes fine, but I can't set any recordings for it.

I presume this is a Schedules Direct issue -- perhaps I need to add another lineup? I selected Charter Spectrum - Cable, but didn't see anything else that indicated a separate lineup for HD. If I log in to Schedules Direct, it shows I have "no SD-DD lineups configured", and if I click on Lineup Support it shows one lineup named "Charter Spectrum - Cable" with Lineup ID "USA-TX42796-DEFAULT" and Type "SD-JSON". There were only two choices for my Zip code (78015) when I added a lineup during the EPG setup … one was Charter Spectrum - Cable and I don't remember the other one exactly, but it was Charter Spectrum xxx, and the "xxx" didn't seem right (might have said analog, or over-the-air or something like that). In fact, I was initially concerned when I was adding the lineup, as I was looking for Spectrum and it wasn't on the list, since our former "Time Warner" provider changed to Spectrum. I didn't realize they were part of Charter, but when I looked at the list more carefully I saw the two "Charter Spectrum" entries.

Is there a way to get back to the "Add lineup" choice in EPG without having ANY impact on the current setup? Clearly I'd like to fix this, but I do NOT want to mess anything up, as it's working perfectly except for the missing HD data. I noticed a lot of our scheduled series weren't in the "Schedule" recordings list, but if I go into the series settings and change the channel number from "12xx" to "HD preferred" they then show just fine on the SD channels the guide already knows about -- and with that setting they should simply use the HD channels once I figure out the guide issue.

Bottom line: From a "usability" perspective, everything's working perfectly. I didn't yet confirm that the scheduled task I told EPG setup to create is listed in Windows, but I'll do that in a few minutes (I forgot to check the "wakeup" button, but this HTPC is never off or asleep, so that shouldn't matter). I just need to resolve the HD channel guide issue and all will be well. Meanwhile, I'm going to add all the one-time recordings (using the SD channels for now, with "HD preferred" checked so if the HD guide gets resolved before the recording it'll use that channel) and change all the scheduled series recordings to "HD preferred" so they'll record as well. Wife will be happy it's all working (she's out right now).

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#1657

Post by McGary » Mon Dec 16, 2019 7:04 pm

Okay, two more things …

(1) When I went back into the family room after posting the above, there was a little symbol on the screen I've never seen before. I thought I'd just click on it and see if I get any info, but moving the mouse to it makes it disappear. It's the symbol at the bottom right -- any idea what this is or what it means ??

(2) I checked the Task Scheduler in Windows and it doesn't show any scheduled task for EPG or Schedule Direct. I told it to do it at 4:15AM when I ran the EPG setup, but it doesn't show. I can simply manually create the task, but if I do that what is the exact command line I need to use? Or can I just run the EPG client again and tell it to add the task?

Here's the image with the symbol I noted above ...
WMC Symbol.jpg

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#1658

Post by garyan2 » Mon Dec 16, 2019 7:05 pm

You've got the wrong lineup. You want the Charter Spectrum - Digital lineup.

Open EPG123 and click the [Lineups] button.
Add the new lineup and remove the old lineup.
When it returns to the main configuration GUI, make sure the added stations are enabled for download (or click the [All] button to enable all stations).
Click [Save & Execute]

That should do it, but if you want to complete everything and make it perfect, then open the client and select the - Digital lineup on the right side and then click the Match by: [# Number] button on the left.
- Gary
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#1659

Post by garyan2 » Mon Dec 16, 2019 7:12 pm

McGary wrote: Mon Dec 16, 2019 7:04 pm Okay, two more things …

(1) When I went back into the family room after posting the above, there was a little symbol on the screen I've never seen before. I thought I'd just click on it and see if I get any info, but moving the mouse to it makes it disappear. It's the symbol at the bottom right -- any idea what this is or what it means ??

(2) I checked the Task Scheduler in Windows and it doesn't show any scheduled task for EPG or Schedule Direct. I told it to do it at 4:15AM when I ran the EPG setup, but it doesn't show. I can simply manually create the task, but if I do that what is the exact command line I need to use? Or can I just run the EPG client again and tell it to add the task?

Here's the image with the symbol I noted above ...

WMC Symbol.jpg
The status bug on the home screen is a quick look to see if you are up-to-date and everything is working correctly. If it is green, then your last import was successful. There is also a date stamp to identify when the last status update was. If it is yellow, then there may be some channels that were not updated, but nothing that caused a failure to update. If it is red, then the update was not successful. Also, if there is a plus sign in the top right corner of the logo, that means there is an update available.

No need to create the task manually. When the [Create] button changes to [Delete], then you know the task has been created. Easiest thing to do is to start EPG123 as administrator and then create the task. Otherwise, you will click the [Create] button, which will restart the program as administrator, and then have to click the [Create] button again.
- Gary
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#1660

Post by garyan2 » Mon Dec 16, 2019 7:20 pm

I just noticed your status bug was yellow. From one of the GUIs, click the [View Log] button. Search for [WARNG] to find out what caused it.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

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