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Re: Introducing EPG123

Posted: Wed Oct 16, 2019 3:39 am
by garyan2
sgbroimp wrote: Tue Oct 15, 2019 9:00 pm Looks several updates have come in the last month or so which is good as they want to get it perfect. But given that does it make some sense to wait until closer to year end to convert over to it? Also what is the "portable" version for? hand held devices?
Yah, sorry about that. With the anticipated inrush of new users, I've been trying to make the process as easy as possible for them.

My personal position on when to make the switch is to wait no longer than December, during the holidays would probably be the best time. I have no idea what Microsoft has planned in January. I suspect they will update the files for WMC to remove the option for their guide, but I don't know if they are going to do anything with everyone's recording requests. In December, everyone will still be able to convert their current requests (Rovi) to new requests for SD/Gracenote, but there are no guarantees to be able to do that in January.

The portable version is basically all the files without the installation package. It gives the user the ability not to "install" anything. You could also put it on a thumbstick and manually run it from there on any machine (though without a scheduled task to do it automatically).

Re: Introducing EPG123

Posted: Wed Oct 16, 2019 1:22 pm
by sgbroimp
Both your points make good sense and I thank you. Will install maybe over Thanksgiving holiday or early December to be safe. I will install the traditional way on my stand alone HTPC, Cable signal with Ceton/Comcast so sounds like I should not have curve balls. Again, much obliged!

Re: Introducing EPG123

Posted: Thu Oct 17, 2019 6:32 pm
by bobr31
I have a question about the mode to select when creating the scheduled task. My setup is simple. I use my Media Center PC to record and play cable TV. I am assuming that I would select Full Mode for creating my scheduled task, correct?

"Full Mode
The full mode operation is used to create and import the MXF file on the same machine. The task can be scheduled using either the EPG123 Configuration GUI with the ‘Automatically import’ option checked, or using the EPG123 Client GUI with the ‘Full Mode’ radio button selected."

Re: Introducing EPG123

Posted: Thu Oct 17, 2019 6:36 pm
by garyan2
bobr31 wrote:I have a question about the mode to select when creating the scheduled task. My setup is simple. I use my Media Center PC to record and play cable TV. I am assuming that I would select Full Mode for creating my scheduled task, correct?

"Full Mode
The full mode operation is used to create and import the MXF file on the same machine. The task can be scheduled using either the EPG123 Configuration GUI with the ‘Automatically import’ option checked, or using the EPG123 Client GUI with the ‘Full Mode’ radio button selected."
Correct. A Full (Server + Client) mode is appropriate for a basic stand-alone HTPC.

Re: Introducing EPG123

Posted: Thu Oct 17, 2019 8:45 pm
by IT Troll
I noticed that the installers for the last couple of releases are almost half the size of previous versions. Are you using a new packager or something?

Re: Introducing EPG123

Posted: Thu Oct 17, 2019 9:44 pm
by bobr31
Gary....just loaded the EPG123 program and everything seems to be working great except my scheduled program list did not transfer over. When I open the Transfer Tool I can see the list of programs. Not sure what I did wrong. Short of manually setting up the programs to record, and suggestions on how to get them to transfer automatically? Thanks.

Re: Introducing EPG123

Posted: Fri Oct 18, 2019 12:25 am
by garyan2
bobr31 wrote: Thu Oct 17, 2019 9:44 pm Gary....just loaded the EPG123 program and everything seems to be working great except my scheduled program list did not transfer over. When I open the Transfer Tool I can see the list of programs. Not sure what I did wrong. Short of manually setting up the programs to record, and suggestions on how to get them to transfer automatically? Thanks.
It will only automatically transfer over during the Client Setup routine from the Client. If you open the Transfer Tool manually and open the backup file, you will have to click the [> > >] button between the left side and right side lists.

It will only transfer requests on the left side that are green. Are any of the programs green? For each program that is pink/salmon, right-click and select match to try and make a conversion to the SD/Gracenote series IDs.

Re: Introducing EPG123

Posted: Fri Oct 18, 2019 12:29 am
by garyan2
IT Troll wrote: Thu Oct 17, 2019 8:45 pm I noticed that the installers for the last couple of releases are almost half the size of previous versions. Are you using a new packager or something?
No, nothing that exciting. The PDF file was reduced to a single page to link to the website for up-to-date information. About half of all those bytes from previous installers was the PDF instructions.

Re: Introducing EPG123

Posted: Fri Oct 18, 2019 1:25 am
by bobr31
garyan2 wrote: Fri Oct 18, 2019 12:25 am
bobr31 wrote: Thu Oct 17, 2019 9:44 pm Gary....just loaded the EPG123 program and everything seems to be working great except my scheduled program list did not transfer over. When I open the Transfer Tool I can see the list of programs. Not sure what I did wrong. Short of manually setting up the programs to record, and suggestions on how to get them to transfer automatically? Thanks.
It will only automatically transfer over during the Client Setup routine from the Client. If you open the Transfer Tool manually and open the backup file, you will have to click the [> > >] button between the left side and right side lists.

It will only transfer requests on the left side that are green. Are any of the programs green? For each program that is pink/salmon, right-click and select match to try and make a conversion to the SD/Gracenote series IDs.
Thanks Gary. Problem solved. I rebuilt the WMC data base and reloaded the channel line up and the scheduled programs showed up. All is good now. Thanks!

Re: Introducing EPG123

Posted: Fri Oct 18, 2019 1:44 am
by garyan2
bobr31 wrote: Fri Oct 18, 2019 1:25 amThanks Gary. Problem solved. I rebuilt the WMC data base and reloaded the channel line up and the scheduled programs showed up. All is good now. Thanks!
I'm certainly glad to hear it, but wish I could understand it. It sounds like the indexing of the database wasn't done, but EPG123 commands that on every listings update and every transfer from the Transfer Tool. Since you had just gone through the EPG123 installation, your current database and the database that was failing should be nearly identical.

I'll have to keep an eye out for this. There has been a report of something similar, but I'm not ready to consider that one the same as this one.

Re: Introducing EPG123

Posted: Fri Oct 18, 2019 2:01 pm
by sgbroimp
Gary, I see in your excellent tutorial (section where we one sets up the TV signal) that you stop the "Examination of TV signals" and then that you do some manual configuration. Is this unique to OTA siutations? In my case I have 7 year old WMC HTPC install with Ceton 6 Channel Tuner, Comcast 400 +/- channels, no OTA. That would all install automatically without manual configuration needed I gather?

Re: Introducing EPG123

Posted: Sat Oct 19, 2019 2:49 am
by garyan2

sgbroimp wrote:Gary, I see in your excellent tutorial (section where we one sets up the TV signal) that you stop the "Examination of TV signals" and then that you do some manual configuration. Is this unique to OTA siutations? In my case I have 7 year old WMC HTPC install with Ceton 6 Channel Tuner, Comcast 400 +/- channels, no OTA. That would all install automatically without manual configuration needed I gather?
I cancelled the examination just to speed up the process. Otherwise, WMC will do some channel scanning on each tuner to do a best guess. I just didn't want to wait for it to do that, so I cancelled and manually identified what the tuners were connected to.

A manual configuration of tuners is not required for anybody.

Re: Introducing EPG123

Posted: Sat Oct 26, 2019 12:01 pm
by MFG77
I upgraded to EPG123 last weekend and have been pleased with the results. After several picnic and rtfm moments, I seem to have gotten everything working, with one minor exception. I'm unable to set up a series record for ESPN's Pardon the Interruption. I suspect it has something to do with how the show is 'marked' by ESPN. New episodes are typically at 5:30 PM (eastern) on ESPN (recording HD). WMC shows those as "(Repeat)". With the Microsoft guide listings, I believe I ended up recording 'new / rerun' and restricting it to a channel / time (the new episodes are sometimes on ESPN2). That gave me a daily recording of the show at 5:30 but I would miss new shows when it moved to ESPN2. I could live with that. All my other series record requests transferred into EPG123 without a problem. Pardon the Interruption did not record daily. I've canceled the series recording and I've tried creating a new series recording for Pardon the Interruption (new / rerun, restricted to 5:30 and a specific channel). The only episode that gets scheduled for recording is the episode that I selected when creating the series recording request. For now, I've set up a manual recording to do the same. I suspect that this is an issue in the guide data and that ESPN would need to mark the show differently (good luck with that). But I'm curious if there's something else I'm missing.

Re: Introducing EPG123

Posted: Sat Oct 26, 2019 2:13 pm
by Space
From what I see on zap2it, it appears that this series does not have individual episodes marked in the guide. All episodes are treated as generic.

Barring having the listings fixed so that they indicate unique episodes, you should be able to set a Series recording for that specific time, like you indicated, so I am not sure why it doesn't work (someone who uses EPG123 may be able to tell more).

In any case, to fix your ESPN vs. ESPN2 problem (assuming you can resolve the above problem), you should be able to set the channel to "any" on your Series so that it records the show you specified at that specific time, no matter what channel it is on.

Another option is to create two separate Series, one that records at that time on ESPN and the other that records at that time on ESPN2, but doing this can be a little tricky, as it does not let you do it directly.

I think one way to do it is to set up your first Series on ESPN, then when you see the show on at 5:30 on ESPN2, set up a single record (not a Series record) of that show, then go back and edit that single record to be a Series record to record only from ESPN2. I haven't done this in a while so hopefully I've gotten that right.

Re: Introducing EPG123

Posted: Sat Oct 26, 2019 2:38 pm
by garyan2
MFG77 wrote: Sat Oct 26, 2019 12:01 pm I upgraded to EPG123 last weekend and have been pleased with the results. After several picnic and rtfm moments, I seem to have gotten everything working, with one minor exception. I'm unable to set up a series record for ESPN's Pardon the Interruption. I suspect it has something to do with how the show is 'marked' by ESPN. New episodes are typically at 5:30 PM (eastern) on ESPN (recording HD). WMC shows those as "(Repeat)". With the Microsoft guide listings, I believe I ended up recording 'new / rerun' and restricting it to a channel / time (the new episodes are sometimes on ESPN2). That gave me a daily recording of the show at 5:30 but I would miss new shows when it moved to ESPN2. I could live with that. All my other series record requests transferred into EPG123 without a problem. Pardon the Interruption did not record daily. I've canceled the series recording and I've tried creating a new series recording for Pardon the Interruption (new / rerun, restricted to 5:30 and a specific channel). The only episode that gets scheduled for recording is the episode that I selected when creating the series recording request. For now, I've set up a manual recording to do the same. I suspect that this is an issue in the guide data and that ESPN would need to mark the show differently (good luck with that). But I'm curious if there's something else I'm missing.
I may have broken this with v1.2.17. This particular program is getting through my code with no categories/genres. Since it doesn't get flagged as a Series, it doesn't get the "isGeneric" flag set which would allow it to be recorded as desired.

Let me study this for a bit and see what I can do. I'll probably release a new version to correct this today/tomorrow.

Re: Introducing EPG123

Posted: Sat Oct 26, 2019 5:27 pm
by garyan2
garyan2 wrote: Sat Oct 26, 2019 2:38 pmI may have broken this with v1.2.17. This particular program is getting through my code with no categories/genres. Since it doesn't get flagged as a Series, it doesn't get the "isGeneric" flag set which would allow it to be recorded as desired.

Let me study this for a bit and see what I can do. I'll probably release a new version to correct this today/tomorrow.
Okay, new version released. Because of the way this program is identified/categorized, it will record every single showing, so limiting it to specifically ESPN will pick up only new episodes at 5:30 EDT.

After you upgrade and perform an update, check the recording schedule and see if it is okay. It is possible that the previous version's data may prevent it from working due to having an OAD. Let me know and I'll help you get the cleaned up as well.

EDIT: Since you recently moved over to EPG123, I would recommend performing a database rebuild (click the [Rebuild WMC Database] button in the client) after you upgrade to v1.2.21. There is no easy method of removing an Original-Air-Date from a generic show to make it work otherwise.

Re: Introducing EPG123

Posted: Sat Oct 26, 2019 11:19 pm
by MFG77
garyan2 wrote: Sat Oct 26, 2019 5:27 pm
garyan2 wrote: Sat Oct 26, 2019 2:38 pmI may have broken this with v1.2.17. This particular program is getting through my code with no categories/genres. Since it doesn't get flagged as a Series, it doesn't get the "isGeneric" flag set which would allow it to be recorded as desired.

Let me study this for a bit and see what I can do. I'll probably release a new version to correct this today/tomorrow.
Okay, new version released. Because of the way this program is identified/categorized, it will record every single showing, so limiting it to specifically ESPN will pick up only new episodes at 5:30 EDT.

After you upgrade and perform an update, check the recording schedule and see if it is okay. It is possible that the previous version's data may prevent it from working due to having an OAD. Let me know and I'll help you get the cleaned up as well.

EDIT: Since you recently moved over to EPG123, I would recommend performing a database rebuild (click the [Rebuild WMC Database] button in the client) after you upgrade to v1.2.21. There is no easy method of removing an Original-Air-Date from a generic show to make it work otherwise.
I've upgraded to v1.2.22 and I've done the Rebuild WMC Database. It looks like the previous version of guide data is out to Nov 7th. It's still only recording the one that I create the series request on. If I simply have to wait until new guide data past Nov 7th is retrieved, I'm good with that solution. Thanks for the quick response.

Re: Introducing EPG123

Posted: Sun Oct 27, 2019 12:07 am
by garyan2
MFG77 wrote: Sat Oct 26, 2019 11:19 pmI've upgraded to v1.2.22 and I've done the Rebuild WMC Database. It looks like the previous version of guide data is out to Nov 7th. It's still only recording the one that I create the series request on. If I simply have to wait until new guide data past Nov 7th is retrieved, I'm good with that solution. Thanks for the quick response.
Unfortunately, waiting it out is not an option. The cause of the problem is that there is a value in the Original-Air-Date field for these generic programs and that is preventing it from recording more than 1 episode.

Maybe you did something out of sequence.
1. Update to v1.2.22
2. Perform a [Save & Execute] from the configuration GUI to create the MXF file and import into the WMC database.
3. Perform a [Rebuild WMC Database] from the client and import the above MXF file again.

Re: Introducing EPG123

Posted: Sun Oct 27, 2019 4:41 am
by garyan2
MFG77 wrote: Sat Oct 26, 2019 11:19 pm If I simply have to wait until new guide data past Nov 7th is retrieved, I'm good with that solution.
I'll take my previous statement back. It looks like it is not the issue of the OAD, but is all about how the program was initially entered into the schedules. I've been trying to programmatically fix this, but discovered that new schedule entries of the program will work, while the older entries will not. Basically, upgrading to v1.2.22 is all that is needed, but you will have to wait for the older listings to die out.

Re: Introducing EPG123

Posted: Sun Oct 27, 2019 12:49 pm
by MFG77
garyan2 wrote: Sun Oct 27, 2019 4:41 am
MFG77 wrote: Sat Oct 26, 2019 11:19 pm If I simply have to wait until new guide data past Nov 7th is retrieved, I'm good with that solution.
I'll take my previous statement back. It looks like it is not the issue of the OAD, but is all about how the program was initially entered into the schedules. I've been trying to programmatically fix this, but discovered that new schedule entries of the program will work, while the older entries will not. Basically, upgrading to v1.2.22 is all that is needed, but you will have to wait for the older listings to die out.
I didn't understand the upgrade steps needed in this case. I was following the UPGRADE NOTE on your download page, thinking I simply needed to replace the files. I didn't realized I had to do step #2 - execute EPG123 'Save & Execute'. Pardon the Interuption is now scheduled for the next two weeks.

EPG123 plug - I'm glad I clicked the 'donate' button on your website last week after I had completed the initial install. I was impressed with your product and felt that I should treat it as 'paid for' software rather than freeware.

Thanks again.