EPG123 Bug Reports

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
User avatar
garyan2

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

HTPC Specs: Show details

#1241

Post by garyan2 » Wed Jan 15, 2020 8:13 pm

I'm not saying anything at the moment. The only thing I can say is the difference between what a [Save & Execute] does and the scheduled task does is:

Code: Select all

[Save & Execute]
C:\Program Files (x86)\epg123\epg123Client.exe -i "C:\ProgramData\GaRyan2\epg123\output\epg123.mxf" -match -p

vs.

Scheduled Task
C:\Program Files (x86)\epg123\epg123Client.exe -i "C:\ProgramData\GaRyan2\epg123\output\epg123.mxf" -match
The -p switch just determines whether you will see a progress bar or not.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

SugarFree

Posts: 183
Joined: Wed Dec 21, 2011 6:28 am
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#1242

Post by SugarFree » Wed Jan 15, 2020 10:55 pm

If that's the case, a reasonable hypothesis is that with WMC still open and running, the task runs but does not *fully* populate ALL the channels in the guide. Running the update a "second time" manually (S/E) after the fact, somehow fills in the missing data.

Certainly that is what is actually happening. If my hypothesis is correct, it's easy enough to test. This behavior began for me when I installed the program. If I change the task run time to very early morning, close WMC the night before for several days - and the problem doesn't reoccur - my hypothesis is correct and EPG users need to know to shut down WMC before the run task is scheduled. Or unless there's a code fix that might work.

I will let the problem build up for a few days, then start the experiment this weekend.

Space

Posts: 2838
Joined: Sun Jun 02, 2013 9:44 pm
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#1243

Post by Space » Wed Jan 15, 2020 11:10 pm

The only issue I've had with doing an update while running WMC (regular Microsoft guide update, not EPG123) is that after the update was complete and you went in to look at the guide, you could not move to the right past a certain date. You would see listings right up to the end of the guide (no "no data available" entries).

This could be cleared by two methods; initiating another guide download manually (it will come back quickly saying it is done) or exiting and restarting WMC. After doing one of these two things, you can then move to the right in the guide and see all the listings.

Note that this only affected the display of the guide, the listings are there (as programs on those missing days can be seen as scheduled in the to-do list).

SugarFree

Posts: 183
Joined: Wed Dec 21, 2011 6:28 am
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#1244

Post by SugarFree » Wed Jan 15, 2020 11:20 pm

> the listings are there (as programs on those missing days can be seen as scheduled in the to-do list).

In this case, the missing days programs are NOT showing up in the "to be recorded" list.

And in all the years I used the MS guide - I never had a case (but once, for HBO listings - and that turned out to be a corrupt character in Rovi's code that they sent to MS, who compiled the actual guide files) where half the channels had data all the way out to the correct end date, but the other half ended 2 days shy of that.

TomC

Posts: 15
Joined: Sun Jul 26, 2015 4:50 pm
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#1245

Post by TomC » Thu Jan 16, 2020 12:15 am

While using the client's "Add Tuner Channel(s)" feature the EPG123 Client crashed and WMC lost all the EPG listings (blank guide & scheduled recordings). The following is the relevant part of the log:

[1/15/2020 12:01:13 AM] Activating the epg123 client GUI. version 1.3.5.0
[1/15/2020 12:01:13 AM] ===============================================================================
[1/15/2020 12:01:14 AM] [ INFO] Successfully queried the Task Scheduler for status. Ready. Last Run 1/14/2020 1:00:00 AM; Exit: 0x00000000
[1/15/2020 12:03:51 AM] [ INFO] Adding 3 channels to lineup (DefaultLineup:ATSC-US/EPG123 Local Over the Air Broadcast (33579)/FINAL RTW - US)+(Scanned (Digital Antenna (ATSC))).
[1/15/2020 12:03:51 AM] [ INFO] Restarting EPG123 Client to avoid an external process crashing EPG123 10 seconds after adding channels.
[1/15/2020 12:03:52 AM] ===============================================================================
[1/15/2020 12:03:52 AM] Activating the epg123 client GUI. version 1.3.5.0
[1/15/2020 12:03:52 AM] ===============================================================================
[1/15/2020 12:03:52 AM] [ INFO] Successfully queried the Task Scheduler for status. Ready. Last Run 1/14/2020 1:00:00 AM; Exit: 0x00000000
[1/15/2020 12:08:30 AM] [ INFO] Adding 2 channels to lineup (DefaultLineup:ATSC-US/EPG123 Local Over the Air Broadcast (33579)/FINAL RTW - US)+(Scanned (Digital Antenna (ATSC))).
[1/15/2020 12:08:30 AM] [ INFO] Restarting EPG123 Client to avoid an external process crashing EPG123 10 seconds after adding channels.
[1/15/2020 12:08:30 AM] ===============================================================================
[1/15/2020 12:08:30 AM] Activating the epg123 client GUI. version 1.3.5.0
[1/15/2020 12:08:30 AM] ===============================================================================
[1/15/2020 12:08:31 AM] [ INFO] Successfully queried the Task Scheduler for status. Ready. Last Run 1/14/2020 1:00:00 AM; Exit: 0x00000000
[1/15/2020 12:08:44 AM] [ERROR] Unhandled exception caught from epg123Client.exe. message: Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation.

The EPG Client crash occurred when I clicked on the Call Sign of one of the newly added channels. This caused the Client to close (that's why I mean by crashed). I opened the Client again and all the channels I had previously added had disappeared. I opened WMC and I had the message that warns that an error occurred and was corrected but you should check the scheduled recordings. All my scheduled recordings were gone, as well as the guide listings. A "Manual Import" got my scheduled recordings and guide listings back. I decided to use the WMC "Add Missing Channels" interface to re-add the channels, which worked fine. However, I think that the EPG123 interface is easier and faster at this task, but I wonder if I should avoid using it because of this problem.

User avatar
garyan2

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

HTPC Specs: Show details

#1246

Post by garyan2 » Thu Jan 16, 2020 1:01 am

Looks like WMC did a database recovery on you which will create a new database and restore a "backup". Since the backup did not have your newly added channels, they were missing... and a database recovery will not have any guide listings.

The "Add Tuner Channel(s)" feature has been a little challenging... always has been. I found that trying to add channels outside of WMC will cause the thread to crash at around 10 seconds because it triggers a PVR schedule scan and I have no control over that. My answer was to close the current client form and open a new client form. This allows the old thread for the old form to crash in the background since it won't release the database resources.

What you experienced is why I don't advertise that ability much. It actually works pretty well, but it can sometimes cause a database recovery. You can go ahead and use it and as you saw, if something goes wrong, it is recoverable. Just need to be aware there is that risk.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

TomC

Posts: 15
Joined: Sun Jul 26, 2015 4:50 pm
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#1247

Post by TomC » Thu Jan 16, 2020 4:00 am

Thanks for the explanation Gary, I've done a little programming and enjoy knowing how things work!

User avatar
garyan2

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

HTPC Specs: Show details

#1248

Post by garyan2 » Thu Jan 16, 2020 4:19 am

SugarFree wrote: Wed Jan 15, 2020 11:20 pm > the listings are there (as programs on those missing days can be seen as scheduled in the to-do list).

In this case, the missing days programs are NOT showing up in the "to be recorded" list.

And in all the years I used the MS guide - I never had a case (but once, for HBO listings - and that turned out to be a corrupt character in Rovi's code that they sent to MS, who compiled the actual guide files) where half the channels had data all the way out to the correct end date, but the other half ended 2 days shy of that.
I tried to force this behavior but couldn't. I started with only 3 days of guide listings, left WMC open, and would change the number of days to download, then run the scheduled task (not Save & Execute). There would be a delay once the import was complete until the recording requests, guide listings, and category title search would update completely, but everything worked. I never saw a case where any station did not "update".

I recommend 2 things to avoid getting too excited and to see if this observation persists. I recommend changing the number of days to download to no more than 17 (15 is the perfect number for me). I also recommend changing your update time from 0830 to something earlier... maybe just need to give it some more time to complete the indexing after the import.

Note I never had to do anything manually. There is no such thing as a partial import... it is all or nothing when using loadmxf.exe as far as I have seen. It will error out if there is a problem. I see no real need to close WMC if you don't want to, but I think things run easier if you do.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

GreenDrazi

Posts: 6
Joined: Fri Jan 03, 2020 12:22 am
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#1249

Post by GreenDrazi » Thu Jan 16, 2020 4:27 pm

Slugbait wrote: Tue Jan 07, 2020 7:49 am Tried several variations of the workarounds over the last two days (not worth going into it...) and then did a google search and found the answer: mcupdate.exe wasn't running. Here's what worked for me:

1. Right click the desktop->New->Shortcut
2. In the "Type the location of the item:" field, enter C:\windows\ehome\mcupdate.exe -manual -nogc -p
3. Click Next
4. Enter any name for the shortcut and save
5. Run the EPG123 setup flow starting from http://epg123.garyan2.net/install/step1/
6. When you get to the "Downloading TV Setup Data" screen, double-click that shortcut

WMC will immediately proceed to "Examining TV signals" screen. Then complete the EPG123 instructions, and the guide is resurrected in WMC. No need to change the zip code, no need to disconnect or disable the NIC, etc.

Note: I'm using OTA. Unknown if this will work for CableCard tuners or whatever.

I needa beer...kudos to azmath76 up at TechNet.
Even though this didn’t work for me, thanks for these steps. This method caused me to open Task Manager to examine and then kill a few instances of mcupdate.exe that were running (after trying the your shortcut method). And that allowed WMC to proceed to "Examining TV signals" and eventually complete the process. :clap:

SugarFree

Posts: 183
Joined: Wed Dec 21, 2011 6:28 am
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#1250

Post by SugarFree » Sun Jan 19, 2020 10:13 pm

Experiment over, and (I believe) Mystery solved.

Gary, i hope you'll be able to replicate this.

There were three suggested variables to change: the time of the update, reducing the number of guide days requested, and having WMC closed before an update to avoid updates that didn't go through for all channels in my lineup.

Being a scientist (ret), I was taught never to change more than one variable at a time - so last week I changed my update time from mid-morning to the early a.m. WMC stayed open, though my PC was in sleep mode as always. I kept the requested guide days at 17.

Perfect update. Next day, the same. Then again. But... why? Then it hit me. Changing the time to 5 in the morning didn't just change one variable - it changed TWO. The update time - AND the fact that I wasn't actually using WMC. That is, I wasn't watching anything.

To test this, I changed the update time to late morning again, when I'd be watching the news. Once again, not all my channels got the FULL update - and the channel I was watching definitely did not. I remembered this had been the case previously.

Switched it back again. Perfect update. Then again. If anyone can replicate this, it would be great. Then newbies like me can be warned to set an update time for when they don't usually watch TV.

Of course it could be have/been something else, but at this point I can't imagine what that might be.

SugarFree / Lisa

GreenDrazi

Posts: 6
Joined: Fri Jan 03, 2020 12:22 am
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#1251

Post by GreenDrazi » Mon Jan 20, 2020 6:16 pm

I'm not able to get the epg123Client.exe (v1.3.5) to even launch/start in W10 Pro (1909) on 2 computers. User has Admin rights on each. Install files were downloaded separately and unblocked on each before unzipping. There's nothing in the log from the client. I do get "Activating the epg123 configuration GUI. version 1.3.5.0" after running the server exe. I have tried running the exe with and without "Run as administrator" option. I also tried the Portable version in a different folder.

I do get this error below in Event Viewer. I have .NET Framework 4.8 and 3.5 installed on both machines.

Application: epg123Client.exe
Framework Version: v4.0.30319
Description: The process was terminated due to an unhandled exception.
Exception Info: System.ArgumentNullException
at System.Version.Parse(System.String)
at System.Version..ctor(System.String)
at epg123.Program+<>c__DisplayClass3_0.<RedirectAssembly>b__0(System.Object, System.ResolveEventArgs)
at System.AppDomain.OnAssemblyResolveEvent(System.Reflection.RuntimeAssembly, System.String)

Exception Info: System.IO.FileLoadException
at epg123.Program.Main(System.String[])


2020-01 Cumulative Updates are installed for both the OS (1909) and .NET Framework and the problem was the same before and after these updates. I also ran the NetFxRepairTool from MS, but this didn't report any errors.

I posted this in another thread viewtopic.php?p=137387#p137387, but it's probably better to post here. My apologies for reposting, but I haven't found a work around yet. I was able to integrate get one WMC computer with EPG123/Schedules Direct.

User avatar
garyan2

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

HTPC Specs: Show details

#1252

Post by garyan2 » Tue Jan 21, 2020 6:12 am

Looks like it is failing to read its own version number, which is obviously a little weird. Did you update/upgrade the .NET Framework recently? I just got a report today, a little similar but not the same, that couldn't find a commonly referenced .NET dll file.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

GreenDrazi

Posts: 6
Joined: Fri Jan 03, 2020 12:22 am
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#1253

Post by GreenDrazi » Tue Jan 21, 2020 10:34 pm

garyan2 wrote: Tue Jan 21, 2020 6:12 am Looks like it is failing to read its own version number, which is obviously a little weird. Did you update/upgrade the .NET Framework recently? I just got a report today, a little similar but not the same, that couldn't find a commonly referenced .NET dll file.
I have not made any changes to .NET that I'm aware of. .NET did get a January update through Windows Update (KB4532938), but the failure to start existed before the update.

SwissCheese

Posts: 39
Joined: Thu Jul 06, 2017 8:26 pm
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#1254

Post by SwissCheese » Wed Jan 22, 2020 9:02 pm

SugarFree wrote: Sun Jan 19, 2020 10:13 pm Experiment over, and (I believe) Mystery solved
....
To test this, I changed the update time to late morning again, when I'd be watching the news. Once again, not all my channels got the FULL update - and the channel I was watching definitely did not. I remembered this had been the case previously.

Switched it back again. Perfect update. Then again. If anyone can replicate this, it would be great. Then newbies like me can be warned to set an update time for when they don't usually watch TV.
....
When you watch live TV, I believe WMC is actually
recording the program then playing it back almost
simultaneously.

That's how it can apparently pause live TV.

Loadmxf.exe is known to cause problems if it runs
while a program is being recorded.

EPG123 mitigates that by waiting for scheduled
recordings to finish before running loadmxf.

Maybe a feature-request would be for EPG123 to also
defer running loadmxf.exe while live TV is in progress.

User avatar
Einstien

Posts: 31
Joined: Sat Dec 22, 2018 12:54 am
Location: Venice CA

HTPC Specs: Show details

#1255

Post by Einstien » Thu Jan 23, 2020 3:50 am

Don't know if it's a bug. I get the feeling I must be missing something.
In the Tweaks, I set the 'Seconds instant replay interval' to 30. I only 6 seconds when I hit the replay button (I'm using the famous 'Green Button' remote. I thought perhaps I needed to upgrade, which I did moments ago, to no avail. My skip ahead works fine at 29 seconds, but replay will only give me 6. I'm using an xbox 360 extender if that helps.

BTW, the upgrade was unbelievably easy using the portable to just overwrite the files. Absolutely brilliant. I wish all software upgrades could be that easy! TIA

User avatar
garyan2

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

HTPC Specs: Show details

#1256

Post by garyan2 » Thu Jan 23, 2020 4:59 am

Those tweaks are registry tweaks and will probably only work for the local machine.

BTW, the upgrade would have been even easier if you ran the setup file instead of copying over the portable files... though may have required more mouse clicks.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

User avatar
Einstien

Posts: 31
Joined: Sat Dec 22, 2018 12:54 am
Location: Venice CA

HTPC Specs: Show details

#1257

Post by Einstien » Fri Jan 24, 2020 1:07 am

Yea, the replay does seem to work on the local machine.
Although you helped me once to extend the mini-guide timeout, and that registry hack worked. I guess some tweaks work through an extender and some don't (?)

EDIT: I think I get it. Probably the skip back is a function of the xbox itself.

Driverjimb

Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Jan 29, 2020 7:20 pm
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#1258

Post by Driverjimb » Wed Jan 29, 2020 8:10 pm

Hello, I am having a problem with with the guide loading data for the following channels on Wave Broadband Digital in area code 97341 past 4PM on 1-30-2020:

2 KATU; 4 Home Shopping Network; 10 OPB; 12 KPTV; 62 PAC 12 Oregon; 63 PAC 12 Network; 87 KATU Stadium; 88 KATU Comet;
91 KGW Quest; 99 KATU Comet ; 108 KGW Quest; 227 Lifetime Movies; 506 NBC Sports Network; 710 OPB HD; 712 KPTV HD; 748 WGN America HDTV(West); 761 PAC 12 Oregon HD; 762 PAC 12 Network HD; 775 Lifetime Movies HD; 783 SEC Network HDTV; 812 BANG U; 813 BANG U.
. I contacted Schedules Direct and they said the channels do have data for the two weeks I have EPG123 set to retrieve. The channel I use the most is 712. I have tried rebuilding the databases using epg123client without success. Everything was working fine till about two weeks ago. That is when I contacted Schedules Direct. All other channels have data as expected.

Space

Posts: 2838
Joined: Sun Jun 02, 2013 9:44 pm
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#1259

Post by Space » Wed Jan 29, 2020 9:54 pm

Have you made sure that all the channels are mapped to guide listings in the EPG123 client tool? The "Subscribed Lineup" should be a lineup that starts with "EPG123". If it is blank or has a lineup that doesn't start with "EPG123" then that is your problem. If you have any channel that has a lineup other than one that starts with "EPG123" then you probably are still using Rovi guide data for those channels, and may have not done a clean start correctly.

If they are blank, the you may be able to fix it by doing an "Automatic Channel Matching" or "Manual Channel Matching" as described in this part of the install guide.

Driverjimb

Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Jan 29, 2020 7:20 pm
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#1260

Post by Driverjimb » Thu Jan 30, 2020 8:58 pm

I completely started over again. I used the Client to clear the databases. Then I executed the Scheduler epg123_update to load the mxf data in Media Center (the mxf from EPG123 was still good). Then I did the Media Center Tuner setup which of course failed on the guide retrieve as Microsoft has ended it and Media Center said it would use the old schedule data (which I had just built). Finished the tuner setup. Now all seems well and the channels have schedule data. Something got corrupted and the sequence I did cleared it. Thanks for letting me know the problem was caused by what file it was (or wasn't) pulling the data from.

Post Reply