EPG123 success story

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
NWIU2B

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#21

Post by NWIU2B » Fri Jul 07, 2017 2:59 am

garyan2 wrote:The moderators have a lot of work trying to keep the threads on-topic. Basically, those that only care about the MS/Rovi service being down, and when MS/Rovi are going to fix it, don't want to see a lot of messages concerning something else. Even if that something else will give them everything they are hoping someday MS/Rovi will provide them. I believe the last time I got in a conversation like this, messages concerning EPG123 were considered "SPAM".

The 500+ additional users EPG123 has picked up in the last 4 days indicates the word is out there. But to your point, there are people showing up that have never heard of EPG123 and may never hear about it stuck in the other thread.
Understood, and yes I know moderating is hard work and thankless work. Thanks to the mods.

As someone who has been here to get news during outages for years, my perspective has been as a reader and sufferer, especially since the Rovi switch. I only knew about EPG123 from a mention in a thread from the past. I just switched a few days ago. Things are looking awesome so far. Thank you for all you have put into it, and your continued work. Anyway, I welcomed mentions of EPG123 in the outage threads and quick reports of how it went. Helped me increasingly get more comfortable with the idea of switching. Such messages were more helpful than 10 pages of "me too" reporting the same problem, people showing up sure that it is some problem that was established 6 pages back that it wasn't, people sure they have a workaround that turns out not to be real, etc. Yes once I knew about EPG123 I could have come to its forum and read and read, but lots of the threads here are people with tough corner case problems, and if that was the source of my info I might have been scared off. At this point I'm just thinking about other readers looking for a solution, and concerned how many won't find the only true solution there still is currently, after several weeks. Since Microsoft seems to have lost all institutional knowledge of how the guide data process works, it is likely to become the only working solution time and again. Not sure how readers briefly reporting on what solved their guide data problem could be viewed as spam, but then I'm just a humble long-time reader / recent poster.

seacom

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#22

Post by seacom » Fri Jul 07, 2017 3:08 am

Did anybody with Norton security suite saw their advice of not to install EPG123 setup?

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garyan2

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#23

Post by garyan2 » Fri Jul 07, 2017 3:40 am

seacom wrote:Did anybody with Norton security suite saw their advice of not to install EPG123 setup?
This is common among some AV suites because EPG123 does not have a "reputation" so can not be trusted. I got a report about Avast doing the same thing with a previous version last week.

You can run a scan using all the major virus scanners at https://www.virustotal.com. It will report it clean.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

thewoody2000

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#24

Post by thewoody2000 » Fri Jul 07, 2017 4:24 am

I have been following the posts on this for the past week because I also have the same problem. My main PC I use for recording my weekly recordings is missing the HD guide data. However, I have a backup. I have a 2nd PC that also uses a cable card. That PC is on 24/7 to monitor my security cameras so I also use that PC to record reruns and miscellaneous programs. Several months ago or whenever we had the last big problem with guide data updates, I installed epg123 on this 2nd PC and paid the $25 for a year of guide updates from Schedule Direct. Since then, I never had a problem with Media Center using Schedule Direct, all my HD guide data is there; nothing is missing. With that $25 you are allowed to use its license on a few home PC’s. The reason I haven’t gotten around to updating my main PC’s Media Center with epg123 to use Schedule Direct is that I will lose my scheduled programs which means for the next year I will have to go in and find the programs and set them up again to record weekly. I may have to bite the bullet and just do it; I’ll wait a little and see what happens.

[Moderator note: post moved]

Space

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#25

Post by Space » Fri Jul 07, 2017 7:34 am

garyan2 wrote: ...
The 500+ additional users EPG123 has picked up in the last 4 days indicates the word is out there. But to your point, there are people showing up that have never heard of EPG123 and may never hear about it stuck in the other thread.
Wow, nice. Hopefully many of those new users were generous with their donations.

I hope Schedules Direct will be able to keep up with all this new traffic.

I think complete sanitation of all things EPG123 from that thread is a mistake, it should at least be allowed to be mentioned as a potential solution. But I also understand people not wanting to be hit over the head with it constantly.

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#26

Post by Scallica » Fri Jul 07, 2017 12:33 pm

garyan2 wrote:The moderators have a lot of work trying to keep the threads on-topic. Basically, those that only care about the MS/Rovi service being down, and when MS/Rovi are going to fix it, don't want to see a lot of messages concerning something else. Even if that something else will give them everything they are hoping someday MS/Rovi will provide them. I believe the last time I got in a conversation like this, messages concerning EPG123 were considered "SPAM".
^This. The guide data outage thread is to report feedback with Microsoft/Rovi; period. While EPG123 has been a lifesaver for many WMC users, there are also many WMC users that have no interest in it and have no time or money to invest; even $25. The problem with EPG123 posts in the guide data outage thread is that it turns into a separate discussion very quickly. For example, "How do I setup EPG123? What are the steps?" and "OMG! EPG123 borked my WMC system, what do I do now?",etc.
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bobbyp9999

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#27

Post by bobbyp9999 » Fri Jul 07, 2017 5:50 pm

After 3 days with the Rovi EPG only displaying 10% of the channels, I took the leap. :o

It's been working fine so far. :D Doesn't look a whole lot different. Very glad it's working. Had to reprogram all my scheduled shows. After a reboot they disappeared.

I knew at some point the EPG would be an issue with Microsoft abandoning the Media Center.

Going to Donate to epg123 tonight for his work!

Thanks to garyan for your support!

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#28

Post by Sammy2 » Fri Jul 07, 2017 8:58 pm

I'm not exactly sure how I came about epg123 but was in the beta days and a little bit more work to hack in than it is now. Why is it that a lot are just now discovering it? It seems I knew of it almost as soon as epg123 showed up on TGB. It empowered me to ditch Uverse because it has a relatively high WAF score, in the high 90's I'd say. I had WMC before we got together but went with Uverse when we got married and moved to our house where Uverse lived for over a year due to simultaneous Rovi crap at that same time, not to mention having to build a reliable ethernet in the house. There was no way I was going to subject her to that. Now we save almost $100 a month in DVR/STB fees in 6 locations with echo extenders. If you like epg123 and it provides something you find useful I suggest dropping Gary some beer money (or more likely ice cream money for his kids). This is unsolicited but I truly feel Gary deserves more that just kudos on this forum.

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newfiend

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#29

Post by newfiend » Sat Jul 08, 2017 3:27 am

Sammy2 wrote:
newfiend wrote:
Scallica wrote:Topic split. Sorry, no EPG123 talk in the guide data outage thread. :-)
no problem.. sorry.. But good gosh what a relief to finally have it work like it should.. :D
One must ponder what took you soo long? I've been enjoying epg123 for over a year now!
Well, honestly my guide was working "ok" not 100% accurate but for the most part my series would record.. and my Episode artwork was ok for quite some time. Until the last 5-6 months. Then the episode art as well as movie artwork was getting worse and worse..
Finally on the 4th after MS screwed the pooch and couldn't (or wouldn't) dedicate any effort or resources to correcting the issue I said to hell with it and purged ROVI and converted.

So in a nutshell it comes down to:
#1 it was working ok for awhile
#2 I work a metric ton and don't have a lot of time to devote to fixing WMC
&
#3 we'll just chalk up to being lazy.. lol.

At any rate it's 95% fixed now.. I just have to wait on SD to transition my guide to Comcast's new guide layout where all the HD channels now reside in the 1000's and up. SD hadn't updated my zip code yet for the change over. I submitted a ticket to SD and he's working on that now. Once that's done I'll be back at 100%.
Oh and Gary.. you can expect another donation for EPG123 from me soon.. thanks man! You're a life saver for many.. :thumbup:
newfiend~

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#30

Post by mafaldatv » Sat Jul 08, 2017 4:46 pm

garyan2 wrote:
seacom wrote: You can run a scan using all the major virus scanners at https://www.virustotal.com. It will report it clean.
Tried to start install and AVAST quarantined it. So then ran file per above at virustotal. Avast cleared it there, however as of a few minutes ago it says

Rising Malware.Heuristic!ET#96% (rdm+) 20170708

Possible it is avast's 'behavior shield' given RISING is using heuristic to identify.

BUT... since virustotal is NOT reporting it clean, I'm afraid to try it...

HELP.... (Please)

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garyan2

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#31

Post by garyan2 » Sat Jul 08, 2017 5:21 pm

mafaldatv wrote:
garyan2 wrote:
seacom wrote: You can run a scan using all the major virus scanners at https://www.virustotal.com. It will report it clean.
Tried to start install and AVAST quarantined it. So then ran file per above at virustotal. Avast cleared it there, however as of a few minutes ago it says

Rising Malware.Heuristic!ET#96% (rdm+) 20170708

Possible it is avast's 'behavior shield' given RISING is using heuristic to identify.

BUT... since virustotal is NOT reporting it clean, I'm afraid to try it...

HELP.... (Please)
I understand your concern and the only thing I can do is give you assurances. But I think the big picture here is that is you have 1 obscure antivirus out of 62? declare epg123 as malware while all the big guys (Symantec, McAfee, Microsoft, Kapersky, BitDefender, Malwarebytes, ...) all declare it safe.

If it makes you feel more comfortable, you can wait 24 hours and run the scan again with new definitions for all the players and see if the results change.

I think the biggest problem with using home grown software is that the files aren't signed and it is a small distribution. So anything unknown and new (low reputation) tends to be declared unsafe.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

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#32

Post by webminster » Sat Jul 08, 2017 5:25 pm

Help how? I haven't downloaded 1.1.10, but 1.1.9 is fine for w7. If one of several reports bad, all the rest say clean, and the author says it's clean...
-Alan

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#33

Post by gfigg42 » Sat Jul 08, 2017 9:19 pm

Made the switch today. Works great. Should have done it ages ago.

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newfiend

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#34

Post by newfiend » Sat Jul 08, 2017 10:01 pm

Yep, agree. I just got my friend Mike to switch as well. We both just donated. Best addition to wmc since Microsoft rammed Rovi down our throats. So glad that's been purged. It's almost like WMC is new again. I miss the time when people developed for and added to WMC. Thanks again Gary!

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#35

Post by Sancho » Sat Jul 08, 2017 11:15 pm

mafaldatv wrote:
garyan2 wrote:
seacom wrote: You can run a scan using all the major virus scanners at https://www.virustotal.com. It will report it clean.
Tried to start install and AVAST quarantined it. So then ran file per above at virustotal. Avast cleared it there, however as of a few minutes ago it says

Rising Malware.Heuristic!ET#96% (rdm+) 20170708

Possible it is avast's 'behavior shield' given RISING is using heuristic to identify.

BUT... since virustotal is NOT reporting it clean, I'm afraid to try it...

HELP.... (Please)
I got sick of avast! reporting epg123, as well, so I excluded *epg123* in two or three shields. That fixed the avast! problem, and I have yet to be hacked. Pretty sure avast! checked it out and reported back the next day it was clean. Too slow for me, thus my hammer-to-nail solution.

NB: I've been running epg123 for over a year, so I was comfortable doing that. YMMV, but the result won't.

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garyan2

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#36

Post by garyan2 » Sat Jul 08, 2017 11:25 pm

A picture is worth a 1,000 words, and evidently 1,000 users. This is a snapshot of the increase in users hitting the tmdb API from EPG123. We are +1000 users since 6/28 and still going. The total number for today will be tallied in 40 minutes, but I have dinner with my mother in a few minutes and won't be able to take the capture then.
userProgress.JPG
You guys are awesome.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

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#37

Post by FastRC45 » Sun Jul 09, 2017 3:05 am

Gary,
I hope you wind up with a nice little windfall due to MS' indifference. I'm one of the many in the crowd that has been using WMC for years in lieu of a cable box (ie. tinkered with it for weeks several years ago, and just "use" it now), so when there are issues and the WAF begins to decline, I have to scramble to re-learn things, figure out where I put tools/utilities/etc. (the Win7 machine it runs on just sits quietly in a corner with Win Update turned off). So to have someone come in and fix an issue - elegantly - before I knew it was an issue, was a really nice surprise. If you don't wind up with much of a windfall, then I'm sorry, I guess too many of us are cheapskates for the collective to have nice things, but at least you've got a few beers on me!

v/r,
Rob

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#38

Post by Byteme » Sun Jul 09, 2017 4:32 pm

Sammy2 wrote:Why is it that a lot are just now discovering it? It seems I knew of it almost as soon as epg123 showed up on TGB
My WMC7 htpc is a dedicated appliance running 24/7. I subscribe to the 'if it ain't broke don't fix it' mantra. I survived the Rovi switchover (even though the data quality degraded) and somehow avoided the outages until last week. So, I really had no reason to browse many forums or research anything as things were working (relatively) fine. I suspect many others were in similar circumstances. Luckily I was familiar with TGB and that was the first place I looked for a solution when things fell apart, which led me here.
Sammy2 wrote:If you like epg123 and it provides something you find useful I suggest dropping Gary some beer money (or more likely ice cream money for his kids). This is unsolicited but I truly feel Gary deserves more that just kudos on this forum.
Agreed ! EPG123 is a lifesaver and I am very thankful for Gary's work. Certainty worth a few bucks that I'm saving anyway by not having to pay Comcast for equipment and DVR service.

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#39

Post by gfigg42 » Sun Jul 09, 2017 4:57 pm

The guide outage made me do some searching. I've been using MC for years and haven't had much problem with the guide besides during the Rovi switch. Without problems, I just let my HTPC do it's job and I watch TV. I just got sick of waiting for a fix, saw a link to here about outage, then saw someone mention epg123 and here I am.

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#40

Post by stuartm » Mon Jul 10, 2017 7:18 pm

garyan2 wrote:A picture is worth a 1,000 words, and evidently 1,000 users. This is a snapshot of the increase in users hitting the tmdb API from EPG123. We are +1000 users since 6/28 and still going. The total number for today will be tallied in 40 minutes, but I have dinner with my mother in a few minutes and won't be able to take the capture then.

You guys are awesome.
Looks like the no. of EPG123 users has about doubled. Cool. I hope Schedules Direct has upped the capacity on their servers to handle the increased load ;)

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