Disappearing Channels

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Jason-R

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Disappearing Channels

#1

Post by Jason-R » Fri Nov 15, 2019 8:30 pm

Just lost a channel. Found the following EPG1232log entries:
epg123 log.JPG
Tried rescanning that frequency but came up with no new channels.
This is one of my main channels - Any ideas on how I get it back?

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garyan2

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#2

Post by garyan2 » Sat Nov 16, 2019 1:30 am

Hmm, for channel 103 it looks like the tuner configuration in the database disappeared. Without tuner information, I delete the merged channel... which may have caused a problem with channel 3 at 14/11/2019 23:24:54. I'm looking at my code on how to do this better.

So even after a scan, channel 103 does not show on the left side with the rest of the merged channels? Channel 3 is still there, correct? Though it may have lost its guide listings. :oops:

The only thing I can think of it to go through a TV Setup again. That should clear all your current tuner setups and build it again. Once that is done, guide listings will have to be remapped to the merged channels.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

Jason-R

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#3

Post by Jason-R » Sat Nov 16, 2019 8:49 am

Thanks Gary. Yep channel 3 is OK but missing guide listings. That's no problem - I have added those back manually.
103 is still missing, I'll try rescanning again just to double check.
The problem occurred whilst manually sorting, subscribing and renaming. I had got 103 about right, but then realised the guide listings were not for the HD version of that channel. When I clicked Unsubscribe, EPG123 client closed unexpectedly. Upon reopening, the channel was missing. I had a few similar glitches with EPG client whilst organising my channels but thought nothing of it as I could just go back in and re-perform the action.
Ran a search of the log and found another instance of that same error:
epg123 log2.JPG

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#4

Post by Jason-R » Mon Nov 18, 2019 6:50 am

Just to confirm, I've double checked that the channels are definitely missing and re-run the scan on those frequencies. No new channels found. It appears that the EGP123 action has masked the channels but [partial] data still exists in MCE...

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garyan2

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#5

Post by garyan2 » Mon Nov 18, 2019 2:44 pm

Probably right. The tuner channel is still there, just not visible.

Try the Guide Editor tool (viewtopic.php?p=62239#p62239) from glugglug. If the channel is there, you will be able to change its state. I'd look at the Scanned/Wmis Lineups tab first and select your scanned lineup... change Channel Type if needed. If that is not it then select the EPG123 lineup. If that doesn't work, look at the Merged Lineup(s) tab.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

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#6

Post by Jason-R » Fri Nov 22, 2019 11:23 am

OK, I've had a look at the first of the missing channels and this is what I have found:
The missing channel appears in scanned DVB S (identified by Freq and Sid)
Capture.JPG
There is a guide listing/ for channel 103 (albeit the non HD version) in EPG23
Capturead.JPG
Channel 103 does not appear in the Merged tab, but does show up in the source channels for 3. The latter makes sense as 3 is the non HD version of the same channel, to which I have assigned the EPG123 listings for 103
Captureb.JPG
That leaves me wondering:
1) It is not obvious what I do to get the missing channel back now it has been identified in screenshot 1?
2) Channel 3 is working but shows as 0 devices

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#7

Post by garyan2 » Fri Nov 22, 2019 3:36 pm

Did you merge 103 to 3, or did you renumber 103 to 3? If you open the epg123client, does channel 3 have a pink background for the channel number?

If you notice on your last picture, 103 has 0 devices which is why I tried to delete it, but it appears I may have been unsuccessful. I'll have to do some experimentation to understand why.

My suggestion to try and get it back would be to remove the channel 103 devices from channel 3 in the merged lineup (last image), and remove the scanned channel in the scanned lineup (first image). Then try a transponder scan... hopefully it will pick up the "new" channel 103.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

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#8

Post by Jason-R » Fri Nov 22, 2019 5:32 pm

Thanks Gary, answers to your questions:
Both Channels 3 and 103 had previously been renumbered. 103 had also been renamed. They are the HD and non HD versions of the same channel.
They were seperate before the crash, which occurred when I tried to remove the subscription from 103 as it was not showing as HD. Upon restarting EPG123 Client that how it appeared.
Channel 3 has now been deleted, EPG123 Client did it for me whilst I was editing the source channels:
C3deleted.JPG
Also removed the scanned channel in the scanned lineup (first image) as suggested. Partial success. MCE now finds the channel again and adds it but it still does not show up.

Not sure if related, but I've noticed some strange behaviour on the listings for this channel. If I update the guide listings (EPG123 Save & Execute) the line up services look like this:
ITVWE Listings1.JPG
But later change to this:
ITVWE Listings3.JPG

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#9

Post by Jason-R » Fri Nov 22, 2019 5:34 pm

And just to add, in another lineup where the same listing exists, it dissappears altogether...
ITVWE Listings2.JPG
ITVWE Listings4.JPG

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garyan2

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#10

Post by garyan2 » Fri Nov 22, 2019 6:19 pm

Well, interesting stuff there. It looks like part of the problem may be Schedules Direct or Gracenote is making changes to that station and possibly your lineup(s) while you are trying to do all this.

When ITV1WE on the Freesat lineup changed to ITV HD, it changed on the UK (extended) lineup as well. I would also note that this is the first time I have ever seen a Call Sign of a station have a space in it.

I have suspected in the past that when a listing disappears from a lineup, the tuner channel in WMC may disappear as well but have never been able to find a cause. All this guide confusion for ITV1WE/ITV HD may be what triggered 103 to disappear in the first place, but something weird is still going on. You may want to submit a ticket to Schedules Direct to try and get an explanation.

EDIT: I should note the disappearing act is not common and difficult to recreate. I'm working to understand that.
Last edited by garyan2 on Fri Nov 22, 2019 11:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

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#11

Post by Jason-R » Fri Nov 22, 2019 10:00 pm

Thanks again Gary. I have run the 'save and execute' several times and the phenomena is repeatable. Each time it starts showing as ITVWE but later changes to ITV HD.
Any other ideas on getting the missing channel back?

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#12

Post by garyan2 » Fri Nov 22, 2019 10:18 pm

In the client, if you scroll to the right to see the TunerInfo column for channel 3/103, what does it say? I'm not sure I understand what is missing now... you say it is now in WMC but not being shown?
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

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#13

Post by Jason-R » Fri Nov 22, 2019 11:58 pm

Channel 103 is still missing. Cant see it in EPG Client or WMC. Although WMC scan found it again, it still doesnt show up anywhere other than in Guide Editor per earlier screenshot. Freq 11053, Sid 20770.
Capture103.JPG

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#14

Post by garyan2 » Sat Nov 23, 2019 12:13 am

That's just odd. Let's try something. Could you click the [Backup] button and send me the resulting backups_yyyyMMdd_HHmmss.zip file? I'll PM you an email address. The backup will contain all your current tuner configurations, lineup and channel mappings, favorite lineups, etc. I can [Restore] that in a VM here and see if I can bring it back to life, or if we're lucky it will show up immediately. That would mean performing a [Rebuild WMC Database] will fix it.
- Gary
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#15

Post by garyan2 » Sat Nov 23, 2019 6:00 pm

Okay, I'm going to have to work on this. Channel 103 has no Primary Channel assigned to it.

Basically each merged channel has a Primary Channel and zero to multiple Secondary Channels. Ideally, for a channel that has no guide listings, the Primary Channel will be the Scanned channel from the tuner and the Secondary will be empty or have other tuner channels that have been combined with this merged channel. If a channel has guide listings assigned, then the Primary Channel will be the listings and the Secondary Channels will be all the scanned tuner channels. In the case of your channel 103, there is no Primary Channel so it is not shown in EPG123 nor in WMC.

I think this might be due to the strange things going on with that channel from SD/Gracenote. Maybe one of the times it changed from ITVWE to ITV HD, or vice versa, the Primary Channel broke but was not populated by any of the secondaries. I used to check for this and correct it, but may have broken that.

During this I did find out that I broke the [Restore] and [Rebuild WMC Database]... working on that as well.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

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#16

Post by Jason-R » Wed Nov 27, 2019 4:20 pm

Thanks so much for our help Gary. :D :D :D

Let me know when you have something..

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#17

Post by garyan2 » Wed Nov 27, 2019 5:02 pm

You are back to the top of my list. Now that I've fixed and improved a few things in the client, I might be able to discover what is going on with that channel. The hard part is since I am not on your computer, I can't tell if anything really works or not.

I'm really stumped as to why after deleting the channel, doing a WMC scan which found the channel again, didn't work.

Just a heads up... I know you've put a lot of effort in renumbering, renaming, and mapping listings to channels, but if I can't figure this out then it is possible the only way to get it back will be to start over with a database wipe.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

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#18

Post by garyan2 » Wed Nov 27, 2019 6:57 pm

Okay, it appears I have managed to piece that channel back together again. It shows up in EPG123 and WMC. I will send you a special client that will do that for you.

Is there perhaps other channels that this happened to?
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

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