EPG123 guide updates

[Jacksondorf]

No question is dumb, right?
If guide data changes from previously downloaded guide data, does WMC change the guide, or just append whatever is new.
I.E. guide for channel 1061 10/03/2018 8:00 PM shows title "To Be Announced". If say, tomorrow's guide update changes the title to "whatever title" does the WMC guide change?

Thanks,

Tim

[garyan2]

99% of the time the answer is yes, it will replace the old ("To Be Announced") with the new ("whatever title"). The times that it might not work is if the old show is a non-generic program (meaning has episode information) and the new is a completely different show/series or is generic. WMC has some pretty complex logic in trying to determine whether to replace a program in the guide with new data.

In those cases where WMC will not update with the latest/new guide information, you can perform a database rebuild in the client to delete the old and then import the latest MXF file. This method has the side effect of losing all your recorded histories, but that is it.

Believe it or not, the best way to correct would be to remove that station from your configuration, perform an update, add the station back in, and perform another update. That will get it corrected and not have the side effect from a database rebuild.

[Space]

While I do have this issue (some timeslots not getting updated/replaced), the more prevalent issue for me is when a bunch of episodes are put in to the guide with a generic listing, then later they are updated with episode specific information, however WMC does not see that they now have episode data and continues to schedule them to record, even though they should not be recorded due to those episodes already being scheduled to record earlier in the week or because they were already recorded in the past.

I go to each one and select "do not record", but what is interesting is that if it is an episode that is properly scheduled to record, say, on Monday, and I tell WMC to not record the repeats of that same episode on Tuesday and Wednesday, the Monday episode remains scheduled to record.
Normally if you tell WMC to not record any given episode, it adds that episode to the "do not record" list and it will not record that episode no matter when it airs. But when WMC gets in to this state, it seems to not see these repeated airings as the same episode and instead sees them as completely different episodes (or perhaps as completely different shows?)

I'm not sure if anyone has done any investigation to determine what is happening in these cases (nor do I know if it happens to others as often as it does for me). The shows that it seems to happen most often with are on MTV, since they seem to put a lot of generic listings in early and can take a long time to update them with episode specific info.

[garyan2]

I don't think it is as complex as that and I would say that using EPG123 for guide data, rather than Rovi, significantly reduces the likelyhood of this kind of problem. I have never seen a generic listing fail to be updated with episode specific information when it is available, and as long as they occupy the same time slot. I have seen it fail if the the generic episode is say 8:00-9:00PM but when the specific episode information shows up it is in time slot 8:01-9:00PM. WMC will sometimes determine that it is bad information and not update.

Space, to address one of your recording scenario, I think you are making unnecessary work for yourself. For the episode that is showing multiple times, it may look like WMC will "schedule" all of them to record, but in actuality it is setting up a primary recording while the others are alternates. If you have patience, once the primary is done recording, the alternates should fall off the list. There may have to be a Pvr reindexing done to clean that up.

[Space]

Interesting. Normally the first airing will be set to record and the alternates will have a blue circle "i" on them (indicating "Another airing will be recorded on XX/XX/XX), but not actually be scheduled to record.

I'll leave them be as an experiment and see if it behaves as you describe... I've tried things in the past to try to get rid of the duplicate schedulings, but it's been so long now I can't remember what I tried.

Thanks

[garyan2]

You may be right and that is what I am thinking of. I've just never seen this behavior.

You're using Rovi guide data, correct?

[garyan2]

@Space: have you tried running the PvrScheduleTask to see if that clears it up? "c:\windows\ehome\mcupdate.exe -PvrSchedule"

[Space]

@Space: have you tried running the PvrScheduleTask to see if that clears it up? "c:\windows\ehome\mcupdate.exe -PvrSchedule"

Not sure if I tried that, but I do remember that the only way I found to correct the problem was by running ObjectStoreRecorveryTask from Task Scheduler. Of course this has side affects that I didn't want, so I don't use it.

I will try any suggestions you have, as I have a few shows in the guide now with generic info and will soon experience this problem once updated with episode specific info. It's been happening with these shows since they started.

EDIT: and yes, I still use Rovi/TiVo data.

[garyan2]

Not sure if I tried that, but I do remember that the only way I found to correct the problem was by running ObjectStoreRecorveryTask from Task Scheduler. Of course this has side affects that I didn't want, so I don't use it.

I will try any suggestions you have, as I have a few shows in the guide now with generic info and will soon experience this problem once updated with episode specific info. It's been happening with these shows since they started.

EDIT: and yes, I still use Rovi/TiVo data.

Yah, I would definitely discourage anyone from running the ObjectStoreRecoveryTask... that's such a last ditch effort that I would rather you start from scratch rather than try to "recover" anything.

BTW: That coupon I sent you 2-1/2 years ago is still valid ... just saying.

[Jacksondorf]

Thanks for the input guys!