Need help installing EPG123

[aab1]

Hi, I use WMC and with the guide ending in a few days I need to switch to EPG123 but I'm concerned about several things.

First I read:
"If a Hauppauge Colossus HD PVR software tuner is installed, the software tuner configuration files located in C:\ProgramData\Hauppauge\MediaCenterService are deleted as well."

What does this mean? Does it not work if I use a Hauppage Colossus, which is what I use? Do I need to switch to a different tuner card to use EPG123? Please update the website to explain what this actually means as I can't tell if it means it's not compatible with the Colossus or what.

Also, the instructions are written as if we already know everything about EPG123 when I know nothing about it. For example it says I can install epg123.exe or hdhr2mxf.exe or epg123Client.exe but how am I supposed to know which of the three I need?

I also only see instructions for a clean install, I've been using WMC with Rovi for years and just want to update it so it gets the data through EPG123/SD without having to rescedule all my recordings, is this possible and if so how?

Thank you

[garyan2]

Sorry if this sounds curt, but I don't have a lot of time to provide additional detail.

EPG123 just provides the guide listings, there is no compatibility issues with tuners. I had to do something special for the HD PVR so you can have 9999 channels to tune to.

You need to do the 'Full Install'.
You need to do the clean install following the [Client Setup].

There is a video to show a setup for an OTA. Yours will be very similar.

Hopefully someone else will be able to provide more detail. My availability is going to be spotty for a bit.

[aab1]

Thanks for the quick reply. I notice in the video it says it will delete the data including recording schedules, I would like my recording schedule to be saved, I read this was possible.

Thanks again

[aab1]

When I open the EPG123 Transfer tool, all the channels in the right pane are in red and the left pane is blank. Does this mean I can transfer my recordings or do I need to do something before they can be transferred?

[garyan2]

What you see on the right is your current recording requests. To see what will be transferred automatically, use the client to create a [Backup] and then use the [Open recordings backup file] button in the Transfer Tool to open the just created backup zip file.

What is green will be transferred automatically.
What is red, you may or may not be able to transfer... depends on whether theTVDB has a Zap2it ID for the series.

[Space]

Thanks for the quick reply. I notice in the video it says it will delete the data including recording schedules, I would like my recording schedule to be saved, I read this was possible.

Thanks again

The transfer tool can be used to read the "backup" of your old database and load the schedule in to your fresh database after you have transitioned to EPG123. So while the existing schedule cannot be retained, it can be reloaded (and translated, see below) from the backup. Most of these are usually automatic, but some may require manual intervention, and others may not transfer at all (but you will know which these are and can recreate them within WMC when the time comes).

One of the reasons you cannot keep your existing database is because different data providers (in this case Rovi/TiVo for Microsoft and Gracenote for Schedules Direct) use different unique IDs for TV shows, episodes, movies and other programs. It is these IDs that WMC uses to determine which show is which.

So when you tell WMC to record all episodes of "Friends", you are actually telling it to record all episodes of the series with seriesID 1234567 (just using this number as an example, this is not the real ID). So if you created this Series while using Rovi (Microsoft) data and then transition to EPG123 which uses Gracenote data, that ID will be different. Gracenote may use seriesID 7654321 to represent "Friends".

It should be obvious from the above as to why your existing Series will no longer work when you transition to a new data provider. You are really not telling WMC to record a show named "Friends", but are telling it to record a series with a specific ID, and that ID changes when you move from one provider to another.

The transfer tool that Gary created uses a database that translates the Rovi seriesID to the Gracenote seriesID. It does this by searching this database for the Rovi seriesID, and if found, uses the associated Gracenote seriesID. Note that this database was created over time and is incomplete, so may not have every series.

If the seriesID is not found, the transfer tool may ask you to semi-manually help it pick the correct show. In this case it will search a separate on-line database for "Friends" and ask you which of the results returned is the correct one. In this case it is looking for the series name, not a seriesID, so it may return more than one show, as it does not look for the exact name in order to account for differences in how the different data providers may have changed the show name (for instance "The Simpsons" vs. "Simpsons", etc.)

[aab1]

What you see on the right is your current recording requests. To see what will be transferred automatically, use the client to create a [Backup] and then use the [Open recordings backup file] button in the Transfer Tool to open the just created backup zip file.

What is green will be transferred automatically.
What is red, you may or may not be able to transfer... depends on whether theTVDB has a Zap2it ID for the series.

I was able to get it installed, it even transferred most but not all scheduled recordings seemingly automatically, and I used the transfer tool again to be able to add a few of the other ones, but a few I had to reschedule manually.

Thank you for making this and allowing me to keep using WMC, I will likely make a donation soon.