I am using epg collector on ASTRA 28.2 and it works but I have a number of issues that have recently started.
1/ some recording requests create a schedule entry for every programme with the same name on every chennel including repeats and time shifted versions.
2/ some programmes start recording a few minutes late and have anything up to half an hour tagged on the end.
3/ some programme names get changed after an update;. e.g. I had a 3 part series where the individual episodes were all correct on the day they were recorded but changed to something etirely unrelated the next day. Its just the names under under the thumbnails that get chenged, the names are correct when you highlight or click them.
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Can you upload the TVGuide.mxf file (it is in the same directory as the log) somewhere and post the link so I can look at the data that was imported by WMC.
With your settings for the collection EPGC should be using the Sky series link to combine programmes into series such that WMC can establish which programmes to record. So it depends on what Sky is broadcasting. Give me an example that will be in the mxf file of a programme where multiple copies of the same programme were recorded.
EPGC is only responsible for the programme times in the WMC guide. If they are correct it must be something in WMC that is causing incorrect recording times.
I seem to remember this being reported a long time ago but I never managed to find any reason for it or recreate the problem. Again can you give me an example of a programme where this has happened.
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One series that shows the third problem is 'extraordinay people' on channel 5. when I scheduled it, I seleced the first episode and then record series. when the first program was recorded, the thumbnail title was 'I'm 20 but look 60 Extraordinary People' but on Thurday, it had changed to 'Boy with no face: 6 Months On'. When I highlight or open it, it shows as 'I'm 20 but look 60 Extraordinary People'. The name of the scheduled series has also been renamed to 'Boy with no face: 6 Months On'. Same thing happens with 'A cook abroad' - every time it is recorded, the title is correct but the next time I collect data, it changes the title and the series to the nname of the next programme.
The first programme in the series extraodinary people started as scheduled but has 10 minutes added to the end (second problem), but it doesn't seem to be happening so often now.
Last edit: John Ford 2017-02-19
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An example of problem 1 - where a recording request schedules a recoding of every showing on on every channel including time shifted versions - is 'Secrets of the National Trust'. The series is set to record on 106 (Channel 5HD) only yet, every week, it schedules 7 additional recording on a number of other channels. I do use new and rerun because, for some unknown reason, I often miss showings when I set recording to new only. I assume some channels don't set the new flag?
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As far as I am aware in the UK no info is broadcast indicating that a programme is "NEW". The only relevant data broadcast which EPG Collector extracts in is the "episode number". This is used by PVRs to make series recordings and also avoid duplicate recordings. This just happens to be the one for 'Secrets of the National Trust' broadcast on 27th Feb.:-
The first block of characters is the Series ID so all episodes of this programme have the series ID “R5GIA” so the PVR looks for all programmes with this ID if you ask it to record the series.
The second block is the Unique Programme ID unique to that episode. Depending on the PVR or software it will check if you already have that episode recorded, or already scheduled or recently deleted it.
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I appreciate the work you have done making this product freely available to us and I am sure that you have spent a great deal of time and effort creating and supporting it but WMC doesn't seem to work as well as it does with the MS provided guide data. I can only assume that the data EPG Collector gets isn't as good.
Also, if the problems I have are to do with WMC, I don't understatnd why I didn't have these problems before switching my channels over to data collected by EPG Collector.
Given that I now have 14 days of MS provided data, I am going to try putting it back to using that and see what happens.
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It's possible your issues might have been caused by mixing data from Microsoft with data collected by EPGC.
Did you reset or recreate thw WMC database when you switched over to EPGC?
It's not the actual data that would cause a problem as that's likely to be very similar but the way it is imported into the WMC database. EPGC will label various entries in the WMC database in a different way to WMC and I'm not sure what the outcome would be of mixing the different labelling systems.
My recommendation in this situation is to delete and completely recreate the WMC database if you change from one method of EPG collection to another.
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I have three satellites configured on my Living Room PC - Hotbird 13, Astra 19.2 and Astra 28.2 and there are currently 4288 channels listed in my guide.
Apart from a few of them, I have no idea which of those are live, which are dead and which actually get recorded because I mostly use keywords or program titles for series recording.
The last time I had to rebuild my system due to messing it up trying to get the epg working and finding that I couldn't restore from either a backup of the ehome folder or an image I had previously made, it took me nearly 2 weeks of faffing about to get it all working as it had been.
Hotbird and Astra 19.2 have been working throughout the most recent outage and it took me a week to get Astra 28.2 working properly by remapping the data on a channel by channel basis when I switched to using epg collector.
Apart from the problems I have outlined everything is now working well so I am very reluctant to delete the database and start from scratch in an attempt to resolve these issues in case it gets totally screwed up again.
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I had a day when I could make a clone my HDD and switch over to running on the cloned drive. This means that I can play with system knowing that, if (when) MS stops updating the guide data again, I can swap back to the oher drive with EPGC as a source.
I have gone through resetting all the channels back to using MS provided data where it is available.
Now, when I re-index or update the guide data, scheduled recordings select one showing of a programme, ignoring all the otther showings on different channels and time shifted versions. It has only been a few days but, so far, I haven't seen any series names changed.or incorrect start/end times.
I can only assume that something is screwed up in the SKY data that EPGC uses.
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Just a note to keep you up to date on my situation.
Since my last post I have been running on a mix of guide data sources in the following order of prefference: MS/BDS, SKY, EPGC.
The channels with MS and SKY provided data work fine but I'm sorry to say that, occasionally, I am still having the problems outlined above on channels where the guide data is being populated by EPGC.
So, I don't think the problem is having a mix of data sources.because the data being imported into the database by EPGC isn't affecting any of the other channels (as you would hope),.I think the issues are with the data it is importing.
Even so, I take my hat off to you for a great job in getting it working as well as it does given the data you you are working with.
Last edit: John Ford 2017-03-21
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I'd be the first to say that my knowledge of WMC is not very extensive. I don't even use it myself.
There is also very little MS documentation on the import format or on how it can affect the contents of the database and hence the operation of WMC so I wouldn't be surprised if there were some issues.
When I have time I'll have another go at trying to recreate any of your problems.
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Given that most people using EPGC appear not to have these problems, I wonder if it is because the data provided on sattelite broadcasts is entirely different from that provided on terrestrial broadcasts?
As I said, the issues outlined are happening on a PC. which only has DVB-S2 tuners so I will try setting up EPGC on a spare PC, which only has DVB-T tuners and see if that has the same problems.
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The Freesat and Freeview EPG data from EPG Collector is identical. This is the same programme on Channel 4. The only difference is the Series ID part of the episode number and is to do with being different advertising regions.
The Simpsons
<sub-title>The Saga of Carl</sub-title> When Homer, Moe, Lenny and Carl win the Springfield Lottery, Carl goes to cash in the ticket but fails to return and runs off to Iceland with the winnings. (S24 Ep19/22) [AD,S]
<category>Show</category>
<rating>
<value>G</value>
</rating>
<episode-num system="crid">C4EI0041105162151952 . 64408021 . </episode-num>
</programme>
The Simpsons
<sub-title>The Saga of Carl</sub-title> When Homer, Moe, Lenny and Carl win the Springfield Lottery, Carl goes to cash in the ticket but fails to return and runs off to Iceland with the winnings. (S24 Ep19/22) [AD,S]
<category>Show</category>
<rating>
<value>G</value>
</rating>
<episode-num system="crid">C4P30041105162151952 . 64408021 . </episode-num>
</programme>
Chris
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Well, that IS interesting. I have just configured EPGC on one of my PCs with DVB-T tuners and set it as the source for a few of the channels. As a test, I scheduled a couple of series using keywords on that PC as well as on another one (also with only DVB-T tuners), which is using MS/BDS date. On both of them, it came up with four scheduled recordings for Mighty Ships - once only per episode but for Alsaka Railroad, it came up with a scheduled recording for every showing of the same episode. This rather confirms that, as I thought, the problem IS with the source data and not a problem with EPGC.
I would like to have compared the listings on Quest and PBS America (being as they are the ones I have the most problems with) between EPGC and MS/BDS data on satellite and terrestrial but they are only shown on one or the other.
edit: ignore that, if the data is the same, it wouldn't prove anything.
Looking at tvguide.mxf I can see that there is only one showing of each episode of Mighty Ships and, although they have different program ids, they all have the same series info id. Whereas, there are multiple showings of each episode of Railroad Alaska but not only do they have different program ids, they also have different series info ids. Hardly surprising that WMC can't tell a repeat from a new programme.
Last edit: John Ford 2017-03-22
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I am using epg collector on ASTRA 28.2 and it works but I have a number of issues that have recently started.
1/ some recording requests create a schedule entry for every programme with the same name on every chennel including repeats and time shifted versions.
2/ some programmes start recording a few minutes late and have anything up to half an hour tagged on the end.
3/ some programme names get changed after an update;. e.g. I had a 3 part series where the individual episodes were all correct on the day they were recorded but changed to something etirely unrelated the next day. Its just the names under under the thumbnails that get chenged, the names are correct when you highlight or click them.
Attach the EPG Collector log file to a post.
here's the log as requested
Can you upload the TVGuide.mxf file (it is in the same directory as the log) somewhere and post the link so I can look at the data that was imported by WMC.
With your settings for the collection EPGC should be using the Sky series link to combine programmes into series such that WMC can establish which programmes to record. So it depends on what Sky is broadcasting. Give me an example that will be in the mxf file of a programme where multiple copies of the same programme were recorded.
EPGC is only responsible for the programme times in the WMC guide. If they are correct it must be something in WMC that is causing incorrect recording times.
I seem to remember this being reported a long time ago but I never managed to find any reason for it or recreate the problem. Again can you give me an example of a programme where this has happened.
this morning's files are here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/diuf0cgsaty3jdp/AABuPMb8PhdSOQb2EJdLuMmta?dl=0
I'll post the other information later
One series that shows the third problem is 'extraordinay people' on channel 5. when I scheduled it, I seleced the first episode and then record series. when the first program was recorded, the thumbnail title was 'I'm 20 but look 60 Extraordinary People' but on Thurday, it had changed to 'Boy with no face: 6 Months On'. When I highlight or open it, it shows as 'I'm 20 but look 60 Extraordinary People'. The name of the scheduled series has also been renamed to 'Boy with no face: 6 Months On'. Same thing happens with 'A cook abroad' - every time it is recorded, the title is correct but the next time I collect data, it changes the title and the series to the nname of the next programme.
The first programme in the series extraodinary people started as scheduled but has 10 minutes added to the end (second problem), but it doesn't seem to be happening so often now.
Last edit: John Ford 2017-02-19
I can't pick up that file - address invalid.
SF screwed up the link. It works if you copy and paste the link text.
Sorry, didn't enter the link in the correct format -:try this one:Last week's data
Last edit: John Ford 2017-02-27
An example of problem 1 - where a recording request schedules a recoding of every showing on on every channel including time shifted versions - is 'Secrets of the National Trust'. The series is set to record on 106 (Channel 5HD) only yet, every week, it schedules 7 additional recording on a number of other channels. I do use new and rerun because, for some unknown reason, I often miss showings when I set recording to new only. I assume some channels don't set the new flag?
As far as I am aware in the UK no info is broadcast indicating that a programme is "NEW". The only relevant data broadcast which EPG Collector extracts in is the "episode number". This is used by PVRs to make series recordings and also avoid duplicate recordings. This just happens to be the one for 'Secrets of the National Trust' broadcast on 27th Feb.:-
<episode-num system="crid">R5GIA . V3JDH5V . </episode-num>
The first block of characters is the Series ID so all episodes of this programme have the series ID “R5GIA” so the PVR looks for all programmes with this ID if you ask it to record the series.
The second block is the Unique Programme ID unique to that episode. Depending on the PVR or software it will check if you already have that episode recorded, or already scheduled or recently deleted it.
If you set a recording to be restricted to a single channel that is entirely under the control of WMC.
Nothing that EPGC does can influence that. All EPGC does is group programmes into series and label them so WMC can detect duplicates.
I appreciate the work you have done making this product freely available to us and I am sure that you have spent a great deal of time and effort creating and supporting it but WMC doesn't seem to work as well as it does with the MS provided guide data. I can only assume that the data EPG Collector gets isn't as good.
Also, if the problems I have are to do with WMC, I don't understatnd why I didn't have these problems before switching my channels over to data collected by EPG Collector.
Given that I now have 14 days of MS provided data, I am going to try putting it back to using that and see what happens.
It's possible your issues might have been caused by mixing data from Microsoft with data collected by EPGC.
Did you reset or recreate thw WMC database when you switched over to EPGC?
It's not the actual data that would cause a problem as that's likely to be very similar but the way it is imported into the WMC database. EPGC will label various entries in the WMC database in a different way to WMC and I'm not sure what the outcome would be of mixing the different labelling systems.
My recommendation in this situation is to delete and completely recreate the WMC database if you change from one method of EPG collection to another.
I have three satellites configured on my Living Room PC - Hotbird 13, Astra 19.2 and Astra 28.2 and there are currently 4288 channels listed in my guide.
Apart from a few of them, I have no idea which of those are live, which are dead and which actually get recorded because I mostly use keywords or program titles for series recording.
The last time I had to rebuild my system due to messing it up trying to get the epg working and finding that I couldn't restore from either a backup of the ehome folder or an image I had previously made, it took me nearly 2 weeks of faffing about to get it all working as it had been.
Hotbird and Astra 19.2 have been working throughout the most recent outage and it took me a week to get Astra 28.2 working properly by remapping the data on a channel by channel basis when I switched to using epg collector.
Apart from the problems I have outlined everything is now working well so I am very reluctant to delete the database and start from scratch in an attempt to resolve these issues in case it gets totally screwed up again.
No, I was only suggesting starting from scratch if you ended up without any MS data again and had to resort to EPGC.
Rebuilding your system would be a long winded process. Maybe a database reset would be sufficient, probably worth trying if you need to switch again.
I had a day when I could make a clone my HDD and switch over to running on the cloned drive. This means that I can play with system knowing that, if (when) MS stops updating the guide data again, I can swap back to the oher drive with EPGC as a source.
I have gone through resetting all the channels back to using MS provided data where it is available.
Now, when I re-index or update the guide data, scheduled recordings select one showing of a programme, ignoring all the otther showings on different channels and time shifted versions. It has only been a few days but, so far, I haven't seen any series names changed.or incorrect start/end times.
I can only assume that something is screwed up in the SKY data that EPGC uses.
If you need to switch back to EPGC make sure you reset or delete/recreate the database before you run the first EPGC collection.
Just a note to keep you up to date on my situation.
Since my last post I have been running on a mix of guide data sources in the following order of prefference: MS/BDS, SKY, EPGC.
The channels with MS and SKY provided data work fine but I'm sorry to say that, occasionally, I am still having the problems outlined above on channels where the guide data is being populated by EPGC.
So, I don't think the problem is having a mix of data sources.because the data being imported into the database by EPGC isn't affecting any of the other channels (as you would hope),.I think the issues are with the data it is importing.
Even so, I take my hat off to you for a great job in getting it working as well as it does given the data you you are working with.
Last edit: John Ford 2017-03-21
I'd be the first to say that my knowledge of WMC is not very extensive. I don't even use it myself.
There is also very little MS documentation on the import format or on how it can affect the contents of the database and hence the operation of WMC so I wouldn't be surprised if there were some issues.
When I have time I'll have another go at trying to recreate any of your problems.
Given that most people using EPGC appear not to have these problems, I wonder if it is because the data provided on sattelite broadcasts is entirely different from that provided on terrestrial broadcasts?
As I said, the issues outlined are happening on a PC. which only has DVB-S2 tuners so I will try setting up EPGC on a spare PC, which only has DVB-T tuners and see if that has the same problems.
The Freesat and Freeview EPG data from EPG Collector is identical. This is the same programme on Channel 4. The only difference is the Series ID part of the episode number and is to do with being different advertising regions.
Freeview
<programme start="20170322180000 +0000" stop="20170322183000 +0000" channel="8384">
<sub-title>The Saga of Carl</sub-title>
<category>Show</category>
<rating>
<value>G</value>
</rating>
<episode-num system="crid">C4EI0041105162151952 . 64408021 . </episode-num>
</programme>
Freesat
<programme start="20170322190000 +0000" stop="20170322193000 +0000" channel="8313">
<sub-title>The Saga of Carl</sub-title>
<category>Show</category>
<rating>
<value>G</value>
</rating>
<episode-num system="crid">C4P30041105162151952 . 64408021 . </episode-num>
</programme>
Chris
Well, that IS interesting. I have just configured EPGC on one of my PCs with DVB-T tuners and set it as the source for a few of the channels. As a test, I scheduled a couple of series using keywords on that PC as well as on another one (also with only DVB-T tuners), which is using MS/BDS date. On both of them, it came up with four scheduled recordings for Mighty Ships - once only per episode but for Alsaka Railroad, it came up with a scheduled recording for every showing of the same episode. This rather confirms that, as I thought, the problem IS with the source data and not a problem with EPGC.
I would like to have compared the listings on Quest and PBS America (being as they are the ones I have the most problems with) between EPGC and MS/BDS data on satellite and terrestrial but they are only shown on one or the other.
edit: ignore that, if the data is the same, it wouldn't prove anything.
Looking at tvguide.mxf I can see that there is only one showing of each episode of Mighty Ships and, although they have different program ids, they all have the same series info id. Whereas, there are multiple showings of each episode of Railroad Alaska but not only do they have different program ids, they also have different series info ids. Hardly surprising that WMC can't tell a repeat from a new programme.
Last edit: John Ford 2017-03-22