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Author Topic: Automatically load program guide  (Read 4528 times)

jagt777

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Automatically load program guide
« on: July 03, 2012, 12:12:27 pm »

I have been struggling with the program guide auto load function for some time now and would greatly appreciate some help.  I retrieve an xmltv guide on a daily basis and have tried to setup MC 17 to load this file.  When I manually go through the Load Program Guide process it works like a charm.  Having checked the Automatically load the guide once a day, however, has yet to result in the guide being loaded.

Once setup, I can double click and the load occurs (with all the load guide options set from the previous manual load) but it will not auto load in the background.  MC is setup to run as a Media Server and the computer is always running.  The registry appears to have a full compliment of EPG entries including  'EPG - Load Mode' and 'EPG - Load Recurring', both set to 1.

The guide I have (IceTV) contains 5 days data so the manual load lasts for 5 days after which I no longer have a program guide and need to do another manual load.

Is there any way to force a reload of the program guide (either in Theater view or via program)?
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pauly139

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Re: Automatically load program guide
« Reply #1 on: July 03, 2012, 08:19:42 pm »

Hi jagt777

Sounds like my setup is the same as yours. I have IceTV loading automatically, and can't see anything you have missed. So sorry I can't help, but thought you might like to know it does work with IceTV.

Paul.
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jagt777

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Re: Automatically load program guide
« Reply #2 on: July 03, 2012, 09:49:26 pm »

Thanks Pauly139, at least I know there is hope  ;)
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imugli

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Re: Automatically load program guide
« Reply #3 on: July 04, 2012, 01:51:36 am »

Hi Jag,

Can you post a screenshot of the TVGuide config screen, showing your file locations etc.?

I'm using IceTV as well, so it should be something we can get sorted :-)

jagt777

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Re: Automatically load program guide
« Reply #4 on: July 04, 2012, 02:24:54 am »

Hi Imugli,

I've attached a shot of the config screen.

I use TVScheduler to download the guide and store the xmltv in a couple of different locations.  My first thought was some sort of permissions issue on the xmltv file (I was using the same file for both MC and TVScheduler) so I stored a new copy in the jriver install directory.  I have checked the file and the file date is definitely updated but MC is being quite stubborn about this.

Manually loading the guide from this location works fine but it just wont happen automatically.

 Thanks for any insight (fingers crossed)...

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pauly139

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Re: Automatically load program guide
« Reply #5 on: July 04, 2012, 08:07:16 am »

Mine is different.

I am using the XMLTV option, then on the next page of the setup have

"C:\windows\webget.exe" as the command line string, and

"http://iceguide.icetv.com.au/cgi-bin/epg/iceguide.cgi?op=xmlguide" -u username -p password -o C:\xml\xmlguide.xml

(replace username and password with whatever yours are in the above line)

Finally I then have

C:\xml\xmlguide.xml

as the file to load the resultant xml from.

HTH
Paul
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imugli

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Re: Automatically load program guide
« Reply #6 on: July 04, 2012, 07:40:10 pm »

Yep.

You need to download webget from IceTv's website -

http://support.icetv.com.au/entries/20108166-setting-up-icetv-and-sagetv#downloadandsetupwebget

Then run it from MC as Pauly has suggested.

jagt777

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Re: Automatically load program guide
« Reply #7 on: July 05, 2012, 12:32:53 am »

Thanks guys.  I've done it by the book (pauly's instructions) this time so we'll see what happens.

I was pretty much doing all of this but using wget.exe and it all happened outside of MC.  I was trying to get MC to consume the xmltv.xml that was produced by TVScheduler but I'm happy to use webget.exe as part of MC if it will convince MC to play nice.

Thanks for the advice and I'll report back on how it goes (fingers still crossed)..
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jagt777

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Re: Automatically load program guide
« Reply #8 on: July 06, 2012, 11:24:59 am »

Well, as I feared, this hasn't changed the outcome  :(

I have checked the 'Run executable to retrieve XMLTV data' and set the executable to 'c:\xmltv\webget.exe' and the command line argumnent to 'http://iceguide.icetv.com.au/cgi-bin/epg/iceguide.cgi?op=xmlguide&days=6&desc_length=0 -u <username> -p <password> -o c:\xmltv\icetv.xml'.

Manually running the process updates the xmltv file (and updates the last refreshed data') but, over 24 hours later and the file hasn't been updated and the 'program guide last refreshed' date is still the last manual load.

Does anybody know how the refresh function works?  Does the refresh occur 24 hours later (at the same time)?  I am wondering as I would like to turn logging on in an attempt to capture some information on what happens.

I've attached an image of the registry hive containing the EPG entries which was taken on the 7/7/2012 at 02:15:00 which clearly shows the lack of updates (the last user dialog was me checking the parameters at 02:06:05).

Other than a complete re-install, does anybody have any other ideas?
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imugli

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Re: Automatically load program guide
« Reply #9 on: July 06, 2012, 06:22:18 pm »

Not at home right now...

Will check my command line arguments for you when I get home this afternoon.

We'll get you there  ;D

raym

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Re: Automatically load program guide
« Reply #10 on: July 07, 2012, 10:45:22 pm »

@Jagt - FWIW you shouldn't need to make the webget call from inside MC. I do it exactly as you've shown in the 5th post and it works fine for me (as you know  ;)). 

From memory, you're not the first to report difficulties in getting MC to auto load guide data.

I'm sure we'll get to the bottom of it but in the meantime, a question for Yaobing: Is there a "Secret" MCC command for forcing guide data to load? If not, I really think this would be a great idea. Not just as a workaround. Some people may prefer to schedule their guide updates at specific times to ensure their PC is on and connected to the internet, for instance.

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Yaobing

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Re: Automatically load program guide
« Reply #11 on: July 08, 2012, 01:12:03 pm »

@Jagt - FWIW you shouldn't need to make the webget call from inside MC. I do it exactly as you've shown in the 5th post and it works fine for me (as you know  ;)).  

You do it exactly the same way, including the location of the file?


Quote
From memory, you're not the first to report difficulties in getting MC to auto load guide data.
Is there an issue of user permissions?  I think "Program Files" folder requires elevated permissions.

Quote
I'm sure we'll get to the bottom of it but in the meantime, a question for Yaobing: Is there a "Secret" MCC command for forcing guide data to load? If not, I really think this would be a great idea. Not just as a workaround. Some people may prefer to schedule their guide updates at specific times to ensure their PC is on and connected to the internet, for instance.


There is no secret MCC  :)
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Yaobing Deng, JRiver Media Center

raym

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Re: Automatically load program guide
« Reply #12 on: July 08, 2012, 05:07:40 pm »

You do it exactly the same way, including the location of the file?

Well, the file location is different. My file resides under d:\data. I think jagt has explored this though and perhaps he will confirm.

There is no secret MMC  :)

Ok, thanks for confirming. I didn't think it existed but still think it would be a nice addition :)
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jagt777

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Re: Automatically load program guide
« Reply #13 on: July 09, 2012, 05:08:33 am »

Thanks Guys.

As to Yaobing's question, yep, I have tried it in a couple of different locations (including c:\xmltv).

Now for the newsflash.  The guide just updated!

I was trawling through a captured log file and noticed frequent "CTVRecordingManager::Process: skipping since recording is not enabled" entries.  Based on this, I enabled recording (through TV Options/Settings) and the guide reload occurred almost immediately.

I've left everything else the same and will review tomorrow but it looks like the 'skipping' mentioned in the above message may include the guide update?

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Yaobing

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Re: Automatically load program guide
« Reply #14 on: July 09, 2012, 07:57:43 am »

I've left everything else the same and will review tomorrow but it looks like the 'skipping' mentioned in the above message may include the guide update?

Yes.  Guide data and recording are included.
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Yaobing Deng, JRiver Media Center

Matt

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Re: Automatically load program guide
« Reply #15 on: July 09, 2012, 09:09:30 am »

Disabling recording disables guide updates.

Is there some reason you would want recording disabled but guide updating enabled?
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Matt Ashland, JRiver Media Center

jagt777

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Re: Automatically load program guide
« Reply #16 on: July 09, 2012, 12:40:26 pm »

I s'pose my config is a bit different.  I use TVSchedulerPro to do all my program recording and use MC for playback and live TV.

The guide became an issue for me as the default setup didn't provide an alternative way of watching live TV (it would just show an empty schedule).  I ended up setting up a new view of TV channels just so that I could watch live TV.  It wasn't a show stopper, just annoying that I couldn't get the guide to update.

I tend to turn off features that I'm not using and it looks like this one caught me on the hop  :'(

Oh well, problem now solved.  Thanks for the support guys.  Much appreciated.
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Z0001

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Re: Automatically load program guide
« Reply #17 on: July 12, 2012, 06:45:52 pm »

Mine is different.

I am using the XMLTV option, then on the next page of the setup have

"C:\windows\webget.exe" as the command line string, and

"http://iceguide.icetv.com.au/cgi-bin/epg/iceguide.cgi?op=xmlguide" -u username -p password -o C:\xml\xmlguide.xml

(replace username and password with whatever yours are in the above line)

Finally I then have

C:\xml\xmlguide.xml

as the file to load the resultant xml from.

HTH
Paul

Not at the pc right now.  Can the user tell mc how frequently, on which day of the week  and at what time of day to run the EPG grab from the Internet?
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imugli

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Re: Automatically load program guide
« Reply #18 on: July 13, 2012, 12:10:44 am »

You can only advise MC to automatically update daily.
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