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[Daveyravey]

Hi Guys

Not sure if anyone else has seen this issue but since midnight 2013 i have lost all my TV guide data. I am in the UK if that helps.

Hope its just a simple fix.

cheers

[CountryBumkin]

No problems here with Guide - in USA.
Happy New Year.

[Micromecca]

I too have lost all my Guide data for FreesatHD in the UK, I had made a new post before noticing this one, sorry!

Today I turned on my HTPC and noticed I had no Channels to view in the TV Guide, flicked to Standard view to check TV setup and there was no EPG data there at all.
MC is configured to use the 'Automatically Download EPG (Recommended)' method and it has always worked fine until now. If I 'double-click here to setup a Program Guide' it works as expected apart from when it gets to 'Loading Data' the dialogue box disappears very quickly where it would usually take some time to fetch the data I presume?

[Daveyravey]

sounds like a uk specific issue. Maybe the guide listings are corrupted for the uk. Although it does seem to be to do with the year changing.

[Matt]

Do you believe the issue is with MC or with FreesatHD?

What happens if you manually reload the guide?

[Daveyravey]

It's definitely MC related happened at midnight. If I try to manually load any guides nothing appears in the guide listings.....anything you need me to send you ?  Log file etc ?

I use freeview and not free sat I wondered if it was anything to do with th guide provider changing something there end?

[Micromecca]

Do you believe the issue is with MC or with FreesatHD?

not sure how Freesat would be to blame? doesn't MC pull the data from an online service?

What happens if you manually reload the guide?

Same thing, the 'Loading Data' dialogue box flashes up briefly, where it would usually stay for some time and fetch data.

I can now confirm that its the same with MC17, I have switched to xmltv for now.

[Daveyravey]

can anyone explain how i set up MC to use xmltv for now?

I have installed but MC asks for

"Pass these command line argument to the executable"    What do i put in here?

Also "Load XMLTV results from this file"  What file ??

Hope someone can help as its frustrating not having a guide

Thanks

[Matt]

Could someone experiencing this issue give me step-by-step instructions to recreate it?

I'm testing the Load Program Guide dialog with 'Download EPG automatically' with: United States, 55418, Digital Terrestrial Lineup.  It seems to be working as expected for me.

Thanks for any help.

[Daveyravey]

Yes no problem i can try to explain my set up although i did notice something interesting earlier.

If i look at the guide data via standard view on 31st december 2012 the guide data is showing to be up to date. As soon as i move to 1st Jan 2013 all the guide data dissapears.

I can mail some screen shots if necessary or anything else you think i could send to help you figure this out.

My settings for the EPG are as follows :-

Download EPG automatically (IS SELECTED)

Country - UK

Postal Code - GL2 4SQ

Provider - Freeview - Ridge HIll

[JimH]

I think it's only a UK problem.

[Matt]

I can reproduce the issue using the UK address provided.

Can you get mc2xml to work?

How about Windows Media Center?

[NickF]

I am seeing the same problem on all my PCs with TV tuners.  I am using multiple providers as I have Freeview and Freesat.

Nick.

[NickF]

I can reproduce the issue using the UK address provided.

Can you get mc2xml to work?

How about Windows Media Center?

mc2xml doesn't work either.

Nick.

[NickF]

I have just gone through setup on Windows Mecia Center and it has the same problem, almost.  A couple of channels have a complete guide but most have either nothing or now and next.

I thought Microsoft had their own guide data infrastructure.  Do mc2xml and others use the MS data?

I'm going to do a quick search to see how widespread this is.

Nick.

[NickF]

Yes, there are others with WMC with the same problem.  No solutions.

Nick.

[Micromecca]

As Reported HERE a WMC user has been in touch with Red Bee (The Data Provider) who have confirmed that they passed the data onto Microsoft as usual, so it would seem that the problem lies with MS and they are apparently 'aware' of the problem.

I'm sorry I don't have time to explain how to setup XMLTV atm guys its been one of those days, but you can generate a basic xml guide with XMLTV GUI for Freeview/Freesat UK that you can instruct MC to use for now until Microsoft pull their finger out  

[Micromecca]

https://connect.microsoft.com/site1145/feedback/details/775012/no-uk-guide-data-past-01-01-2013

[NickF]

I have just installed and run EPGCollector and used the output file to supply MC and it works.  Their data is collected by the tuner and is independent of Red Bee and Microsoft.  I am only seeing one week of guide data.  I'm not sure whether that is all that is available or I have a setting wrong.  Much better than nothing!

I know SBR has suggested EPGCollector previously.  Thanks for the lead!

If anyone needs instructions, just shout and I will post something on the wiki.

Nick.

[NickF]

Hmmm!  EPG Collector may not be the alternative I had hoped.  It works OK for FreeView but there is no EPG data found for FreeSat.  It may be that it is affected by the Microsoft issue.  It may also be that I don't have the settings right.  If SBR reads this, perhaps he could give us some clues.


Edit:  It was a settings problem.  I now have FreeSat EPG too.

Nick.

[Daveyravey]

Would it be possible for someone on this forum to explain how to set up EPG collector to work with MC

cheers

[NickF]

Would it be possible for someone on this forum to explain how to set up EPG collector to work with MC

cheers

Davey,

Which country are you in and what tuner type(s) do you have, e.g. DVB-T.  I am on a learning curve myself at present but can share my experience to date.

Nick.

[Daveyravey]

Hi Nick

I'm in the uk and use Dvb t tuners freeview.  My transmitter is ridge hill. I installed epg collector and ran and scan but wasn't sure where and how to set the output file and also where to tell MC to look for it

Cheers

Dave

[NickF]

Hi Nick

I'm in the uk and use Dvb t tuners freeview.  My transmitter is ridge hill. I installed epg collector and ran and scan but wasn't sure where and how to set the output file and also where to tell MC to look for it

Cheers

Dave

You can save the .xml file wherever you like.  In MC, go to Drives & Devices > Television and select TV Options > Load Program Guide.  Choose the XMLTV option and click Next.  There is an option here to run an executable to create the new guide data.  I haven't got to that bit yet so leave that alone.  In the "Load XMLTV results field, browse to the file where you saved the .xml file.  Click next and you will be prompted to keep or use new matches.  Choose new as the XMLTVIDs will be different from what you had before.  As usual, check the matches and correct any which didn't work automatically.  Click next and make sure Automatically update is checked then finish.  You should now have guide data.

If you discover how to do the automatic updates, let me know.

Nick.

[Daveyravey]

Cheers Nick

Im struggling to get a sensible set of xml data from this programme.  Any chance you could detail the settings you used to pull the freeview epg info please.

Thanks

[Daveyravey]

It appears that Microsoft have fixed the EPG problem.................................

[Micromecca]

Confirmed, service seems to be back to normal.
Thanks for the heads up Davey 

[Sandy B Ridge]

Sorry to have gone AWOL. Just caught up with this thread. I now have a 6 week old baby to add to the hyperactive 18 month old, which have taken their toll on my postings!

@NickF: I thought the xmltvid for EPG Collector used a tuning parameter and so would be different for DVB-S and DVB-T giving duplicate entries in the xmltv file. Is that not the case? I'll try and check over the next few days.

I can post a quick guide to EPG Collector (in the UK at least) if anyone wants one - although it sounds like the Microsoft problem is now fixed.

SBR

[NickF]

Sorry to have gone AWOL. Just caught up with this thread. I now have a 6 week old baby to add to the hyperactive 18 month old, which have taken their toll on my postings!

@NickF: I thought the xmltvid for EPG Collector used a tuning parameter and so would be different for DVB-S and DVB-T giving duplicate entries in the xmltv file. Is that not the case? I'll try and check over the next few days.

I can post a quick guide to EPG Collector (in the UK at least) if anyone wants one - although it sounds like the Microsoft problem is now fixed.

SBR

Great news about the baby.  Congratulations.

I can confirm that the ids are different for DVB-T and S.  It took me a while to get things set up cleanly and got some confusing results while I was grappling with it.

It is a real challenge with multiple tuner types to do the matching of guide to channel.  There is no clue in either data set.  This is an issue which Yaobing needs to look at, particularly with the constraint of only using an XMLTVID only once.  I have renamed every channel to include an S or T and then modified all the EPG Collector names to match.  Auto Match then marries them up.  Without this, it is guesswork and if you get it wrong, you get no guide data.

Nick.

[Daveyravey]

SBR

I would like a quide to EPG collector if possible.

cheers

Dave

[JimH]

... I now have a 6 week old baby to add to the hyperactive 18 month old, ...

Happy news.  Congratulations.

[NickF]

I have had a play with EPG Collector and have got it working OK with MC.  I am currently disappointed with the data included. 

The MC automatic guide option, based on mc2xml, has more data included. There is also 2 weeks worth of schedule.  Episode names are included explicitly.  Season and Episode numbers are not included. 

With EPG Collector, Episode names are placed at the front of the description, delimited by a colon, and not used by MC.  Only 1 week of schedule is included.  There are many settings within EPG Collector which I haven't yet tried.  Maybe SBR can help with these.

My only reason for looking seriously at EPG Collector was to try to resolve the channel to guide mapping with multiple tuner types which is possible, although time consuming.  I can't see any way of resolving this with mc2xml.

On balance, I think the auto (mc2xml) solution is better but needs improving.

Nick.

[Sandy B Ridge]

I have had a play with EPG Collector and have got it working OK with MC.  I am currently disappointed with the data included. 

The MC automatic guide option, based on mc2xml, has more data included. There is also 2 weeks worth of schedule.  Episode names are included explicitly.  Season and Episode numbers are not included. 

With EPG Collector, Episode names are placed at the front of the description, delimited by a colon, and not used by MC.  Only 1 week of schedule is included.  There are many settings within EPG Collector which I haven't yet tried.  Maybe SBR can help with these.

My only reason for looking seriously at EPG Collector was to try to resolve the channel to guide mapping with multiple tuner types which is possible, although time consuming.  I can't see any way of resolving this with mc2xml.

On balance, I think the auto (mc2xml) solution is better but needs improving.

Nick.

Agree with all points above. The main reason I went for EPG Collector was that mc2xml didn't give a complete channel lsting data for all channels in DVB-T and DVB-S. Although TBH I have abandoned DVB-T since my aerial shifted in the high winds a few months ago. So it now has more disadvantages than advantages for me.

I think the 7 day data is all that is broadcast OTA.

Setting it up is a bit fiddly if you want both sets of data, although it does come with some sensible freesat presets if you're happy with just one provider.

The xmltv identifier from EPG collector is the service ID for the channel. In theory MC should be able to auto match these perfectly (as long as the MC channel list is as recent as the xmltv one - it does change from time to time). Maybe Yaobing could set up this additional parameter for the EPG Auto Match process.

I promise I'll do a step by step guide over the next few days (childcare willing!).

SBR

[NickF]

Thanks for the updates, Sandy.

I don't know if it's a UK particular problem but finding comprehensive guide data sources for dvb-s is virtually impossible.

Here is a critical question for Yaobing - with the auto guide setup option, can we run through this process multiple times and compile a combined set of guide provider relationships to get 100% coverage of all TV channels?  I assumed that there was an .xml file created somewhere which held this data but I think it's a .cab file.  This is critical, both for complete FreeSat coverage and, more importantly, for multiple tuner types - for me, DVB-S and DVB-T.

Accurate matching of scanned channel names from multiple tuners/carriers with guide provider channel names is virtually impossible.  The same names are often used by both carriers.  This is why single use of an XMLTVID is such a problem.

Please help, Yaobing!

Nick.