Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[CountryBumkin]

The new TV improvements are awesome. I really appreciate the emphasis lately on improving this aspect of MC.

I have a couple of questions on what I'm seeing during my setup. I have two Guide Data sources 1) using XMLTV (from Zap2it) and 2) using "Automatic" EPG data collection.

My understanding is that by having two guide sources MC will be able to fill in any missing guide info.
So if my XMLTV data is missing station 2.1, the Auto EPG data will fill in the missing data. Is this correct? at least it seems to be working this way.

Question - Part 1
Which source is considered the primary data source (is it the XMLTV?) (meaning if data is available from both Guide sources, does one get used first/over the other? Is in the order the Guides are listed? In my case "Auto" is listed first. It may just be listed in alphabetical order. I want the XMLTV data to be used first.

Also, in the setup (under "Schedule Guide Reload") I have this:
Guide Mode       Tuner Profile       Details
Auto                      -----                   Country: USA, Postal Code:32766, Digital terrestrial Lineup
XMLTV                   ATSC                  Data File: D:\XMLTV\xmltv/xml

Does the fact that I do not have a Tuner Profile listed for the "Auto" mean something is not set up correctly?


Question - Part 2
After completing the "Schedule Guide Reloading" above, and with the box checked to "load guide now", the next step takes me to the "Loading Guide Data page.

Here, I can use the "Auto Match" to configure most of the stations. When I'm done and hit Next, the "Loading Guide Data screen comes up a second time. I assume this is because there are two guide data sources. But this second time, the "Auto Match" doesn't work. I have to configure each station individually. Is this normal?

Question - Part 3,
When I configure the stations manually (from above description) channels 2.1 and 2.2 are listed four or five times each. All the other channels are just listed once. I'm having problems with channel 2.1. It doesn't load all of the guide data (for example it will have an entry for 4PM which then fills in the next 12 hours on the guide. When there are actually many different programs on this channel over that same period).
I think it may be because there are four or five channels listed for 2.1 (and only one is correct). How can I clear out all the 2.1 and 2.2 channels so I can start over clean (somewhere in the Registry)?

[Yaobing]

No, MC does not use the second source to fill any missing info.  The user has to know exactly what he/she wants to do with the second source.

It is hard to communicate a precise message to the users on a dialog window about how this should work.  I will give more detailed explanation as I answer your specific questions, but briefly, MC uses "XMLTV channel IDs" that are in guide data file to map a specific program to an MC channel.  There is only one XMLTV ID associated with each channel.  That is probably where the confusion comes.

Now your specific questions:

Part 1 - No, it does not matter whether a loading method is associated with a tuner profile or not.  Each loading method will attempt to put a program in the database by associating it to a particular channel.

Part 2 - I have not figured out a best way of dealing with this.  I am not sure why Auto Match does not work, but it should, unless your second data file has channel names that do not match the channel names.  That said, when the second mapping dialog shows up, it is absolutely necessary to carry out some manual intervention.  You can run Auto Match, but when it asks you whether you want to use new ID or existing ID, you should answer Existing ID, so that you will not undo the mapping done in the first time.  Then you should do manual matching of any channel you want to use the second method for, and leave alone all channels that you want to use the first method, even if they appear to have no match at all - because if you make a match for a channel during the second loading, then the data from the second loading will be associated with that channel.

Part 3 - Are you saying you have multiple channels for 2.1 and 2.2 in MC's channel list?  Not multiple entries for these channels in the XMLTV data?  To clear the multiple channels in MC, go to Manage Channels, and delete all affected channels, and then do a rescan of channels.   Or you can examine each affected channel in the Manage Channels tool, and decide if it is a good one or bad one, and delete just the bad ones (this requires you knowing your channel parameters - for ATSC, the Major channel, minor channel, and physical channel numbers).

[Yaobing]

The only exception to what I said about XMLTV ID is the Over-the-air EPG scan.  If you use that, the data obtained from the scan will always overwrite the existing program data obtained using other method, unless you use the new option "In over-the-air EPG scan (ATSC only), save programs for channels with empty XMLTV ID only".

[CountryBumkin]

Part 3 - Are you saying you have multiple channels for 2.1 and 2.2 in MC's channel list?  Not multiple entries for these channels in the XMLTV data?  To clear the multiple channels in MC, go to Manage Channels, and delete all affected channels, and then do a rescan of channels.   Or you can examine each affected channel in the Manage Channels tool, and decide if it is a good one or bad one, and delete just the bad ones (this requires you knowing your channel parameters - for ATSC, the Major channel, minor channel, and physical channel numbers).

Thanks for explaining.

The channel list in the Guide only has one channel 2.1 as it should. But the guide data (shown in Theater View) for that channel is not complete. I get a program for a specific time (maybe a couple of time slots) but the entire guide is filled as it is for the other channels.

To try to explain better - when I'm in the setup and I get to the step where I need to "match the channels found during the scan" to "stations data" obtained from XMLTV or OTA, (this is also where Auto Match doesn't work) when I click on the "click here to configure", that opens a listing of all the stations then I match that channel to a station from the list (for example, channel "56.1 ION TV" is matched to station "WOPTX-DT1").

Usually there is just one station per channel. But in the case of channel 2.1 there are four or five 2.1 stations listed in the popup list. I tried selecting the top of the list 2.1 and also tried with the bottom 2.1 - I don't know if there is any difference or not (but 2.1 and 2.2 are the only stations that have repeats on the list).
The list looks like this:
2.1 WESHDT
2.1 WESHDT
2.1 WESHDT
2.1 WESHDT
2.1 WESHDT
2.2 WESHSD
2.2 WESHSD
2.2 WESHSD
2.2 WESHSD
6.1 WOFLDT1
6.2  WOFLDT2
6.3  etc.
9.1
9.2
9.3
18.1
etc.  (only the 2.1 and 2.2 stations are repeated). Perhaps I need to get a screen shot. It's hard to explain this stuff.
I've cleared everything and started over , but the "repeated" 2.1 and 2.2 stations are still on the list when I get back to that setup step.

[Yaobing]

That means your xmltv data file contain multiple entries of those channels.

Try opening the file D:\XMLTV\xmltv.xml in Internet explorer and find the channels:

<tv ....
   <channel ...
   <channel ...

etc. and see if you can find multiple channel entries with the same name

[CountryBumkin]

Thanks again.
I went back the xml file, and sure enough there are multiple listings for channels 2.1 and 2.2. I deleted them all and re-ran the Zap2it program. Now I have just two entries each for 2.1 and 2.2.

What is odd is that these entries have different "identifiers" (that's what I call them). It is like 2.1 has one listing with  I77465.zap2it.xxxxx and the other as 2.1 I764231.zap2it.xxxx (I forget what came after the first ".") so there must be some difference in the station info (maybe one is a English language station guide and one is a Spanish listing).

Anyways, thanks for explaining again.