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[CountryBumkin]

It seems that the last couple of updates 149 to 160 have wiped out my TV guide (on both MC16 HTPCs). Is this expected behavior, or to I have something setup wrong.
Of course when it wipes out the guide, I lose the "stuff set up to be recorded". That's the only real pain.

[JimH]

That shouldn't happen.  Are you uninstalling?  It's not necessary.

[CountryBumkin]

No. Not uninstalling. I may have put the folder for guide data "mc2xl" (or whatever its called) in the JRiver program directory/folders - for organizational reasons (I check when I get home tonight). Does the MC update overwrite all of the JRiver folders or just ones that have changes?

[JimH]

No. Not uninstalling. I may have put the folder for guide data "mc2xl" (or whatever its called) in the JRiver program directory/folders - for organizational reasons (I check when I get home tonight). Does the MC update overwrite all of the JRiver folders or just ones that have changes?

Move it to My Documents or similar. 

[CountryBumkin]

I'm still having this problem where each MC update erases my guide data. It's not that big of a problem since MC doesn't update all that often (well, lately it has been - and thanks for improving the program).

The "mc2xml" program data is being written to the windows "app data/roaming/JRiver" folders. I do not know how to have this TV guide data written elsewhere - I don't have/see an obvious choice regarding where to have the data written. I moved the mc2xml program but the data is still being written to the same place.

[Yaobing]

I am not seeing this problem.  MC16 updated my guide data at around 1:00 PM.  I then installed the latest version 16.0.175, at around 1:25 PM.  My guide data was not erased, and the file mc2xml.dat is still there (with 12:59 PM time on it).

[JimH]

Make sure the data is stored in a folder other than the Program Files folder that MC uses.

[CountryBumkin]

Thanks for replying back so quickly. Maybe I am just not seeing what I think I should see. When I open "Drives and Devices" and go to Television, I get a message centered on the screen that says "There are no programs available. Double click here to load the guide". Then I double click and the mc2xl program runs again - which then fills in the program guide. When the mc2xl program runs a "DOS" type window opens and I can see that it is downloading to app data/roaming/j river/....  Is this the way it is supposed to work?

[CountryBumkin]

Make sure the data is stored in a folder other than the Program Files folder that MC uses.

I know you suggested this earlier - but I don't know how to tell the program where to download to. I don't seem to have a choice where the data goes.

[Yaobing]

This is puzzling.

The EPG data should be in the database, and therefore should never be erased.  The mc2xml.dat file is automatically downloaded into the AppData/roaming/j river/.... folder, but it should not matter because once the guide data is obtained from it, they should be in the database.

[CountryBumkin]

Is the database stored on the local (client) computer or would it be on the computer where my main Library resides (the server)? Because I don't have a TV tuner on the server computer, but both my client computers have tuners (and save recordings to their local hard drives).

[Yaobing]

I think that maybe the problem.  So your tuners are with the computer that is in client mode?  I will have to look into this to find out how the EPG data is saved.  If it is saved locally, then we might see the problem you are seeing.

[CountryBumkin]

I think that maybe the problem.  So your tuners are with the computer that is in client mode?  I will have to look into this to find out how the EPG data is saved.  If it is saved locally, then we might see the problem you are seeing.

Yes. That is my setup. Each client has a tv tuner card and is setup to record to its local drive. The server has no tuner and therefore is not setup to show guide data.

MC is still new to me and perhaps this is not the proper or best way to set things up. I have still not setup Theater View to even list/show these recordings (but live TV works fine). I've been working on ripping my movie collection to JRiver and not paid much attention to the TV side yet.

[Sandy B Ridge]

Then I double click and the mc2xl program runs again - which then fills in the program guide. When the mc2xl program runs a "DOS" type window opens and I can see that it is downloading to app data/roaming/j river/....  Is this the way it is supposed to work?

Hi CountryBumpkin

I found xmltvgui a more friendly way of producing the XML file. It gives more of a graphical interface for configuration and allows you to choose a place to save the file. I then point MC to this file (I actually save it in the xmltvgui folder rather than JRiver as I know this isn't going to get overwritten). I then get MC to call this app with a couple of OS switches to force it to be 'silent' ie no DOS or GUI window pops up.

www.birtles.org.uk/xmltv

I can post a screencap of the MC config for it when I get home if you like.

SBR

[CountryBumkin]

Yes Sandy, I woul dbe very intertested in trying out this guide. Please post instructions on how to set it up.
I'll visit the site you linked to when I get home tonight.

[Sandy B Ridge]

OK, here goes, apologies for the superlong post!

Get xmltvgui from

www.birtles.org.uk/xmltv

Once you've installed xmltvgui and run it, you get a rather blank looking window which is a bit disconcerting at first.



Just go to the Tools -> Settings option which opens the configuration options



Click on the grabbers tab and choose one suitable for your region. Mine is UK Radio Times. Once this is highlighted it gives you a couple of extra buttons in the bottom pane. Choose Channels. This allows you to just grab the info for the channels that you receive, good for multiregional stuff so that you don't have to waste time downloading info for channels that you don't want.



Just add the channels that you need into the right hand pane and OK.

Next click on the Global Settings and xml pane.



Put the right bits in here and choose a location for the file. Click OK and then in the main program window click of Grab Listings (to produce a file for MC to find).  Then you're done with this program. Just close it down.

Next in the Program guide bit of MC16 choose XMLTV and next.



Then the location of the program and xml data and the two switches (which tell it to automatically run and silently), then next, there might ba a slight delay as the xltvgui runs and grabs some data,



Then comes the annoying bit, but you only have to do it once. Matching up the XML to your channels. Auto match doesn't work for me!



Then next and the Do this automatically thing and you're done.



It does seem a bit random when the download happens, but I find it does work once a day when the PC is on. I haven't found that it wakes up from sleep to do it, but if you set a recording whilst you are away which wakes the PC up, then it should update the info.

Hope it works for you.

SBR

[Yaobing]

I can confirm the problem of losing guide data on client machine.  This is caused by the nature of client-server setup.  When running MC in client mode, it uses a copy of the server library.  Since your tuner is not on the server, the server library does not have TV channel and guide entries.  Thus each time the client restarts, there is no guide data.

My advice is if you are going to always run a computer in client mode, move your tuners to server.  Setup the server to update EPG automatically.  Now you will always have TV programs.

However, for now, you can not directly watch live TV from a client if the tuner is on the server.  You can schedule a program to be recorded (can be done either at the server or at a client - make sure turn on authentication and allow changes on clients to be synchronized back to server), then watch recorded shows on a client.

In the future we will make watching live TV on a client work.

[CountryBumkin]

Thanks for the confirmation. I really can't move the tuners because I don't have an antenna connection at my server location - and I want to have live TV at these client machines. So the easiest thing for me, is to just reload the guide data whenever I update. At least I know what is going on now.