Cliff Watson EPG add-on for MyHD, FusionHDTV, and HD Homerun - Page 3

Works fine for me also.

Is that channel mapped? Was it within 26 Hours? Were there other conflicts? What does your log show?

Everyone was right... it was the 26 hour thing... it shows up now. I just knew it was on tomorrow, but missed it by a few hours....

It would really be helpful if it could be stretched to 48 hours.

Russ

Hi,

Great job gang!

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Occasionally way before MyHDAuto I have seen phantom scheduling conflicts.

The first time I saved the scheduling to a file, deleted the registry entries and reloaded the file. Then all was fine.

More recently I believe that I have removed the phantom scheduling conflicts by changing the once scheduling (Monday 3/27/2006) to a repeat -M----- (hint: It takes only one more character) and then deleting the entry after the recording.

I have not pinned down the exact conditions, but there is an bug in MyHD when checking One Day with SMTWTFS entries IMHO.

Stephen H. Fischer

Haven't seen this behavior. But since you're on the subject... for anyone that may still be using MyHDAuto, one of the bugs that was fixed in CW_EPG is checking for conflicts with recurring schedules. MyHDAuto did NOT do this at ALL.

I am bowing to the MyHD Gods, THANK YOU!

I have one issue though. Everything seems to have run just fine following the readme. On the part where you do the Post Data though for it to show up in the MyHD EPG, mine doesn't populate. When I hit the guide button the guide appears with the correct date and time at the top but on the left side of the window it shows Dec 30. Anybody know why it's not populating?

Did you replace the original "MyHD.exe" with the new one from the download package (Backing up the old of course)?

Did you have MyHD running when you posted the EPG data? If so, changes will not be visible until you restart MyHD.

How about allowing for a before and after pad? Normally, when I record, I pad a minute before and a minute after unless there is a conflict.
Thanks for a great product - really makes the usability go up for MyHD....

BTW - am I the only one who has the right-click in the match list window being "off by 1" (i.e. I actually have to right click on the item below the item I want to affect)/

Yes. I currently have the .exe from the zip file and the old one that I renamed to the preEPG as instructed. I created a new shortcut using the new .exe and plced it on the desktop. MyHD was not running at anytime while I set up the EPG data.

Are you waiting long enough before exiting out of CW_EPG, and before starting MyHD, for the databases to be built?

I was having the same problem with no data in the MyHD EPG, and then realized I was exiting out of CW_EPG too fast. I'm using an old P3 1Ghz machine for my HTPC, so it takes quite some time for the new database to build on my machine (plus I've got about 30 channels in my list).

I like the pad option as well, it would be a little bit complicated due to the other 'confilct' padding, but would be really neat.

I also have the "off by 1" i mentioned it in the alpha testing, but I never followed up.

My comments on padding and I don't know if it's possible or not, but I actually like how Microsoft handles padding of shows on MCE.

It will always try to schedule 1 minute early and 2 minutes longer for everything it records. So if a show isn't surrounded by another recording, you'll always get a little padding. If not, then the priority can kick into play or... if they are on the same channel it shouldn't matter, because you'll be recording it either way...

Did that make sense?

I have thought about the padding also and it will be on the to do list.

I'll work on the right-click also.

I will throw in some sort of completion message. Hopefully as it is now, one sees the status of whats going on in the description area at the bottom of the app, along with progress bars when the data is actually being written out. The 10 day data is only written if there was a new 10 day data download.


Do you have a "cw_epg.mdb" file in your CW_EPG directory when you are finished? What is the file size of that file?

Can you look in the MyHD registry branch and confirm their is a "EXTERNAL_EPG_FILE" key and make sure that points to the proper path for "cw_epg.mdb".

Theoretical question, not sure if it's covered in one of the 57 other threads related to general operation...

But let's say you set a season pass for Lost (which as I've discovered in disgust, recently started to run past the hour), and you also set a pass for a different network program (different channel) that starts in theory at 10 pm...

Given that show times are coming from zap2it, will it know that the show runs long? And, if so, will it indicate a conflict with another season pass set for 10pm at the point you create the pass?

What if you've set a season pass for 2 shows on different channels, successive hours, and at some point in the future, the network decides to let it run long--how would that be handled?

On reading what I just wrote, it's somewhat cryptic even to me... so, an example:

Season pass set for the months of April, May, June for program ABC, and for the same months, program XYZ gets a season pass. Two different channels, and they run in successive time slots. Starting in May, program ABC starts to run 5 minutes past the hour. What happens to program XYZ? How is this conflict resolved?

Will the first program be cut off and the second program start recording on the hour?

I hate to be the first to say it, but it would help a lot if folks would RTFM, i.e. (Readme File).

That said....

Most of the time, the times from Zap2it are correct and, yes, do indicate the extra minute or so that seems to be hot with the networks now.

Secondly, depends on your settings. If you have entered a non zero value in the "Correct For Overlap" setting under the Options, and that extra time falls within that parameter, then the lesser priority "watch" will get adjusted accordingly. If you have 0 set for Overlaps, then yes you will get a conflict and the lesser priority show will not get scheduled.

.mdb file is there and weighs in at 3.6mb. I have standard cable so I mapped about 50 or so channels. I get probably 15 using QAM but I have to go verify what channels are for what stations before I add them.

The file is in the registry and appears to be pointed correctly. It is pointed to program files\\myhd\\cw_epg\\cw_epg.mdb

Does anyone know if I only use this program to populate the EPG and not for scheduling recordings using named based recording option will it run ok with Record This??? Or will it cause issues???

Thanks.

I can't think of any reason why it would be a problem.

However, CW_EPG no longer uses the xmltv format so that data is not compatible. You would still need to do your xmltv thing with RT.

Nothing beats pressing a button and getting the first few frames of a show. I wouldn't care if it was configurable, but geeze, my clock is dead-on with the station and I LIKE having not to surf commercials at the beginning, so I vote "no pad" or "configurable to zero pad". Besides, scheduling conflicts is difficult enough to code without all of these kinds of things!

--Dale--
PS: After all of my bragging of starting on time, I had a MyHD recording kick off 9 minutes late last night because I was transcoding something for DVD (my CPU was pegged). But normally it starts 6 to 8 seconds late, by the file creation timestamp. So I take it back, I want to configure the starting pad to 8 seconds!

Dustin... You have a PM!

I may be beating a dead horse that has been planted already since I may have not seen it after I installed 1.66.

The first time, after I saved the scheduled entries I remember deleting then one by one and there were entries still left in the registry when MyHD showed none.

With the transition to HDAuto and CW_EPG I do not expect to see this again as my methods are changing.

Perhaps we can make a registry dumping method that is safe for all to use based on the one for I.E. so if anyone sees this we can capture the registry data.

That is off line on a CD currently as I am in the process of scraping my laptop's hard drive down to bare metal for many reasons.

Explain further please. By entries left in the registry, you mean you physically looked at the registry itself and found entries, or using CW_EPG or MyHD you still observed scheduled captures?

If it is the former rather than the latter, then this is normal.

Just like to say thanks for this guide, guys. It works well so far for me. Picked up show, recorded them, and the detailed log info is great.

I would, however like to add my voice to those wishing for padding. I think anyone who has a TiVo, or TiVo like device can appreciate the use of padding (pre and post show.) I pad ALL of my shows, without it you end up missing the begining or end of darn near everything. Or at least it seems that way. It only takes a few endings missed to ruin the whole expeirence. I'd like to be able to determine the amount of padding, as well, if doable.

Thanks again

Hi,

That may be normal, but see the last of this post.

Let me say that I made the first post because the discussion on CW_EPG was drifting toward that it must be a CW_EPG problem. I simply wanted to post an alert that I had seen phantom scheduling conflicts long before HDAuto appeared so the finger pointing at CW_EPG should be reduced a bit.

I have seen the phantom scheduling conflicts several times, sufficient to build my option that there may be a problem. I have not seen phantom scheduling conflicts enough times to cause me to go on a bug hunt. As the last time was 2-3 months ago I do not have a fresh memory. As I found a workaround by changing the new entry from once scheduling (Monday 3/27/2006) to a repeat -M----- and I remember doing that several times, that's why I suspect a mixed 3/27/2006 vs -M----- checking condition.

Yes, I did look at the registry with regedit. You say that "RESERVATION_INFO_VCH_049" stuff left is normal. OK. What is the method that the entries are marked inactive. Or is there a counter?

How did the entries get into the registry or inactive ones being considered active? Probably by the numerous crashes I see every week. I had another one a few hours ago, the picture and sound just stopped and my HTPC with MyHD would not respond at all. Pressing the "Dead Start Button" (Reset) was needed to continue.

Then when I was backing up on my full time (2 Hours, 2 minutes) time shift files the video was lost (black). I closed MyHD and restarted it and I was able to backup and watch the news which was time shifted while I watched an analog channel earlier.

Until I or someone else sees a phantom scheduling conflict and saves the registry entries and reports what they were trying to add, it may not be possible to pin down what exactly may be the problem.

I just looked at the registry on my HTPC and I found 50 entries RESERVATION_INFO_VCH_049.

MyHD and CW_ERG show that I currently have 16 scheduled captures. As I said, it has been 2-3 months since the last phantom scheduling conflict was seen.

Perhaps the display of capture events stops using one condition criteria at 16 and the conflict checking stops using an different criteria and sees all 50 and reports a conflict.

I can see how crashes could cause inactive entries to be messed up and become partially active.

Then there is the real conflict between two captures that actually was in the MyHD list I spotted several months ago. Maybe a crash was involved with that also.

Without a registry dump when a phantom scheduling conflict is reported, it may not be worth doing anything more.

But then I have often looked at source code with much less information and found the bug.

--------------------------------------------------------------

The registry dump for use by all was for O.E. not I.E.

The "Tomsterdam" site is gone but I found that what I was using was marked not for "XP".

So a different method to capture the registry entries must be looked for. Sorry, I should have checked first.

Maybe we should take this discussion off line until more information is available.

Stephen H. Fischer

I don't want to go into details, but I'll just say the entries are marked as no longer active. The entire registry key is not cleared out.


At some point, they had to have been scheduled. IIUC, the first available key is used by MyHD so if you see old data in VCH_049, you must have at one time had a full slate for scheduled.


I doubt it, but I suppose anything is possible. I would venture to say that if it is looking at anything other than those 16 for conflicts, there would be many complaints in the 130 forum.


Agreed.. This probably is more of a MyHD issue and should be discussed there. If you see that situation again, I would suggest a registry dump of that MyHD key (using regedit) and a post in the 130 forum. I'll be happy to look for the problem for you.

I have not tested the CW_EPG, but it looks great and I am looking forward to trying it. You guys are great.

I always use VideoRedo to remove commercials. When I want to record two adjacent shows from the same network, I just schedule a single recording and then create two files when I edit the commercials.

Since many networks transition seamlessly from the end of one show to the beginning of the next show, I don't miss anything when I edit the recording. Also, as has been pointed out above, networks often don't start programs on half hour boundaries. From my experience, Fox does this often, with shows lasting an extra minute or two even though it is not shown in TitanTV.

What do you think of an option for recording back-to-back shows from the same network as a single file, and forming the resulting filename by concatenating all the shows recorded? It would compliment the padding options discussed above to help ensure that nothing is missed.

Thanks again for all the wonderful work.

-Dave

Dave,

I tried VideoRedo, and while it did a good job of removing the comercials, I could not fast forward/rewind through the resulting file, using MYHD. Is there a setting or trick you can impart on a poor VideoRedo newbie?

Thanks,