IceTV stays open behind Media Portal

[dale_mac]

Hi all,

This isn't a problem with Media Portal, but I was hoping someone here might be able to help or has had a similar problem.
I am using IceTV for my EPG downloading and it works very well.
The problem is that my HTPC is on a wireless internet connection and I have windows task scheduler set to download in the middle of the night.
Half of the time, IceTV stops processing because it "cannot reconcile the web address" or some such.
Basically, it can't make the connection to my router to download the EPG.
This causes the IceTV Webget app to stay open until I "press any key to continue".
The problem is that Media Portal is always on top and I don't know that IceTV hasn't downloaded until I run out of EPG data.
I guess I could set it up to manually download via My Programs, but the idea is to have it automated. But even running it manually, if this problem occurs, I still would have to plug in a keyboard to "press a key".
Does anyone have a suggestion for a fix or workaround?
I have emailed IceTV a couple of times about the problem, but they haven't responded.

Thanks,
Dale

[Callifo]

I just have Wget setup to download it for me. No pretty OSD but it works and is simple...

[NickName]

Hi,

I use a VBScript (in task scheduler) to run webget.exe. This script also renames the channel names in the downloaded XML file to what suits my preferences. :-)
This happens on my main PC.

My other mediaportal boxes then run their own 'scheduled tasks' to download the modified XML file locally.

Anyway, your problem may lay with your WiFi dropping out? Why not just set up a few scheduled tasks configured to fire off say every hour or so. They could check the date of the current XML file. If it's yesterday's date, try to download it. That way if it can't connect at say 1am, it will try again at 2am and then again at 3am, etc.
Hopefully that will fix your issue.
Good luck,

regards,

Nick Name.

[dale_mac]

Thanks for the replies guys.
Callifo, I don't understand what you mean about the "pretty OSD". I have the webget thing set up to do it automatically as well, but when the HTPC box has a WIFI hiccup, I don't get anything but a hung webget.
Nickname, I'm sure it is a WIFI dropout problem. I don't think setting up multiple schedules with the HTPC box on wireless would work because the webget app is still waiting for manual input.
But you've given me an idea. I might set up my main box to do the downloading and set up the HTPC box to copy from the main box.
I just have to figure out how to set up both PCs to wake at about the same time to allow the copy. I haven't done that sort of thing before, so if you have a suggestion that might point me in the right direction, I'd appreciate it. In the meantime, I'll have a go and see what I can sort out.
I'll keep you posted.

Thanks again,
Dale

[thechad]

Can't you set task scheduler to kill the task if it runs over a certain amount of time?

[Callifo]

When there is no connection present, webget seems to timeout and then close. I have no problem with it hanging. It isnt the same webget as IceTV suggest though as I had big problems with that version.

You can use the taskscheduler as thechad mentioned too.

[NickName]

Dale_mac,

Just curious why you need you to wake up your PCs in the middle of the night anyway?
Why not let them copy whenever necessary (when the PCs are normally on))? I have no problems with my PCs copying the 1 meg file in the background and running Mediportal or other apps at the same time. Even my 1GHZ pentium manages it...

Anyway, in answer to your question about waking PCs... Most new-ish PCs can be set in the BIOS to turn on at a certain Time/Date. In case you don't know, you press DEL at bootup to get into the BIOS settings and then hunt around to set the start/boot time.

Alternatively, PCs can be woken by their own network card when they detect network traffic.
So you could have one PC turn on at certain time and then the other PC turn on automatically when it detects the first PC's network traffic.

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Nickname

[dale_mac]

Thanks everyone for the feedback.
NickName, the reason I want to wake the PC is because I'm out of town a lot with work and my wife doesn't even turn it on unless I'm there. It doesn't need to be in the middle of the night, I just set it up that way without really thinking about it.
thechad, Callifo, I've set task scheduler to stop the task if it runs for more than ten minutes. I've never tried to use task scheduler in the past and I didn't realise that I could set it up that way.
I'll keep an eye on the guide to see if it maintains a full week's programming.
Cheers,
Dale