Freesat EPG in UK anyone? (5 Viewers)

[BrianShu]

I have used the freesat info channel for several years now. Sometimes it disappears but has always come back. Some time ago it stopped being found during scanning, I presume this has something to do with it no longer being classed as a TV or Radio channel (this is why KingOfSAt no longer lists it), maybe someone on the technical team could look at this and treat it as a special channel during scanning. It must still be there as otherwise freesat boxes/TVs would no longer work. The last time I received the EPG was sometime before midnight on 12/3/20 as I have the EPG up to midnight on the 19th.

As Most of my programs are recorded from freeview this is not really a problem except that: if it cannot tune to an EPG channel it keeps trying, stopping it going into standby. This is a disaster for me as my machines all the time, spending most of it's time in standby ready to record a scheduled program. Unchecking the 'Do not put the computer to sleep while grabbing EPG' box in Powerscheduler allows it to go to standby but then I can't manually get it back using the mouse or keyboard!

Hope this helps and maybe someone could look at the standby problem.

Brian

 

[404]

Why not use EPG coleector as Jasmeet_181 mentioned earlier in this thread?, setup is pretty simple and for DVBS in the UK I have a 100% populated guide which I think is for 7 days ahead and no tedious mapping involved.

 

[BrianShu]

EPG collector would get the freesat EPG from the same place, so would fail the same. If it did work, i.e. try it NOW, then maybe someone on the MP technical team could look at it and work out why Collector works and MP doesn't any more.
I would be very surprised if EPG Collector did work!
I don't do any 'mapping' in MP so I'm not sure what you mean by 'tedious mapping'?

The main thing is WHAT HAS HAPPENED ON/AFTER 12/3/20 TO CAUSE THIS. It cannot be it disappearing from the 'radio' channels or not being found during scanning as this happened months ago.

Brian

 

[CyberSimian]

maybe someone on the MP technical team could look at it and work out why Collector works and MP doesn't

I don't wish to be a wet blanket, but the chance of anyone investigating this problem in the near future is pretty much zero. This is because the expert in matters relating to "TV Server" has effectively retired from the team, and there is no one else who knows anything about that part of MP.

It seems to me that your choices are these:

(1) Give up using DVB-S (satellite) and use DVB-T (terrestrial) instead.
(2) Use "EPG Collector" to get the DVB-S EPG, as others have suggested.

I use DVB-T with the broadcast EPG, so I regret that I cannot offer any further advice on getting the satellite EPG.

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

 

[BrianShu]

Could someone out there please please please try EPG Collector NOW to find out if it works.

I have 4 Freeview tuners, most of the channels I need are on Freeview, however I don't get BBC Four HD, so get it from the satellite. Before you say, I do get BBC Four SD on freeview and so I record both in case the satellite signal is poor. The other reason for Freesat is that very occasionally 4 tuners is not enough and so I need to use Freesat to record the extra channel(s).

Brian

 

[404]

EPG Collector works...Been using it daily for many years, yes it uses the same method as MP but the end result is a far more comprehensive output than MP would provide so I don't understand the desperate need to use that. As CyberSimian mentioned you are unlikely to get any required changes if Freesat have altered their OTA methods in any way, however the EPG Collector community is very active and any changes would be made pretty quickly.
As you probably know EPG Collector provides MP with an XMLTV file and as such you will need to use the XMLTV plugin.... The mappings tab that you don't use is available there but if you have ever used EPG Collector then you must know that.

 

[technoweary]

Could someone out there please please please try EPG Collector NOW to find out if it works.

Hey Brian, you can link the Freeview grabbed EPG across to some of the Freesat Channels in the TV server setup configuration. I used to do this and it worked OK and the EPG was accurate for the majority of the channels. I think RT was aproblem as the UK RT on Freeview did not follow the Europe/International Freesat channel programming. Things like Channel 4 and 4HD were very similar for the London programming. XMLTV works very well but I found it could be a bit unreliable due to the sky EPG info I was trying to grab was reconfigured a lot. Probably to stop folks grabbing it reliably! The best way I found was to subscribe to a listings site that allowed grabbing. You get reliable info and up to three weeks programming sometimes. Not too expensive. My current situation is that I have unreliable HD on Freeview with good EPG and good HD channels with no EPG on Freesat. Added to which the media centre has not got a network link at the moment so I cannot use XLMTV. I was waiting in the hope that some work may be done on the EPG Grabber but as CyberSimian pointed out the development on MP1 is not going forward much nowadays. The reality is that the age of the "Smart TV" is here and a sophisticated Media Centre is no longer required.
Hope this helps.
TW

 

[BrianShu]

If you've used EPG Collector succesfully in the last 2 days can you tell me settings you used? I'm sorry to be so insistent but still noone has said if they've used it successfully yesterday or today!
I know about EPG Collector and tried it but I think it plus XMLTV, are extra steps I do not need. I do have an old source of EPG Collector so I may download the latest and see what has changed and when.

Brian

 

[404]

I've just completed a run manually to check and it works fine, you need to copy the latest fixpack (22) over the installation though or you'll get an error 5 when trying to grab, Install the latest version (4.3) I think along with the fixpack and everything should be good.
Don't think my settings would be of much use to you, however if you want to install it I'll help if you get stuck. There are a few good guides available tho.

 

[technoweary]

I will be using EPG collector as soon as I have a network connection to the mediacentre PC under the TV
The last Time I used XMLTV, ( using XMLTV GUI ), I subscribed to UK TV Listings | UK TV Guide | What's on TV with Digiguide.tv

They do different "packs", including a Windows package via subscription that is at £14.99 / year
I have not used it in the last fgew years but its all up and running with community help so may still be worth consideration with EPG collector
Hope this helps
TW