No Data Available for some channels (1 Viewer)

[Pauly Boy]

Hi,

I'm from the UK and have set up my TV card fine. I have added the WebEPG in the TV Server Configuration Plug Ins section. I have started a Grab and it runs fine. I can go to the TV Mappings tab and see all channels, including the missing data ones (like BBC 1 HD). Clicking on BBC 1 HD shows me '2-www.mydigiguide.com' as the grabber site, which looks to be correct (?)

However, in MediaBrowser, only about half the channels have data. The rest have no data available. I can re-run the grabber, but it only shows the same channels as having EPG data. It's always the same channels that are missing data.

Can anyone help me?

Cheers.

 

[CyberSimian]

I'm from the UK and have set up my TV card fine. I have added the WebEPG in the TV Server Configuration Plug Ins section.

Is your tuner card terrestrial (DVB-T/T2) or satellite (DVB-S/S2)? It would probably help if you filled in your "System Specs", which you can enter on your "Profile Page" (position the mouse pointer over your screen name near the top of the page).

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

 

[Pauly Boy]

Hi,

I have added my System Specs.

Also, I am coming from a Windows 7 install (same hardware) where I used Windows Media Center to watch TV. All channels pulled through the EPG fine on that install.

See attached for some more info from the TV Server configuration. When I initially scanned for channels, the top two DVB-T (MCE) options didn't produce anything, but the bottom two DVB-T did, so these are the ones I use.

Thanks for the help.

 

[mm1352000]

Hello and welcome Pauly

Also, I am coming from a Windows 7 install (same hardware) where I used Windows Media Center to watch TV. All channels pulled through the EPG fine on that install.

Microsoft provides EPG for WMC, which means it is completely different to MediaPortal.

See attached for some more info from the TV Server configuration. When I initially scanned for channels, the top two DVB-T (MCE) options didn't produce anything, but the bottom two DVB-T did, so these are the ones I use.

Yeah, don't use the "MCE DVB-T" virtual tuners. They're actually your DVB-C (cable) tuners in disguise. A workaround for the fact that WMC doesn't fully/properly support DVB-C.

Please configure your EPG as follows:

1. Open TV Server configuration.
2. Navigate to the DVB EPG section.
   1. Untick "grab EPG only for channels on the same transponder".
   2. Ensure either or both of the 2 "enabled" checkboxes [for the timeshifting/recording and idle EPG grabbers] are ticked, depending on your preference.
3. Expand the DVB EPG node in the left hand pane, and navigate to the "TV Epg grabber" subsection.
   1. Untick "store data only for selected channels".
   2. Untick all channels except BBC One HD (or some other 24 hour channel that you watch often).
4. Navigate to the "Radio Epg grabber" subsection.
   1. Untick "store data only for selected channels".
   2. Untick all channels.
5. Navigate to the manual control section.
   1. Click stop service.
   2. Click start service.
   3. Click refresh DVB EPG.

Now if you wait for about 10 minutes you should get full EPG for all channels.

Regards,
mm

 

[CyberSimian]

I am coming from a Windows 7 install (same hardware) where I used Windows Media Center to watch TV. All channels pulled through the EPG fine on that install.

In the UK our DVB-T/T2 broadcasts include a 7-day EPG, which is the easiest to set up for MP to use (follow mm's excellent instructions). However, MP can also use EPGs that are downloaded from the internet; WebEPG is one of these. Some internet EPGs have more-detailed programme information than the broadcast EPG, and are preferred by some users for that reason. But they are more difficult to set up (I have used only the broadcast EPG).

Windows 7 WMC was able to use two different EPGs:

(1) The better EPG was the 2-week EPG that was downloaded from Microsoft. So your HTPC had to connect to the internet at regular intervals (e.g. once per day). This EPG included such information as actor/director details, original broadcast date, star rating, repeat indicator, and (perhaps most important) series-link information.

(2) Windows 7 WMC was also able to use the 7-day broadcast EPG, but you had to enable this on one of the WMC setup panels. Also, WMC was not able to understand the format in which the EPG for the HD channels was transmitted, so they remained unpopulated if you used only the broadcast EPG. Finally, although the broadcast EPG does contain series-link information, WMC was not able to use it.

Which to use for MP? Currently MP supports various flavours of repeated recording, but does not support true series linking. This may arrive with the new TV Engine planned for MP2, but this is not available yet.

I notice from your system specs that you are hoping to use the Emprex 3009 RF remote control. Another MP user tried to get one of these to work with MP. I don't recollect whether he was successful. The problem is that this remote sends keyboard shortcuts for WMC, and these are mostly different from the keyboard shortcuts that MP uses. So some buttons on the remote will work, but others will not. It is worth trying, but ultimately you may find it easier to buy a true WMC-compatible RC6 remote control that is sold with its own IR receiver.

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

 

[Pauly Boy]

Thank you both for the help here...

After reading CyberSimian's post about WebEPG, I realised that I was also using that Plug-In, so maybe there is a conflict? So I disabled the WebEPG Plugin, restarted the TV Service and re-tried mm's instructions. This now works and I get all info on all channels. Hooray!

Can someone explain why the seemingly counter-intuitive step of unticking every channel but one brings in all the data?

With regard to Remotes, I did try getting my Emprex to work (including the Green Button) but no joy. Which remote do you recommend (I am using Windows 10 if that matters)?

 

[Owlsroost]

Can someone explain why the seemingly counter-intuitive step of unticking every channel but one brings in all the data?

It's because MP is 'universal' - it has to be able to cope with myriad combinations of grabbing EPG data from terrestrial, satellite and cable sources in various parts of the world. So it doesn't come set up for UK Freeview EPG by default

UK Freeview carries the DVB EPG data for all services on every mux (there are 6-8 muxes per transmitter), so you can get the entire Freeview EPG data by tuning to any channel. So you only need to tell MP to collect EPG data from one channel. If it's collecting it from multiple channels it just takes a lot longer without getting any more useful data (just duplicate data).

 

[CyberSimian]

With regard to Remotes, I did try getting my Emprex to work (including the Green Button) but no joy. Which remote do you recommend (I am using Windows 10 if that matters)?

This is a good question. You want a remote that works with MP and is easy to setup, and you also want a remote that has a button layout that you like. Some points:

(1) Your Emprex is an RF (radio frequency) remote. Do you specifically need an RF remote? If you do, choice is much more limited (that is a euphemism for "costly"). If an IR (infra red) remote satisfies your needs, there is more choice.

(2) For a generic recommendation, I would suggest looking for a remote that claims that it is:

(a) WMC compatible,
(b) has "RC6" stamped on the remote or packaging,
(c) is sold with its own IR receiver that plugs into a USB socket.

However, it can sometimes be difficult to determine via the internet whether a particular remote satisfies these requirements. If there is a Maplin shop near you, you could go and browse there to see if they have any in stock that meet these requirements. One remote/receiver set that I would suggest avoiding is the Ortek VRC-1100, which has the same problems as your Emprex (the Ortek is also sold under other brand names, but they all look the same).

(3) For a specific recommendation, I would suggest that you consider buying the remote and IR receiver separately. This way you can get an IR receiver that is known to work with MP, and then have a free choice of universal remotes that are not sold with an IR receiver.

(4) The following site is worth browsing; it shows various remotes, IR receivers, and remote/receiver sets:
http://www.cohaus-berlin.de/shop/

I have a Dell-branded version of the ugly Philips IR receiver shown on that site. Hewlett Packard have also made compatible remotes and receivers in the past, and I also have one of these IR receivers:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Remote-Control-Receiver-Emitter-Vista/dp/B00AYE6JDO

I purchased mine from Ebay, but it arrived with a "mini" remote, not the full-size remote shown on Amazon. Both the Dell/Philips IR receiver, and the HP IR receiver, work fine with MP.

(5) A universal remote is worth considering, as it will usually support multiple devices. The "One for All" brand available in the UK has the WMC codes used for MP already built in -- you simply specify the code number (1272) and all the programming is set up for you. I like the URC-7140, which can control four devices. I also have the URC-7950 (5 devices), the URC-7960 (6 devices), the Xsight Lite (6 devices), the Xsight Plus (12 devices), and the Xsight Colour (18 devices). These are all very usable, and work immediately with MP via the code number. However, they all have different button layouts and usability characteristics, so by using a universal remote you should be able to find one that has a button layout that you like. I bought my URC-7140 in Sainsburys (less than £20).

(6) Logitech Harmony remotes also work with the IR receivers mentioned above, but tend to be a bit more expensive. The Harmony 650 is probably the optimum choice at the moment. They require you to log on to their web site in order to program the remote.

There are other universal remotes that will work, and which others use; if they feel strongly, they will probably post here recommending their choice!

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

 

[Pauly Boy]

Thanks very much for the detailed information, CyberSimian. I momentarily forgot that I'm going to be using Kodi as the front end so I'll need to look at Kodi-compatible remotes. Although they look to be the same kind of deal.

I keep reading about .reg files, but I'm still not clear on what these are.

 

[CyberSimian]

I keep reading about .reg files, but I'm still not clear on what these are.

A file with an extension of ".reg" is a file that contains settings from the Windows Registry (the central database used to store the majority of settings in Windows). It is possible to save to a reg file a group of settings in the registry, or to use a reg file to modify the settings in the registry.

The WMC remote uses a "report mapping table" stored in the registry. This defines how buttons on the remote map to functions in WMC. However, this is an encoded table using hexadecimal code numbers, so it is difficult to understand. Also, not all buttons can be mapped using this table.

If Kodi provides a reg file for setting up a WMC remote, it is probably modifying the report mapping table in the registry.

-- from CyberSimian in the UK