Schedules Direct users in the UK (1 Viewer)

[wjw]

Hi,

I have just switched over the Schedules Direct. Everything works fine - except that I'm not getting anything for Channel 5. I think I've configured correctly (everything else is working) but every entry in the xml file just says "<title lang="en">To Be Announced</title>".

Anyone else see this? Any answers? I've used both mc2xml and the "official" xmltv project grabber for SD.

 

[mm1352000]

I'd recommend you directly contact SchedulesDirect (they have a forum, and email), mc2xml or XMLTV [the project]...

 

[wjw]

I'd recommend you directly contact SchedulesDirect (they have a forum, and email), mc2xml or XMLTV [the project]...

I did (initially had some difficulty registering but now sorted), The problem is with SD and they are in touch with their data supplier. The problem did not lie with the grabbers or my setup of them.

I may ask you for assistance again, as I have been trying to populate that channel temporarily using the "built in" EPG grabber - with a total lack of success, If SD sort their problem then I won't need to pursue - but.....

 

[wjw]

@mm1352000
Help again please. I can't get the DVB EPG function to work, I know others do, so it has to be something I'm not doing right. I have attached screenshots of my settings

Please take a look and let me know if anything is wrong (I have tried the "grab while idle" both ways). As far as I can see the Freesat Info channel is properly mapped to a card (all 3 actually) so I thought I had completely followed the setup guide. I'm just not getting Channel 5 filled in.

 

[mm1352000]

The settings shown in the screenshots seem okay to me. You could make one slight modification: untick the Channel 5 channel in the 3rd screenshot. Only Freesat Info needs to be ticked.

Advice:
1. Ensure that the "Channel 5" you're looking at in the guide corresponds with the Freesat Channel 5. Grabbing from Freesat Info cannot give you EPG data for the Freeview (ie. DVB-T/T2 terrestrial) or Sky versions of Channel 5.
2. Ensure that Channel 5 is not mapped in the XMLTV plugin. If it is, any EPG data that the DVB EPG grabber receives will simply be thrown away.
3. Ensure you've restarted the TV service to apply all settings changes.
4. Use the "refresh DVB EPG" function in the "manual control" section of TV Server Config to delete all existing EPG and kick off a new grab. Close TV Server Configuration immediately after clicking "refresh DVB EPG". Wait 30 minutes. Reopen MediaPortal. If you still haven't got guide data for Channel 5 then you'll need to supply TV Server log files. I will not be able to provide further assistance without them.

 

[wjw]

Unfortunately, still no data. The only thing I can think of from what you said is the bit:

Ensure that the "Channel 5" you're looking at in the guide corresponds with the Freesat Channel 5. Grabbing from Freesat Info cannot give you EPG data for the Freeview (ie. DVB-T/T2 terrestrial) or Sky versions of Channel 5.

As far as I can see the only provider listed in the channel list in TVServer is Sky (DVB-T is not in use at all). It's the same channel of course and according to KingofSat it seems to be on only one transponder with both providers (Sky and Freesat) listed. If that really is the issue then I'm stuffed!

Anyway, a copy of the TVServer logfile is attached. I made the changes, restarted the PC, kicked off the EPG refresh, and waited. Still nothing for Channel 5.

Once again I would be grateful for any insight you can offer.

 

[wjw]

An update. Tried again this morning after checking everything I could think of. This time the EPG grabber appears to have grabbed week's data for every channel other than Channel 5! All the other channels are mapped in XMLTV.

 

[mm1352000]

Sorry for the slow response here. I've had an extremely busy day.

The log shows TV Server attempting to grab EPG from the Freesat Info channel several times. Eventually it succeeds at ~17:50:
[2016-06-26 17:49:27,429] [EPG ] [DVB EPG timer] [INFO ] - EpgCard: grab epg on card: #19 transponder: #0 ch:Freesat Info
...
[2016-06-26 17:49:28,485] [Log ] [DVB EPG timer] [DEBUG] - card: tuned user: epg subchannel: 0
...
[2016-06-26 17:49:28,498] [EPG ] [DVB EPG timer] [INFO ] - EpgGrabbing: Start
[2016-06-26 17:49:28,501] [Log ] [DVB EPG timer] [INFO ] - dvb:grab epg...

Grabbing apparently completes after only 60 seconds or so:
[2016-06-26 17:50:49,062] [EPG ] [23 ] [INFO ] - dvb:dvb ready.EPG 264 channels
[2016-06-26 17:50:49,906] [EPG ] [23 ] [INFO ] - Epg: card:19 received epg for 264 channels

This exceptionally short grab time leaves me uncertain as to whether the full EPG data was received and stored.

You're right to say that a lot of channels were updated. I didn't expect that.

The grabber obviously found EPG data for most of the Channel 5 "variants":
[collapse]
[2016-06-26 17:59:06,436] [EPG ] [EPG Update thread] [INFO ] - IdleEpgGrabber: 5 USA lastUpdate:01/01/2000 00:00:00
[2016-06-26 17:59:12,478] [EPG ] [EPG Update thread] [INFO ] - - Inserted 244 epg entries for channel 5 USA
[2016-06-26 17:59:12,494] [EPG ] [EPG Update thread] [INFO ] - IdleEpgGrabber: 5 USA +1 lastUpdate:01/01/2000 00:00:00
...
[2016-06-26 17:59:18,540] [EPG ] [EPG Update thread] [INFO ] - - Inserted 244 epg entries for channel 5 USA +1
[2016-06-26 17:59:18,540] [EPG ] [EPG Update thread] [INFO ] - IdleEpgGrabber: 5* lastUpdate:01/01/2000 00:00:00
[2016-06-26 17:59:26,322] [EPG ] [EPG Update thread] [INFO ] - - Inserted 314 epg entries for channel 5*
[2016-06-26 17:59:26,322] [EPG ] [EPG Update thread] [INFO ] - IdleEpgGrabber: 5* +1 lastUpdate:01/01/2000 00:00:00
[2016-06-26 17:59:30,134] [EPG ] [EPG Update thread] [INFO ] - - Inserted 240 epg entries for channel 5* +1
[2016-06-26 17:59:30,134] [EPG ] [EPG Update thread] [INFO ] - IdleEpgGrabber: 5* +1 lastUpdate:01/01/2000 00:00:00
...
[2016-06-26 17:59:35,029] [EPG ] [EPG Update thread] [INFO ] - - Inserted 315 epg entries for channel 5* +1
[2016-06-26 17:59:35,044] [EPG ] [EPG Update thread] [INFO ] - IdleEpgGrabber: Channel 5+1 lastUpdate:01/01/2000 00:00:00
[2016-06-26 17:59:37,905] [EPG ] [EPG Update thread] [INFO ] - - Inserted 200 epg entries for channel Channel 5+1[/collapse]

At first glance it appeared like Channel 5 itself was not included. However when I looked closer I saw:
[2016-06-26 17:58:58,710] [EPG ] [EPG Update thread] [INFO ] - IdleEpgGrabber: 7701 lastUpdate:01/01/2000 00:00:00
...
[2016-06-26 17:59:06,436] [EPG ] [EPG Update thread] [INFO ] - - Inserted 313 epg entries for channel 7701

...and...
[2016-06-26 17:59:43,119] [EPG ] [EPG Update thread] [INFO ] - IdleEpgGrabber: 7750 lastUpdate:01/01/2000 00:00:00
...
[2016-06-26 17:59:50,791] [EPG ] [EPG Update thread] [INFO ] - - Inserted 313 epg entries for channel 7750

Based on information provided by KingOfSat, I'm 99.9% certain those two channels - "7701" and "7750" - are Channel 5 and Channel 5 HD respectively. From this I deduce that you have multiple copies of Channel 5 in your channel list. The DVB EPG grabber can't handle duplicates. It will only store EPG data for one of the set of possible channels. For example: if you had 3 copies of Channel 5, only one of them would get EPG. In this case you have at least two copies of Channel 5 - one that is labelled as "Channel 5" (or "Channel 5 HD"), and another labelled as "7701" (or "7750"). Unluckily for you, the DVB EPG grabber has been storing the EPG data against "7701" (or "7750") where you won't notice it.

Now, I'm almost certain that you're not aware of having had duplicate copies of channels. The log files also confirms that you have quite a number of these duplicates. Given the numeric names of the channels, I suspect the source is a scan that failed to pick up names.

Solution
Open TV Server Configuration.
Go to the TV Channels section, first tab.
Sort the channel list by name (ie. click on the "name" column header). Don't worry, this does not affect the order of channels shown in MediaPortal.
Delete channels starting with a numeric digit (ie. 0, 1, 2... 9). Be careful not to delete legitimate channels such as "5*" etc.
Repeat the procedure given in my previous reply.
This should give you EPG data for Channel 5.

 

[wjw]

Please don't feel the need to apologise - I fully understand that you have other things to do.

Anyway, brilliant deduction - the epg data had been going to 7750 ( could see this by looking at the guide for my All Channels group - and there it was!). This has now been deleted and grabbing is proceeding. I'll let you know later.

On a related point, while looking at KingofSat I noticed that they think Channel 5 HD is not encrypted, whereas my channel list shows that it is. An attempt to preview gave me "Preview failed all cards busy" Would this message indicate that it really is encrypted. I ask out of curiousity really.

Anyway, again, many thinks for you time and effort.

 

[mm1352000]

On a related point, while looking at KingofSat I noticed that they think Channel 5 HD is not encrypted, whereas my channel list shows that it is. An attempt to preview gave me "Preview failed all cards busy" Would this message indicate that it really is encrypted. I ask out of curiousity really.

"All cards busy" does not indicate that a channel is really encrypted. It just indicates that TV Server couldn't find any tuners that were configured as being able to decrypt an encrypted channel (not surprising in your case).

In reality I suspect KingOfSat is more likely to be right (ie. the channel is not encrypted, and you should be able to view/record it). To fix:

1. Open TV Server Configuration.
2. Go to the TV Channels section.
3. Find and select "Channel 5 HD" in the channel list (first tab).
4. Click "edit".
5. In the edit channel dialog, select the tuning detail (there should only be one) in the bottom area/list and click "edit" again.
6. In the edit tuning detail dialog (should look like this) tick "free to air".
7. Click OK and OK again to close the dialogs and save the changes.

Now you should be able to view that channel.