SchedulesDirect - Unknown Channels in MP vs MythTV (1 Viewer)

[Ravenium]

Hello everyone,

I'm excited that MediaPortal finally has stable CableCard support - it seems tragically rare that cable companies let users roll their own recording software anymore, and CC support allows me to pretty much watch anything. Thankfully my provider hasn't discovered Copy-Once yet, so I can record relatively freely.

Currently, I use MythTV on an older Core 2 Intel box, but I'm looking to move to the following setup:

HTPC: Intel NUC i3 4th gen, 250 gig SSD, external 2TB for recordings. 16 gig RAM (overkill but it gets used for everything). Windows 8.1

Tuner: HDHR Prime (cablecard, 3 tuner)

Provider: Comcast Digital

Listings Provider: SchedulesDirect

MediaPortal Version: Latest (1.8.0 FINAL as of this writing)


The problem: Using the setup guide, I was able to configure and populate channels for the CableCard tuners (side note: the process for this has a well written guide, but is a bit non-intuitive. Are most people using this with OTA, or are they on the last non digital/encrypted cable systems out there?). I configured it to grab sources from EPG, SchedulesDirect, and the episode guide services.

What I end up with is that I can see the proper channels, but only about 3 out of 10 seem to have names or programming guide info. The rest say "unknown xxx" where xxx is a channel number. So for example, I see:

32 NBCSN <some program> <some program>
Unknown 718 (35-3) <No Data Available>
719 KCWR-DR <some program> <some program>
Unknown 720 (65-41) <No Data Available>

I'm confused as to what's happening here - Most of the "unknown" channels are able to be tuned to and viewed, they just don't have guide data. I'm wondering if it's either:

1. The fact that I have EPG and S-D grabbers enabled - maybe they are overwriting each other's info?
2. Running S-D grabbers for both MythTV and M-P. It *shouldn't* exceed my grabbing quota per day, but stranger things have happened.

Under mythtv you just entered the login info and away it went, grabbing guide data. Any suggestions?

 

[mm1352000]

Hello Ravenium

To directly answer your question:

I'm wondering if it's either:
1. The fact that I have EPG and S-D grabbers enabled - maybe they are overwriting each other's info?
2. Running S-D grabbers for both MythTV and M-P. It *shouldn't* exceed my grabbing quota per day, but stranger things have happened.

It is neither. Well, I suppose it could be 2 if there is such a thing as a grabbing quota... but there is a simpler explanation. That explanation is that MP's SchedulesDirect plugin simply hasn't been able to match the channels it knows about with the channels that you scanned in. And who could blame it with the channels named like "Unknown...".

If you get more than a few channels named like "Unknown..." it is a sign the scan process hasn't had enough time to complete successfully. The process to resolve this would be to delete all your channels and scan again with a higher SDT/VCT timeout as advised in the first post of the original CableCARD thread and the wiki. Once all the channels are named and configured correctly I expect the SD plugin should be able to link to the correct guide data much more easily.

mm

 

[Ravenium]

Argh - thanks for pointing that out, no idea how I missed it. Indeed, now all the channel names are there. They're in a weird order, but that's probably because of the sorting option I have checked in the plugin. (for anyone else's reference, he's referring to here.

I'm still getting a lot of no data available, though a lot fewer. For example, here's Disney HD and Nik on MP vs myth. Same guide data (in theory). I'll try combing through the logs to see if there's any error, but it looks like it's getting slightly different channel names (DISN HD vs DISN HDP)?

 

[mm1352000]

They're in a weird order, but that's probably because of the sorting option I have checked in the plugin.

Sort order entirely depends on the order you set in the channel group:
http://wiki.team-mediaportal.com/1_...ver_Configuration/03_TV_Channels#Other_groups

but it looks like it's getting slightly different channel names (DISN HD vs DISN HDP)?

Sorry, I have no idea how Myth gets their channel list. If the names are different then there is every chance they do it totally different to us.

To force the SD plugin to link the guide data to the correct channels, set the name of the channel in TV Server configuration > TV Channels to match the call sign in the SD lineup.