Sky UK/IT/AUS enhancements (3 Viewers)

[bakerpr]

Ever since I have been using the latest version 1.1 for MP 1.2 Alpha I have had intermitant problems. I have had the issue as previously discussed where the grab epg tick deletes itself and now after an initial grab all entries have gone and everything I have attempted has failed to initiate a new grab.
Any thoughts or would some logs be useful?

Edit
Just noticed all the channels listed in Radio Epg grabber are unticked but also red. Is this correct ?

 

[elsmandino]

Hi there,

Thanks for the earlier advice in regards to this enhancement (prior page) -I have now got full EPG for most of the channels but for a few:

5*
5 USA
Pick TV
Pick TV+1
Dave
Dave Ja Vu
Quest
Challenge
Yesterday

I know that these channels are not on Freesat but shouldn't they be picked up from the EPG Background Audio stream as I am sure these channels are available on Sky?

Thanks

 

[porky996t]

By way of info, I also do not get anything for:-

5*
5 USA
Pick TV
Pick TV+1
CH4 HD

However, the other you note I have info for. It may be that they are Terrestrial channels only and thus not covered by the Sat grabbers - (I haven't checked this out yet, but just a thought).



M.

 

[elsmandino]

Strange that you get the EPG for Dave/Ja Vu and not me.

What was your workaround to get the EPG for the remaining channels?

As far as I can see, there are two options:

1. Somehow map the EPG from the scrambled Sky channels for 5 USA, Dave etc. to the equivalent freeview channels - I have no idea if EPG data can be collected for an encrypted channel though.

or

2. Use the regular DVB TV EPG grabber to grab information for the remaining channels.

Given the choice I would prefer to get all my information from Sky, as it always seems to be more accurate and includes Episode and Season information.

 

[porky996t]

elsmandino

I do have a couple of other 'obscure' channels that do not populate with EPG data, but it really doesn't bother me - I suspect they may not be broadcasting anymore. In fact I put them on for the OH, "Body in Balance" is one...it did populate many weeks back, but then seemed to stop, hence the doubts about it still transmitting.

I have no workaround for Dave/Ja vu - it just grabs the info. You do need to watch for duplicate channels though - I had a duplicate of CBS Action and the EPG for this didn't populate, so I deleted one of the CBS Action channels. It appears that I deleted the one that referenced the EPG info and not the blank one So I'll have to do a rescan, or manual input to get this channel & full EPG back.

elsmandino said

1. Somehow map the EPG from the scrambled Sky channels for 5 USA, Dave etc. to the equivalent freeview channels - I have no idea if EPG data can be collected for an encrypted channel though.

When I combined my channels, I combined scrambled ones picked up from Sky with the same Free To Air off Freesat/Freeview. This gives you a channel that has a half red/half green indicator in the Config channel list, i.e. Dave & Dave Ja Vu are unscrambled on Freeview, but scrambled on Sky ( and not available on Freesat) so I combined the Freeview ones with the scrambled Sky ones. I don't know if this is the right way of doing things, I just thought that by combining them under the same channel name would assist the EPG with referencing the channel names. Could somebody clarify if this is incorrect??

Hopefully, Miroslav may be able to put you right, as he co-authored the grabber.


HTH,



M.

 

[elsmandino]

When I combined my channels, I combined scrambled ones picked up from Sky with the same Free To Air off Freesat/Freeview. This gives you a channel that has a half red/half green indicator in the Config channel list, i.e. Dave & Dave Ja Vu are unscrambled on Freeview, but scrambled on Sky ( and not available on Freesat) so I combined the Freeview ones with the scrambled Sky ones. I don't know if this is the right way of doing things, I just thought that by combining them under the same channel name would assist the EPG with referencing the channel names. Could somebody clarify if this is incorrect??

Hopefully, Miroslav may be able to put you right, as he co-authored the grabber.

That was what I was thinking about doing - my only worry was that if you combine a Freeview and scrambled Sky channel together (e.g. Dave), Mediaportal would think that it can record Dave on either a DVB-S or DVB-T card. Is there then the possibility that if you wanted to record three channels at the same time, including Dave, Mediportal might use both my DVB-T cards for the first two and the scrambled channel on the DVB-S card for Dave and record nothing?

I have no workaround for Dave/Ja vu - it just grabs the info. You do need to watch for duplicate channels though - I had a duplicate of CBS Action and the EPG for this didn't populate, so I deleted one of the CBS Action channels. It appears that I deleted the one that referenced the EPG info and not the blank one So I'll have to do a rescan, or manual input to get this channel & full EPG back.

Whilst on the subject - how do you have TV Channels set up in TV Server Configuration. I personally leave all the channels that are ever picked up in the first tab and just add those that I want to a new tab called "Best", which shows up in my EPG Guide.

I note that you appear to do something different - you actually delete all the unwanted channels from the first tab itself. I can see some obvious benefits of this as EPG scans should take less time if less channels are there in Mediaportal (as far as I can tell, the SKY EPG Enhancement updates all channels, not just those in my "Best" list), so I should be able to speed things up.

My only problem with this, however, is that if you ever need to rescan for a new channel, then all those rubbish channels that you previously got rid off suddenly re-appear. I suppose you could get round this by only doing manual scans for additional channels.

Is my understanding of you set up correct?

 

[porky996t]

What I do is set the cards up to create tabs for "Digital Satellite" and "Digital Terrestrial" - these are tick box options on the scan interface. This then gives me three tabs of "All", "Digital Satellite" and "Digital Terrestrial". I then set up a fourth group which I call "Most Watched" and then go through the "All" list and send the more popular ones to the fourth group (you do this by right clicking whilst a channel is highlighted). I don't delete any of the channels from the "All" tab

I don't think there is any recognised set up as such, you just add Groups as you see fit - they could be "News" or "Sport" - I may set up a tab with all the GF's channels on and name it "$hite"

HTH


M.

 

[jobyrne30]

@ porky996t & elsmandino

I would guess the reason why the EPG of likes of Pick TV , 5* and not populating is because they have recently re-branded and renamed and you have not deleted the old channel details from your channel list. If for example Fiver and SKY3 are still on your channel list the EPG manager will populated these and NOT 5* and Pick TV. Remove the old entries and rescan the transponder with the channels and your EPG will work again.

It's a good idea to keep an eye on the likes of KINGs OF SAT or similar for updates in frequency and delete old channels and rescan the new on MP. I do this once a week so it's not to hard to keep on top of and all my channel populate fine.

If all else fails delete all channels and do a full rescan.

 

[elsmandino]

Well done Porky - worked a treat. I combined the freeview only channels that had no EPG data with the equivalent scambled Sky channel and then went to the mapping option of TV Server and ticked the EPG only box for each of the scrambled channels to make sure that they are never used to record. I now have a complete EPG. Thanks very much.

I am tempted to set up a s*ite tab myself just to see my other half's reaction, when it brings up her beloved QVC Beauty channel!

One other quick thing - I have noted that the Sky EPG Enchancement is also now offering me the option to do Series Recordings. I have tried this and it seems to just record the single programme and nothing else. Is this something that it is not fully supported yet and I should stay away from for the time being? The reason that I ask is that I remember reading on here somewhere that this is only available in MP Sky EPG v1.1 (for 1.2.0 Alpha).

Thanks again.

 

[porky996t]

elsmandino

Pleased that I could assist with my limited knowledge.

@jobyrne

I didn't realise that Pick TV was a rebrand I thought they were new (not watched them!) - I'll sort out over weekend.



M