[solved] TV service (EPG grabbing while idle) prevents Windows Standby (1 Viewer)

[joecrow]

I suggested in my previous post grabbing from only one channel, and then reviewing the EPG in the MP client to see if all channels had EPG info (i.e. like the UK), or whether only a subset had EPG info. If the latter is the case, it would be necessary to determine the EPG provision in more detail. This might mean grabbing from one channel in each MUX, or possibly grabbing from one channel from each provider. (If each provider owned more than one MUX, you would not need to grab from one channel in each MUX, merely from one channel from each provider.)

What is definitely a bad idea is grabbing from every channel in every MUX.

Fully agree but from memory (I now use EPG Buddy) when I used the DVB grabber I did need to select one channel per provider, only 3 providers (I have no pay TV) so no big overhead. Of course it could be very different on cable, so yes see how it looks first with a single channel.

 

[framug]

What is definitely a bad idea is grabbing from every channel in every MUX.

After reading deeper your post, sorry, missed that.
Why ?
If I'm not wrong, epg is not same sub Channel as video/audio

 

[CyberSimian]

Of course it could be very different on cable,

Oh dear, I missed that!
On looking again at @horned_reaper's screen shots, I see that he is using DVB-C.

The EPG for DVB-C may be organised differently to DVB-T, but the procedure of adding one grab channel at a time, and then testing to see if there are channels without an EPG, is still applicable (as you stated ).

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

 

[CyberSimian]

What is definitely a bad idea is grabbing from every channel in every MUX.

After reading deeper your post, sorry, missed that. Why ?
If I'm not wrong, epg is not same sub Channel as video/audio

I am not a TV expert . Most of my knowledge in this area is empirical, and not theoretical.
Also, I don't necessarily use terms correctly, or understand what others mean when technical terms such as "sub channel" are used.

From discussions with mm in various threads several years ago, my understanding is that TV Server tunes in turn to each selected grabber channel, and receives the EPG for one rotation of the EPG carousel (or less than one rotation if the timeout is too small).

If A and B are both selected as grabber channels, and A and B reside in the same MUX, grabbing from B provides the same EPG data as grabbing from A. So grabbing from both A and B is pointless and a waste of time. Nevertheless, TV Server will do this if A and B are both selected as grabber channels. I think that the scenario when this might be useful is if the "Store data only for selected channels" setting is enabled. You might want to do this if you obtain your EPG from two (or more) sources.

Example: you might want to use the "Schedules Direct" internet EPG because it provides more programme detail, but it does not provide EPG data for the minor channels that you can receive. So you would use "Schedules Direct" for the major channels, and then use the DVB EPG only for the minor channels. You would select those minor channels as grabber channels, and enable "Store data only for selected channels". If you did not use this setting, the DVB EPG would grab all of the channels, and overwrite the Schedules Direct EPG that you had previously loaded.

Well, that is my understanding of how it works.

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

 

[framug]

In your example, grabbing A and B doesn't cause problem.
Same mux = same tuner.
Differents sub Channel means that grabbing EPG doesn't interfere with video/audio recording/timeshifting.
Only CPU and maybe little RAM is impacted.
In my case, I use Internet EPG (XMLTV) and, use DVB EPG to fill holes or, add programs for some channels wich are not Always is XMLTV file, sometimes.
By this way, programs have the more informations that is possible.

 

[horned_reaper]

Thanks a lot to all for your comments and hints, really appreciated!

If you have not yet read this post, please read it now. It will provide some background information about how the EPG is organised. Your DVB EPG settings do not look optimal, so I will address those first and leave "PowerScheduler" settings to later (they may not need changing).

Make the changes that I suggest below when you have at least one hour to make the changes and test the outcome; do not make these changes whilst recording or watching TV.

(1) Look through the channels in your EPG and select one of the major channels in your country. For example, in the UK, I would select the "BBC1" channel, as the BBC is our national broadcaster. The channel selected should be a 24-hour channel. Do not choose a part-time channel (unless you have no 24-hour channels).

(2) On the "DVB EPG" panel:

• Select "Always try to fill holes".
• Select "Always try to update existing entries".
• Select "Enable CRC check".
• Do NOT select "Grab EPG only for channels on same transponder".
• Do not change timeshift grabber settings (these are not critical).
• Change idle-grabber "Timeout" to 15 minutes.
• Change idle-grabber "Refresh every" to 1400 minutes.

(3) On the "TV EPG Grabber" panel:

• Do NOT select "Store data only for selected channels".
• Deselect all channels except for the channel selected in (1).
• Deselect all languages except for your local language.

(4) On the "Radio EPG Grabber" panel:

• Do NOT select "Store data only for selected channels".
• Deselect all channels; leave none selected.
• Deselect all languages except for your local language.

Testing
On the "Manual Control" panel, expand the list of tuners so that all are visible, and then click the "Refresh DVB EPG" button. Within about 15 seconds you should see one of the tuners change from "idle" to "grabbing EPG". Continue to watch it until it returns to "idle", and measure the time elapsed from start of grabbing to end of grabbing. In the UK this interval would be around 10 minutes. The time that you specify for the idle-grabber "Timeout" needs to be several minutes longer than the grabbing duration observed, as the size of the EPG varies from day to day.

Now start the MP client and display the EPG. Scroll around to look at the EPG for all channels for the current time. All channels should have EPG data. If any do not, count the ones that do have data and the ones that do not, and report back here.

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

With this setting (channel Das Erste) it takes about 1 minute and 45 seconds for the EPG scan to complete. Afterwards 29 of 154 channels have EGP data, all from the same provider (ARD).
In the TV channel list there are 46 channels from this provider. There are 9 providers in total.

 

[CyberSimian]

With this setting (channel Das Erste) it takes about 1 minute and 45 seconds for the EPG scan to complete. Afterwards 29 of 154 channels have EGP data, all from the same provider (ARD).
In the TV channel list there are 46 channels from this provider. There are 9 providers in total.

This is as predicted by @joecrow .
So Germany is one of those countries where you need to grab from one channel in each MUX.

In terms of the limits:

• The maximum number of grabber channels required is equal to the number of MUXes (one channel from each MUX).
• The minimum number of grabber channels required is one (one channel from one MUX; this is the situation in the UK).

But in general the optimal number of grabber channels may be between these two limits (for example, if one provider owns more than one MUX).

The empirical way to arrive at the optimal setup is now to select one of the major channels that still lacks EPG info (probably from a different provider), and then use "Manual Control" to reload the EPG and review the results in the MP client. Keep repeating this until all channels have EPG info.

Once you have a complete EPG using the optimal number of grabber channels, we can look at your "PowerScheduler" settings to arrive at the best setup for your HTPC.

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

 

[horned_reaper]

OK, I'll add a channel, wait for the scan to complete, see which EPG data is still missing and add the remaining channels, one by one.
Then I'll check the total EPG refresh time.

Question in advance: There are some channels which transmit EGP data but MediaPortal doesn't get them. What to do in this case?
It was the same with my previous TV card.

 

[joecrow]

Question in advance: There are some channels which transmit EGP data but MediaPortal doesn't get them. What to do in this case?
It was the same with my previous TV card.

Can you give me a couple of examples so I can look into that?

 

[horned_reaper]

One good example is MTV.