Understanding what EPG shows about schedules (2 Viewers)

jclifford

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    I have just come from using WMC and am puzzled by the apparent behaviour of the EPG guide in MP2 (incidentally the grabber system seems excellent - the guide is showing me 14 days forward as WMC used to do some years ago).

    When I scheduled a series to record in WMC , it showed a red circle with a trail on every incidence of the series for all days in the guide. MP2 seems to show a red indicator on the first occurrence of the series but nothing on subsequent occurences even when they have become the next to be recorded. Is this the correct behaviour or am I doing something wrong?

    Also, when I schedule a series to record as "All on this channel" MP2 seems to record from the channel chosen and also on the corresponding HD channel so I get two copies of the same program and, with 2 tuners, I cannot record anything else at the same time. Is this the correct behaviour ?
     

    HTPCSourcer

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    MP2 seems to show a red indicator on the first occurrence of the series but nothing on subsequent occurences even when they have become the next to be recorded.
    It is working here. Can you describe in detail how you schedule such recordings? A screenshot of your options screen could be helpful. There is one of the series recording option that is not working, but I have forgotten which one.

    when I schedule a series to record as "All on this channel" MP2 seems to record from the channel chosen and also on the corresponding HD channel so I get two copies of the same program
    This is not happening for me. Did you define channel groups? If not, add all channels that you would like to use to an own group, e.g "TV". This can be done in TV Configuration in Channels from the channel context menu. Once done you can switch off the display of "All Channels" in the Settings of the client App.
     

    CyberSimian

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    MP2 seems to show a red indicator on the first occurrence of the series but nothing on subsequent occurences even when they have become the next to be recorded.
    I use MP1, but both MP1 and MP2 use the same "TV Server", and so both MP1 and MP2 will exhibit the same TV-Server quirks.

    One quirk is that the marking in the EPG of programmes scheduled to record is unreliable. It has been this way for the five years that I have been using MP1. No one knows what causes it, but there were some suggestions that it is caused by a timing issue somewhere between "TV Server" and the "MP Client". It is also possible that slower systems exhibit this quirk more often than faster systems. My system exhibits this quirk quite often. Sadly, this quirk is unlikely to be cured (because no one understands the "TV Server" code anymore).

    The definitive way to see what is scheduled to record is to look at the "Recording Schedule" panel. This lists the programmes that will record, and in my experience with MP1, that panel is always correct.

    when I schedule a series to record as "All on this channel"
    "TV Server" supports multiple flavours of repeated recording, two of which are Every time on this channel and Every time on every channel. Are you sure that you did not select the latter instead of the former? With MP1 I have never had recordings on (say) "BBC1 SD" duplicated on "BBC1 HD".

    -- from CyberSimian in the UK
     

    jclifford

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    I am attaching three screen shots illustrating my first query.

    Screen1 shows the Guide with a normal red ball on a progam selected to record (for a series the dot has a trail)
    Screen2 shows the schedule with a series called "Pointless" first recorded on 14th January as "Every time on this channel" - it duly recorded on several subsequent days from BBC1.
    Screen3 shows the Guide for tomorrow with Pointless showing at 5.15pm but no red dot.

    With respect to my second point I should have said the +1 channels, not HD. On Screen2 you can see that New: Midsomer Murders was set to record on one channel on 14th January; it actually recorded on both ITV and ITV+1 channels.

    Is there a way to set the date format to dd/mm/yyyy?
     

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    CyberSimian

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    General point: to take a screen shot of an MP panel, you can use ALT_PRTSC on the keyboard to copy the current window to the clipboard, and then open "Paint", paste the clipboard contents into "Paint", and save as a JPG (a JPG occupies less space than a PNG).

    MP1 has a specific "screen shot" function that you can allocate to a button on the remote, but I don't know whether MP2 has an equivalent; someone else will have to comment.

    Screen2 shows the schedule with a series called "Pointless" first recorded on 14th January as "Every time on this channel" - it duly recorded on several subsequent days from BBC1. Screen3 shows the Guide for tomorrow with Pointless showing at 5.15pm but no red dot.
    The evidence is inconclusive :(. One explanation could be that you scheduled "Pointless" to record on "BBC1 HD", but screen shot 3 shows "BBC1 SD" (your London variant thereof). Unfortunately, in screen shot 2, the focus is on "University Challenge", so it is not possible to see at the bottom of the panel which channel has been scheduled for "Pointless". Your EPG should show both "BBC1 SD" and "BBC1 HD" as separate lines (assuming that you did not suppress one of them in "TV Server Config").

    With respect to my second point I should have said the +1 channels, not HD. On Screen2 you can see that New: Midsomer Murders was set to record on one channel on 14th January; it actually recorded on both ITV and ITV+1 channels.
    I have never had that happen, so I don't have an explanation. :confused: No one else has reported this happening, so I suspect that it is a mistake in your configuration, but unfortunately I don't know what the mistake might be. :(

    Is there a way to set the date format to dd/mm/yyyy?
    One of the MP2 experts will need to comment on this. @HTPCSourcer ?

    -- from CyberSimian in the UK
     

    HTPCSourcer

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    General point: to take a screen shot of an MP panel, you can use ALT_PRTSC on the keyboard to copy the current window to the clipboard, and then open "Paint", paste the clipboard contents into "Paint", and save as a JPG (a JPG occupies less space than a PNG).
    Use Windows 10 and its more advanced capabilities: Windows+Shft+S, then draw the rectangle around what you want to capture (or select the full screen option) and the save the file directly.

    One of the MP2 experts will need to comment on this. @HTPCSourcer ?
    I did, see above.

    so I suspect that it is a mistake in your configuration, but unfortunately I don't know what the mistake might be
    All recordings are visible in the Schedule screen or it is not recorded. So verify this.
     

    jclifford

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    Thanks for the comments. I used a camera for screen shots because the PC concerned is in our sitting room linked to the TV and my wife objects to ugly objects like keyboards and mice (hence my questions about using the Hama remote).

    I have now upgraded the PC from Windows 7 to 10 and this has sorted out the date format, but it seems to have caused another problem. Although told that I am using UK english language, date format and keyboards etc Windows decided to set the time to Pacific instead of London. I have since discovered this and corrected it but I must have first installed MP2 when the time was wrong because now the EPG shows the correct time along the top of the screen and at bottom right but all the programmes are for 8 hours ahead.

    I have tried repairing and uninstalling but the problem is still there.
     

    HTPCSourcer

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    I have since discovered this and corrected it but I must have first installed MP2 when the time was wrong because now the EPG shows the correct time along the top of the screen and at bottom right but all the programmes are for 8 hours ahead.
    If EPG shows wrong times it means that the import data is wrong or that you xml import applied a time correction while Windows was still - presumably - in another time zone. If you are able to trigger another EPG import, the problem should solve itself. I believe that there is also the possibility to clear the EPG in the TV Configuration.

    I have tried repairing and uninstalling but the problem is still there.
    This is not affecting data in any way.
     

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