UK Freeview DVB-T EPG Problems

[Reddwarf]

Unfortunately I uninstalled GBPVR last week. If anyone can supply the above for Sub from Mendip Transmitter that would be most helpful.
Further Observations - Which ever way the EPG is updated (Scheduled, from the Channels Screen System Plugin [have tried with Plugin uninstalled as well] or -updateepgonly) the epg only gets full listings up to 01.00 hrs. After that there is just a random sprinkling across all five muxes for the next 6 days.
After watching any channel on a mux for 3-5mins all the program listings for that mux appear, often overlayed on the [no show details] that was there previously. On restarting NPVR the listings are correct, but the scheduled recordings are no longer pending and have to be entered again.
I don't understand is NPVR downloading updates to the epg while playing live TV or just not getting its act together until live TV starts playing :confused:
Would a longer scan time be appropriate as there are over 20 Channels on some of the muxes inc radio all with 7 day guides (In GBPVR each mux was scanned twice one for each tuner - never had any problems)
Finally am I the only one having problems - seem to be lots of views for not a huge amount of posts in this thread. (I don't think its all me)

Have you tried DVBCollector and allowed it a long timeout? I use it for collecting epg to an xmltv-file (from both dvb-t and dvb-c) and it works rock stable.

[Lao Pan]

Do you have a link for dvbcollector - I have tried googling for it but must be in stealth mode - no sign of it!
It could be worth a try to see how long it takes to get a full 7 days epg - I have a feeling 1 minute per mux may not be enough - that could be in excess of 3500 entrys on some of the freeview muxes here in the uk - and it looks as if the current day may be broadcast more than once per minute (always get full epg till 01:00 then random listings after that)

[imilne]

It might be worth trying DVBGuide too (http://www.dvbguide.com/). It can save the listings to xmltv for easy import into nPVR.

[Reddwarf]

It might be worth trying DVBGuide too (http://www.dvbguide.com/). It can save the listings to xmltv for easy import into nPVR.

Sorry, my mistake. I ment dvbguide, which I aslo use. I found that for a full week of epg from dvb-t I need a timeout value of 1800 (option -e1800).

Edit: I have to grab them one at a time from all muxes I use (4), and afterwards I merge the files with xmltvmerge.exe

[Lao Pan]

I see from another thread that Sub is making the scan time configurable in the next release - hopefully this will allow me to set a scan time of 3 - 4 minutes per mux and get round the problem. It must be that there is to much data to get in a minute. At the moment once I have watched 1 channel on a mux for about 3 mins all 7 days listings mysteriously appear for that mux! It seems that in NPVR the EPG is being constantly checked & updated.
In the mean time I will just have to re-enter all the recurring recordings every day - only 8 at the moment.

[Lao Pan]

I am still having this problem with 1.5.31.
I have done some further investigation and it would seem that here in the UK the Full Freeview EPG is broadcast on each Mux.
NPVR scans the first Mux and saves it. Then it scans the second mux, deletes the epg data it downloaded a minute previously and saves the latest.
Unfortunatly Mux 3,4,5 are still on very low power here and the last mux suffers from co-channel interference. which is probably why I am ending up with an epg riddled with holes! Even though the first mux may have supplied a complete epg.

Also I have learnt that for the last 4 or so weeks on Mendip Transmitter, the BBC have been using Hoffman Compression on the HD Info in the epg in order to stop Piracy!
Hope this isn't causing further problems.

[Reddwarf]

I am still having this problem with 1.5.31.
I have done some further investigation and it would seem that here in the UK the Full Freeview EPG is broadcast on each Mux.
NPVR scans the first Mux and saves it. Then it scans the second mux, deletes the epg data it downloaded a minute previously and saves the latest.
Unfortunatly Mux 3,4,5 are still on very low power here and the last mux suffers from co-channel interference. which is probably why I am ending up with an epg riddled with holes! Even though the first mux may have supplied a complete epg.

Also I have learnt that for the last 4 or so weeks on Mendip Transmitter, the BBC have been using Hoffman Compression on the HD Info in the epg in order to stop Piracy!
Hope this isn't causing further problems.

A temporary solution would be to use DVBGuide and save the epg from all mux'es.

[Lao Pan]

Yes that would be an option - in fact it should only need to run on one mux (probably BBC - strongest signal) as the full fifty odd channels of epg are on every mux (why did the UK go for quantity over quality?) not just the mux the channel broadcasts on.
Alternativly I am thinking about Birtles RT grabber - looks like this may be the only option for Freeview HD.
But It would be nice to get the built in bits working (I don't think GBPVR deleated the epg unless forced - and never caused problems)
Em - just had a wish come to mind - better put it on the wish list.

[Lao Pan]

Hi Sub
I am still having problems with this.
Before I give up completely and go to an xmltv solution (I have been looking at Birtles RT grabber but feed seems completely unreliable at present)
In one of the threads about loss of epg data you stated that the dvb epg had to be broadcast with in less than a minute.
I have found this info from the DVBGuide instructions.

Quote:
"EPG Timeout
As a reference point the UK's Freeview seven day EPG is specified to have a broadcast repetition rate of 270 seconds (ie every individual EPG event will be broadcast at least once on each multiplex during that time)
This is confirmed by experiments that show that the complete EPG is usually captured in a little less than 5 minutes and results in around 12,000 unique epg records."
End Quote

If this is correct running for 1 minute on each of 5 multiplexes is not going to collect a 7 days of info, especially as it appears all the old data is deleted 5 times.
I think the only way that GBPVR worked was that there were 6 muxes each scanned twice (once for each tuner) and the epg was not cleared in between. - I always thought the occasional (no epg data) was the fault of the broadcaster!

What we could do with is a 6 minute scan on only one mux - or settable options.

If you don't think this is going to be likely let me know and I will find an alternative. - EPG that is.

I am surprised not many other people in the UK are noticing problems - are they all using xmltv guides?

[JEF]

I am also having the same problem as you - i.e. incomplete EPG with NPVR and no problems with GBPVR