New user - looking for WMC replacement

[Gerryex3]

Hi ALL,

I have a Hauppauge HVR-1250 TV tuner that I have been using to pick up OTA ATSC channels with Win Media Center. Since WMC is gone under Win 10 I'm looking for a replacement and while I know I'll never be able to get an exact replacement NextPVR looks pretty good. But I'm having some difficulties. I installed it and it is working with the TV tuner and did find all the local channels and does show them in Live TV. But I'm having trouble with the guide. It initially came up but with no data. Playing around I determined that the guide data defaults to come in from the ATSC signals. Unfortunately a couple of my local channels have not been displaying that data for a long time. In the Settings for Channels I would click on Update EPG and it would always start with the physical channel that doesn't have any data and time out. I managed to find the setting to change the EPG source while watching a live channel and tried the setting for XMLTV even though I don't have a file. Obviously that didn't work but even though I set it back to getting data from the channel when I click Update EPG in the Channel Settings the program always crashes with a popup that disappears quickly saying something about XMLTV!!!

Is there something I can try to get it to get to not crash or should I uninstall and re-install. Even if I do the latter I'm still not sure how to get the EPG fully populated.

Any help will be greatly appreciated!!!

Thanks,
Gerry

[Handy.Man]

NextPVR support SchedulesDirect http://schedulesdirect.org/ to obtain EPG data, there is a 7 days trial you can test, but it require a 25U$ donation valid for a year.

Another alternative is zapit2xml http://zap2xml.awardspace.info/ that you can configure to get EPG Data.

[sub]

The broadcast EPG in North America is pretty shitty, and typically only gives you about 6 hours, which is next to useless for PVR usage. Most people in that part of the world use Schedules Direct.

EDIT: if you do go down that path, you can find a video showing how to set it up in NextPVR here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqJ7QiYS3Rk

[Gerryex3]

NextPVR support SchedulesDirect http://schedulesdirect.org/ to obtain EPG data, there is a 7 days trial you can test, but it require a 25U$ donation valid for a year.

Another alternative is zapit2xml http://zap2xml.awardspace.info/ that you can configure to get EPG Data.

Hi Handy.Man,

Thanks for the suggestion and I'll give zapit2xml a try. But do you have a suggestion on how to get NPRV to stop crashing when I try to update the EPG?

Gerry

[sub]

But do you have a suggestion on how to get NPRV to stop crashing when I try to update the EPG?

I'm not sure what might be happening there, but the easiest fix is probably to delete the channel and rescan for it, or set it's EPG to none (or setup xmltv or schedules direct, and set the channel to that)

[Handy.Man]

It is also a good thing to disable Artwork service from Schedules Direct if you don't have subscription with them.

[Gerryex3]

Hi ALL,

THANKS FOR YOUR HELP!!! I made some good progress. Watching that video helped as I had no idea in the Settings - Channels I could click on the channel and then Details to get to the EPG settings. By doing that I set all the channels back to getting OTA data and clicking on Update EPG did NOT CRASH!!! I let it run and it seemed to stay on a few channels for 60 seconds and I assume that was because they had no data. After a while I had to stop the update as I needed to shut down but first I brought up the guide and a lot of the channels DID HAVE DATA!! Surprisingly, even that channel that I knew hasn't had data for a while DID have data in the guide. Maybe some other channel had that channel's data.

Well, tomorrow's another day and I'll play around with it some more. At least its no longer crashing.

Thanks again!
Gerry

P. S. Is there anyway to control the volume within NPVR as its quite loud but I don't want to have to change the Win system setting for volume. Thanks!

[Handy.Man]

In Windows 7 Volume Mixer, when you set the volume for an application it will remember it for the next usage.

[sub]

I let it run and it seemed to stay on a few channels for 60 seconds and I assume that was because they had no data.

This is normal. In most countries the specifications have them taking up to 60 seconds to deliver the complete EPG data for channels on that frequency, so NextPVR waits 60 seconds on each frequency when you're using the broadcast EPG.

[Reddwarf]

This is normal. In most countries the specifications have them taking up to 60 seconds to deliver the complete EPG data for channels on that frequency, so NextPVR waits 60 seconds on each frequency when you're using the broadcast EPG.

60 Seconds I guess??