Gaps appear in existing OTA EPG

[pol098]

I've been trying NextPVR for a couple of months, and it generally works as specified. However, I have been having gaps appear the next day in an existing broadcast (OTA) EPG with 3.6.6 and 3.7.7. Essentially, I populate the EPG from the broadcast signals from Settings/Channels/Update EPG. After a few minutes the EPG is 100% populated for 7 days (to save my time I have only checked the top 8 channels in the NextPVR TV Guide display, which include several different multiplexes, for times 18:00-23:00 each day; they are 100% complete, no gaps). I last updated the EPG on 1 July at about 12:00; it was complete until midnight on 8 July.

The next day at 15:00 many gaps, i.e. "(no show details)", have appeared in the formerly-filled EPG (in the same top 8 channels over the same period, and on different multiplexes). If I either tune to the affected channel or do a new EPG update the gaps will be filled for the moment, but will reappear soon.

I've searched the NextPVR site but not found any reference to this, though I have seen reports of the EPG populating with gaps from the outset. Is the later appearance of gaps a known issue; is there a workaround?

Clevo laptop computer, Win10/64, working well. Hauppauge WinTV-NOVA-TD-Stick (958xx) dual tuner, in dual, not diversity, mode, with external aerial - signal is OK. Freeview (not HD), London UK; most channels from Crystal Palace transmitters.

All channels show as having 2 sources (with the dual tuner), and DVB/ATSC EPG as EPG source.
The same problem occurs with the LAV and the MainConcept (from Hauppauge WinTV 7) MPEG-2 decoder.

(Not related to this problem: 1. the latest Hauppauge WinTV8 Arcsoft decoders don't seem to work, probably locked to work only with WinTV. 2. I get the NextPVR "DirectX missing" message, though I have the latest DirectX. NextPVR seems to work OK though.)

Best wishes, pol098
PS I've uploaded .ZIPped logs, hope they appear here, haven't done this yet

[Graham]

However, I have been having gaps appear the next day in an existing broadcast (OTA) EPG with 3.6.6 and 3.7.7.

Trying to get EPG data from the broadcast stream while NextPVR is recording or playing Live TV is likely to be troublesome. You should get better mileage if you run the EPG update while NextPVR is otherwise idle.

NextPVR listens for EPG data on each frequency (aka mux) that has channels. The period of listening is set by the "EPGScanSeconds" value in config.xml. The default is 60 seconds and that should be enough to find all of the data. You can try increasing it.

Plus, lots of folk have reported that problems are fixed by making sure that Settings --> Misc --> Update DVB EPG during Live TV is not ticked.

For completeness, you can tell NextPVR to wake up the 'puter and run a scan automagically at Settings --> Misc2 ... http://www.nextpvr.com/nwiki/pmwiki.php?...tion.Misc2

[pol098]

Many thanks Graham. The EPG populates fine, 60" per mulriplex gives me 7 days of gapless EPG, no need to increase that. I'll try switching off updating during live TV (although it's useful, I tune to a channel I want to update for about 12" to avoid a full 6' scan). I have the EPG set to auto-update at night, but am not yet confident that it would wake a sleeping computer (I have had problems with other software not making a recording if the computer is off); not a problem, I manually update while doing something else. I'll see if disabling update during live TV solves the problem, won't know for a few days. Best wishes

[pol098]

Summary: setting the EPG to update on live TV seems to corrupt a good 7-day EPG updated from Settings; disabling live update fixed this for me.

Following up to my original problem: the EPG populates for 7 days over the air when I update it from Settings. When I had NextPVR set up to update the EPG on live TV, gaps appeared in a previously complete EPG; I also have the impression that most or all entries two or three days ahead were lost. Following advice here (thanks again), I disabled EPG update on live TV. The EPG does run automatically overnight without any problems I've noticed, so I have no need to update on live TV or manually (except for last-minute programme changes); and gaps no longer appear in the EPG. My conclusion is that updating live actually corrupts a good 7-day EPG (unlike dedicated PVRs I've used). I'm not sure whether this is a fixable bug or just one of those things. Best wishes