OSMC using NPVR not getting complete, correct EPG data

[FrogFan]

Hello,

I initiated a thread on this topic over on the OSMC forums and they advised me to try over here before pursuing the "nuclear" option of removing ~/.kodi data. (I'm not a techie, especially not a Linux techie, so I'm not even sure what that means.) Anyway, here is the problem I've experienced:

I recently had to rescan my OTA channels due to spectrum repacking. I went through the process in NPVR on my Windows 10 “server” then validated that all was well when watching TV through NPVR. All channels showed up in the EPG (I use Schedules Direct) with correct information about the programming and all channel logos displayed correctly. (One logo changed; I placed the new logo into the appropriate NPVR directory on the server.)

I also have Kodi Leia, using NPVR, running on the server that’s running NPVR. I started it and confirmed that all was well within Kodi, too. All channels showed up in the EPG, all programming information appeared correct, and the channel logo that had changed was displaying correctly.

Then I fired up OSMC, which is connected via wifi to the server, and rebooted it to ensure (I thought) it was getting the latest information from the server. Evidently it was not. One channel is not showing in the “Guide” display, but all of them are showing in the “Channels” display. Moreover, some programming information is incorrect in the Channels display (the programming information for the channel missing from the OSMC Guide display is for a different channel in the OSMC channels display). Finally, OSMC was not picking up the correct channel logos from the server. In particular, one in particular that had changed continued to show the “old” logo for that channel, even though it should no longer be accessible to NPVR because I changed its file name to "Not Used".

In case it’s relevant, if I try to tune to the channel that is showing in the Channels display but not in the Guide display on OSMC, it takes considerable time, with significant buffering. Eventually, it does tune to the channel.

Until this rescan, I had no trouble with Guide and related data in OSMC, and virtually no buffering tuning to and watching live TV.

I've zipped and attached NPVR logs. In case OSMC logs might be helpful, you'll find them here: https://paste.osmc.tv/cuyosacoya

One other point that might be helpful: I did the rescan in NPVR twice. I have 6 tuners. I rescanned tuner 1 and noted (manually) which channels had changed. I left the unchanged ones alone and unchecked the "old" channels that changed. Then I deleted all channels from the remaining 5 tuners and, one at a time, opened them to configure them, and answered the question about copying over settings "Yes". After finishing that the first time, NPVR threw an exception that was picked up by Windows. I didn't write it down (I'm sorry), but I believe there was an address out of range. The text indicated that the application might be able to manage the exception, so I pressed on. With the process complete, I proceeded to check channels and EPG in NPVR and Kodi and all was well. The above problem occurred in OSMC.

Because of the problem I had in OSMC, and the exception that was thrown, I decided to complete the scan again from scratch. This time, I deleted all channels from all six tuners, then rescanned the first one and deselected channels I was not interested in. Then I used the same process to "copy" the settings to my other 5 tuners. This time, no exceptions were thrown. I re-ran the checks and got the same results, thus my post.

Thanks very much for any assistance.

[sub]

One other point that might be helpful: I did the rescan in NPVR twice. I have 6 tuners. I rescanned tuner 1 and noted (manually) which channels had changed. I left the unchanged ones alone and unchecked the "old" channels that changed. Then I deleted all channels from the remaining 5 tuners and, one at a time, opened them to configure them, and answered the question about copying over settings "Yes"

This was the right way to do it. ie, delete rescan the one device, delete the channels from the other, and accept it's offer to copy the channel info from the existing tuner.

Then I fired up OSMC, which is connected via wifi to the server, and rebooted it to ensure (I thought) it was getting the latest information from the server. Evidently it was not. One channel is not showing in the “Guide” display, but all of them are showing in the “Channels” display. Moreover, some programming information is incorrect in the Channels display (the programming information for the channel missing from the OSMC Guide display is for a different channel in the OSMC channels display). Finally, OSMC was not picking up the correct channel logos from the server. In particular, one in particular that had changed continued to show the “old” logo for that channel, even though it should no longer be accessible to NPVR because I changed its file name to "Not Used"

If you're seeing the correct channels and listings in NextPVR itself, and Kodi, then it definitely sounds like it's serving up the right stuff, but for whatever reason OSMC is not using it.

Kodi has a button something like 'clear tv settings' or something like that which would force Kodi to delete it's channels/listings, and reload. Maybe look for this.

Then I fired up OSMC, which is connected via wifi to the server, and rebooted it to ensure (I thought) it was getting the latest information from the server. Evidently it was not. One channel is not showing in the “Guide” display, but all of them are showing in the “Channels” display.

This is just sounding like a OSMC bug. NextPVR doesn't play any role in which channels are shown on certain screens. When OSMC starts it'll ask NextPVR for the list of channels, and from then it never comes back to ask for the channel list - it decides what channels to show where. If you're seeing all the channels somewhere, then NextPVR has definitely live up to it's end of the bargain.

In case it’s relevant, if I try to tune to the channel that is showing in the Channels display but not in the Guide display on OSMC, it takes considerable time, with significant buffering. Eventually, it does tune to the channel.

Is it slow from your other Kodi setup? If not, then it's sounding more like slow wifi on that machine, or maybe OSMC bugs.

[mvallevand]

Did you hit the clear data button in Kodi to repopulate the channels and reload the EPG?

Martin

[sub]

To try forcing it to reload the channel icons, you might need to delete the existing icons in ./userdata/addon_data/pvr.nextpvr

Clear Data will hopefully do that for you though.

[FrogFan]

Success! Thanks very much for the quick responses.

sub
Kodi has a button something like 'clear tv settings' or something like that which would force Kodi to delete it's channels/listings, and reload. Maybe look for this.

mvallevand
Did you hit the clear data button in Kodi to repopulate the channels and reload the EPG?

I was unaware there was such a button in OSMC or that I needed to clear the data in this case. I found the button in OSMC here:

Settings > LiveTV > General > Clear Data

Once I clicked the button, the Guide and Channel data matched, and there were no channels missing. That problem is solved, but the one "old" logo is still showing up.

sub

To try forcing it to reload the channel icons, you might need to delete the existing icons in ./userdata/addon_data/pvr.nextpvr

Clear Data will hopefully do that for you though.

As noted, the Clear Data button had no effect on the "old" logo. It continues to appear even though the "new" one is correctly assigned to the channel in NPVR's logo folder. Do I find the existing icons in Kodi (OSMC)? I'm thinking yes, since the new icons are showing in NPVR and Kodi on the server. Seems like I need to spend some time on the Linux command line.

sub
Is it slow from your other Kodi setup? If not, then it's sounding more like slow wifi on that machine, or maybe OSMC bugs.

I think this is a red herring. I don't think this is a real issue.

[FrogFan]

sub
To try forcing it to reload the channel icons, you might need to delete the existing icons in ./userdata/addon_data/pvr.nextpvr

Sorry to come back on this, but I was contemplating how to delete the logo files and had a idea. I thought I'd run it by here before I tried it and messed something up.

My RPi running OSMC is on my home network and is visible to my Windows laptop. I can navigate to the appropriate directory and can see all the png icon files that need to be deleted. What if I tried to delete them using Windows File Explorer. Would that work, or would bad things happen?

I try to avoid the Linux command line, but I can do it that way if I have to. This was just sounds easier for me, maybe too easy.

Thanks again for your help.

[mvallevand]

If you set up osmc for samba sharing you might be able to navigate to the folder to delete the file. Installing putty and running the shell is pretty easy.

For the next release of the add-on I will add an option to trigger an icon reload.

Martin

[FrogFan]

If you set up osmc for samba sharing you might be able to navigate to the folder to delete the file. Installing putty and running the shell is pretty easy.

For the next release of the add-on I will add an option to trigger an icon reload.

Martin

Thank you, Martin. I went ahead and used Windows File Explorer to delete all png files from the pvr.nextpvr directory. I then looked at OSMC and the "old" logo was still appearing. I rebooted OSMC and there was no joy, so I performed another "Clear Data". Still no joy. Then I had a look at the pvr.nextpvr directory and all the logos in that directory were correct.

Is there some other buffer somewhere I need to flush? Is this an OSMC issue?

Thanks again very much for your help.

Ed

[mvallevand]

It's not OSMC it is likely the Kodi texture cache database causing you troubles.

Martin

[FrogFan]

It's not OSMC it is likely the Kodi texture cache database causing you troubles.

Martin

Thanks Martin. Sorry to be thick, but I'm not sure what to do next. I see that Googling "Kodi Texture Cache" yields hundreds of thousands of hits, but I don't know which one holds the answer for me. Can you help on that, or do I need to go over to the Kodi forums?

I appreciate your assistance.

Edited to add: I just noticed that the correct logo displays in OSMC>PVR&LiveTV>Channels, but not in OSMC>PVR&LiveTV>Guide. Not sure that matters in figuring out what to do next, but I thought I'd mention it.

Ed