OTA EPG functionality

[eastavin]

Hi all.  Could someone please comment if OTA EPG actually works in this version for users in USA or Canada?  I am helping a person set up their pvr and we want the simplest possible setup with no ongoing expense.  We realize that one only gets a 4-10 hours of epg at a time depending on the station etc... but that is not a big deal with a computer like this updating all day long if its left running.  This person would be perfectly satisfied with this.

My experience so far is that I have not seen OTA EPG work with Hauppauge x-box/PC tuner or the USB dual tuner USB key and nextpvr.  Is this likely to be a setup issue or the feature is not in working order in ver 4 despite the documentation?  We could use ver 5 if it works there.

Best regards to all.

[mvallevand]

Depends on the channel as you say but 4 hours can be generous. Global here has no guide data at all. CBC has a few days. Updating every 4 hours also means losing a tuner for one minute per channel at during the scan

Martin

[eastavin]

Depends on the channel as you say but 4 hours can be generous. Global here has no guide data at all.  CBC has a few days.  Updating every 4 hours also means losing a tuner for one minute per channel at during the scan

Martin

None of those are issues.  

So if I read between your lines you are saying that OTA EPG works flawlessly in ver 4.2.5 and it must be something in the setup I am working on?  So far even though the EPG is set to DVB I have not seen any data come in.  I know there is data as we are replacing an old unsupported hardware tuner and every channel has data on it as long as you watch the channel for a short period of time... so I am expecting to see the same real time data  coming in on Nextpvr as the station retransmits it on their cycle.

Maybe I need to erase the setup and start again?  Would appreciate any further comments you can offer.  Or am I misunderstanding how nextpvr functions?

[mvallevand]

Flawless who can say. V4 didn't change, OTA standards didn't change and all digital tuners simply read digital data. It is possible that some drivers filter out extended data required for OTA. I personally don't see value investigating this further in V4.

Martin

[sub]

As far as I know, the DVB EPG works in the USA/Canada. As mentioned, I think it’s of limited value given the number hours broadcast, but it should work.

Hit Update EPG, let it complete, then post the logs and I’ll take a look.

[Graham]

  We realize that one only gets a 4-10 hours of epg at a time depending on the station etc... but that is not a big deal with a computer like this updating all day long if its left running.  This person would be perfectly satisfied with this.

NextPVR does not do well if an OTA EPG update occurs while making a recording or while watching Live TV.  The OTA EPG update scans all frequencies and can disrupt recordings and Live TV on all channels.

EPG updates would need to be done at times when NextPVR is not being used to watch Live TV or make a recording.

[eastavin]

Hit Update EPG, let it complete, then post the logs and I’ll take a look.

Thanks.  I offered to set this up for a senior citizen.  80 years old... only interested in recording a show if she has to go out in the next hour or two so OTA EPG is more than enough.  she does not do online payments so a paid epg is not suitable.  xmltv solutions require occasional maintenance which she does not do either. So OTA seemed perfect as its like an appliance.. should work every day all day.

Here are the logs from my own machine where I cant make it work.  I set up 3 different epgs here OTA, XMLTV and SD.  THe latter two work fine.  OTA EPG is on channels 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, and 2.4.  XML is on channels 4.1 and 4.2. SD is on the rest.  The tuner here is a Hauppauge Dual HD USB key.  I received a confirmation from their tech support yesterday that the device is designed to do OTA epg

Appreciate any input.  If the solution is use ver 5 I can give it a go.

[eastavin]

  We realize that one only gets a 4-10 hours of epg at a time depending on the station etc... but that is not a big deal with a computer like this updating all day long if its left running.  This person would be perfectly satisfied with this.

NextPVR does not do well if an OTA EPG update occurs while making a recording or while watching Live TV.  The OTA EPG update scans all frequencies and can disrupt recordings and Live TV on all channels.

EPG updates would need to be done at times when NextPVR is not being used to watch Live TV or make a recording.

Hmm. Interesting comment.  Help me understand.  If I go to walmart and buy a hardware atsc tuner it gets OTA any time I watch that channel.  If I got to my local electronics store I buy  a hardware tuner I attach a recording disk to and it collects and save the ota for any channel I have  flipped to. so after a while it has collected the otas for a pile of channels... then I choose a show to record in the next hour or so... only drawback is their filing system is ugly.

so with npvr it does not collect ota epg for a channel while you watch it?  
I have to schedule it?  
Is it limited to only once a day?  
Is the issue of not doing well only a factor with single tuner systems?  Would it go away with a 2 or 4 tuner system provided one tuner was free all the time?  

Thanks for the input.

Edward

[Graham]

Here are the logs from my own machine where I cant make it work.  I set up 3 different epgs here OTA, XMLTV and SD.  THe latter two work fine.  OTA EPG is on channels 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, and 2.4.  XML is on channels 4.1 and 4.2. SD is on the rest.  The tuner here is a Hauppauge Dual HD USB key.

nrecord.log has this ...

020-12-30 04:02:54.173 [DEBUG][10] UpdateEPG@3
...
2020-12-30 04:02:54.173 [DEBUG][10] broadcast channel: CKVP-DT
2020-12-30 04:02:54.173 [DEBUG][10] captureSourceOID: 20
2020-12-30 04:02:54.173 [DEBUG][10] found capture source
2020-12-30 04:02:54.189 [DEBUG][10] mapping:
<tuning>
  <type>ATSC</type>
  <locator>
    <physical_channel>29</physical_channel>
 ...
</tuning>
2020-12-30 04:02:54.220 [DEBUG][10] EPG scan skipped for locator. Device is in-use. Locator:

The above indicates that the EPG data is being obtained from tuner "20" and the EPG data was not collected because the "device is in use".

The ndigitalhost-20.log has ...

2019-10-28 22:00:01.777 [DEBUG][5] FindFilterByName failed to locate filter: Hauppauge Cx23100 BDA ATSC Tuner
2019-10-28 22:00:01.777 [DEBUG][5] Temp at 10/28/2019 10:00:11 PM

and no log entries after that.  It appears that this tuner had a driver or other problem at the time of the EPG update.

[Graham]

so with npvr it does not collect ota epg for a channel while you watch it?  
I have to schedule it?  
Is it limited to only once a day?  
Is the issue of not doing well only a factor with single tuner systems?  Would it go away with a 2 or 4 tuner system provided one tuner was free all the time?  

Thanks for the input.

Edward

NextPVR collects EPG data only when the Automatic Update occurs at the time specified or when the Update EPG button is pressed.

Almost everyone schedules an automatic EPG update to occur in the middle of the night when NextPVR is otherwise idle.  The auto EPG update works well if NextPVR is otherwise idle.

The only known issue with this is in the US and Canada where OTA EPG data is sparse.  There is little that NextPVR can do to solve a problem caused by broadcasters and their sparse EPG data.  There is little motivation to change NextPVR since Schedules Direct (or zap2xml or whatever) provide alternatives.

NextPVR V5 allows multiple time values to be set for EPG updates ... so V5 allows the EPG to be updated every 4 hours ... but there will be dragons if NextPVR is recording or watching Live TV when an automatic EPG update occurs.