Incorrect UPG update

[stu8080]

Djtaylor - my overlaps are not 1st recordings either. Best wait till sub gets time to look at it cos i think we both have the same problem regardless wether we use -onlyupdateepg or do this in the config app!

[Jim_]

Im finding it hard to understand whats going on, and i think its exclusive to XMLTV users as no US Zap2it users seem to have this problem.

I have (had) Zap2It on one system, and xmltv on another. Both had the overlap problem.

Are we talking about "Married ... With Children" on FX by any chance?
FX is a very common lineup offender.

Jim

[stu8080]

personally im just talking about UK terrestrial channels (BBC1, BBC2, ITV, Channel 4 & Five)
Channel 4 is the worst, they change their linups all the time!
PVR's seem to be much rarer in the UK and so i dont think the TV companies do it to blight us like they seem to in the US with some of the big channels.

[djtaylor]

As am I. Here's a great example of Channel 4 from the weekend with Shipwrecked all over the shop mixed in with some other stuff.

http://www.nodomainname.co.uk/guide.jpg

David.

[Ton]

Well, you could (if you're brave) manually clear out the program-guide table in the database (should be okay if you make sure you have a backup before).

If you'd delete all the entires in the "PROGRAMME" table, you should end up with an empty EPG.

Even if you have to restore afterwards, you could at least do a nice "what-if" scenario.

[stu8080]

Djtaylor: mine looks just the same...frustrating isnt it! lol

Ton: will i lose all my stored reocurring recordings? i have loads of shows that are set to record that are not on anymore... if they crop up they get recorded and i get a nice surprise, id hate to have to check for new shows for ages again!

[Ton]

Well, you should be okay. And like I said, as long as you backup your database, worst that could happen is that you miss one recording....

The scheduled recordings (and season recordings) should be in different tables; the "programme" table is just for the EPG.

Well, it's like using a sledgehammer to try to fix a PCB, but at least you can see if (if you did have an empty EPG) everything would be correct.

What I'd do in this case is:

- Make sure all GBPVR services are not running
- Make sure there's no MVP's running
- Make sure there's no GBPVR frontend running
- Make a complete copy of the GBPVR directory
- Make the changes to the database
- Try the epgupdate
- See if what the situation is like
- Put everything back
- Restart the GBPVR services and report to this forum

That way you at least now that IF you had an empty EPG to start with, you're issue would be fixed. Then you can try to dig deeper into why "emptyepg" or the "clear epg" flag doesn't work (but you know it'll be worth it).

Regards,

[stu8080]

ok, i'll give it a whirl.

I think its likely to leave me with a 'clean' epg as the XML data seems to be fine (hard to check thoroughly) and the issue is how GBPVR decides to leave/replace shows when updating info.

But your right, best to exclude the obvious!

[Jim_]

I’ve been playing around trying incremental xmltv updates the last couple of days, and I’m afraid this problem is more serious than I first thought. I knew I’d been recording the wrong shows but I didn’t know why.

XMLTV EPG updates aren’t updating listing when they change, at all.
It just fills an empty gap when it finds one with the new listing, and leaves the old one causing the overlap problem.
If a listing in a given timeslot changes completely, it’s just ignored.

Zap2It epg update has the same problem if complete is selected.
Zap2It incremental, updates the listings properly but leaves a gap during primetime, because daily zap2it listings end at 7PM in my time zone.

[bluesxman]

XMLTV EPG updates aren’t updating listing when they change, at all.
It just fills an empty gap when it finds one with the new listing, and leaves the old one causing the overlap problem.
If a listing in a given timeslot changes completely, it’s just ignored.

Zap2It epg update has the same problem if complete is selected.
Zap2It incremental, updates the listings properly but leaves a gap during primetime, because daily zap2it listings end at 7PM in my time zone.

It's always been the case that if EPG data is present, then it will never be updated. To get around this I make a call to GBPVR with the -OnlyEmptyEpg switch in my updateepg.bat file. This ensures that the EPG is wiped clean prior to getting it populated (with any schedule changes).