Missing channels with Zap2It

[mark2727]

Hi,
I am currently trying to decide whether to use BeyondTV or GB-PVR for my HTPC. I love the idea of the GB-PVR project and the great work by its creator and the developers of the fantastic plugins, and the program itself seems to work well for me. Unfortunately, I'm experiencing an absolute showstopper, which is that the channel listing guide is missing about 3/4ths of my channels!

I'm using the Zap2It service in NY, USA. It lists all of the channels, and they're checked in the setup screen, but when it downloads the program listing (which takes an awfully long time), most of them are missing. There seems to be no pattern to it; the channels skip from like 1-4; 7,8,11, 16, 17-21, 27, 30-33, etc. I'm not sure if it's the same channels missing from the lineup after every channel download, though.

So, does anyone know what could be going on? I use Time Warner digital cable in Queens, NY which has about 1000 total channels (though I'd use only about 100 of them at most). Is there some kind of numerical limit to the number of channels GB-PVR will show? Would it help if I unchecked all the PPV, etc channels I won't use? Is there an alternate service (I haven't tried looking into the XML option; don't quite know how it works yet)

Thanks!

[sub]

I'm using the Zap2It service in NY, USA. It lists all of the channels, and they're checked in the setup screen, but when it downloads the program listing (which takes an awfully long time), most of them are missing. There seems to be no pattern to it; the channels skip from like 1-4; 7,8,11, 16, 17-21, 27, 30-33, etc. I'm not sure if it's the same channels missing from the lineup after every channel download, though.

Is it possible the same channel appears twice in your listings? for example 4 and 434? If so, it'll only use the last one.

Also, GB-PVR will only use the first channel lineup listed in your account - so double channel lineups could also cause this.

So, does anyone know what could be going on? I use Time Warner digital cable in Queens, NY which has about 1000 total channels (though I'd use only about 100 of them at most).

Your best bet is to log into labs.zap2it.com and disable the channels you dont ever watch, this will great improve the speed of updating the EPG.

[mark2727]

Thanks for such a quick reply!
I don't understand-- how are channels 4 and 434 the same, though? Does GB-PVR not recognize 3 digit channel numbers?


I will definitely disable the channels I don't use, thanks!

[sub]

GB-PVR recognises channels by name. I've seen situation in the US where a single zap2it channel lineup can have the same channel (name) listed on two different channel numbers.

[mark2727]

Ah, I see... I wonder if some of the same channels are present in, say, HD and regular def. I'll look into that. Thanks again!