XML file problem

[Rich A]

I've been running NPVR for a while on a Windows 7 64-bit system. This was a temporary install to test out NPVR. It worked well. Yesterday I tried to set up a new NPVR into my dedicated HTPC that is running Windows XP Pro. Everything seemed to work out fine but I've hit some new problems that I didn't see in the Windows 7 setup.

I'm using mc2xml and I've checked the resultant *.xml file and all the proper data is there. But when I try to map the channels, the channel "name" is blank. I mapped a few channels manually and updated the epg and they all display the show data okay but the channel name is missing. All I have is channel numbers in the epg.

Of course not having any channel "names" to reference, results with the bulk mapping not working.

[sub]

I dont really follow you. Can you post a screen shot so I know where you mean?

[lschroeder]

I just ordered the Silicon Dust HDHomeRun Prime. I have a couple of questions about using it with Windows XP as well.

I have Comcast cable and will be using the Silicon Dust HDHomeRun Prime with a M-Card cablecard. Can I install install NPVR on a separate Window's XP SP3 Media Center edition P4 3.4 Ghz, hyper thread enabled, 3072 MB machine, ATI Radeon 3650 AGP, 250 GB WD system hard drive, 1500.3 GB Segate SATA-150 data hard drive? I would basically use this as a server for copy freely Comcast content. Could I if necessary with the 3650 AGP hooked up by DVI view the video as well?

For a client I would be using my wife's windows 7 I3 3.3 Ghz, ATI Radeon 5700 series GPU. Will need to investigate how this works with NPVR.

Currently I am running Beyond TV server on a dual core w7-64bit AMD for OTA and clear qam. Beyond TV has no support for cablecard but my wife is use to BTV and I probably need to run both for the time being. I use BTV Link as a client on her I3 for my Beyond TV server. A second possibility would be to run both NPVR and BTV on my Beyond TV w7 server if they could coexist. At first, using NPVR for the SD prime and BTV for everything else. I would probably make a transistion to NVPR for all once the wife gets comfortable. Would this second possibility of using both on my window 7 BTV server make more sense then trying to run NPVR/SD prime on a Windows XP Pro Media Edition as a server?

[Rich A]

I dont really follow you. Can you post a screen shot so I know where you mean?

Will do when I get home this evening. Thanks ..

[Rich A]

I noticed another new post from another user who seems to be having the same problem. I will try his solution but in the meantime here is an example of what I mean.

#1 is of the typical mapping screen in Windows 7
#2 is of the Windows XP mapping screen.
The most recent log is also attached (where I was doing the mapping)

I'll try using "other" as referenced by the other thread .. Remember I'm using two different computers .. and if I set the SD setup to "other" I'm thinking it may break the working Windows 7 PC install ??

I'll see and report back.

[Rich A]

I tried changing the SD Prime setup and tried using all the pertinent "other" settings. (?QAM and Registry) but my channel details still has no info for the channel names.

I think the other user was using a regular HDHR and not a "Prime cable card tuner". I may just re-install both the SD software and the NPVR software on the XP machine as I'm out of other ideas. If that fails, I'll try installing NPVR into a new PC without anything else installed.

[sub]

I've just tried reproducing this but I was unable to. My channel names seem to be fine, even after going in a changing the xmltv mapping on that screen.

At what stage did your channel names disappear? I assume they were originally there, but at some point you did something and they all disappeared?

[Rich A]

They were never there from the onset. I never got past the channel mapping area in setup.

The PCs in question are two different PCs. One is a Windows 7 PC and mapping works there okay. The other is an XP PC and the mapping doesn't work there. Funny thing is that at first I thought it was something wrong with the MC2XML program not generating a proper *.xml file. But I checked the actual *.xml file with an editor and all the names and other data were there. I even copied the XML file that was on the Win 7 machine to the XP machine. And the station names were still missing. If you have it working okay on another XP machine then I've got a problem here that is most likely unique to my system. I will try it installing NPVR into a new PC without anything else where I will then have a known properly working setup. Then I can look into the differences and maybe find the problem. I don't see how .. but I wonder if maybe the problem has something with my trying to run both a BeyondTV server and an NPVR server on the same machine. I haven't got past the channel mapping. I CAN manually fill in the channel names for those I actually know. For example, I know that 1003 is WFSB in Hartford CT. This was the way we had to do it in BeyondTV. We would have the channel number and then had to view that channel as it was playing and try to figure out what the channel was ... The NPVR way is MUCH easier. At least it was when installing NPVR into my Windows 7 PC.

[sub]

They were never there from the onset. I never got past the channel mapping area in setup.

It should have always had some name, even if it was just "Unknown xx.xxxx". Maybe you should try deleting your npvr.db3 file and setting it up again, and maybe post the npvr.log if your new scan shows blank channel names.

[Rich A]

After setting up another computer with a fresh load of Windows XP, I was able to easily install and configure NextPVR. This gave me a working system that allowed me to compare PCs.

I found that the HDHomeRun config setup in the HTPC (where I was having trouble) was NG. I also found a couple files that I needed to include in my firewall white list.

And voila .. all is well. IN FACT .. the HTPC is now running BOTH Beyond TV and NextPVR concurrently. NPVR is being used with the HDHomeRun cable card tuners to record all the digital cable channels, while the BTV server is being used with a few other clear QAM tuners to record the network clear QAM stations. I can run (record) about 6 tuners at once with no ill effects. (so far) CPU use is low and file I/O is high, but still well within my limits. I have a unique setup were both BTV and NPVR recorded files are being recorded on separate empty fast drives. After the recording is done the files are moved to various drives for storage and viewing. The recording drives are always emptied after files are recorded and that keeps the drive clean and not fragmented. I now have 9 tuners, 6 dedicated to the Beyond TV server and 3 dedicated to the NextPVR server. So why dual servers? I dunno .. I'm having trouble giving up my 12 year old Beyond TV system. <grin>