Mangled UI events with overlapping TV Guide & "Please Wait" box never vanishing.

[GuruSR]

So far, so good, the rig is as follows:

i5-4460, 8GB, ASUS H87M-E, 2 x Hauppauge 1229 WinTV-HVR-2255 Dual TV Tuner / Encoder - OEM, 240GB Kingston SSD, Win 7 Home Premium-64, ASUS BluRay RE drive, Antec 650 Platinum PS (93% efficiency) in a SilverStone ML03 case.

The software is running and recording, so far it's only been recording with 1 tuner, as it is, I'm using the guide to add shows, but setting the EPG for 8am update only gets to about 7pm for most of the channels and then I have to manually re-scan it. IS there a plugin to force more than 1 EPG update a day? At say 2pm, it should get the rest of the day to 11pm (which is fine). Also, what I was hoping, was to be able to tell the unit, turn off after the last recording for the night. I have a 7:59AM boot in the BIOS, so it will boot up daily at that time, giving it a minute to boot (takes a lot less than that) so the EPG can be done at 8AM.

Now some will say "Are you nuts having that i5 in there, not to mention that 650 Platinum PS" and I'll answer "No", the reason is, the air cooling is "PASSIVE" in the case, the only fan in there is the CPU fan, nothing else. The power supply's fan is just for itself (and sadly, not as quiet as I'd hoped, but because it's less than 1CM from the shelf, the noise is elevated due to accoustics). The system running at full use for the duration of burn-in (built the system on Friday last week) got the board to 90F and the CPU to 101F.

I plan on using ComSkip in parallel to all the tuners that are recording, to catch commercials, but before I get there, I really need to get this TV Guide issue resolved (and the graphics part of it too).

What happens (Active Skin is Default):

Show TV Guide, go somewhere else, click the Menu button, either it slides out and shows up properly OR it slides out UNDER the TV Guide (unreadable). Or, I click to somewhere other than the TV Guide (after having it open), click on the Menu and the TV Guide pulls up over top of the menu and where I last was.

Stopping Live TV:

The "Please Wait" window never vanishes, unless I click somewhere outside of it. I left it for an hour at one point, it never came out, until I clicked outside of it, then it vanished. Tried turning Sync on and off with no change, both this system (my desktop) and the new above HTPC exhibit the same things, so it's not hardware related.

My major issue now is, not being able to re-fire the EPG scan more than once a day.

On a lighter note:

Anyone have any info on if this remote: http://www.amazon.com/Aerb-Wireless-Keyb...B00K768DHY

Does it work with NPVR or am I running into a brick wall? I need a remote as the HTPC hybrid sleeps when not in use and without a USB device to wake it up, it stays off and requires the power button pressed to wake it up. (Oh and I didn't plug any of the lights in, like I need blinking lights glaring at me while watching TV recordings, wish I could turn the BluRay drive's light off.)

GuruSR.

[mvallevand]

The EPG updates in Canada are not worth using unless you only watch CBC. Spend the money and get Schedule Direct there is a week trial to get you going.

Martin

[sub]

Yep, what he said - the broadcast EPG is next to useless in North America. Most people use Schedules Direct.

Show TV Guide, go somewhere else, click the Menu button, either it slides out and shows up properly OR it slides out UNDER the TV Guide (unreadable). Or, I click to somewhere other than the TV Guide (after having it open), click on the Menu and the TV Guide pulls up over top of the menu and where I last was.

I'm not aware of any issue with this. Can you post a screenshot?

You don't get a red warning about not having DirectX9 on the Settings->About screen?

[GuruSR]

Odd, the EPG's I've been getting are fine.

As for the overlaying TV Guide, on this machine, no red complaint about the DirectX9, but on the new HTPC it's there, didn't seem to matter. Both are on EVR anyways, since they're not XP. I had it earlier today and I didn't screenshot it, if I see it again with the overlapping guide, I'll snap it and post it.

On a note about the EPG, I am in Canada, but most of the channels I deal with are US as I have a 100+ Mile antenna and a clear shot to the lake, so I get roughly 30 channels of OTA, most of which aren't Canadian.

GuruSR.

[sub]

Odd, the EPG's I've been getting are fine.

For over-the-air ATSC, but they usually only broadcast about 6-12 hours, which is next to useless for PVR type usage. For digital cable (QAM), then usually transmit nothing. Compare this with most European countries, where they'll usually broadcast a full week or more of listings. Nearly everyone in that part of the world is using Schedules Direct, which gives you much more detailed info, and stuff like season/episode numbers, artwork, episode name etc.

As for the overlaying TV Guide, on this machine, no red complaint about the DirectX9, but on the new HTPC it's there, didn't seem to matter. Both are on EVR anyways, since they're not XP. I had it earlier today and I didn't screenshot it, if I see it again with the overlapping guide, I'll snap it and post it.

Yeah, you'll have to get a screenshot next time it happens. I've not seen it here, or other reports, so not entirely sure what you're seeing.

[mvallevand]

Odd, the EPG's I've been getting are fine.

As for the overlaying TV Guide, on this machine, no red complaint about the DirectX9, but on the new HTPC it's there, didn't seem to matter. Both are on EVR anyways, since they're not XP. I had it earlier today and I didn't screenshot it, if I see it again with the overlapping guide, I'll snap it and post it.

On a note about the EPG, I am in Canada, but most of the channels I deal with are US as I have a 100+ Mile antenna and a clear shot to the lake, so I get roughly 30 channels of OTA, most of which aren't Canadian.

GuruSR.

Yes these guides are OK but usually only for a limited time 4 hours or so, not much value for recording.

Martin

[GuruSR]

I clicked on the menu twice, and it happened. But, when I clicked anywhere on the screen it fixed itself. Same thing with what happens with the "Please Wait" window. Also notice that if there is a wallpaper changer running, a swap of the wallpaper causes the entire GUI to go black until you click. With or without Sync wait on. I've not tried turning the animation off yet.

GuruSR.

[johnsonx42]

you've set your tv guide minutes to 360, that's way too much (especially on a 4:3 screen). go back to 180.

[GuruSR]

I was trying to find the right width. I have the guide on my 16:9 set to 360, but that photo shows the clock times at the top doesn't go all the way across, which is why I left it that way while trying to get the screenshot of the issue. It fits just fine for me in 240, though having to look at the 30 minute increments without any titles makes it "fun" looking for shows I know of at what time. Still wish there was a way to get a second EPG scan done in a day, as above was before I did it again. Doing so now on the HTPC (not the screenshot above) and having it at 360 works fine, except there's 2 hours of no time headers (like in the photo above). Reason for avoiding a service to get EPG is I'm getting EPG just fine (and enough for my needs and have since digital TV fired up in the US), so why pay for something I get for free over the air. I just need a method of having the EPG do more than 1 scan a day. Perhaps offer a "Repeat after x hours" option in the Misc, though I would ask to not see that window that locks the entire thing up while it scans, a background task to do the EPG would be fine, could even "lock" the Guide if necessary with a "EPG update in progress". At least I could do something with it in the meantime rather than stare at that window which is scanning frequencies.

GuruSR.

[sub]

It's unlikely I'd build in something to scan multiple times a day - this just means the EPG isn't really up to the task. There is too many things that could go wrong, for example, leading to you with no listings for the evening, and some of the shows you wanted to record not happening. Multi-day EPGs are pretty essential, and it lets the scheduler have a good understanding of what's coming up.

That said.... you could use the Windows Scheduler to run "NextPVR.exe -UpdateEPGOnly" at whatever times you want.