Big Screen EPG v0.4 - Discussion/Support Thread (Closed)

[Niall]

Hi and welcome to the Big Screen EPG v0.4 support/discussion thread!

The original thread (which began with the v0.1 release / Windows 7 Beta 1) has grown too large - and contains too many discussions that are no longer relevent to Windows 7 RC and Big Screen EPG v0.4.

A big thanks to everyone who is participating in the Beta program - and we couldn't have reached this version without your feedback and suggestions!.

>> Please post v0.4 related issues in this thread instead <<


How to Download/Obtain Big Screen EPG

Sign up for an account on bigscreenglobal.com. Then login to your account - and via the 'my account' page - click on the tab 'Big Screen EPG'. You will then be able to register for the Public Beta and download v0.3 and v0.4.


v0.4 Release Notes

Major New Version with large amount of changes / rewritten functionality :

- .MSI Setup Program now included - now sets up Product in Program Menu and provides icons for launching Configuration Editor, Product Activation Wizard, Docs and other tasks.

- Redesigned UI Look/Feel - with several new features :

• New horizontal layout.
• Better/Easier to use Provider Add Wizard - with much better detection of Channels and other Metadata - making it much quicker to get up and running. (such as ability to auto link Preset Logo's with channels).
• Improved Channel Mapping UI ('Sortable' + enhancements to logo editing and more).
• Enhanced 'Add Dummy Channel' page - now with ability to download and use preset list from bigscreenglobal.com.
• 'Activation/Reverification' Wizard - for easy product registration.
• many other improvements.

- Online Product Registration/Activation in built. Expiry Date for product is now determined by online site (and determined during Activation/Reverification) - so can be extended, upsized etc at later date without reinstallation.

- A Serial Number is Required to use this product. (See your bigscreenglobal.com account).

NB: In this version onwards - you can use the product with an 'expired' registration - and it will be run as a *Free* license. (which has reduced functionality).

- Completely New XMLTV processing Engine. Redesigned from ground up - now supports huge xmltv source feeds - and has low memory footprint. XMLTV Processing is also much more powerful and supports a lot of new elements (now supports almost entire spec). Some Highlights of this release :

• Much faster and more meticulous processing engine.
• Almost all of XMLTV dtd is now supported.
• Supports People 'Roles' (and supports all of the credits elements in xmltv dtd).
• Allows for multiple Classifications Tags.
• Supports SchedulesDirect UID Series/Program ID episode system.
• Sophisticated handling of multi-lingual xmltv data (with ability to set preferred 'lang' to use - where multiple titles/descriptions/sub-titles exist in feed).
• Supports full processing of <video> and <audio> elements.
• Ability to automap Genres to Channels (via Channel Editor)
• Ability to set 'Auto' HD tags (or ignore HDTV <video> elements).
• ...and much more... (too much to mention).

- 'Task Scheduler Manager' : creates the Big Screen EPG Processing task - plus provides quick buttons for Enable/Disable/Delete/Run of Scheduled Task.

- 'Media Center Reset Tool' : provides access to the full Media Center DB Reset function.
** WARNING USE WITH EXTREME CARE **
It has been identified that the reset function is currently broken in Windows 7 64 bit (7100-72xx) - and should not be used if the case (32bit is known to work - but it's recommended you create a new System Restore Point in Windows 7 before doing a reset - just to be safe).

- Automatic triggering of Media Center 'PVR Reschedule' task when importing new data to
Media Center. (so Media Center will look for new matching programs for recording etc.
upon completion of import - rather then waiting for it to pick it up as part of schedule.)


The following bugs have been fixed in this release :

- Series Crossover Bug - caused series to get merged with other ones resulting in invalid series logos in EPG and incorrect Series names in Recorded TV View(s).

- Channel Number Up/Down in Channel Map Editor was only allowing values up to 100.


The Following UI Features have been removed from this Alpha release - and will be reincluded in future versions :

- Series Management Editor (only preset series match list will be used)
- Scan/Parse Lookups Wizard
- Full Documentation and Setup Notes

Please Also Note >>

If you copy your channel logos in the path - %ProgramData%\Big Screen\EPG\logo\ PRIOR to setting up your XMLTV Providers - then BSE will auto map logos for you. Logos are matched to a) detected Callsign Names or b) Displa Names. (Spaces will be removed on both sides for matching.. ie 'ABC 2' = 'ABC2.png')


Information on Serial Numbers, Activation, Expiry Dates...

From v0.4 of Big Screen EPG onwards - when using this product - you will need to provide a Serial Number (after installation) - which will 'Activate' your program for usage.

This serial number is provided (currently for free) on bigscreenglobal.com - and by default will allow access through to 1-Sep-2009. (and will likely be extended again by this date - allowing you to continue using this product without reinstallation).

Unlike v0.3 (which ceases to work once the expiry date has been reached) - when your 'Trial' registration/serial number expires in Big Screen EPG v0.4 - it will keep running - but switch over to *FREE* mode.

When running in *FREE* Mode (post expiry date) - the product will run in a 'reduced' capacity - such as Maximum 4 days EPG (instead of 14), Reduced Metadata output, No Series Injection, Nag Screens etc. More information on the *FREE* mode and how to upgrade will be released over coming weeks.


This post will be updated as new information comes to hand.

Thanks

Niall

[Nety]

IMMEDIATE SERIOUS ISSUE!!

Ran the Media centre reset in the BSE tool. Media Centre will now NOT START. Comes up with a message to say that there has been an error and Windows is trying to find a fix. Restarted PC same error.
I will look into it further but looks like I am restoring to this morning.

[Niall]

Originally Posted by Nety

IMMEDIATE SERIOUS ISSUE!!

Ran the Media centre reset in the BSE tool. Media Centre will now NOT START. Comes up with a message to say that there has been an error and Windows is trying to find a fix. Restarted PC same error.
I will look into it further but looks like I am restoring to this morning.

Hi - thanks for the feedback.

The app is just calling 'mcupdate -MediaCenterRecoveryTask' when you use that reset wizard. (and not doing anything else special). Are you using something other than build 7100 (or doing anything else that would prevent this mcupdate from working)? It's possible that the function is broken in newer leaked builds.

Niall

[Nety]

Nope using the offical 7100 build. I need to get the MC back up for tomorrow so am doing a restore but will test again tomorrow.

No services you need to shut down before running the command? (I know you had to do this in Vista MC to do some things with the DB).

[saxnix]

So far so good for me. I actually forgot to run the media center reset. This is just on my bedroom pc, but will try it in the morning on the main lounge pc and see what results I get.

[Niall]

Originally Posted by Nety

Nope using the offical 7100 build. I need to get the MC back up for tomorrow so am doing a restore but will test again tomorrow.

No services you need to shut down before running the command? (I know you had to do this in Vista MC to do some things with the DB).

Hmm.. not sure why thats happening for you.. I can normally do a reset with it (although sometimes get an error message when I first go into 7MC afterwards - it then takes me to the first run page). You can run the same reset command from Admin command prompt if you feel safer doing it that way.

[Niall]

Originally Posted by saxnix

So far so good for me. I actually forgot to run the media center reset. This is just on my bedroom pc, but will try it in the morning on the main lounge pc and see what results I get.

I really wouldn't advise running this on a db that still has v0.3 BSE data. You will not get rid of the merged series bug this way (and problems will persist). I'd really recommend a db reset at bare minimum.

[richo]

Niall, just a quick question on the "series crossover" bug - will the fix of this bug fix existing recordings (ie the ones that are "confused" at the moment in my recorded tv folder) or will it only prevent the problem from occurring in subsequent recordings?

Thanks for a really useful product thus far, Niall.

[Niall]

Originally Posted by richo

Niall, just a quick question on the "series crossover" bug - will the fix of this bug fix existing recordings (ie the ones that are "confused" at the moment in my recorded tv folder) or will it only prevent the problem from occurring in subsequent recordings?

Thanks for a really useful product thus far, Niall.

In theory you shouldn't see this problem at all in the future - if you start with a fresh mediacenter db.

AFIK - just as long as you reset your db (and start with a fresh one that doesn't contain invalid data) - the problem won't be reintroduced by existance of older recorded tv files (which will be reimported into your db when the directory is scanned).

[dgaust]

I did the MCEreset, and all seems ok, just running throught the TV setup again. I did get the popup about a serious error when I first started MCE though, but I clicked through.

Is there a log file stored anywhere Niall? I looked in the Program Files directory (and also programdata) but couldn't find it.

[Niall]

Originally Posted by dgaust

I did the MCEreset, and all seems ok, just running throught the TV setup again. I did get the popup about a serious error when I first started MCE though, but I clicked through.

Is there a log file stored anywhere Niall? I looked in the Program Files directory (and also programdata) but couldn't find it.

Ok - the plot thickens.. I wonder if there's an issue with running the reset for some people. I definitely always get the 'series' error message when I first go back in after a reset - but then it's all fine once I 'OK' it. (I suspect this error is popped up when Media Center starts and realizes the old .db file is no longer valid - and it creates the new one)

For logging - I have put in a fair bit of plumbing to enable this (and it's actually logging events internally and to the console) - but for v0.4a release I didn't actually put in the code to spit it out to a text file. I will get this going for next interim release.

[dgaust]

Originally Posted by Niall

For logging - I have put in a fair bit of plumbing to enable this (and it's actually logging events internally and to the console) - but for v0.4a release I didn't actually put in the code to spit it out to a text file. I will get this going for next interim release.

Cool, was just looking for logging to ensure my scheduled task was running. It appears to run silently now whereas the old version would show on screen.

Could check the taskscheduler log I guess, but i'm kinda lazy