Manual add of channel with 2 digit logical number

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tirebiter

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Manual add of channel with 2 digit logical number

#1

Post by tirebiter » Mon Sep 21, 2020 10:07 pm

I hope I'm explaining this correctly...

I really like WMC on Win7, and do not want to switch to another TV viewer. I particularly like being able to record shows/movies with specific actors.

Using OTC channels, I have had to manually add channels that weren't detected by WMC. Convincing epg and WMC to agree has had it's challenges, but I've been able to get it working.

Now there is a new channel I want to add. It's digital/logical value is 3-16 and it's guide number is 33.5. The trouble is, WMC won't let me enter a 2 digit logical value.

Is there a trick or workaround to fix this?

TIA.

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garyan2

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#2

Post by garyan2 » Mon Sep 21, 2020 10:14 pm

Download and install EPG123 (client only if you don't use EPG123 for the guide), open the client and to the right of the [All Scanned Sources] pulldown there is a green '+' button. Click that to manually add the channel. You will use 3.16 as the channel number and 33 as the physical channel number. When you close the form, the client will close and open back up and you should see it there. Open WMC and make sure it works.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

tirebiter

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#3

Post by tirebiter » Mon Sep 21, 2020 11:14 pm

Hi Gary,

Thanks for the prompt reply. I'm afraid I need another one. After entering the channel, I did a "Client Setup" which reset the channel guide in WMC. The problem is, I am not at the location where the computer is. I connect via RDP. I coulda sworn I have done this in the past, but now it is telling me I am attempting to run the setup from an Extender and cannot proceed. Is there anyway to remotely go through the Live TV Setup via remote desktop?

Thanks!!!

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garyan2

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#4

Post by garyan2 » Mon Sep 21, 2020 11:18 pm

I've seen a hack before to allow you to run TV Setup over RDP but not sure of the success rate. It was in the very looooooooooooooooong thread on MDL for adding WMC to Win10. I think you could do it with TeamViewer or VNC, but not RDP.

If you didn't mean to do a client setup, you can click the [Restore] button and select the backup that was created when you started client setup. This will get you back to where you were.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

tirebiter

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#5

Post by tirebiter » Mon Sep 21, 2020 11:47 pm

After I click on Restore, do I rebuild the WMC database? When I do, I get an error message that the rebuild had an error. Here is what is in the trace.log file:

[9/21/2020 7:45:01 PM] [ INFO] Successfully forced a Media Center database configuration backup. Exit code: 0
[9/21/2020 7:45:01 PM] [ERROR] Backup lineup file does not exist.
[9/21/2020 7:45:01 PM] [ERROR] Backup lineup file does not exist.
[9/21/2020 7:45:01 PM] [ERROR] Backup lineup file does not exist.
[9/21/2020 7:45:02 PM] [ INFO] Successfully queried the Task Scheduler for status. Ready. Last Run 9/21/2020 4:00:00 AM; Exit: 0x00000000

tirebiter

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#6

Post by tirebiter » Tue Sep 22, 2020 12:07 am

Crisis is mostly averted. I used an older backup. It's nearly a year old. There are many backups from Oct-19 and older, but none more recent.

I won't worry about it tonight. I'm back to a usable system and will try to fix things tomorrow.

I tried using the Chrome remote desktop. I think it worked because I heard the WMC music at startup, but the screen went black. Probably because WMC does special things to the display. Tomorrow I'll install VNC. I've used it in the past, but took it out because I fear it has malware in it and/or is easily hackable.

Thanks so much for your help!

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#7

Post by tirebiter » Tue Sep 22, 2020 5:05 pm

Hi Gary,

I just wanted to thank you again for your help yesterday. I have epg123 and WMC working again, with all the OTC channels. I've run a backup so I can recover from future blunders. VNC wasn't needed thanks to the restore feature.

A few things:

1. The EPG123 Client Guide Tool crashed after each channel was added. The code worked, but I had to restart the app each time.
2. The green plus sign was hidden because the pane was too narrow to show the whole toolbar. I wouldn't have known to look if you hadn't told me about it.
3. I have duplicate entries in the Guide Channels list. If I unsubscribe them, they are added back the next time I press Match by #. Can I remove the dups completely?

Thanks again!!

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#8

Post by garyan2 » Tue Sep 22, 2020 5:30 pm

tirebiter wrote: Tue Sep 22, 2020 5:05 pm Hi Gary,

I just wanted to thank you again for your help yesterday. I have epg123 and WMC working again, with all the OTC channels. I've run a backup so I can recover from future blunders. VNC wasn't needed thanks to the restore feature.

A few things:

1. The EPG123 Client Guide Tool crashed after each channel was added. The code worked, but I had to restart the app each time.
2. The green plus sign was hidden because the pane was too narrow to show the whole toolbar. I wouldn't have known to look if you hadn't told me about it.
3. I have duplicate entries in the Guide Channels list. If I unsubscribe them, they are added back the next time I press Match by #. Can I remove the dups completely?

Thanks again!!
1. The client will purposely close and open a new window when adding channels. This is due to when I add channels, WMC will do something with a PVR task that breaks the link between the client and the database which will crash the client at 10 seconds after adding the channels.
2. There is a pulldown on the bar that will show the hidden buttons when the client is at the default size. I convinced myself this is okay since they can be considered "advanced" options.
3. To keep the channels from being re-enabled, you want to keep the guide listings subscribed and just uncheck (disable) the channels you don't want to show in the guide. The automatch routine will leave it alone if it has guide listings mapped to it.

Note on [Restore]/[Rebuild WMC Database]... there is no need to rebuild after a restore. The differences between the 2 are that the restore button can restore any backup from any time based on your selection, whereas the rebuild will only "restore" you current configurations but relies on the backup files located in the programdata\microsoft\ehome\mcepgX-Y\backups folder.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

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#9

Post by tirebiter » Tue Sep 22, 2020 6:00 pm

So...
1. Is a known issue, unrelated to my environment and epg123 version, I suppose.
2. I agree.
3. I'll try it out.

Note: I understand the distinction. I think I fubar'd WMC and was glad that restore worked so well. Even with a very old backup. I now have a new backup that has my preferred settings.

Thanks again. Please send me a link to your contributions page.

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