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My Channel Logos Version 2

Posted: Wed Nov 02, 2011 11:34 pm
by makryger
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What is it? MCL is an application thats main function is to display logos in your Windows Media Center guide. It also can enhance your guide in other ways, by minimizing dead space, increasing the number of rows in your guide, and showing/hiding/swapping channel numbers, callsigns, and logos.

Why should I download this? The MCL guide makes an HTPC one of the best DVRs out there. It's easy to navigate, easy to read, HD quality text, with customizable guide listings. But your guide can be even better! Adding logos makes channels instantly recognizable- as opposed to seeing APL- you see the Animal Planet logo. Instead of seeing WMAQ, you'll see the NBC logo. It makes navigation much better. As well, changing your guide settings will let you see more rows and more data at once. With the standard comcast DVR, you'll see four rows of channels, and one advertisement. With native WMC, you'll get six rows of channels. With MCL, you'll get up to 11 rows of channels.

How does it work? Windows 7 Media Center has always been able to accept logos, but due to copyright issues, Microsoft never included them. MCL fills in that gap, allowing you to automatically add logos through native functions within media center. The guide changes are made by editing the media center code.

What versions are there? MCL v2 Lite allows you to download logos for your region, and manually assign them one by one. MCL v2 Full version lets you automatically match logos based on our database of thousands of callsigns, as well as gives you access to guide data. The full version costs a minimum of $3.40- if you are feeling generous, you can offer $5 or $10.

I heard that MCL is consistently called one of the best add-ins for media center by multiple podcasts, technology news sites and blogs, and it should be the first thing you install on your HTPC. Is that true? Why yes, yes it is. You must be very smart.

Download My Channel Logos Version 2 here!

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Re: My Channel Logos Version 2

Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2011 12:02 am
by STC
This is officially a rocking product!

Five Stars - Highly Recommended

Re: My Channel Logos Version 2

Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2011 1:11 am
by brantmacga
have there been any reports of MCL2 slowing down the opening of the tv guide? I've had it running since it was released, and after installing it takes up to 20 seconds for my guide to open. happens on the PC and extenders.

Re: My Channel Logos Version 2

Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2011 2:01 am
by makryger
brantmacga wrote:have there been any reports of MCL2 slowing down the opening of the tv guide? I've had it running since it was released, and after installing it takes up to 20 seconds for my guide to open. happens on the PC and extenders.
I can imagine it will slow the loading a bit- after all, loading in hundreds of images is a bit more work than a bunch of text- but it shouldn't really be that long of a time. How many channels do you have in your guide? Do you use an SSD for your computer?

Re: My Channel Logos Version 2

Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2011 2:24 am
by Danno100
I use and contributed to MCL V2 and love it. I have about 200 channels listed and I haven't noticed any delay in the TV guide. I really like your Tuner Salad app as I have 7 TV tuners and they all work great. No SSD here.

Re: My Channel Logos Version 2

Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2011 11:12 pm
by makryger
Hey everybody! I had been meaning to make an official MCL thread here for a while, but didn't have much in ways of announcements, so it's been a while. I apologize, but I've been very busy with my real job.

But that all changes today! Remember the "Help make Autopopulate Better" button? Well, I've been working through the many channel logs to get autopopulate up to date. I've started with the US, which is what I have the most data for, and is also the biggest market. Some logos are the same- they just needed an additional callsign (often for the pacific version of popular channels). Others needed new logos because of rebranding. There are also some new channels that needed logos as well.

For some channels, the companies have made the conscious decision that they will not have "HD" annotated logos. I've made it so the HD matches properly with the basic logos. One example is Bloomberg. They have an HD channel, but not a "Bloomberg HD" brand. (FYI: No complaining that you're now going to mix up the HD and SD channels in your guide because they have the same logo- the solution is to just hide the SD version, which you don't need in your guide anyways.)

I'm working my way through the alphabet... I've sifted through the data for A through F, and am about half way done with the "popular" logos. I still need to go back through the list and evaluate more obscure channels that need logos, such as Blackbelt TV. Then I can continue with the rest of the alphabet. Don't judge- I had a total of 9000 entries to go through, and that's just for the US.

So what logos are new? Azteca, Big Ten Network, Discovery Fit and Health, DIY HD, The Hub/HubHD, Encore Suspense, Encore Family, Enlace, ESPN 3D, Fox Soccer (and Plus, and all the HD versions), Fox Deportes, GMC, GMC HD, Halogen, Oxygen HD.

Now, theoretically you should have been able to just sit back, relax, and let MCL update everything (within the week). The logos would have appeared in your guide the next time you closed and reopened Media Center. Unfortunately, I've found a bug that exists on my 64 bit machine, but not the 32 bit machine. Still working on why that's happening. But if you want the new logos on your 64 bit machine, open MCL, "Check for Logo Updates" in the settings tab, then Autopopulate in the Logos tab.

Cheers!

Re: My Channel Logos Version 2

Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2011 11:43 pm
by brantmacga
makryger wrote:
brantmacga wrote:have there been any reports of MCL2 slowing down the opening of the tv guide? I've had it running since it was released, and after installing it takes up to 20 seconds for my guide to open. happens on the PC and extenders.
I can imagine it will slow the loading a bit- after all, loading in hundreds of images is a bit more work than a bunch of text- but it shouldn't really be that long of a time. How many channels do you have in your guide? Do you use an SSD for your computer?
I've got roughly 20 channels in my guide. I also have it showing 9 rows instead of 7. Never had a problem with mcl v.1. It all started with v.2. and I do not have an ssd.

Re: My Channel Logos Version 2

Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2011 4:22 pm
by winterescape
Congratulations on the new version. Thanks for patching one of the holes Microsoft left in 7MC….

My Channel Logos Version 2

Posted: Tue Nov 08, 2011 9:23 am
by NizZ8
Love this app!

Re: My Channel Logos Version 2

Posted: Tue Nov 08, 2011 10:18 pm
by autoEPg
cool app, but I dont use it, tried v1 and v2 but it dose not look that good but I guess the problem is with the logos not with the app
there are logos mainly for australia and almost none for europe :o
but anyway coll app

Re: My Channel Logos Version 2

Posted: Tue Nov 08, 2011 11:26 pm
by makryger
autoEPg wrote:cool app, but I dont use it, tried v1 and v2 but it dose not look that good but I guess the problem is with the logos not with the app
there are logos mainly for australia and almost none for europe :o
but anyway coll app
We have a very substantial logo set for the UK, Ireland, France, Denmark, Germany, Sweden and Spain, (in addition to Australia and Canada) and there is quite a bit of overlap between various countries if you tried accessing logos from other regions. So I wouldn't exactly call it "almost none for europe". You can also add whatever logos are missing to the guide even if its not included in the pack I provide.

Re: My Channel Logos Version 2

Posted: Wed Nov 09, 2011 4:22 pm
by mmatheny
What are the changes in v2? Was this just released a week ago?

Re: My Channel Logos Version 2

Posted: Wed Nov 09, 2011 7:36 pm
by makryger
mmatheny wrote:What are the changes in v2? Was this just released a week ago?
No, Version 2 was the one released in May. After we settled all the big bugs with it, its been at 2.07 for a while. Most update can now be found as new logos, which you can get by going into the settings tab, downloading new logos, and re-autopopulating.

Re: My Channel Logos Version 2

Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2011 9:36 pm
by mmatheny
I donated for v 2 - now it tells me I have to donate again to get v 2.07!!??

Re: My Channel Logos Version 2

Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2011 10:51 pm
by makryger
No, you shouldn't have to. If you have version 2 installed, go into the Settings tabl of MCL, and you can automatically download 2.07.... although if I were you'd, I'd wait a day or two so I can post 2.08.

Re: My Channel Logos Version 2

Posted: Sun Nov 20, 2011 10:05 pm
by mmatheny
Tks

Re: My Channel Logos Version 2

Posted: Sat Dec 24, 2011 3:08 pm
by makryger
New logos posted! For all the cinemax channels, discovery familia, H2 (previously history international), Discovery en espanol, Science channel, epix2, Velocity (previously HD Theater), and better matching for a bunch of pbs broadcasts (so that some of the subchannels match as well)

Re: My Channel Logos Version 2

Posted: Sat Dec 24, 2011 3:27 pm
by adam1991
What I'd really love is the ability to browse your internal database of logos, so I can assign them manually. For example, Sprout is fine, but my provider calls it SPROUTH. *I* know what that is, and I know you have the Sprout logo already there...

It's like 7MC tuner and guide setup: I can merge channels from my clear QAM tuner onto the guide info for my Ceton tuner for the purposes of the guide and for scheduling. Wouldn't it be cool if I could take channels that MCL doesn't know about and "merge" them with other (usually SD) channels it *does* know about, inside MCL itself, for the purposes of logos.

Shoot, that way anytime you update a logo for the SD channel, my HD channel gets it.

Just a thought.

Re: My Channel Logos Version 2

Posted: Tue Jan 17, 2012 3:38 pm
by makryger
@adam: All the US logos are downloaded to your computer, and you can manually assign whatever you want. However, I also like to receive log files (in Settings>Help make Autopopulate Better) so that if something like SPROUTH exists, I can put it in the database so that future users won't have to manually add it.

Re: My Channel Logos Version 2

Posted: Tue Jan 17, 2012 3:43 pm
by makryger
FYI, I posted a small update to the program that would actually be beneficial for everyone to download. Just go to MCL>settings> Check for updates, and it will download the file and open up the folder for you to install MCLupdate.msi.

What was the bug? A scheduled task to check for logo updates and autopopulate was not working on X64 machines. Also, even though the task was working on X86 machines, it would not run if your system was asleep. This new version (2.10) fixes the X64 issue, and also lets the task wake up the computer for a couple minutes once a week to check for logo updates.

New logos and better matching for broadcast subchannels will be coming out soon...