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#81

Post by garyan2 » Tue Jul 21, 2020 8:14 pm

Gripweed wrote: Tue Jul 21, 2020 5:10 pmThis is giving me a headache.
Probably not related to your situation, but I was playing around on a Win8 VM and backing out updates until I stopped getting the prompt about MS not providing the guide anymore. Once I did that, I was getting the same indications you are currently. I managed to fix that and able to run the task by changing the 'Configure for: ' field to Win7. Might want to verify yours.
configureFor.PNG
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#82

Post by IT Troll » Tue Jul 21, 2020 10:04 pm

garyan2 wrote: Tue Jul 21, 2020 8:14 pm I was playing around on a Win8 VM and backing out updates until I stopped getting the prompt about MS not providing the guide anymore.
I think the nags arrived in the September 2019 cumulative update. It wouldn't be ideal to have to stick with August 2019 patches for ever more. Perhaps the relevant component file(s) can be restored and protected from replacement?

It's not a big deal though. I've not missed this feature in all the time I have been running EPG123.
Last edited by IT Troll on Tue Jul 21, 2020 10:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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#83

Post by garyan2 » Tue Jul 21, 2020 10:06 pm

I'm working on that right now to figure that out.
- Gary
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#84

Post by Gripweed » Wed Jul 22, 2020 8:56 am

garyan2 wrote: Tue Jul 21, 2020 5:41 pm Did you set the properties of epg123Client.exe to run as administrator, maybe? Or something else?
BINGO! :clap:
It's working and I'm 99% sure that was the problem. I removed the "run as administrator" access from epg123Client.exe (and epg123.exe just for good measure) and from their shortcuts. I also went in and did what seems like it should be contradictory and that was to make sure all the Groups and Users for them had full security access. I did find that it would only work if I set the mcupdate task to run using the Administrators group. NETWORK SERVICE and my basic user TOM-PC/Tom would not work for me even though I had also given all the groups and users for the mcupdate task full security access. As far as your other message about the "Configure For:" it was already set to Win7 but I had previously tried the other option which was XP. That didn't help so I set it back to Win7.

Well, that was rough. I rarely give up when I face a problem like this but this one got to me. If you didn't write back with the "run as administrator" suggestion (something that I should have thought of myself, darn it!) I probably would have stayed "given up" but it made too much sense to give it another try. Thank you for hanging in there with me. But I've got to ask, are you sure that you want to continue on with this feature? It's not a necessity to the workings of EPG123 and the potential for having to deal with an overwhelming amount of personalized support questions is there. There seems to be too many variables in getting this thing to work. Just a thought.

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#85

Post by garyan2 » Wed Jul 22, 2020 2:46 pm

The fact is, it works out of the box... well, for Win7 and Win10, anyway. Win8 has an update that changes the ehshell.dll (and ehres.dll.mui) that basically disables that button for guide updates. The normal user isn't going to be changing folder/file permissions or mess with any security settings so they won't have any problems using this feature.

Will there be some support requests for it? Sure, but those users are typically the tinkerers and can undo what was previously done without too many problems. A simple uninstall/reinstall would have "reset" the permissions for EPG123. I'm not sure why your task user needs to be Administrator, though. NETWORK SERVICE, which is the original user of the task and is not changed by EPG123, works without issue on systems that haven't been tinkered with.

For Win8, I don't think I'm going to do anything more than identify specifically what KB update breaks it. Let the users uninstall it themselves and block the update from coming back if they want this capability. I don't think I'm going to do anything programmatically. I'm still researching this one. Like you, I don't give up easily.
- Gary
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#86

Post by Gripweed » Wed Jul 22, 2020 7:00 pm

That's fine with me. I was just trying to look out for your interests. If you don't mind the potential Support barrage then more power to you.

I don't necessarily agree with your assessment of how many EPG123 users are tinkerers. I think that at this point anyone still using WMC are by their nature tinkerers. I'd be willing to bet that most people, if they even have the thought of recording shows, use their cable company's DVR box to do so. The adventurist buy a Tivo or use what is offered by a streaming service. They don't involve a computer in their TV watching. It is only lately (with the exception of WMC) that people are realizing that they can free themselves by mixing their video entertainment with computers. That's not to say that all that do are tinkerers. Some do have luck with out of the box solutions. Some don't. In my case it appears my downfall was my long standing habit of giving programs "Run as Administrator" access as soon as they are installed. I've never had that burn me before and I've been a Windows user since Windows 286. Some are wannabe tinkerers that rely on others' suggestions. Those are the ones you'll really have to worry about. If I had followed half of the Googled suggestions as to how to fix the (0x800702E4) problem I had I'd be lucky to have Windows working at all. Anyway, those are my 2 cents.

You're a good man, Gary. And you've made a hell of a wonderful program in EPG123. I only wish you the best.

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#87

Post by adam1991 » Wed Jul 22, 2020 10:28 pm

Disagree.

Most WMC boxen are on autopilot at this time, all tinkering done long ago.

Anyone who tinkers, has moved on to other things. Zero interest in tinkering with what is, at this point in time, an appliance. There's nothing new to explore, nothing to gain.

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#88

Post by Gripweed » Thu Jul 23, 2020 2:06 am

You say you disagree but we actually are saying the same thing. Back in the day anyone that set up WMC were the tinkerers. You are right in that now things have settled in with WMC. The last time I had to play around with WMC and use my tinkering skills was when I switched my tuners from Ceton to Silicondust (and that was more a cable company issue than WMC). That was a nightmare for me at the time and that was years ago. It's been clear sailing ever since until I ran into this GLGL clicking thing. I only tinkered with it because it didn't work for me and I thought finding out why would be helpful to all those who might also have the problem.
By the way, you may think of WMC as an appliance but clearly that is because of the tinkering of Gary. If it weren't for him we probably would have had to throw away our WMC earlier this year when Microsoft shut off the EPG data. For the most part his tinkering has let us not have to tinker or move on to some other software from the best media center/PVR out there, WMC.

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#89

Post by adam1991 » Thu Jul 23, 2020 2:40 am

IMHO, Gary's efforts are simply the ventilator pump. The patient is, for all intents and purposes, dead.

And that's sad, because WMC is the equal of ReplayTV--which makes them the two best DVRs ever built.

What astounds me is that none of the current newcomers--not Plex, not Channels, not Emby, not even the dedicated Tablo--begins to touch the functionality of WMC. It's as if they've never seen it before. (Could you imagine a new car startup today building something that looks and runs like a 1929 Buick?)

Anyway, it's just a matter of all of us, one at a time, deciding that it's time to move on--even if there's nothing directly analogous to move on to. We'll decide not to need what WMC provided, in the same way that we all accept that we'll never get Grandma's apple pie again.

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#90

Post by garyan2 » Thu Jul 23, 2020 5:40 am

RE: The [Get Latest Guide Listings] in Win8/8.1

The ehshell.dll was modified initially in KB4516041 preview of monthly rollout on 2019-09-24 and is part of all monthly rollup updates after that. The modification in the DLL was basically to hardcode the [Get Latest Guide Listings] button to not attempt to update the guide but give the "Switch to an alternate TV program guide provider" message starting on 2020-02-01 00:00. There is no registry setting or trick to get around that other than maybe hexedit the dll but that is outside my wheelhouse.
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#91

Post by IT Troll » Thu Jul 23, 2020 7:52 am

adam1991 wrote: Thu Jul 23, 2020 2:40 am IMHO, Gary's efforts are simply the ventilator pump. The patient is, for all intents and purposes, dead.
Disagree.

Media Center is working as well as it ever did. In fact better, as a result of community projects. I don’t see why it can’t live on until traditional broadcast TV is completely replaced By streaming.
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#92

Post by IT Troll » Thu Jul 23, 2020 9:25 am

garyan2 wrote: Thu Jul 23, 2020 5:40 am The ehshell.dll was modified initially in KB4516041 preview of monthly rollout on 2019-09-24 and is part of all monthly rollup updates after that.
It is weird that they have implemented different behaviour in this version. Perhaps an unintended side-effect of buggy code? How do they expect you to use a different provider if they are blocking this function?

Does replacing the current file with the old one work, or does it get "repaired" next time Windows Update runs?
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#93

Post by garyan2 » Thu Jul 23, 2020 2:37 pm

IT Troll wrote: Thu Jul 23, 2020 9:25 amDoes replacing the current file with the old one work, or does it get "repaired" next time Windows Update runs?
Just replacing the file doesn't work since it also resides in the GAC. So there are other things to do that I haven't tried yet in order to get it to work. I think it is possible, but I also think that the next rollup update will try to replace it again.
- Gary
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#94

Post by Ken H » Thu Jul 23, 2020 9:28 pm

Have been running EPG123, whatever the previous most recent version was, for quite some time with no issues. Just upgraded to v1.3.9.30 and am getting this error:

[7/23/2020 4:55:18 PM] Beginning epg123 client execution. version 1.3.9.30
[7/23/2020 4:55:18 PM] ===============================================================================
[7/23/2020 4:55:18 PM] [ INFO] Beginning epg123 client execution. 2020-07-23 20:55:18Z
[7/23/2020 4:55:18 PM] [ INFO] Import: True , Match: True , NoLogo: False , Force: False , ShowProgress: True
[7/23/2020 4:55:19 PM] Entering importMxfFile() for file "c:\programdata\garyan2\epg123\output\epg123.mxf"
[7/23/2020 4:58:05 PM] [ INFO] Error: The following error was encountered while processing the file. Aborting.
[7/23/2020 4:58:05 PM] [ INFO] The string '2020-07-23T00:00' is not a valid AllXsd value.
[7/23/2020 4:58:08 PM] [ERROR] Error using loadmxf.exe to import new guide information. Exit code: -1
[7/23/2020 4:58:08 PM] Exiting importMxfFile(). FAILURE.
[7/23/2020 4:58:08 PM] [ERROR] Failed to import .mxf file. Exiting.

Tried to Save & Execute twice, same result.

Help.

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#95

Post by Ken H » Thu Jul 23, 2020 9:34 pm

adam1991 wrote: Wed Jul 22, 2020 10:28 pm Disagree.

Most WMC boxen are on autopilot at this time, all tinkering done long ago.

Anyone who tinkers, has moved on to other things. Zero interest in tinkering with what is, at this point in time, an appliance. There's nothing new to explore, nothing to gain.
Disagree. Like usual.
Last edited by Ken H on Thu Jul 23, 2020 9:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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#96

Post by garyan2 » Thu Jul 23, 2020 9:42 pm

Ken H wrote: Thu Jul 23, 2020 9:28 pm Have been running EPG123, whatever the previous most recent version was, for quite some time with no issues. Just upgraded to v1.3.9.30 and am getting this error:

[7/23/2020 4:55:18 PM] Beginning epg123 client execution. version 1.3.9.30
[7/23/2020 4:55:18 PM] ===============================================================================
[7/23/2020 4:55:18 PM] [ INFO] Beginning epg123 client execution. 2020-07-23 20:55:18Z
[7/23/2020 4:55:18 PM] [ INFO] Import: True , Match: True , NoLogo: False , Force: False , ShowProgress: True
[7/23/2020 4:55:19 PM] Entering importMxfFile() for file "c:\programdata\garyan2\epg123\output\epg123.mxf"
[7/23/2020 4:58:05 PM] [ INFO] Error: The following error was encountered while processing the file. Aborting.
[7/23/2020 4:58:05 PM] [ INFO] The string '2020-07-23T00:00' is not a valid AllXsd value.
[7/23/2020 4:58:08 PM] [ERROR] Error using loadmxf.exe to import new guide information. Exit code: -1
[7/23/2020 4:58:08 PM] Exiting importMxfFile(). FAILURE.
[7/23/2020 4:58:08 PM] [ERROR] Failed to import .mxf file. Exiting.

Tried to Save & Execute twice, same result.

Help.
Interesting. It is right, it should be '2020-07-23T00:00:00' to include the seconds. Could you zip up the epg123.mxf file and send it to me at support@garyan2.net? For that entry, all I am doing it taking the raw data from Schedules Direct and stripping off the 'Z' at the end. I'm not even converting the string to a date and then back to a string.
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#97

Post by Ken H » Thu Jul 23, 2020 9:50 pm

garyan2 wrote: Thu Jul 23, 2020 9:42 pm Interesting. It is right, it should be '2020-07-23T00:00:00' to include the seconds. Could you zip up the epg123.mxf file and send it to me at support@garyan2.net? For that entry, all I am doing it taking the raw data from Schedules Direct and stripping off the 'Z' at the end. I'm not even converting the string to a date and then back to a string.
Yes, can you direct me to where it's located? Thanks. I don't see it in the epg123 program file.
Last edited by Ken H on Thu Jul 23, 2020 9:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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#98

Post by garyan2 » Thu Jul 23, 2020 9:56 pm

Ken H wrote: Thu Jul 23, 2020 9:50 pmYes, can you direct me to where it's located? Thanks.
Ken H wrote: Thu Jul 23, 2020 9:28 pm [7/23/2020 4:55:19 PM] Entering importMxfFile() for file "c:\programdata\garyan2\epg123\output\epg123.mxf"
The folder is by default hidden, so if you haven't gone through the process of showing hidden file and folders, just click the start button and type c:\programdata in the search box to start navigating to it.
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#99

Post by Ken H » Thu Jul 23, 2020 11:00 pm

garyan2 wrote: Thu Jul 23, 2020 9:42 pm Could you zip up the epg123.mxf file and send it to me at support@garyan2.net?
It should be in your in box now. It was a VLC Media Player file, which I didn't quite understand.

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#100

Post by Space » Fri Jul 24, 2020 12:00 am

Ken H wrote: Thu Jul 23, 2020 11:00 pm
garyan2 wrote: Thu Jul 23, 2020 9:42 pm Could you zip up the epg123.mxf file and send it to me at support@garyan2.net?
It should be in your in box now. It was a VLC Media Player file, which I didn't quite understand.
When you install certain programs, they also associate certain extensions with them. In this case VLC associated the ".mxf" extension with itself.

Since there is no official standard for file extensions, there can be multiple different uses for the same file extension. For instance the ".qif" file extension is used by Quicken financial ledgers, DESQview fonts, and QuickTime pictures. They are all very different file formats that just happen to have picked the same three letters for the extension. Usually, whichever program you have installed last will "grab" that extension as it's own (sometimes programs ask you first before doing this).

In this case, the ".mxf" file extension is used for a "Material Exchange Format File" which is a video format such as ".avi" or ".mov". This is why VLC told the operating system that it should be used to "run" these types of files. It just so happens that Microsoft also chose those three letters for their own files (which are not video files, they are text files that store a specific format of XML, and can even be encrypted).

Any program can associate any extension with itself, in fact, you can associate any extension with any program yourself.

You can even associate ".txt" files with VLC if you want. When you double click on a ".txt" file it will load up VLC and try to play the text file, of course it will fail because a text file is not a video format that VLC can play (in fact it is not a video format at all). Of course you wouldn't want to do this, as you would want the program associated with a ".txt" file to be one that can actually handle ".txt" files, such as notepad.exe.

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