EPG123 missing channels that WMC/Rovi found

[howiez69]

Hi, new to the forum here!

Let me start with THANK YOU garyan for your tool. We've been living off WMC since W7 was released, barely watch ATSC via regular TV. My family was super pissed when M$ cut off everything on 12/31.

I'm missing 1 (and subs) or 3(and subs) channels depending on what order / how I do my setup. So I've dug around the forums a bit, and followed your video guide, and I feel i'm missing something or not understanding correctly. My main concern was our local Fox affiliate (54961) is VHF, and I've seen some mention here that WMC does not scan VHF. If I use Rovi, i.e. let WMC do it's thing and agree to their EPG, I get all my channels and subs just fine as of 12/31. In fact, I turn off some of the channels as they are for another antenna nearly 180 degrees away from where i'm pointing.

With EPG123, for sure I drop 11.x (VHF 11), but now I'm also seeming to drop 26.x (UHF 41) and 32.x (UHF 36). If you say WMC doesn't scan VHF, how have I been watching that channel for 10 years? I feel like WMC is getting a 'hint' at what to scan for from the ROVI or EPG123 setup, but it's just an uneducated guess based on what changed since 12/31.

My first run through your guide on 12/31:
I can "see" all the correct channels in the right pane of the EPG123 client window.
IIRC, 11.x was missing from the left pane, although at some point It was there and i could right click 'subscribe' to it.
If I manually add 11 in WMC, I can't seem to add all the sub channels. (am i missing something there?)
How does normal WMC/Rovi find 11.x and subs every time?

After many re-tries, my attempt at lunch today:
I deleted the task and ran through setup again.
WMC scan's 17 channels and subs instead of 27 total channels.
I can "see" all the correct channels in the right pane of the EPG123 client window, and ended up with nothing in the left pane.

I'm going to walk through the install video again this evening, but I was hoping someone could point out my DUH that I seem to be missing.

Thanks in advance...

[stuartm]

"Normal " Setup with MS/Rovi guide info does not rely on scanning. The tuning information is supplied with the guide data, thus the VHF channels are there in the guide. With EPG123 you must scan to build the list of channels that EPG123 will supply guide data for. As stated, WMC does not scan the VHF frequencies so they have to be manually added. Also, marginal UHF channels may not show up in a scan either. You must manually add VHF channels and can also manually add missing UHF channels as long as you know the virtual and physical channel numbers. e.g. to add virtual channel 11.x with three subchannels broadcasting on physical channel 11 you would add 11.1, 11.2 and 11.3 with a physical channel of 11.

[howiez69]

Thanks Stuart,
That makes more sense. Can a person save a 'list' or XML file or something to trick WMC into that setup? I ended up manually keying in 7 channels with subs. I don't plan to do that often, but... you never know. Just lost my boot drive in the last month or two, so you can never be to safe with backup plans!
But i digress...
I also downloaded and installed the EPG123 from 12/31 and between those two things and working through it again, I appear to have them all set.

Thanks again for the help

[stuartm]

Unfortunately, Unless Gary figures out some more magic you will be stuck with manual setup of VHF stations. The good news is you only have to do it once (unless you are affected by a frequency repack). You should of course image your system disk after you have things set up the way you like. I just keep a list written down of the manual stations I had to enter along with my notes I used to remember what I did when setting up my HTPC's

[howiez69]

Good point, We are having a repack sometime in 2020 according to FCC posts i've seen.

I'll have to think about imaging that drive. I had both content drives backed up, but never worried about a small SSD boot drive. Have to love when a 1st gen Intel 80g SSD lasts 10 years, but a much newer drive only lasts 3 or so.