EPG Refresh, iEPG and VPS

[birdman]

Will test shortly and report...


EDIT Working fine. Have turned off PDC check.

Just waiting for the PR to be incorporated then.

[birdman]

There is still the issue of setting a manual timer then changing the time or channel, but I'll leave looking at that until later.

Now looking.

It's definitely a bug. You can set a VPS timer for weeks in the future with the EventID of the current programme.
There is the concept of showing VPS start/stop times in the menu, but they only ever show if the menu starts with an empty title. On Vix it never does as it is always pre-filled with the current event (including its EventID).

I'm testing code to capture the data that comes in at the start and check whether the start/end times or service have changed. If they have then the code can work out the relevant EventID if it is in the EPG cache, and if it isn't it should be able to route it to whatever code the (unreachable) VPS timer bits used.

In the process of a quick look at this I've already found two other bugs in enigma2 itself.

[Huevos]

Going off topic slightly...

Simple1080 skin has a PDC icon on the infobar. I can't find a single channel that will trigger this icon. Maybe FatTony knows one.

[Joe_90]

I'll have a look on 19.2E.

[ccs]

I used topfield series links with great success for many years, but have found autotimers equal to the task.

Reschedules actually work well, although I run autotimer every 25 minutes to make sure they're caught - they usually are soon after the epg changes.

I adjust things a bit during Wimbledon to take into account the bbc's obsession with moving bbc1 programmes over to bbc2 instead of leaving them well alone.

They've already started doing it tonight.

[ronand]

That's fine as long as they ditch wimbledon on Thursday evening to show the athletics from Oslo.

[Joe_90]

This is just an observation for those using the VPS plugin. Channel4HD and SD and C4+1, E4, E4+1 are not working for me using VPS. This has been happening since Monday last. The timer log reads "Event Ended" when scanning for the EIT p/f data in order to accurately record the programme. I have to use VPS in safe mode as a workaround. Other channels don't seem to be affected.

I fired up my old Windows 7 PC just now and had a look at the EIT data for C4. There doesn't seem to be any Event ID data in the EIT PIDs (Actual TS Present/Following) for the Channel 4 family on various transponders. Other channels on the same transponders have P/F data. I looked through a selection of BBC/ITV and other channels and all are ok.

I don't see any reports of this issue in the usual Digital Spy forums etc. Anyone shed any light on this? It may be a further fallout related to the Red Bee playout system which caused huge issues for C4 and C5 in the months prior to Christmas.

[goRt]

This is just an observation for those using the VPS plugin. Channel4HD and SD and C4+1, E4, E4+1 are not working for me using VPS. This has been happening since Monday last. The timer log reads "Event Ended" when scanning for the EIT p/f data in order to accurately record the programme. I have to use VPS in safe mode as a workaround. Other channels don't seem to be affected.

I fired up my old Windows 7 PC just now and had a look at the EIT data for C4. There doesn't seem to be any Event ID data in the EIT PIDs (Actual TS Present/Following) for the Channel 4 family on various transponders. Other channels on the same transponders have P/F data. I looked through a selection of BBC/ITV and other channels and all are ok.

I don't see any reports of this issue in the usual Digital Spy forums etc. Anyone shed any light on this? It may be a further fallout related to the Red Bee playout system which caused huge issues for C4 and C5 in the months prior to Christmas.

Yes, started happening for me on Thursday this week.
Also noticed that EPGRefresh at 19:15 misses tons of data (days from most/all channel) whereas if run at 13:15 all channel data is there???

[Joe_90]

Just to confirm - my reference is to satellite EPG / EIT data.

@goRt - can't say that I have had issues with actual EPG data although I use the in-built OpenTV EPG reader which runs 5 mins after boot and I have it set to run at 9 hour intervals. EPGRefresh has the option to clear EPG data before it tunes to the SKY transponder.

[goRt]

Just to confirm - my reference is to satellite EPG / EIT data.

@goRt - can't say that I have had issues with actual EPG data although I use the in-built OpenTV EPG reader which runs 5 mins after boot and I have it set to run at 9 hour intervals. EPGRefresh has the option to clear EPG data before it tunes to the SKY transponder.

Yes, my issue is also with satellite EPG/EIT data exactly as you reported.

Yes I have cleared the EPG data prior to refresh - same issue, but let's not let this cloud the problem on the 4 channels

[birdman]

This is just an observation for those using the VPS plugin. Channel4HD and SD and C4+1, E4, E4+1 are not working for me using VPS. This has been happening since Monday last. The timer log reads "Event Ended" when scanning for the EIT p/f data in order to accurately record the programme.

It's not clear what you mean by that, as there is supposed to be an EVENT_ENDED event at the end.
Are you saying that this is there, but not at the end of the recording?

I don't have any C4/E4 recordings to check, but a More4 one (in safe mode) shows:

<log code="0" time="1641415620">[VPS] start recordService (simulation) 0</log>
<log code="0" time="1641415621">[VPS] start monitoring running-status</log>
<log code="0" time="1641415622">[VPS] RUNNING_STATUS 1 FOLLOWING</log>
<log code="0" time="1641415622">[VPS] enable autoincrease</log>
<log code="5" time="1641416200">activating state 1 (Prepared)</log>
<log code="0" time="1641416200">Found enough free space to record</log>
<log code="0" time="1641416200">Filename calculated as: &apos;/media/hdd/movie/Documentaries/20220105 2057 - More 4 - New_ The Great British Dig_ History in Your Back Garden&apos;</log>
<log code="6" time="1641416200">prepare ok, waiting for begin</log>
<log code="5" time="1641416220">activating state 2 (Running)</log>
<log code="11" time="1641416220">start recording on tuner: A</log>
<log code="0" time="1641416341">[VPS] stop RecordService (simulation)</log>
<log code="0" time="1641416423">[VPS] RUNNING_STATUS 4 PRESENT</log>
<log code="0" time="1641420181">[VPS] EVENT_ENDED</log>
<log code="0" time="1641420181">[VPS] stop monitoring</log>
<log code="5" time="1641420300">activating state 3 (Ended)</log>
<log code="12" time="1641420300">stop recording on tuner: A</log>

[goRt]

It's not clear what you mean by that, as there is supposed to be an EVENT_ENDED event at the end.
Are you saying that this is there, but not at the end of the recording?

I don't have any C4/E4 recordings to check, but a More4 one (in safe mode) shows:

If, for example, you start an instant recording on C4 specifying VPS (not safe) then the recording will terminate within minutes saying "event ended" in the timer log.

[Joe_90]

@birdman - as per @goRt's reply - you get "Event Ended" at the start of the timed recording and VPS stops. More4 seems to be ok. VPS Safe mode will always record the scheduled start/end in any case.

It's a playout centre / broadcaster issue. Nothing we can do about it until C4/Redbee sort it out.

[birdman]

Nothing we can do about it until C4/Redbee sort it out.

It currently seems to be OK on Freeview.

[Joe_90]

It currently seems to be OK on Freeview.

It's a sat issue - as per post #399. Good to know that Freeview is not affected, but I don't know where to report this to C4/Redbee. I cleared the EPG cache and turned off all EPG readers except EIT and went through the entire bouquet on my box. Just C4HD/SD and C4+1, E4, E4+1 and (for some reason) BBC Alba seem to be missing "now/next" info. So the VPS trigger is missing on those channels, but VPS safe mode works based on the EPG start/end time plus padding.