[ViX_Misc] EPG corrupt - can't work out why it keeps happening

[smipx]

The EIT data on BBC 1 HD (Sat) definately is out of date compared to crossEPG. Just now at 5pm it was sheduled for "Pointless" on BBC1 HD (28.8) but the daily "Coronavirus Update" program on Freeview. A few hours ago it was "Pointless" on both versions of BBC1 and the BBC made a change at about 3pm (as they are doing every bloody day) for the Coronavirus update program (shifting Pointless to BBC 2 HD). I don't understand why the hell they can't do a few weeks worth at once rather than on the day at 3pm for a program that's on in an hour (but that's another story).

Anyway - my point (I do have one) is that the EIT data (I was sitting on BBC 1 HD 28.8) is NOT getting updated but as soon as I ran the CrossEPG OpenTV scan it was updated so I stand by by "feeling" that the data is more up-to-date on the CrossEPG as opposed to just sitting on the channel (or indeed running a fake record of the channel (or "possibly even" zapping to iEPG Data 1 - although this test did not test that to see any difference as I would need two boxes to do that).



Paul

 

[smipx]

Well.... It's even more confused than me now.

the late change was partially reflected in the CrossEPG data for BBC1 HD 28.8. Pointless was added to BBC2 replacing whatever was set on BBC2 HD at 17:15 BUT it left Pointless at 17:15 on BBC1 HD 28.8. Now that the program has started I can see that the program is the new schedule (Coronavirus update) so that's correct and when I hilight it you may be able to just see that the following "phantom" program is also highlighted in Blue (the one that will not be on BBC 1 HD at 17:15. Most odd indeed.



Now...... If I go to the EIT info on the actual channel (BBC1 HD 28.8) THAT IS CORRECT !?!?!? BUT importantly it is not updating the EPG with its correct stuff:



My setting in the EPG screen is as follows:



Surely if I have "Enable EIT EPG" set to yes then the correct data from the Now/Next (also taken from the EIT should overwrite the phantom entry in the EPG)

Bloody confusing or what?

Paul

 

[birdman]

Surely if I have "Enable EIT EPG" set to yes then the correct data from the Now/Next (also taken from the EIT should overwrite the phantom entry in the EPG)

Now and Next is not part of the EPG. It's just Now and Next (all that Freeview had originally) and the data may be different to that in the EPG data being sent at the same time.

Bloody confusing or what?

It can be, yes.

 

[abu baniaz]

We really need to look at the EPG corruption issue.

 

[smipx]

I agree Abu, pretty sure it is the EPG settings for save and load that was causing it.

There is another area that needs looking at too. During the process of my tweaking to try and determine the causes I went into my tuners and fiddled a bit, changed some settings ad did a retune etc. Also ram ABM (just to make sure all was well before fuurther debugging). I noticed after doing this that the CrossEPG scheduler was not kicking in at 06:20 as it was meant to. Some searching on the forums led me to this post: https://www.world-of-satellite.com/...ad-not-working&p=305545&viewfull=1#post305545 Post #21 from your good self

I tweaked the file "settings" under /etc/enigma2 and noticed I had multiple 3601 entries (I have a Zgemma H7S with twin SAT and single T2). I removed them just leaving:

config.Nims.0.diseqcA=282
config.Nims.1.diseqcA=282
config.Nims.2.configModeDVBT=True
config.Nims.2.terrestrial=All regions, United Kingdom, (Europe DVB-T/T2)

All of a sudden ...... CrossEPG kicked back into life on an auto schedule

Something somewhere is making a mess of these settings and it would be good if that cause could be investigated and fixed so you don't get the bad settings in "Settings" or CrossEPG tweaked to ignore the bad settings.

Cheers,
Paul

 

[smipx]

Now and Next is not part of the EPG. It's just Now and Next (all that Freeview had originally) and the data may be different to that in the EPG data being sent at the same time.

It can be, yes.

Hi birdman, thanks for that. My point was only that Now/Next is set to get data from EIT and so is the EPG when zapped to a channel but the EPG side does not seem to change the EPG to the latest EIT data (that is correct in the Now/Next. I guess I'm misunderstanding the settings in the EPG config (not surprising as I am making it up as I go along):

 

[Joe_90]

Just so you're clear on this - the EPG data that you're getting (or not in your case) when tuned to BBC1 is the Freesat EPG which is uploaded by a distribution company (I think it is Redbee - at least it was some time back), so it may not be being updated in real time. The CrossEPG data is sourced from the SKY EPG, which may be more current, given that it's a paid service for most users of that system.

I just saw your screenshot of your EPG settings and that may be part of the issue. You should have "Enable Freesat EPG" set to yes, otherwise tuning to BBC is only going to update your now/next from the EIT. The setting "Enable OpenTV EPG" is really only of use if you manually tune to the IEPG channel (or use EPGRefresh to do so). The OpenTV EPG is only carried on that transponder. I have "Enable OpenTV EPG" set to no and "Enable Freesat EPG" set to yes and "Enable EIT EPG" set to yes. The Freesat EPG contains compressed programme information using a proprietary compression key which came into the public domain some years ago. But to read the EPG data you need to have the Freesat EPG set to yes. Otherwise you would have to use CrossEPG or EPGRefresh as the source of your data.

 

[smipx]

Ah Okay..

the reason I set the Freesat EPG to "no" is because it doesn't carry the Channel 4 HD data anymore so I decided not to use it. ditching Freesat in favour of Enigma was all driven in the beginning by the loss of Channel 4HD so I had that sticking in my mind. I assumed that it was not needed if I was using CrossEPG for OpenTV and running that once per day (or even every hour as I see that is an option in CrossEPG). If I continue to use CrossEPG for OpenTV Data at least daily (as I am doing now and plan to do going forward) then do I still need the "Enable Freesat EPG" set to "yes"? Will that not then cause a conflict as having 2x sources for the same data?

Sorry to be so thick

 

[ccs]

What's wrong with using Freeview for Channel 4 HD ?

 

[smipx]

I only have one freeview tuner so want to be able to watch/record C4 HD on Sat and Freeview as needed. That was kind of the point of getting an H7S

 

[Joe_90]

If you stick with your current setup (no Freesat EPG enabled) and run CrossEPG on an hourly basis it would probably sort your issues. The Freesat EPG data definitely doesn't seem to get updated in real time. A couple of weeks ago CH5 stopped showing Neighbours on a daily basis but I had autotimer recordings set for the whole week as the EPG was still showing it as running each day. Even tuning to CH5 didn't resolve the EPG info. I ran Cross and it refreshed the whole EPG correctly and the autotimers sorted themselves out subsequently.
I think in my case the use of Freesat EPG enabled and Cross running a couple of times per week is probably the wrong strategy and I should stick with one source. It works out ok 95% of the time but I occasionally see overlapping entries in the EPG when the time of a programme gets changed or another programme is substituted.

 

[smipx]

If you stick with your current setup (no Freesat EPG enabled) and run CrossEPG on an hourly basis it would probably sort your issues. The Freesat EPG data definitely doesn't seem to get updated in real time. A couple of weeks ago CH5 stopped showing Neighbours on a daily basis but I had autotimer recordings set for the whole week as the EPG was still showing it as running each day. Even tuning to CH5 didn't resolve the EPG info. I ran Cross and it refreshed the whole EPG correctly and the autotimers sorted themselves out subsequently.
I think in my case the use of Freesat EPG enabled and Cross running a couple of times per week is probably the wrong strategy and I should stick with one source. It works out ok 95% of the time but I occasionally see overlapping entries in the EPG when the time of a programme gets changed or another programme is substituted.

:thumbsup:

 

[smipx]

Over 24 hours and no corruptions in the logs (where I was getting them every 3 or 4 hours) so that is it for me. The settings in the EPG setup screens definitely corrupted my EPG in memory.
My advice is to leave them turned off unless there is a very good reason to put them on.

 

[bbbuk]

I can't comment on FreeSat EPG as don't use it but what contains bugs - CrossEPG or EPGRefresh and for which service?

I'm hearing different thing and can only go by my own personal experience and that is EPGRefresh had occasional (or it appeared) corrupt EPG when it was first replaced with CrossEPG in Vix.

Since then I went back to CrossEPG as I don't and haven't had an issue with it for $ky EPG at least.

Yes, there are occasional last minute changes made that are obviously reflected in EIT (now/next) than what may be in EPG (downloaded 6am each morning)

 

[smipx]

In my opinion neither have bugs that affected me. Both CrossEPG when used for OpenTV data only and EPGRefresh are both good for me. It is the menu options within the EPG settings itself that was causing the corruption to in in-memory EPG data and then the log entries for Corrupt EPG data in the debug logs):

Here:



and......

If your settings file for enigma2 has the nims settings wrong then that stops crossEPG schedule from running ie.

I agree Abu, pretty sure it is the EPG settings for save and load that was causing it.

There is another area that needs looking at too. During the process of my tweaking to try and determine the causes I went into my tuners and fiddled a bit, changed some settings ad did a retune etc. Also ram ABM (just to make sure all was well before fuurther debugging). I noticed after doing this that the CrossEPG scheduler was not kicking in at 06:20 as it was meant to. Some searching on the forums led me to this post: https://www.world-of-satellite.com/s...l=1#post305545 Post #21 from your good self

I tweaked the file "settings" under /etc/enigma2 and noticed I had multiple 3601 entries (I have a Zgemma H7S with twin SAT and single T2). I removed them just leaving:

config.Nims.0.diseqcA=282
config.Nims.1.diseqcA=282
config.Nims.2.configModeDVBT=True
config.Nims.2.terrestrial=All regions, United Kingdom, (Europe DVB-T/T2)

All of a sudden ...... CrossEPG kicked back into life on an auto schedule

Something somewhere is making a mess of these settings and it would be good if that cause could be investigated and fixed so you don't get the bad settings in "Settings" or CrossEPG tweaked to ignore the bad settings.

In my humble opinion both are bugs elsewhere in the system (or features or quirks) that cause issues further down the line (particularly with the EPG data and with the CrossEPG scheduling.

cheers,
Paul

 

[bbbuk]

I have those two options set in EPG but I only have one EPG source. Maybe two EPG sources and timing of the EPG save can cause issue.

 

[smipx]

I have those two options set in EPG but I only have one EPG source. Maybe two EPG sources and timing of the EPG save can cause issue.

Maybe. Mine were set to save every hour and read every 2 hours (from memory) the timing gaps here may also be a factor.

 

[Huevos]

Well for a start either use OpenTV (and epg refresh) or Freesat. Don't use both. If you pull from both which do you want displayed? How do you control that? LOL.

 

[Huevos]

Maybe. Mine were set to save every hour and read every 2 hours (from memory) the timing gaps here may also be a factor.

Read what every 2 hours?

 

[smipx]

Read what every 2 hours?

Automatic refresh (Read file in from hard drive) in the EPG settings. I "had" it set to that as I mistakenly thought I was doing the right thing. Both settings are now "off" per the image in post #35