OpenTV EPG downloader oddity

[adm]

Vix 5.4.005

On switching on my box from deep standby this morning the (grid) epg for the next few hours was populated but scrolling through towards later today all data was missing for around a 4(ish) hour period. After this 4 hour period the EPG was again fully populated.
Pressing blue and selecting “openTV EPG forced download” didn’t make any difference to the EPG data for this time – it remained blank. I repeated the forced download with no change. I left the box on until it got to the time with no EPG – still no change and no Now/Next information in the EPG.
Every program description in the blank period (all channels, all time slots) was given as “ody Kapow and Hoos” as shown in the screenshot.



The fix was to delete the EPG data (menu → setup – Epg → load, save and delete epg cache ) reboot the box and to force the openTV download.

I have 2 satellite tuners and no recording was taking place during all this time.

Obviously the cache had become corrupt but what will have stopped it updating with a forced EPG download. It was almost like this part of the cache was write protected until the deletion/reboot.

My setup



EIT is enabled because I also have terrestrail tuners and want over the air EPG for UK Freeview.

 

[Joe_90]

I saw this too on Sunday last on a dev build. There was a gap of about four hours on most (not all) channels. I re-ran the OpenTV EPG downloader several times without any change. I thought it was some corruption I had introduced into the EPG through some of my own testing and I cleared the EPG cache and re-ran the EPG downloader. Worked ok. Like you, I have EIT enabled because I too have terrestrial tuners for Saorview. Maybe the downloader needs a config option to clear the cache before reading?

 

[adm]

Maybe the downloader needs a config option to clear the cache before reading?

Wild Speculation......
Could it also go wrong if IEPG data is being written and the box is actually closing down to deep standby. Does the box know that an action is in progress, or about to happen, in the same way as it knowing about a recording?

 

[ccs]

Menu/Setup/System Task warning on shutdown

 

[BrokenUnusableAccount]

I get weird things like that sometimes and I'm not using OpenTVZapper, just EPG Refresh.

But yes, I agree sometimes the only way to get it working right again seems to be to use delete EPG.

The flush before refresh thing in EPG Refresh doesn't even seem to be enough to get it working again in every case, though I think it can sometimes.

It's very difficult to know what's gong on, it doesn't happen often enough to do proper testing, or even for me to be really sure I haven't done something silly myself.

 

[Joe_90]

You are actually using the same software reader as OpenTVzapper - EPGRefresh just tunes the IEPG channel and the reader handles the stream.

 

[adm]

Menu/Setup/System Task warning on shutdown

Mine is set to yes BUT is this just a visual warning to the user or does a "OpenTV EPG download" activity actually delay an automatic shutdown to deep standby in the same way as a recording would if the box is in standby.
My shutdown process is a single press of the power button that puts the box into standby. A power timer then kicks in and 10 minutes later the box automatically goes into deep standby (unless still recording) .

As I indicated above it's wild speculation but could a IEPG write to RAM EPG cache at the same time as the RAM cache is being written to HDD during a shutdown to deep standby be corrupting something? BUT, why cannot the RAM cache be over-written without a delete cache (and maybe a reboot)?

 

[ccs]

Mine is set to no, I found that if autotimer, for example, was running at the time, the box wouldn't go to deep standby.

This is the thread, my setting works as I want, but other changes were made.....

https://www.world-of-satellite.com/...tandby-prevented-when-a-background-is-running

 

[ccs]

Maybe the background tasks which result in the shutdown warning are logged when they start and finish, and "OpenTV EPG download" isn't catered for?

 

[BrokenUnusableAccount]

Is it possible that there is a problem when two tuners are simultaneously receiving EPG data?
In other words are things set up either to correctly cope with or to prevent concurrent updates to the EPG cache?

For instance this could be when one tuner is tuned to 'IEPG data 1' for OpenTV EPG while another is receiving either Freesat EPG or Freeview EPG.

Later: I see mentions of mutex in the code. So I guess yes, it should cope with concurrent cache update requests.