Channel "1" in Sydney has no guide data?

Started by Shane, February 18, 2005, 08:50:43 PM

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Daniel Drysdale at IceTV

#15
Shane,

Are you certain about the loading of old guide data?

The very first thing the TAP does when it loads is to search through the cache files looking for old data, the files are named YYYYMMDDHHMMSS_EPG_CACHE, the TAP takes the current system date and generates a string like YYYYMMDD, this is then compared with the first 8 characters of the file names in the directory and any matches are deleted.

This functionality has been in the TAP since the very earliest versions, I have never seen the TAP fail to delete old guide data.

Could you do me a favor and create an empty file called 20050101000000.EPG_CACHE and put it in the directory with the TAP, then restart the TAP and see if it deletes the file.

Regards
Dan

UPDATE:

Russell has confirmed the same behaviour, I'll have to look into it, there may have been a bug introduced recently, the code that controls EPG loading was heavily modified a couple of versions ago....

Cheers,

Dan
Software Manager @ IceTV

Russell at IceTV

#16
One thing you can do in the mean time, is connect with Altair, change to the "\ProgramFiles\Auto Start" directory, and remove any old "CACHE" files.  They're stored in the format "YYYYMMDDHHMMSS_EPG_CACHE", so if you were doing this today (Feb. 24th), you'd delete any files beginning with 20050223 or older.

You can watch the debug messages to see which files are being loaded, by pressing Exit from normal tv-watching mode, and enabling OSD Debug.

Thanks,
Russell

Russell at IceTV

Ok, after some extensive testing, I've discovered a few things...  well, mostly I've discovered that I fixed it, but I don't completely understand how :-)

First, if you're experiencing this problem, please use Altair to connect to the Topfield and take a screenshot of the "\ProgramFiles\Auto Start" directory.  Then send it to info@icetv.info.  Maybe we'll find a common thread there...

Now, what I did to fix it...
    [*]Put the Topfield in normal tv-watching mode, press Exit on the remote, and select "Terminate ICELink Interface".
    [*]In Altair, copy all files from the Topfield's "\ProgramFiles\Auto Start" directory to a directory on your PC.
    [*]Delete all files in the "\ProgramFiles\Auto Start" directory on the Topfield.
    [*]Copy the same files from the PC back to the Topfield.
    [*]Turn the Topfield off and back on.
    [*]After the ICELink logo comes up, press Exit on the remote and enable OSD Debug to see which guide files are being loaded.  Hopefully it's the one for today's date (if you have that one on the Topfield).
    [*]In Altair, look in the "\ProgramFiles\Auto Start" directory and hopefully all CACHE files older than today's date will be gone.
    [*]Please send an email to info@icetv.info and let us know what happened.
    [/list] Doesn't sound like it should fix it, does it... but it did, at least for me.  :-)  My only guess is that there was some kind of directory corruption, and by deleting all the files, it somehow reset it.  I noticed that before I did all this, the CACHE files were being sorted at the bottom of the list (you can change the sort order by clicking the headers, but when you click the Refresh button, it seems to always go back to the default).  After doing these steps, the CACHE files are now sorted correctly, at the top of the list.

    Very strange...

    Russell

    crevice

    QuoteMine loads pretty quickly now. I have found however that the Topfield loads all guide data it has, including any older days, first.

    For example, say if today is Thursday, and if the guide data in the Toppy has the data from the just passed Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday still loaded, it will load all of that data first, rather than discarding it and just loading from todays date. If you go to your guide whilst it is loading and go back a few days you will see it loading.

    Not sure if it would be possible or not, but if the ice TAP could look t todays date and only load data for the current day and future days, I am sure this would spead up the perceived load times.

    Regards,
    Shane.

    I though peter had fixed this when i raised it with him about 2 weeks ago.  Looks like not.

    Shane

    Russell,

    I did as you have below and now the Topfield just loads everything from today onwards, not any previous days, so it is fixed.

    Anyone know any way to "jump" to the current day/time in the grid view (red button) EPG? Scrolling manually left and right is driving me insane.

    Thanks,
    Shane.


    QuoteOk, after some extensive testing, I've discovered a few things...  well, mostly I've discovered that I fixed it, but I don't completely understand how :-)

    First, if you're experiencing this problem, please use Altair to connect to the Topfield and take a screenshot of the "\ProgramFiles\Auto Start" directory.  Then send it to info@icetv.info.  Maybe we'll find a common thread there...

    Now, what I did to fix it...
    • Put the Topfield in normal tv-watching mode, press Exit on the remote, and select "Terminate ICELink Interface".
    • In Altair, copy all files from the Topfield's "\ProgramFiles\Auto Start" directory to a directory on your PC.
    • Delete all files in the "\ProgramFiles\Auto Start" directory on the Topfield.
    • Copy the same files from the PC back to the Topfield.
    • Turn the Topfield off and back on.
    • After the ICELink logo comes up, press Exit on the remote and enable OSD Debug to see which guide files are being loaded.  Hopefully it's the one for today's date (if you have that one on the Topfield).
    • In Altair, look in the "\ProgramFiles\Auto Start" directory and hopefully all CACHE files older than today's date will be gone.
    • Please send an email to info@icetv.info and let us know what happened.
    Doesn't sound like it should fix it, does it... but it did, at least for me.  :-)  My only guess is that there was some kind of directory corruption, and by deleting all the files, it somehow reset it.  I noticed that before I did all this, the CACHE files were being sorted at the bottom of the list (you can change the sort order by clicking the headers, but when you click the Refresh button, it seems to always go back to the default).  After doing these steps, the CACHE files are now sorted correctly, at the top of the list.

    Very strange...

    Russell
    Shuttle SB83G5M (P4 630 nVidia 6600) running Vista Premium with:
    Hauppauge Nova-T 500 MCE Tuner|Ice TV Guide|PIMP|Buffalo LinkStation HD-H160LAN & HD-HG300LAN|Xbox 360 MCE

    Daniel Drysdale at IceTV

    The Green button goes back one day and the Yellow button goes forward but I haven't seen a Jump to Today option. I usually exit the Guide and go back in.
    Cheers,

    Dan
    Software Manager @ IceTV