Loosing Channels / Guide disappearing – IceTV and Vista (Possibly also MCE2005)

[impact]

Finally have a working fix that hopefully stops the channels disappearing, and other channels reappearing, Guide disappearing and all those lovely things that just annoy us here in Australia – Argghhhh…..

Step A: Keepkey no longer works. So if you have it installed – remove it.
To remove Keep Key –
1.   Start Button / All Programs / Accessories
2.   Right click on Command Prompt / Run as Administrator
3.   Type in the command prompt     net stop “keep key”
4.   Close the command prompt
5.   Optionally delete the C:\KeepKey directory and any zip files – you no longer need them

Step B: Make sure your guide is setup the way you want it – have all of the channels correct, guide listings associated with it.

Step C: Stop the MCUpdate process from stuffing your guide up again
1.   Click on the Start Button
2.   Search for the Task Scheduler – just type Task Scheduler in the search input box at the bottom and press enter
3.   The Task Scheduler will now be running (after the usual Vista are you sure prompts)
4.   On the left hand side, drill through the selections Task Scheduler Library / Microsoft- / Windows- / Media Center
5.   In the middle panel, you will see the tasks, Right click on MCUpdate and choose Disable

Your done…


Your guide should now stay pristine – what have we done?

Well every day (8am in my case) my computer contacts Microsoft asking for any updates relevant to Media Center, its not related to drivers and things like that – its checking to see if there is any specific items for MCE… Things like new Online Spotlight applications. It is during this update it also refreshes certain registry items the way it thinks it should… and of course since we use unauthorized guide applications, Microsoft update resets some stupid things on us – thus mucking up our guide data…

Turning off the MCUpdate process means you will not see any new Online Spotlight applications (big deal eh in Australia – not much of interest eh?) – but at least your guide will be clean.


Last words of warning;
-   we have turned off the scheduled task, but this task is run whenever you do a fresh install of Media Center, or when you go through the setup process. So at some stage if you accidentally go through the Settings / General / Windows Media Center Setup option again – your guide will muck up, and you may need to repeat Step B and Step C again.
-   If you use the optimization options in Windows Media Center – it appears to have no effect (?) – the MCUpdate task does not appear to start / run – it seems to stay disabled
-   Turning this task off should not impede anything else – you will still get Windows updates / Office Updates / Ultimate application delivery – as far as I know at present – its just going to be updates to Online Spotlight
-   In theory – if you learn from others that the Online Spotlight has been updated, simply turn the task back on, run it, get the update, fix your guide, and turn the MCUpdate back off… That’s a whole lot better than changing the channel order and guide information daily….

And lastly – Use at your own caution…. It appears to be working for me. My machine is not broken – I am still recording, the Xbox360 still streams, no men in black suits have arrived at my door. But its your risk – this is an unsupported patch, not from Microsoft, and we really can not tell what the consequences are in doing anything. All I can say is that I had the problem, and this appears to have fixed it for me (with very limited testing).

I am not a big online spotlight fan – so I don’t mind missing the updates… Until some real content arrives – whatever happened to Reuters and the other items we used to have in this region – oh that’s right, Australia fell off the map of the world again….

I hope this fixes your guide issues as well as it does for me

[impact]

Theory is - if you reorder the channel sequence, hide channels so you only see those with a guide listing, or just to show the SD or HD channels - then the guide mucks up...

If you dont play around in changing the look and feel of your guide, then the keep key solution will probably work for you.

But if your like me and want to hide things to just show 2 / 7 / 9 / 10 / 21/ 31 / 33 (or 28 or whatever) - so that you can see the full listing of all channels on one screen without  need for scrolling... then MCUpdate is going to muck up the listing each day.

[Shane]

impact,

This fix seems to be working fine for me now. I am missing PIMP though - anyone know if it can be made to work yet?

One other thing (off topic) - has anyone else checked out the Vista Media Center native app for Bigpond Movies (via Online Spotlight)? They've done an awesome job this time... I could actually see myself using this!

Regards,
Shane.

[impact]

Yes Shane - two days in and finally my guide seems stable ?

Noticed the Pimp banner in the front screen here coming soon for Vista - so it should be interesting...

Ive hated the UI on Vista for Media Center since the beginning - but I suppose I am just starting to get used to it... If you liked the bigpond plugin - you should see what you get if you change your settings to US.... There were about 20 old and new things there.... Hopefully this region will get some decent content one day.

[saxnix]

Impact,

What version of IceTV are you using?  Also, where can I find a link to it?

Thanks

[saxnix]

Scratch that, found it.  Seems to be working ok. 

Now if I can only get the second tuner on a Dvico Dual digital card to work?

[benneh]

Thanks Impact.  I thought this fixed itself, my guide had been stable for about a month, but just yesterday, Prime dissappeared again, arrrrgh!

I'll give your fix a run, and post back here if I have any further troubles.

[benneh]

I'd change your step A instructions to the following, your as if it is set to automatic startup, it will startup again next time someone reboots their computer, and if they did remove the files it will probably come up with an error about being unable to start one or more service

1) go start run and type services.msc
2) look for keepkey in the list and open up it up (double click it)
3) click the stop button to stop the service and change the startup type to manual

[philzgr8]

Great work as usual impact.

Hey Ice guys... when is your fix due???

[mbedford]

Now if I can only get the second tuner on a Dvico Dual digital card to work?

I know this sounds stupid but you HAVE plugged in the USB port on the back of your card?

The 2nd tuner for this card gets its power via the USB port and wont work if not plugged in.

[ncaross]

Just got home from a weekend away (sunday night) to find SBS2 vanished, no guide listings for SBS1 and SBS radio appeared in my guide.

Did a system restore from an automatic backup point from a couple of days ago and now it's all working fine.

I note that in that time...

1) The clocks went back
2) A big Vista update installed
3) There was another big storm

Anyone with any ideas?

[saxnix]

Now if I can only get the second tuner on a Dvico Dual digital card to work?

I know this sounds stupid but you HAVE plugged in the USB port on the back of your card?

The 2nd tuner for this card gets its power via the USB port and wont work if not plugged in.

Well......not as stupid as you would think.  No, I hadn't plugged in the USB port of the 2nd card.  I assumed (yes I know, one should never assume anything), that ....oh doesn't matter why, but the other problem I faced was that I didn't seem to have a spare place for the usb connector to fit???  When I get a chance I will play around with it, connect it and see if the 4th tuner appears.

Thanks for your not so stupid advice.

Greg