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Quick note...

Followed the instructions to the letter for getting the EPG running in Windows 7.  First time I tried it - as I waited until I got the RTM version - it went reasonably well...

It all works and is great - but you might want to update the instructions for others...

1. Go! (In Melbourne) does not automatically get assigned the guide - all the other channels do, but I had to manually associate this channel.
2. First time I ran the EPG fetch routine - it did it, but failed - caused an error on the loader which was reported back to Microsoft. Although it produced the error dialogue it did appear to load the guide data, subsequent loads worked without any errors (was this because it was the first time it was run or maybe because Go! was not assigned properly - who knows).

These tests were based on the RTM build of Windows 7 - straight from technet - virgin machine - full install (not upgrade) - no other software installed, just the scan of channels and quick check that media center was working before getting the EPG going....

Now I better go update the guide with some graphic logo's.....

I have installed the latest iceguide software on a new Vista 64bit machine. All appears to work well.

I also have patched this machine, so I can use remote desktop to maintain the HTPC box from a distance, patching to allow concurrent users to be able to log on - that way I can sneak in through the backdoor, without the main user logging off and it continues to play TV....

However in doing this, the ice software is defined to startup for ALL users - so it is already running when I log on through remote desktop, but it starts up another instance. I can kill it off easily, but at worst its just annoying...

Whay keys in the registry should I move to make sure that this software only runs for the one user - the main user when it logs on, and not any other remote desktop user?

 :)

Finally, the long awaited probelm where you lose ch7 / sbs nearly every day has been fixed.


Microsoft has been investigating this problem (but unable to reproduce it in the US which makes the investigation a little harder). From what we've been seeing, it appears that opportunistic scanning, combined with inconsistent data in the transmission is causing the problem.

Opportunistic scanning is scanning on the currently tuned transport stream. When MCE tunes to a transport stream for some reason (the user channels up/down in live tv, or recording a scheduled program), the scanner monitors the stream for changes in service or network information. Such changes in information are usually a rare occurrence.

However from what we've seen in logs, some broadcasters are updating this information at certain times in the day. Unfortunately, they send different data each time. The changing of the service information, results in the removal of the old channels and addition of new ones.

Once installed, this hotfix allows you to turn off opportunistic scanning by setting a registry key.


Instructions on how to get the hotfix in Australia

ring 13 16 30
For non-Partners (most likely you), select Option 1 from the first IVR menu, followed by “All Other Support Enquiries” at the next prompt. This will reach a Customer Service agent.
If you are partner customer (Gold, Certified or Registered), you can select the IVR path via Option 2. Once you arrive at the appropriate Partner menu, select the “All Other Support Enquiries” option and a Customer Service agent will attend to the call.
Ask the service agent for hotfix 938927. Tell the service agent that this hotfix is for the Media Center and its a little unusual as the KB article hasn’t been published yet (ie. they won’t be able to find KB938927). However they can still give you a hotfix without the KB.
If there's any problem, ask to speak with their manager, it is so new - only released this morning!!!!

(Note: hotfixes are free - you wont be charged).


Installation instructions
Exit MCE
Install the hotfix
Add in the registry a DWORD key HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\ CurrentVersion\Media Center\Service\ GLID\DisableActualStreamOpportunisticScanning and set its value to 1. To achieve this you can either use regedit to enter the key value directly
Reboot

If you’ve been encountering this problem, I’d recommend that you go through MCE setup again (Tasks->Settings->General->Windows Media Center Setup->Run Setup Again), and then delete all your scheduled recordings and reschedule them.

 :) Finally, the long awaited probelm where you lose ch7 / sbs nearly every day has been fixed.


Microsoft has been investigating this problem (but unable to reproduce it in the US which makes the investigation a little harder). From what we've been seeing, it appears that opportunistic scanning, combined with inconsistent data in the transmission is causing the problem.

Opportunistic scanning is scanning on the currently tuned transport stream. When MCE tunes to a transport stream for some reason (the user channels up/down in live tv, or recording a scheduled program), the scanner monitors the stream for changes in service or network information. Such changes in information are usually a rare occurrence.

However from what we've seen in logs, some broadcasters are updating this information at certain times in the day. Unfortunately, they send different data each time. The changing of the service information, results in the removal of the old channels and addition of new ones.

Once installed, this hotfix allows you to turn off opportunistic scanning by setting a registry key.


Instructions on how to get the hotfix in Australia

ring 13 16 30
For non-Partners (most likely you), select Option 1 from the first IVR menu, followed by “All Other Support Enquiries” at the next prompt. This will reach a Customer Service agent.
If you are partner customer (Gold, Certified or Registered), you can select the IVR path via Option 2. Once you arrive at the appropriate Partner menu, select the “All Other Support Enquiries” option and a Customer Service agent will attend to the call.
Ask the service agent for hotfix 938927. Tell the service agent that this hotfix is for the Media Center and its a little unusual as the KB article hasn’t been published yet (ie. they won’t be able to find KB938927). However they can still give you a hotfix without the KB.
If there's any problem, ask to speak with their manager, it is so new - only released this morning!!!!

(Note: hotfixes are free - you wont be charged).


Installation instructions
Exit MCE
Install the hotfix
Add in the registry a DWORD key HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\ CurrentVersion\Media Center\Service\ GLID\DisableActualStreamOpportunisticScanning and set its value to 1. To achieve this you can either use regedit to enter the key value directly
Reboot

If you’ve been encountering this problem, I’d recommend that you go through MCE setup again (Tasks->Settings->General->Windows Media Center Setup->Run Setup Again), and then delete all your scheduled recordings and reschedule them.

Just thought I'd mention in case your not aware of it....

Pimp / Keep Key / Sim U Ant / Disable MCE Update is no longer needed to fix the registry key...

Mike Heyton from Microsoft has advised that the hotfix is now built and available that addresses the issue. Currently any customer can call into Microsoft support and request KB935685 even though there isnt a published KB at the moment. Microsoft support will send the customer the hotfix. But the customer has to know which KB to ask for.

Meanwhile the KB is being written and published that will contain a link to the hotfix. Once published, a customer will be able to look up the KB on the web, follow the link and download the hotfix.

So - hot off the press, if you ask for it - you get it - or wait a period of time to find it on the web. This disables the microsoft discovery service key change, so you can turn it off, so that it no longer is always looking at Microsoft for its MCE update.

Unfortunately it does not fix the other EPG problems we experience with the guide screw up.

This week the title of the show was 'The Code' on ch9 10pm. Next week you have called it "The Code: Crime and Justice"

- You just cant change titles - it breaks season passes / series recordings... If you got it wrong, leave it wrong! So a warning to anyone expecting The Code next week....

NO excuse about this being an American show and the title was loaded ages ago - Its an Australian show
NO excuse in saying that you are legally obliged to follow what ABC says - its on the eddy channel

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 â€" Argghhhh…..

Step A: Keepkey no longer works. So if you have it installed â€" remove it.
To remove Keep Key â€"
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 â€" you no longer need them

Step B: Make sure your guide is setup the way you want it â€" 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 â€" 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 â€" 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 â€" 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 â€" 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 â€" not much of interest eh?) â€" 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 â€" 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 â€" it appears to have no effect (?) â€" the MCUpdate task does not appear to start / run â€" it seems to stay disabled
-   Turning this task off should not impede anything else â€" you will still get Windows updates / Office Updates / Ultimate application delivery â€" as far as I know at present â€" its just going to be updates to Online Spotlight
-   In theory â€" 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 â€" Use at your own caution…. It appears to be working for me. My machine is not broken â€" I am still recording, the Xbox360 still streams, no men in black suits have arrived at my door. But its your risk â€" 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 â€" so I don’t mind missing the updates… Until some real content arrives â€" whatever happened to Reuters and the other items we used to have in this region â€" 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

It seems like I am the ABC nazi - but gee it really is frustrating...

The guide for Melbourne ABC says Little Robots is on at 8:55am - it has not been all week.. Never has, the show finished its run at the end of last week. It was replaced by a show called oobi.

Now the interesting thing here is that I noticed the problem last weekend, was about to report it, but thought Id do a guide update first - and voilla the OObi show was correctly listed - aha I thought, icetv were not really proactive, in fixing it until the last moment.

However, it subsequently disapeared, and the guide updates later in the week still show Little Robots.....


While not a big deal - as I just delete the Little Robots recordings that are not Little Robots... it highlights the concern of validating and sourcing the content provided yet again - without care or concern to do quality assurance. Errors like this occur fairly frequent - and it is of concern to what other errors occur that are not picked up. All this on the channel you that have an agreement with the provider to faithfully reproduce in the icetv guide. I can understand late changes - thats fine, but your agreement with ABC to faithfully reproduce the guide seems not to be held true, notification of the change in programs appears to have been lost, and the error repeats itself during the week.... What other ABC programming is wrong...

Dont get me wrong - its okay to error, learn from your mistakes, but take action / procedures to fix the problem so that error does not occur again.

CONSISTENCY GUYS !!!!

I recorded Vanished last week - a new series... not sure what it would be like, but set it up for a series recording just in case I liked it... Well with the power of the PVR, I finally got around to watching it... And thats fine - so a quick check in MCE to see when its on next... and no further showings were available.

So I started to wonder what is on next Monday in its place ? Turn to the EPG and Vanished is on.... Doh? Why is it not being recorded?

Then I found it - last week the title of the show was "Vanished (US 2006)", next week the show is called "Vanished".


Seriously guys, whoever is creating the guide listings - do they understand how PVR's work and how they match on names - you just cant go willy nilly and change things - its just going to upset people.... Do your guide makers actually use any kind of PVR with an EPG ? If you make a mistake and change something - let people know about it, just dont change it and not say anything.

Now - luckily, I caught this one in time, and have subsequently set up another series recording, so next Monday the show will record, but does it mean that the following week I need to check it, in case someone has decided to call it "(US) - Vanished" ?

Previous threads on the boards here have discussed some past silly names like - "Dancing with the stars (new series)", and comments about next year, will that be "Dancing with the stars (newer new series)"... Although said in jest, it just highlights the immaturaity of creating guide data. In these threads it was pointed out that although it was a bad name, dont change it, because we are all using it... And it stayed for the whole season like this...

This week, I have found two errors in guide data, without even looking - I am disapointed in the quality of data and lack of checking for a paid service, and basically not happy about it.

I just dont know how vigilant I am going to have to be to check every series recording I have set up - defeating the purpose of it all....


NOTICE TO ALL - If your interested in Vanished, check your settings to ensure it gets recorded properly next week....


Arrrghhhhhhhhhhh

Cant understand how this often occurs - one day in the week it mucks up... Given that you get a feed from abc, from the outside world all we can do is wonder what processess cause it.

Today ABCtV Melbourne - guide says Play With Me Sesame - ABC website and actual programming is Its a Big Big World.


As you can tell - Im frustrated because I missed recording this show, and just makes me annoyed when things go wrong on abc / abctv...

I know its been mentioned before about how all the categories are currently under General - and how under MCE2005 this was not as useful... it still worked.

Well under Vista - the categories play a more important part to the UI - in the guide there is now a more pronounced categories button / tab that is always visible on the far left. Selecting that brings up the listing of available categories - it appears Vista only allows one level - and it shows General - selecting that does not allow the categories below that to be displayed - so we have some useless functionality now.

Any chance of investigating the promotion of all categories up one level - so that it can be made more useful to us all....

Just playing around with Vista Ultimate - RTM - So official release stuff...

Found it easy as to get it installed and tuners installed etc... Even found icetv to be painless to install as always

However, using my postcode of 3000, doing the scan etc.. I have been able to map all channels to the appropriate guide listings - except for SBS Digital 2. In the list of guide channels I only get SBS and SBS HD - No SBS DIGITAL 2.

Thinking maybe there was a problem - just checked on my MCE 2005 machine and yes the guide listings are there... Something strange with Vista and its enquiry to ICETV to not get the SBS DIGITAL 2 returned ?

Melb - Ch9

Today (Mon) the guide was correct - Hi5 Wondering 1

However it is still showing New Macdonalds Farm at 3:30pm for Tuesday - this should be Hi5 Wondering 2
Wed - Fri is correct also

Just a bit of mix up on Tuesdays?

It appears throughout the day today the guide for ABC2 was at least 5 mins out (yep missed all the kids shows today) - thought that guy was sacked from the last time that the guide was overrun....
Hopefully not a problem for tomorrow !!!

This morning - IceTV reports that the Wiggles Show is on at 8:10am - yet the program changed, and as reported everywhere else it is now Fifi and the Flowertops on in its place. Now IceTv does report the correct show for tomorrow and subsequent days.

Now its not a late programming change, as the ABC had been advertising it for a week earlier...

Im just trying to understand what is going on? A huge supporter of icetv, yet am finding it at times frustrating with the quality of data with missed or inaccurate program names - especially at the start or conclusion of a series. In particular the frustration does center around the ABC because in other posts it has been mentioned that the guide data is provided by ABC. Yet the quality or frequency of this supplied data appears to be inferrior or the processes not adequate when compared with other print or non print guide data services.

The frustration extends to the extent that there is no acknowledgement, comment or discussion from icetv staff in these forums on recent posts to the matter either.....

Noticed in my MCE box - just about everything was 15 mins out in the guide - but only on ch7....

ie. Ch7 News is normally 6pm - the guide was showing this as 6:15pm
6:30pm should have been the start for Where are they now - yet the ice tv guide had it listed as 6:45pm etc...

Was wondering why I missed part of the news tonight ??? Initially I thought the problem may have been the network itself running late... but nope it was the guide data that was wrong - and I checked other sources to see if it was a problem in what the networks were saying. Nope only icetv had it wrong - all other printed and electronic guides had the correct start times.

I am guessing some processing earlier in the program day stuffed up and shifted everything 15 minutes ? Just concerned that what ever caused this, can be fixed and not stuff up again for ch7 or another channel. Maybe some extra program QA checks before publishing - ie. News is at 6:30pm weekdays and 6:00pm weekends for 7 / 9  News at 7pm for ch2  News at 5pm for ch10  -> At least if these were checked, exceptions to the rule could be found and manually fixed ?


BTW - Anybody actually reading these content error postings.... Its just there are not too many postings from icetv staff of recent times - saying, yep - sorry - found the problem - its fixed.... or .... etc.

Ch7 advertise this show as 'Great Comedy Classics' - IceTV shows this using the episode information - ie. 'The Bad Penny / Why Do You Want To Be A Doctor / The Cistern / The ...'

Thus making it impossible to schedule a recurring series or season pass on a name title - as it changes each week. Any chance of changing the program name to something that will remain constant each week, and then using the above as either the description or episode info....

A couple of times, during the week I have selected an item to record - once off - and by the time the show comes around in a few days later - MCE forgets about it, no red dot, nothing - and hence no recording...

Example.... Last Wed or so - I scrolled through the guide and picked 'Enough Rope with Andrew Denton" and told the MCE box to record it as a once off...  I noticed the red dot there a day or so later in the EPG.... But when I looked at the guide tonight - voilla... its not marked to be recorded ????

Further thought and investigation, and I have realised the pattern.... When I originally set the recording - there was only a generic synopsis or description for the show, today when I look at it, the description tells me its an interview with Mike Willesee.... Now at least one could say that my MCE box had the good realisation to not actually record the show, since its going to be about Mike - but thats a whole other story....

I am guessing the general rollover each week for Enough Rope occurs with a blank / generic description - I have set the recording, and then icetv programming department learns more info about the show and updates the description (in this case adding the valuable info about Mike).

But this appears to change the program details so that MCE now thinks its a new program - ie. does updating a program description in your process create a new program id - and hence causes MCE the confusion....

I have noticed a couple of times where the info has changed, and the program stops on manual / one off recordings (but of course a series / season pass does solve the issue)

I noticed this last week on Monday and thought it was a once off - but the same thing has happened today (Monday)...

Knowing that the guide data for ABC is a feed, the quality of the data should (theoretically be pretty good - well certainly similar to the quality of any web based guide system - especially in this instance of www.abc.net.au/tv at least...


IceTV guide suggests that Enjie Benjie was on at around 7:00am this morning - it wasn't - I think it was rubberdubbers or something - Enjie Benjie only appears on ABC2 at a later time....

Fantastic Flying Journey is reported by IceTV for a 7:30am start - this is also no longer on... Jane and the Dragon has replced this show (mind you Icetv is correct for Tues-Fri showing this... but last week and this week, icetv reported Monday being incorrect)


No big probs really - I am just amazed that apparantly the ABC guys do not give you the same data or source the same data as what they use for their own web site... Missing program updates in what they give you, the ABC website having far more info on program sub titles that what you receive - its as if there is two levels of truth within the ABC....

Thought I'd mention as a note to you all - if you setup a xbox 360 as an extender with your MCE setup - it will do the usual thing, in changing or reseting the MCE identifier - and hence IceTV will not know that your a valid customer. Its just a simple run of the icetv configuration, enter your userid and password, go and get the guide - and all is fine...

But a cautionary tale - just so you dont forget and find your guide has run out accidentily (I found it before it was too late - phew!)

(And I have to say - I was hesitant in getting a xbox 360 - but wow... just damn impressive and as an extender - I am amazed how good it all works!!! Just got to find time to watch tv and check out xbox live some more!!!!)