No standard definition program material

[Grandview]

I am new to ICETV, but it seemed to set up without a hitch - until my kids noticed that we only have high definition channels showing up in the guide.  I have checked that all channels are ticked in my account page and have rescanned all channels on the Beyonwiz, but still only receive high def channel data.  In the interactive widget, all channels show up.  Any clues?

[tonymy01]

Do you have multiple of the same channel number?   ICE only loads up for the 1st one, which may be hidden out of your favourites group.
So hit the list button, and then choose all services, and check what you have in the list.   If you have, say for example, two "7"s, you will find the EPG in one of them only.   Delete the one with worse reception, if they are both received on different RF frequencies.    You may need to restart once you delete the duplicates to get the correct one filled, not sure about this.
Regards

[Grandview]

Thanks for that.  I definitely have multiple channel 7's and 2's, but no others.  Don't have access to the box right now so will have to try this fix tomorrow.  Is there any relationship between favourites and what shows up in the EPG?  I had two favourite lists set up, one for HD channels and one for all others.  Whenever I press the favourites button it only pulls up the HD favourites list, which was the first list I created.  I might experiment by deleting the favourites lists and recreating just one list with all channels.

[tonymy01]

Yes, favourites is for channel surfing (using the up/down) and the order (and filtering) is used for the EPG display also.
Sounds like you didn't setup the other group properly?
Regards

[Grandview]

Ok, this is sounding logical.  If you have, say, 2 favourites groups, when you press the Fav button, how do you access the second favourites list?  Think I might just keep things simple and have a single favourites list!

[prl]

... If you have, say, 2 favourites groups, when you press the Fav button, how do you access the second favourites list?  Think I might just keep things simple and have a single favourites list!

If you want to switch to another favorites list, press FAV, then select the new favorites list, and then select a service from the new list. If you don't select a service, then it won't switch favorites lists.

I guess it's done that way because the two lists may have no services in common, so you need to tell it which one to go to in the new Fav list.

I have 5 Fav lists set up (All TV except information services, SD TV, HD TV, information services and Radio), but I use one of them (All TV) pretty much all the time.

[tonymy01]

I did the same Peter, and end up in the "all" most of the time.   But "all" still isn't *every* channel due to all the duplicates (and the LCN default ordering of the channels of course would not be to most peoples liking).
I put the order much like:
ABCHD,ABC1,ABC2,7HD,7SD,9HD,9SD,10HD,10SD,SBS1,SBS2,SBSHD,D44junk(LOTs of channels here)
So channel surfing can still get me to the "D44 junk" and/or SBSHD (which really doesn't have any HD on it), while still giving me real channels in the order I am used to for the rest (I just tend not to cycle back around to ABC as there is a LOT of D44 channels to wade thru, I will either cycle up and down to surf, or punch in "2" on the remote to get to ABC).
Regards

[prl]

Yes, I use the favorite lists to reorder and regroup the services in almost the same cyclic order as you, but I have SBS first, not last in the list. Perhaps it's just confusion in the tribal memory as to whether SBS is channel 0 or 28 :)

[Grandview]

Thought I had better report back on latest outcomes.  Things I have done to try to fix my EPG:

Deleted the two favourites groups and refreshed the EPG - all channels came up - yoo hoo!

This was despite having 4 channel 7's, two ABC1's etc

Deleted the multiple channels just for good housekeeping.  No impact on EPG

Created new favourites, again one for HD and one for all other channels.

EPG refreshed and only received HD channels

So confirmed the first fav list appears to dictate what comes through on your EPG.  Very strange!

Deleted favs again, tried to refresh EPG but got locked out for uploading too often.  Sorry.

Next morning, all reloaded, except about half the channels have no EPG.  Strange.

Tonight, still half the channels have no EPG.  For some of the channels, the channel name is greyed out, others are white text.  But these different characteristics have no correlation with there being program information.  It is all mixed up.

So right now have no favourites and about half of the EPG.

Can't complain as am on 3 month free trial, but if it keeps up, don't think I can be bothered with the hassle of a half baked solution.

Am I being too grumpy and expecting too much?

[tonymy01]

As we have said, when you setup (and are within!) a favourites group, the EPG matches the channels and order in the group.  I am sure 99% of us use the favourites exclusively as it cuts the junk out.
It sounds like you are not going to your other favourites group and thus limiting what you see.   You need to select a channel in your other favourites group to see the channels (and move into the group).   No point in viewing all channels as there is so many duplicates and what-not that you will see lots of blanks when looking at the EPG (as ICE only loads up into ONE of each of the primary channels, so for Seven it would load into SevenSD and SevenHD only, and if you had a duplicate of SevenSD due to getting broadcasts from multiple transmitters, would only load into ONE of those duplicates).

edit:
I am not sure why you are thinking you are missing something when you setup a group with only a few channels (e.g. HD channels)?   If you think you are missing something, why don't you setup a group with ALL the channels you wish to watch, that is what a favourites group is really about, is to sort the channels in the order YOU want them in, and to view the EPG only for those channels.  Not much point in having a HD only group really?
Regards

[Grandview]

Thanks for your reply.  I haven't made myself very clear, so hopefully I can clarify.  At the moment, I have no favourite groups set up.  So pressing the Fav button just brings up empty tables.  No problem with that, but as you suggest, perhaps the best thing to do is make up an "ALL" favourites group.  In the guide, all channels that have been tuned in show up on the left hand side.  That' good.  All repeat channels have been edited out via the services list, so there is only one of each channel showing up.  e.g. sevensd, sevenhd, ninesd, ninehd etc.  However, in the guide, I don't have program data appearing consistently.  The channel is there, but no program material.  I am not home at the moment so can't specify which channels are missing, but from memory sevensd was blank, abc1 was blank, ninesd was complete, onehd was blank, etc.  There did not appear to be any pattern.  I'll reinitialise tonight and see what I get.

Re comments about selecting channels within the favourites group, are you saying that I need to select each of the channels in each of the favourites groups in order to bring them the data into the guide?  May be that is why I have incomplete data, as I doubt all channels have been viewed.

[tonymy01]

No, that is not what I meant.
I meant to be channel surfing within a favourites group, you need to select the group and select a channel within the group with the fav key (and arrow/ok keys to select the channel), as per PRL/Peters post above.   Once you do that, then up/down surfing is in the order that you setup in your fave group, and the EPG is in that same order.   Once you do that, then you don't have to keep doing it unless you want to move to a different favourites group.
I personally have not deleted the "placeholder" channels that (especially) 7 (and to some extent SBS) broadcast (e.g. 7 Digital 1, 7 Digital 2, and SBS3 SBS4 SBS5), as they may actually choose to put something on these channels apart from the same thing as their main channels.   Once you have setup a fave group, you can forget about them until one day you see them advertise (or read on a forum) that something new has come up, then you don't need to rescan to get the channel that you deleted, which has nasty side effects like deleting or buggering your timers, buggering your favourites group etc.

As far as missing info goes... ok, lets try to work through this with a clean slate.
*Did you get any duplicates with the *same* channel number, e.g. two "7" LCNs?   You said you got multiple Channel Sevens, but I don't know if you meant multiple "7" LCNs (logical channel number, the definitive number to access an Aussie TV broadcast), or you mean the "7 Digital 1" "7 Digital 2" channel NAMEs (these are NOT LCNs.   The LCNs for those are 71 and 72 I think from memory).
If you got more than one LCN 7, then more than likely you are receiving the broadcasts from two different locations.   This can confuse the Wiz, as it only loads EPG into the 1st one it finds, not all of them.   For free to air EPG, there is a "quirk/bug" also with this, in that if the two broadcast locations have the same network information, and you delete all the channels except one channel from the wrong broadcaster, you won't get any EPG for the *whole* other broadcast location in some instances.
So when you bring up the list, choose "all services" and then carefully go through the list and ensure you delete ALL the services from the duplicate broadcaster with the poorer reception.   That service view shows you the RF frequency & channel number, as well as the LCNs and channel names in the list, so you can determine which of the LCNs are from which frequency.

Second potential "gotya" is are you are in a regional area, and so the specific LCNs that ICE believe you have are regional?   If your LCNs are different to what ICE thinks is in your area, you won't get EPG for those channels.

So as per my Sydney list: ABCHD,ABC1,ABC2,7HD,7SD,9HD,9SD,10HD,10SD,SBS1,SBS2,SBSHD
the LCNs for these MAIN SD/HD channels in Sydney are:
20,2,22,70,7,9,90,9,1,10,3,33,30  (can't remember the SBS ones exactly).
ICE may also load EPG up into LCN21 which is another "placeholder/copy" of ABC1 on LCN2.
In regional areas Seven is on the LCN6 range I think, and Nein is on the LCN8 range I think.   TDT, Win etc etc are potentially on different numbers.   Have you setup your ICE webpage profile to be in your correct area, and ticked all the channels you want?

Finally, is the ICEguide option enabled or disabled in the Beyonwiz?   It can disable itself if it can't contact the ICE servers, and so the EPG you are looking at may not be the ICE but the local broadcast guide instead, and often that is of dubious quality & quantity in some regions.

Hope this helps, good luck!

Regards

[Grandview]

Tonymy01

Ever thought of publishing a book?

Thanks for your detailed guidance - it is now all fixed

To answer your questions:

I never had multiple channels on the same LCN.  Now I understand what you mean by multiple channels.  So yes, I had 7 Digital 1, 2,3 etc.  I don't have any situations where I am picking up the same LCN from different transmitters etc.  I am in Geelong and the signal here comes from across the bay (Mt Dandenong) being the Melbourne broadcasts.

I now understand what you are saying about the favs.  So I have created an "all favs", sorted in preferred order, selected a channel from the fav list, and as you patiently explained, that now sets the sequence of the guide and the sequence of channel up and down.  This sort of detail would be useful in the user manual.

I still get no program material for SBS2 (LCN32) - may be there is none.  There is also no EPG for One Digital (LCN12) or ONE HD (LCN 11), but there is EPG for ONE HD (LCN1) and Ten Digital, so I have network ten covered in both HD and SD.

I have also now woken up to the reason why some channels are bright and others dull in the EPG - the bright ones have programs being recorded, and with both tuners engaged, no other channels are available - hence dulled out.  Very smart.

So I think I am done,  thanks for your help and patience.  And if the EPG continues along nicely, ICETV will have another new customer.

Regards all.

[tonymy01]

11 is just one of those dodgy "placeholders".   I think it is there for historical purposes, in case peoples STBs don't properly support the changes Ten did with their channels last week.    11 used to be Tens video program guide channel, but has the TenHD there now in case people didn't realise that TenHD has been on LCN1 for the last 8months (or whatever it has been).   TenHD used to be on LCN12 as their primary channel before they moved it to LCN1 (but kept the LCN12 placeholder there anyway), so I suppose now they moved LCN12 to be an SD channel (One digital.... FYI a downscaled version of OneHD if you haven't been following any of the freeview stuff and Tens announcments on this), they must have decided to shuffle the placeholder to 11 just in case people didn't know to channel surf all the way down to number 1 to get to TenHD/OneHD.
So you don't need that (LCN11) in your favourites group.
The reason I was detailed in my post as this thread was lingering around and not getting to the bottom of your issue, and if you see on the Beyonwiz forums (http://www.beyonwiz.com.au ), I am quite active there as well, and as a beta tester, know about some of the bugs the Wiz has and how to get around them.
So just wanted to cover all bases and ensure we were on the same page (god, sounds like a yankee motivational course presentation).
Hope all is well,
Regards