EPGRefresh

netmask · Post by **netmask** » Fri May 09, 2014 09:59

I have installed EPGRefresh and will now wait to see how it goes. I found a web page showing how to configure it
https://sites.google.com/site/allaboutd ... epgrefresh

The instructions are given anyway in the process of installing but I find it useful to have either a printed or tablet version on hand. Looks good

peteru · Post by **peteru** » Fri May 09, 2014 11:10

Just a heads up that the hidden PiP option can cause some screen flickering, so it's probably not the best choice.

netmask · Post by **netmask** » Fri May 09, 2014 11:16

That's good to know but I turned it off as I don't like PIP anyway under any condition

BikeMike · Post by **BikeMike** » Fri May 09, 2014 13:08

So what do the T3 options for load/save EPG every X hours do? I had assumed they did what this plugin does (ie. background scan the channels on any spare tuner). The default settings are 24 hours for both.

prl · Post by **prl** » Fri May 09, 2014 13:16

BikeMike wrote:So what do the T3 options for load/save EPG every X hours do? I had assumed they did what this plugin does (ie. background scan the channels on any spare tuner). The default settings are 24 hours for both.

The help text for the Automatic refresh setting says:

Allows the Beyonwiz T3 to read the stored EPG data regularly"

[my emphasis]
I don't think that it implies that it would scan the broadcast EPG data regularly.

BikeMike · Post by **BikeMike** » Fri May 09, 2014 14:44

There is also help on the "save", that may be where I got that impression (at work now so can't check exactly what it says).

So any recommendation for these settings... what do they do for me? Do I need the plugin? Do they work in conjunction with it?
Since first loaded, I have never noticed any gaps in the EPG, and there's probably a few channels I never watch; so I just assumed this was happening in the background.

prl · Post by **prl** » Fri May 09, 2014 18:45

BikeMike wrote:There is also help on the "save", that may be where I got that impression (at work now so can't check exactly what it says).

It says:

Allows the Beyonwiz T3 to store the EPG data regularly.

Not sure that really suggests that the T3 will automatically scan channels to fill te EPG.

BikeMike wrote:So any recommendation for these settings... what do they do for me?

My understanding is that the Automatic save is used for people who put their T3s into standby when not in use, rather than into shutdown. I think that the EPG is by default (Auto save OFF) only written to disk at shutdown or GUI Restart. Saving the EPG regularly would mean that if your T3 cgashed, when it restarted it would have an up-to-date copy of the EPG.

I have no idea what Automatic refresh is intended to help with.

BikeMike wrote:Do I need the plugin? Do they work in conjunction with it?
Since first loaded, I have never noticed any gaps in the EPG, and there's probably a few channels I never watch; so I just assumed this was happening in the background.

The plugin will ensure that the EPG is kept up to date even if you don't view some broadcasters. The Auto save is useful is you put the T3 into standby when not using it. If you do, then Auto save is useful whether you use the EPG scanner or not. In fact, it's probably slightly more useful if you don't use the scanner.

Digital TV services from one broadcaster, like ABC1, ABC2 & ABC News 24, are all sent on a single broadcast channel. The ABC sends its EPG data in another digital data stream in that broadcast channel. If you select any ABC service, you load the EPG for all the ABC's services.

So, for example, if you spend a little time on each of ABC2, SBS HD, Seven, GEM and One, you will have loaded the EPG data for all of the national and commercial networks.

MrQuade · Post by **MrQuade** » Tue May 20, 2014 09:29

I have been trying out EPGrefresh and run into a problem.

I have set it to do a 2 minute check on all channels in my Favourites bouquet (18 services) between 2am and 3am using a background scan and fake recording.

Lately I have been finding that there is a tuner locked to a channel 10 service, and noticed that there is a "Rec" indication up on the infobar despite there being no recordings in progress. I suspect that EPGrefresh is getting stuck and not releasing the tuner properly. The only way to unstick it that I have found is a full reboot.

Is anyone else seeing this behaviour?

I was originally just scanning one service on each provider seeing as there are only 5 providers to scan, but since I discovered that you can just add a single bouquet, that seemed like a neater configuration to use. No matter which way I configure the services to scan, I get the same stuck state on a channel 10 service.

Gully · Post by **Gully** » Tue May 20, 2014 11:27

I am not using the fake recording option and EPGRefresh is working fine for me.

craigh · Post by **craigh** » Tue May 20, 2014 12:47

MrQuade wrote:I have been trying out EPGrefresh and run into a problem.

I have set it to do a 2 minute check on all channels in my Favourites bouquet (18 services) between 2am and 3am using a background scan and fake recording.

Lately I have been finding that there is a tuner locked to a channel 10 service, and noticed that there is a "Rec" indication up on the infobar despite there being no recordings in progress. I suspect that EPGrefresh is getting stuck and not releasing the tuner properly. The only way to unstick it that I have found is a full reboot.

Is anyone else seeing this behaviour?

I was originally just scanning one service on each provider seeing as there are only 5 providers to scan, but since I discovered that you can just add a single bouquet, that seemed like a neater configuration to use. No matter which way I configure the services to scan, I get the same stuck state on a channel 10 service.

i found using fake recordings option to just hold open the task continualy.

When I changed it to use main display it worked ok.

Howeve last time I tried epgrefresh ( a week back) it just crashed .

Is there a newer build that works now ?

prl · Post by **prl** » Tue May 20, 2014 17:48

craigh wrote:... Is there a newer build that works now ?

I just downloaded it and the version number in the config panel is 2.1.1. I know that crashes on HELP and YELLOW.

craigh · Post by **craigh** » Tue May 20, 2014 17:55

prl wrote:
craigh wrote:... Is there a newer build that works now ?
I just downloaded it and the version number in the config panel is 2.1.1. I know that crashes on HELP and YELLOW.

Ok I have downloaded and configured that version for the refresh between 3:30 and 4:30.

Will check the log tomorrow and see if it had run.

And yes yellow button> run now crashes

Buffy71 · Post by **Buffy71** » Tue May 20, 2014 21:41

I can confirm that the fake recording option caused the same lock up on my unit, with REC lit up on display, and had to reboot.
Perhaps for people still to download and use this plugin, someone could list their (working) settings?

Gully · Post by **Gully** » Tue May 20, 2014 22:31

I do avoid the Yellow button and run now as it does crash but aside from that it is stable and runs daily.

Settings are

120secs
PIP
Start 2.15
End 6.30
10 minute delay
All the advanced options all except for Force scan
Run Autotimer set to Background

Buffy71 · Post by **Buffy71** » Wed May 21, 2014 10:15

Thanks Gully

nylonnet · Post by **nylonnet** » Sat May 24, 2014 08:19

peteru wrote:Just a heads up that the hidden PiP option can cause some screen flickering, so it's probably not the best choice.

I was about to ask about that damned flickering!

Thanks for diagnosing it for me.

kenmax · Post by **kenmax** » Sun Oct 25, 2015 16:44

I installed EPGRefesh 3 days ago for a early morning activation. Each morning the T4Wiz is sitting there with the blue light on and locked up. I press the power button and it reboots with the big logo. There are no log files under home/root/logs dir. I have set it to picinpic and maid display but it still crashes.
So to test I set it up for a startup 5min later using 'Main Display' as method and put the Wiz in standby. I assumed the Wiz would come out of Standby so I could see what happens, but it does not show it on the Wiz's display, so I could not see what was happening. So then I ran the OpenWebif with 'Show Full Remote' without bringing it out of standby and of course it does not update the screen with what is showing on the Wiz. Bit once EPGRefresh started OpenWebIf started updating the screen, I could see it cycling through the channels (I have selected ch7, ch9, ch10, ch2, ch31 and sbs.)
Then it selected HDMI In (wtf?) sat there for a min. and locked up! So I assume that is what is causing the lockup?
Solutions?
thanks ken

MrQuade · Post by **MrQuade** » Sun Oct 25, 2015 16:48

The last setting to run autotimers on refresh has been known to cause problems. Turn that off.

Also, remove HDMI from the list of channels to refresh.

kenmax · Post by **kenmax** » Sun Oct 25, 2015 17:21

Also, remove HDMI from the list of channels to refresh.

That is the problem I think, I don't have that selected to refresh. But I will try turning off Autotimers

Grumpy_Geoff · Post by **Grumpy_Geoff** » Sun Oct 25, 2015 17:42

kenmax wrote:I installed EPGRefesh 3 days ago for a early morning activation. Each morning the T4Wiz is sitting there with the blue light on and locked up. I press the power button and it reboots with the big logo. There are no log files under home/root/logs dir. I have set it to picinpic and maid display but it still crashes.
So to test I set it up for a startup 5min later using 'Main Display' as method and put the Wiz in standby. I assumed the Wiz would come out of Standby so I could see what happens, but it does not show it on the Wiz's display, so I could not see what was happening. So then I ran the OpenWebif with 'Show Full Remote' without bringing it out of standby and of course it does not update the screen with what is showing on the Wiz. Bit once EPGRefresh started OpenWebIf started updating the screen, I could see it cycling through the channels (I have selected ch7, ch9, ch10, ch2, ch31 and sbs.)
Then it selected HDMI In (wtf?) sat there for a min. and locked up! So I assume that is what is causing the lockup?
Solutions?
thanks ken

From Live TV, BLUE button brings up 'Extensions' menu, with options EPGRefresh Configuration and EPGRefresh Refresh now available, Option EPGRefresh Refresh allows you to initiate the refresh manually - if you have it set to Main display you'll see it running, so you won't need to use OpenWebif.
When EPGRefresh is running, BLUE Extensions menu will show another option for EPGRefresh Pending services (or similar name) - if you choose that you'll be present with the services yet to be scanned.
If you press the Info button from within the EPGRefresh configuration screen, you'll be shown the last time it finished refreshing the services.

My config is shown below - note that I don't have it run AutoTimer as I remember reading it had issues doing so. The T4 will come out of shutdown/deep standby and go to standby, ready for EPGRefresh to start, about 10 mins before the scheduled time. EPGRefresh will run at some stage, and eventually the T4 will shutdown, I have 6 services in my EPGRefresh bouquet, with a scan of 60 seconds - but I've seen the T4 take approx. 14 mins longer before shutting down. I'm guessing the refresh starts sometime between the nominated time window

Sometimes the T4 will have booted up, but EPGRefresh will not have run, and the T4 will be in running mode. Today was an example of that, the T4 was recording from a 06:40 timer, it hadn't run since yesterday, and I then saw EPGRefresh kick in once the timer had concluded at 07:24, take its 6 mins and the T4 then shutdown. Using OpenWebif's Box Info, I saw the T4 had come out of shutdown before the due start time.

Cheers
Geoff

kenmax · Post by **kenmax** » Sun Oct 25, 2015 17:55

Just tested again with

The last setting to run autotimers on refresh has been known to cause problems. Turn that off.

done that

Again it switched to 'HDMI IN' and crashed!

Grumpy_Geoff · Post by **Grumpy_Geoff** » Sun Oct 25, 2015 18:06

kenmax wrote:Again it switched to 'HDMI IN' and crashed!

At what stage does it crash? Set it to use main display and run it manually from the 'Extensions' menu (as detailed in my previous above).

kenmax · Post by **kenmax** » Sun Oct 25, 2015 19:04

Sorry Grumps, didn't see your post right away. Ok, did what you said and shows 'Following services... as per screenshot. I have not selected HDMI in at any time in setup! (I have selected ch7, ch9, ch10, ch2, ch31 and sbs.) as per previous post. Wiz has locked up again with the last screen showing the image.
I originally was using OpenWebIf because when I ran it manually it was not a problem, but it was a problem this time!

Grumpy_Geoff · Post by **Grumpy_Geoff** » Sun Oct 25, 2015 19:30

Yeah, I can see it lists HDMI IN. Hmm, can you create a new bouquet just for EPGRefresh use, containing the 6 services, and see if it still crashes?

Cheers
Geoff

kenmax · Post by **kenmax** » Sun Oct 25, 2015 19:36

ok, did a full reboot, ran EPGRefresh manually again and it got through without crashing! I still want to know where 'HDMI IN' is coming from.
I will test later when my recordings have finished from standby and see what happens!

ghines · Post by **ghines** » Sat Oct 31, 2015 11:29

kenmax wrote:I installed EPGRefesh 3 days ago for a early morning activation. Each morning the T4Wiz is sitting there with the blue light on and locked up. I press the power button and it reboots with the big logo. There are no log files under home/root/logs dir.
thanks ken

@kenmax - Did you ever find the cause to the lock up and the need to press the power button?

Thanks,

Greg

kenmax · Post by **kenmax** » Sat Oct 31, 2015 15:40

No, couldn't resolve it so I just set up 5 Zap timers, one for each service, named them z1, z2 etc to keep them at the bottom of the daily timers.
It's doing the job so I can live with it.

ghines · Post by **ghines** » Sat Oct 31, 2015 15:44

kenmax wrote:No, couldn't resolve it so I just set up 5 Zap timers, one for each service, named them z1, z2 etc to keep them at the bottom of the daily timers.
It's doing the job so I can live with it.

Only new to my T4. So what's the difference between a zap timer and an ordinary timer?

Greg

MrQuade · Post by **MrQuade** » Sat Oct 31, 2015 15:48

ghines wrote: Only new to my T4. So what's the difference between a zap timer and an ordinary timer?

"Zap" means "change channel".

So a "Zap timer" is a "change channel timer". Perhaps "View-only timer" might be a more common term for it

ghines · Post by **ghines** » Sat Oct 31, 2015 15:49

MrQuade wrote:
ghines wrote: Only new to my T4. So what's the difference between a zap timer and an ordinary timer?
"Zap" means "change channel".

So a "Zap timer" is a "change channel timer". Perhaps "View-only timer" might be a more common term for it

Thank you.

Greg

prl · Post by **prl** » Sat Oct 31, 2015 15:58

"Zap" is used in many parts of the UI to mean "change channel".

ghines · Post by **ghines** » Sat Oct 31, 2015 16:07

prl wrote:"Zap" is used in many parts of the UI to mean "change channel".

So I could setup zap timers to take the place of EPGRefresh, if I can't get it working??
Do zap timers also power ON the T4 from shutdown?
How can you turn OFF the T4 after your zap timers as the After Event is not there for a Zap Timer?

TIA

Greg

simoncasey · Post by **simoncasey** » Sat Oct 31, 2015 16:31

I suggest using a normal record timer rather than a zap as it will do the auto shutdown as you ask. If you don't want all of them hanging around, you can set the custom location to the trash and they will record directly in there and then get cleaned up.
It's best to make sure they don't overlap in time so they only take up one tuner.

kenmax · Post by **kenmax** » Sat Oct 31, 2015 17:28

That's interesting, I set them up using Timer through Open Webif and that has a entry for 'After Event', being Auto/Shutdown etc.
I will have to take note if the Wiz is in 'Standby' in the morning.

ghines · Post by **ghines** » Sat Oct 31, 2015 17:31

kenmax wrote:That's interesting, I set them up using Timer through Open Webif and that has a entry for 'After Event', being Auto/Shutdown etc.
I will have to take note if the Wiz is in 'Standby' in the morning.

@kenmax - Let me know what you find in the morning if you can.

Greg

ghines · Post by **ghines** » Sat Oct 31, 2015 17:36

simoncasey wrote:I suggest using a normal record timer rather than a zap as it will do the auto shutdown as you ask. If you don't want all of them hanging around, you can set the custom location to the trash and they will record directly in there and then get cleaned up.
It's best to make sure they don't overlap in time so they only take up one tuner.

Understand. Is this better then having a sleep timer set to shutdown after the last zap timer?

So, if I setup non overlapping non zap timers what sort of time should I have between each and which one(s) have the after event set to Auto?

Thanks,

Greg

warkus · Post by **warkus** » Sat Oct 31, 2015 19:11

I wonder if I may wade into this discussion for a bit...

I am running EPGrefresh 2.1.4 on my T4 with latest beta software.

I'm not having any issues, it's working a treat. I've had a full guide for all channels since I set it up...I know others seem to have issues with fake recordings, but I'm using it perfectly.

My settings for EPGrefresh are as follows from top to bottom...

Refresh automatically on
Duration 120
Auto start earliest 3:00am
Auto start latest 5:00am
Delay 10mins
Refresh EPG using fake recordings
Show advanced on
Show setup in extension menu off
Show EPGrefresh start now in extension menu on
Show pop up when refresh starts and ends on
Wake up from standby for EPG refresh on
Force scan if receiver in use off
Shutdown after EPG refresh on
Inherit services from auto timer off
Run auto timer after refresh background only

Added to this, I have a bouquet called "Perth Terrestrial" with all the channels I want in it and all those shopping channels removed, all padded to the correct LCNs etc.

Under Edit Services in EPGRefresh (blue button) I have it set to scan zero channels and only that bouquet.

It works perfectly, manual run or automatic run.

Add to this I have automatic EPG refresh set to 3 hours (under Setup -> TV -> EPG settings) as well as automatic save every 1 hour.

I have no complaints...

Except 1... It's only a teny tiny one I promise...

In EPGrefresh, the setting labelled "shut down after EPG refresh" has the description in the help as "this setting controls whether the receiver should be set to standby after refresh is completed."

I always leave my unit in standby, ie not deep standby.

I'm not sure whether or not that description and setting means standby or deep standby (shutdown).

I ask because since I've been back in the last 2 days I've noticed that the unit has been deep shutdown when I wake up in the morning, so EPGrefresh is clearly shutting the wiz down and not putting it back to standby.

So which is the EPGrefresh setting actually meant to do? Standby or deep (shutdown)...

Don't know if that's a bug or meant to be like that. When EPGrefresh kicks off its in standby, not deep standby. Wake up in the morning, it's totally off with single blue light on in the corner of the front display.

Hmmmm...

Other wise very very happy with its behaviour.

Mark

MrQuade · Post by **MrQuade** » Sat Oct 31, 2015 19:23

Warkus. You should simply turn off the "Shutdown after EPG refresh" option in your case.

If you set your T4 to be in standby rather than "deep standby"/shutdown, then your T4 doesn't ever need to "wake up" to do its fake recordings. All recording operations just happen when in standby, so just leave the box be

.

warkus wrote:Add to this I have automatic EPG refresh set to 3 hours (under Setup -> TV -> EPG settings) as well as automatic save every 1 hour.

There is no need for the "EPG refresh" setting. I am not sure if that is at all helpful. As far as I understand, all that does is read the EPG cached from disk and copy it to memory, so all you are doing is overwriting any updates that may have come on OTA since the last save.

Gully · Post by **Gully** » Sat Oct 31, 2015 19:38

The other setting you could change is using the bouquet for Edit Services.

With that it will I expect go to every service included whereas it really only needs to go to one ABC service, one channel 9 service, etc.

Don't expect it causes a problem except if you were to need your Beyonwiz it would be busy much longer, eg if you use Run Now.

Grumpy_Geoff · Post by **Grumpy_Geoff** » Sat Oct 31, 2015 21:08

Gully wrote:The other setting you could change is using the bouquet for Edit Services.
With that it will I expect go to every service included whereas it really only needs to go to one ABC service, one channel 9 service, etc.
Don't expect it causes a problem except if you were to need your Beyonwiz it would be busy much longer, eg if you use Run Now.

I've created a bouquet specifically for EPGRefresh use that contains only a subset of the LCNs required to cover the broadcasters - as you say, it cuts down the wait time in the event of a 'run now' scenario.

simoncasey · Post by **simoncasey** » Sat Oct 31, 2015 22:50

ghines wrote:
simoncasey wrote:I suggest using a normal record timer rather than a zap as it will do the auto shutdown as you ask. If you don't want all of them hanging around, you can set the custom location to the trash and they will record directly in there and then get cleaned up.
It's best to make sure they don't overlap in time so they only take up one tuner.
Understand. Is this better then having a sleep timer set to shutdown after the last zap timer?

So, if I setup non overlapping non zap timers what sort of time should I have between each and which one(s) have the after event set to Auto?

Thanks,

Greg

Zap timers with timer to shutdown work fine. I chose the recording timers as I wanted it to run during the day after the channels had updated the epg for the day but I didn't want the tv changing channels in case I was watching it. Also, I wouldn't necessarily want it to switch off at the end.

warkus · Post by **warkus** » Sat Oct 31, 2015 23:10

Thanks heaps for the replies everyone.

Gully, surprising but it doesn't, it only goes to the main station of each subset, I've timed it. It must be part of the plugin to ignore additional channels on the same LCN. I thought as much like you, and tested it both with a bouquet containing exactly one of each channel set, and then separately with the entire Perth bouquet, it made no difference, that's why I have the pop ups enabled so I could test time wise how long it took from start to finish. It's identical time for either bouquet scan so I deleted the one with only one of each channel in it as there wasn't any point to having it.

Mrquade, thanks for the tip, yep I gathered the EPG read wasn't necessary, so I turned it off. What I found in doing so is that when powering on from deep standby, it wasn't populating the EPG. Even though the EPG.dat file was there, it didn't seem to read it, so I turned it back on, and initially set it to 1 hour, but changed it to 3 hours, and low and behold when powering on from deep standby it populated the EPG again entirely. Go figure...?!??!?! I can only assume that if you have it set to auto read EPG for any time duration at all, don't think it matters if it's 1 hour or 24 hours, it will then read the EPG.dat file on power up up and then subsequently read it again at x invertal - whatever you have it set to. I'm not sure really, I just know that turning it off resulted in the EPG not being loaded on boot from deep standby.

As for the EPGrefresh tip about the not need to to shut it down after it completes - fantastic, I'll test at now. Much appreciated.

Thanks for all your feedback everyone!

Mark

kenmax · Post by **kenmax** » Sun Nov 01, 2015 08:02

ghines
@kenmax - Let me know what you find in the morning if you can.

It was as expected, Wiz is in Standby mode.

Gully · Post by **Gully** » Sun Nov 01, 2015 09:51

warkus wrote:Gully, surprising but it doesn't,

Hi Mark

That is surprising but good to know. Thanks.

blonk · Post by **blonk** » Sun Nov 08, 2015 12:57

Just installed the latest firmware on my T3, and can't install the epgrefresh plugin. I get the error below in the attached screenshot. Any idea what it means?

Blonk

simoncasey · Post by **simoncasey** » Sun Nov 08, 2015 13:03

blonk wrote:Just installed the latest firmware on my T3, and can't install the epgrefresh plugin. I get the error below in the attached screenshot. Any idea what it means?

Blonk

Have you tried to do a reboot and try and install again

IanSav · Post by **IanSav** » Sun Nov 08, 2015 13:04

Hi Blonk,

Your T3 is actively checking for updates in the background. Wait a few moments the task will complete and the lock will be removed.

Regards,
Ian.

blonk · Post by **blonk** » Sun Nov 08, 2015 13:06

A second reboot seemed to have sorted it, thanks guys.

Blonk

emmsee · Post by **emmsee** » Tue Jan 03, 2017 12:54

I've just installed the EPG Refresh Plugin (V 2.14) and find a line missing compared to Warkus' list on October 31 2015 - this line: Refresh EPG using fake recordings
Refresh EPG using is not an option, even in advanced options.
From reading other post it seems necessary to change this from main channel to fake recording.
How do I get around this bug?
cheers
Mike

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