Hi,

you do realise by the time MS sort out this problem, which was first reported back on the TV Pack beta by me, the new sky viewing cards will be out and we'll have to use the STB until we can actually use the cards again in a CI!

Tony

You have it worse than me mate - I just want freesat to work (7010ix)

I might have to try something else on the PC (Sage ???)

For the moment - I am relying on my BT Vision box.

It looks like the new file passed through today. are you guys seeing any updates?

Please note that you should be able to see the correct channels, but this does not mean that you will get all of the guide data. Not every channel is contracted for guide data.

-joel

Hi Joel

>It looks like the new file passed through today.
Could you explain a little as to what exactly has been done - and what we should expect.
Its all been a real mystery over the last few weeks as to what has been going on.
eg what did your testing with your UK contact reveal regarding the differences in epg between sky analog dvb-s and sky digital dvb-s.

>It looks like the new file passed through today. are you guys seeing any updates?
>Please note that you should be able to see the correct channels,
>but this does not mean that you will get all of the guide data.

This is a little confusing. It imples that if we reset MCE completely and do a rescan - that more channels may appear - although not all with epg. (which is not terribly useful - given that the whole purpose of this thread was to get epg for all sky channels, as delivered by the old analogue DVB-S frontend)

Note that most people following this thread will not have used the "standard" channel list as provided by the MCE default scan to get very limited channels, rather they will have overriden the process by doing a full transponder scan to see all of the sky channels, and selected their favourites.

So what are "the correct channels" ?

>Not every channel is contracted for guide data.
So the bottom line question - how many sky channels that didnt have epg transmitted for them until yesterday - now have epg available because of the "new file" ? What channels are they ?

Sorry can't test - as i'm working away from home until tomorrow.

Regards

Julian,
Birmingham, UK

I wish I could test, but my Media Center just gave out. Typical. It won't even reliably power on, never mind get to show any TV listings.

Hi Joel

>It looks like the new file passed through today.
Could you explain a little as to what exactly has been done - and what we should expect.
Its all been a real mystery over the last few weeks as to what has been going on.

eg what did your testing with your UK contact reveal regarding the differences in epg between sky analog dvb-s and sky digital dvb-s.

This is, after all, the central theme of the thread.

>It looks like the new file passed through today. are you guys seeing any updates?
>Please note that you should be able to see the correct channels,

This is a little confusing. It imples that if we reset MCE completely and do a rescan - that more channels may appear - although not all with epg. (which is not terribly useful - given that the whole purpose of this thread was to get epg for all sky channels, as delivered by the old analogue DVB-S frontend)

Note that most people following this thread will not have used the "standard" channel list as provided by the MCE default scan to get very limited channels, rather they will have overriden the process by doing a full transponder scan to see all of the sky channels, and selected their favourites.

So what are "the correct channels" ?

>but this does not mean that you will get all of the guide data.
>Not every channel is contracted for guide data.

So the inconsistency still remains ? Full epg transmitted on the analogue headend, but partial epg sent on the digital headend ?

Regards

Julian,
Birmingham, UK

<bump>

i've asked the provider to match the other lineup. I pinged them today because the lineups are still not matching (obviously) and find out when it will be completed as I was already expecting it the other week.

i'll let you know what i find out.

Contracted channels are the channels that we expect to have guide data available for . if the channel is not contracted then we do not expect guide data for those channels.

-joel

hi folks,

i sent another email to find out what was going on. i'll let you know when i hear back and what we can expect.

-joel

thumbs up for keep pushing this folks, the TV epg support is the dogs ear in media center. Ive been struggling with Win7MC for about a week hoping it would provide me with salvation after a year and half grappling with the flawed VMC (and dont mention TV Pack) EPG.

bottom line is im picking up lots of sky pay channels really nicely, im even getting C4, More 4 (which vanished from VMC and never came back even after rescans/rebuilds).. Epg is now almost complete compared to before.. But oh no.... Now i dont get Sky Sports 1, Sky Sports 3, Sky 1, Sky 2, Sky 3... just dont even get picked up on the scan.

im gonna leave it for a while and experiment with Media Portal, seen some good things have been developing and it looks mature enough to evaluate and to consider using it as alternative to my current setup as MS dont seem to pay that much attention to TV users outside the US. In any case, if its actually working when Win7 is launched, ill see how it compares to media portal.. at the moment, im just fed up with media center not meeting basic expectations.

Good luck peeps

yeah - your frustration is shared by many right now and will be shared by many many more to come as Windows7 goes mainstream. People here in the UK are just going to assume that it will work fine for sky - when clearly it doesnt.

MS & Sky(UK) have a streaming deal in place already (eg)
hxxp://www.engadget.com/2009/05/29/live-sky-tv-coming-to-xbox-360-in-uk-and-ireland-hooligan-avata/

I really cant see why sky cant just handoff their epg to windows mce.

The really frustrating thing is that the epg is transmitted anyway - but windows7 doesnt seem to have a mechanism to connect to it.

I still use a PHP scraper to pull in sky epg details from sky website, and then import details in MCE database. This is messy & the search programmes, etc, facilities dont work properly with the imported data.

I'm really hoping that since MS has been delivering full sky epg over analog that it will now flip it onto digital.

Joel - I know that you have been trying to help on a technical front - but is there someone we can contact to request/campaign for full sky epg listings anyway? (in view of MS/ Sky(UK) partnership described above ?

Regards,

Julian
Birmingham, UK

Hi jflet1, well one thing is for certain.. i am definitely not buying windows 7 unless these things are sorted out. Its had a makeover, but i see no fixes to the main annoyances and especially if your outside of the USA, well thats just tough.

The only 3 benefits i can see is the guide is easier to sort out and i like the way you can create your own categories.. I can also watch BBC HD (on media center only but not on extender).. i really might as well stick to the Digibox if i cant see on extender. For me, these are not worth the price of buying a new OS. I get more benefit from the currently free Media Browser plugin which is making my whole media library look very lovely right now with perfect metadata and cover art.

I found without TV Pack on Vista i got all the listings for the premium sky channels like sky1,2,3, skysports 1,2,3 and got all the history channel, nat geo etc and discovery channels too. Then TV Pack completely trashed it and i got no data available instead. Seems windows 7 follows the same pattern as TV Pack. Whats infuriating is that its obvious MS' provider is giving them the listings for these channels (or they wouldnt appear in the EPG in Vista without TV Pack). I just dont know why MS dont code it so that it offers you all listings for your country as provided by the EPG provider and give you the choice - regardless of what postcode you enter and regardless of DVBS/Freesat/Freeview etc. Perhaps an expert mode? well actually to get it working anyway.. you have to be an expert.. setting up the TV with half decent EPG in UK requires you to be IT professional level.

I dont know why Microsoft answered answered earlier in the thread and said that the provider is not contracted to provide for that channel? when i can get EPG for it in Vista without TV Pack? Totally bizarre... i also find it bewildering why no EPG for popular international channels like History, Military etc?? bet you can get EPG for them in the USA.

Nevertheless i am enjoying having a good quantity of EPG listings for the shopping channels, Bangla TV etc??? I hope you are too!!

If im honest, im not optimistic that Microsoft will do anything about these issues unless enough UK users on this forum and others are a bit more vocal and dont buy Windows 7.

Im utterly disappointed

F**k it. Enough is enough. After being a loyal Media Center user for years, I've given up and gone Sky+. The guy is downstairs installing it right now.

Hi Joel,

 unfortunately the listings seem to be getting worse and worse - we used to have listings for all the UKTV channels, now that they have renamed (don't ask me when) we don't receive these anymore - for example, I think UKTV Style became Home etc.  Now we only are receiving the EPG data for freeview (DVB-T) tuners, no longer do we receive the full channel details for Sky.

Please can you investigate this....

 Thanks
Tony

Enough is enough, just purchased a Sky+HD box to use while i build up and tinker with media portal. Also ordered 2 media streamers to play my media library on temporarily and to replace the 2 x DMA2200 media center extenders.

Im tired of 2 years of mucking about with shockingly poor EPG data and an apparent lack of interest in the subject by microsoft.

Windows Media Center was a nice pipedream but never really happened.