Programs in EPG data that are not in the M3U

Channels DVR Server
#1

I've been playing around with decoding the XMLTV EPG data from both Channels DVR and FastChannels in PowerShell. I noticed an anomaly with the per-source guide data from Channels. It will include some programs that are on channels that are not included in the corresponding M3U. The cases I have noticed seem to involve the "Gracenote" sources from FastChannels, but I suspect it is a problem with Channels, not with FastChannels. The programs that should not be included are from other FastChannels sources/feeds (choose your own terminology).

A specific example in my case, is I find these unexpected programs in my "FastChannels Entertainment Gracenote" source. The corresponding "FastChannels Entertainment" source is clean. I get similar results for all of my FastChannels source pairs. The non-Gracenote sources are clean. The Gracenote sources include the unexpected programs.

It's entirely possible I'm misinterpreting something or have a bug in my PowerShell code.

#2

Try deleting and rebuilding the guide data in Channels.
If a channel changes from non-gracenote to gracenote, or vice-versa, the old epg will still be in the channels database.

#3

That did clear it up.

Seems like Channels may have some difficulty dealing with the velocity of lineup changes generated by FastChannels. I'm fairly certain I did a full guide database rebuild the last time I added any sources a week or so ago.

1 Like
#4

I've been doing my own playing with m3u's but without any fastchannels. I have concluded we need/(could definately use) a way to tell channels how many days of guide data to grab.
the days of industry standard 2 week guide data doesn't work well in the streaming age.

classic cable would index of a couple hundred channels x 24hr (or 48-1/2hr) x 14 days and was manageble.
now with many sources x many hundreds of channels x non-classic hourly programming x 14 days quickly grows out of hand even with modern processors.

i want to setup camera feed recordings, but 15min placeholders x 2 weeks is way to much for info that never changes. I'd like to only have a day or two of those sources.

I know they did just recently make some changes on guide data caching and it is an improvement as far as I can tell, but it also has added bugs.

#5

It turns out that I made a pilot error when I confirmed that rebuilding the guide database resolved the issue that I initially reported. I now think has nothing to do with cruft in the guide database.

What appears to be happening is that all of the source-specific EPG URLs from Channels DVR for the FastChannels Gracenote sources return the same guide data, which includes programs for all FastChannels Gracenote sources. That is, for example, these two URLs produce the same result:

http://localhost:8089/devices/M3U-FastChannelsEntertainmentGracenote/guide/xmltv?duration=1209600
http://localhost:8089/devices/M3U-FastChannelsJunkFoodGracenote/guide/xmltv?duration=1209600

There is often a slight difference, probably due to a few programs falling into or out of the duration window. But, effectively, they return the same set of programs.

#6

I agree there's a CDVR bug, the m3u's are correct but the XMLTV is all sources combined.
It's only happening on gracenote sources.
Why are you having CDVR regenerate the gracenote guide data it gets and output it as XMLTV?