What EXACTLY does the wiz.bin file contain???

[reboot_this]

give it to me straight, does it ONLY contain the current/future recordings?

[salsbst]

It also contains the entire history of everything that has ever been recorded, what you have and haven't watched, and the guide data for all the upcoming shows, whether or not they are scheduled to be recorded.

[something fishy]

And IMO the fact that it contains all these things and the fact that it is not human readable is a PITA.

I have frequent xmltv problems meaning that I need to tweak my grabbers. Without nuking wiz.bin and losing all references to my recorded shows I cannot create a clean sheet to start again with channel definitions.

I would like this file to be split into separate pieces (by function) and be in a form that a human can read and edit (like xmltv) but that's just me.

[salsbst]

Actually, I'm pretty sure that it's not just you.

[stanger89]

Channel definitions are not in the wiz.bin, those are in the sage.properties file.

[turak]

It also contains your favorites and dislikes

[something fishy]

what I'm bothered about is what's described by neilm here:
http://forums.freytechnologies.com/f...=wiz.bin+xmltv
it's only an inconvenience and doesn;t impact anything when setup is done but I'm currently up to 3 versions of each channel (and having problems with my xmltv provider again) so it wold be nice to be able to start with a new xmltv file and have a clean sheet.

Of course if wiz.bin was human readable I could edit it...

[nielm]

Originally Posted by reboot_this

give it to me straight, does it ONLY contain the current/future recordings?

soem of these have already been covered, but:

• lineup definition (channels in a lineup including name and enabled/disabled state... I *think* the channel numbers + overrides is in the properties file though)
• all program titles/category names/actor names that have ever been in the EPG (you can see this in a search)
• viewing history: EPG data for all watched/dontlike programs
• EPG data for all recordings still on disk
• media library database -- names and file paths of all video/picture files
• music library database -- artist/title/album/filename of music files
• downloaded EPG
• favorites
• upcomming recordings (which is recalculated regularly)

Basically everything that sage needs to work, apart from the limited amount of stuff in the properties file.

[glbrown]

wiz.bin is you. It's what make Sage different from all of the rest. It remembers every Watched and Dislike command you have ever pressed. It's the P in PVR.

This begs the question, how big is your wiz.bin? Mine is >8 meg and it's pretty damn smart about what I like to watch but I might be in a bit of a rut. I'd like to run someone else's wiz.bin for a couple of days just for grins. Can we do this?

-gary-

[phantomfsoc]

Reading this thread makes me feel like Sage is like the Matrix!!! "What is the Wiz.Bin?" "Whats it Contain?" "WIZ.BIN... IS YOU"
I love it

[1972]

Is it possible to empty it? To get a clean start?

[nielm]

Originally Posted by 1972

Is it possible to empty it? To get a clean start?

if you delete it (and it's backup: wiz.bak) you get a clean start, but you will lose all info on your existing recordings, all favorites, all playlists and all your viewing history...
You may even have to remap your channels...

[reboot_this]

Some of these responses are hilarious!

Thank you for all of the above info.....

SECOND QUESTION: How do you KNOW it is corrupted?

(any responses to the original question are still welcome...)

[mayamaniac]

I read a while back that someone (I think it was malore) made a little program that allow you to view and edit the content of the wiz.bin file, but he never publicly released it because Frey didn't allow it. I guess the wiz.bin file contains some trade secrets that they don't want you to see.

Edit: Found it, here's the thread: http://forums.sage.tv/forums/showthr...64&postcount=1

Also in that thread, there's mentioning of Studio being able to view wiz.bin also. Now we can assume why Studio isn't available to the public.

[nielm]

I guess the wiz.bin file contains some trade secrets that they don't want you to see.

LOL! I don't know about trade secrets, but it is most likely that Zap2It/TMS have (had?) a requirement that the EPG data is not available outside of Sage to prevent redistribution of the data. (compare with BTV's encrypted DB).

[glbrown]

The fact that I watch Letterman and don't like Leno are trade secrets? These data elements were created by my actions. When I put it into SageTV now they own it?

I'm sorry but I just don't understand this.

Respectfully -gary-

[heffe2001]

It not only contains what you watch, but the guide information that Sage uses. That's what they are concerned about being available outside of Sage.