EPG data for a recording changes - argh!!

[infocus13]

hey guys

this problem has been going on for a while and I havent had any luck in fixing it myself.

basically what would happy is, say, I'd record a couple of episodes of "Red Dwarf" - this will show up in my EPG and "Recorded TV" correctly, with the right show name, episode details, etc.

After a few weeks, the "Red Dwarf" entry would change, by itself, to a completely different show - for example "Oprah" or similar. This would change the recording title as well as episode description, etc in "Recorded TV", etc.

So the show itself is still correct (the filename, etc still the same), however the TV database entry changes on its own. This often happens to groups of shows - i.e. 5 red dwarf episodes may be "renamed" to "Oprah" at the same time.

I know this happens because every now and then I get a couple of completely unfamilar show in "Recorded TV". on closer inspection is turns out these are my recordings, under a different series name.

This doesnt happen to every show (a small proprotion in fact) and not all the time, however it does happen often enough to annoy the crap out of me.

I'm running the latet release version of sageTV (6.5.9) with latest release of sage MC on a headless server. outputting to a hd100 and a PC client.

any ideas or tips to fix this would be much appreciated.

please do not move this to the "SageMC" thread as the issue is the same in the default STV, on the PC clients and in the sagetv webserver - the issue is with the underlying TV database and not sageMC specifically.

thanks.

[robogeek]

I notice this too on occasion. For me, I think this only happens on a couple of kids shows on the Nickelodeon channel...I think iCarly and possibly Spongebob get mixed up with True Jackson and Drake & Josh.

[infocus13]

Thanks for the reply. Any ideas what causes this? It is driving me insame.

I am in Australia, if that helps. Using OzTivo for my guide data and LMGestion's XMLTV importer to get the data into Sage.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

[GKusnick]

Just guessing here, but maybe your EPG data source is recycling previously used show IDs instead of generating new IDs for new shows. This could cause Sage to overwrite the database entries for older shows with data from unrelated shows.

[hemicuda]

This happens to recordings of Glenn Beck once in awhile. Had one change last week. Still showed the same channel, but different EPG data.

[robogeek]

For me it's usually bad epg data causing a favorite to record even though the favorite isn't really on in the listed time slot. Then the epg updates and the false-favorite recording gets updated with the proper epg data.

Sounds complicated...here's an example. On occasion, iCarly records as a favorite but Drake & Josh is what is really on TV during that time slot. So I see an iCarly recording in the SageTV Recordings but it's actually Drake & Josh. Some time later, the false iCarly recording will then show up in the Recordings as Drake & Josh.

<edit>
I should also clarify that I can't say with 100% certainty that the show name in the guide changes. I'll have to pay more attention to it the next time it happens. It is possible the Show ID is getting messed up or conflicting with the two different shows on the same channel.
</edit>

[rmac321]

Here's another data point to help in the diagnosis. I've seen this happen a couple times, but for me it is when I switch servers. Most recently I disabled my test WHS Sage Server and re-enabled the XP Sage Server. When the XP Server finished scanning files and updating EPG data I noticed 4 recordings of shows we don't watch. All four were listed as recordings, and had dates in the future, some about a week away. Upon closer inspection, all 4 were actual files of shows we do record that had been previously moved to a shared drive on a 3rd computer.

I didn't copy the wiz.bin or any other files from one server to the other since other than OS they are set up exactly the same and I'm not that concerned about keeping track of watched status right now. Because this server had been offline for about a month, I figured that had something to do with the goofiness and something getting cross-listed.

For me, this probably also wouldn't happen if SageTV didn't look for recorded TV in folders specifically added as video folders to import from. If SageTV recognizes a recording in a video import folder, it classifies it as an archived recording. I'd prefer it leave it in the videos, but I'm not given a choice.

[GKusnick]

Originally Posted by rmac321

If SageTV recognizes a recording in a video import folder, it classifies it as an archived recording. I'd prefer it leave it in the videos, but I'm not given a choice.

Sure you are. Rename the file to strip out the database ID numbers, and Sage won't try to match it up with a recordings database entry.

The fact that you're using the same files with two different server installations also accounts for the mislabeling in the recordings list. Database IDs are installation-specific, so if you move recordings from one server to another without also moving Wiz.bin, it will probably connect them up to some random entry in the new database.

[infocus13]

Originally Posted by GKusnick

Just guessing here, but maybe your EPG data source is recycling previously used show IDs instead of generating new IDs for new shows. This could cause Sage to overwrite the database entries for older shows with data from unrelated shows.

Thanks GK - this sounds interesting and plausible.

Any ideas how I can force unique show IDs? I know this depends on my grabber (i use the EPGStream one here in Aus), however is there anything else at a SageTV and/or XMLTV importer level I can do to force unique IDs?

thanks.

[StephaneM]

Originally Posted by dkatchalov

Any ideas how I can force unique show IDs? I know this depends on my grabber (i use the EPGStream one here in Aus), however is there anything else at a SageTV and/or XMLTV importer level I can do to force unique IDs?

This is XMLTV Importer that creates (and manage) the IDs. They are located in the lookup.xml file (in the Config & Log directory). This file should be backed up and restored when you switch PC.

IDs are assigned sequentially. If there is no more IDs available (ex 9999999999), the XMLTV Importer will reuse IDs of shows that expired (that is shows XMLTV Importer hasn't seen for a year). If you keep old recordings : this could be a problem.

Regards,
Stéphane.

[rmac321]

Originally Posted by GKusnick

Sure you are. Rename the file to strip out the database ID numbers, and Sage won't try to match it up with a recordings database entry.

I actually do that anyway. Once I've cut the commercials with VideoRedo, the timeline/osd doesn't work properly anyway, so I remove the SageTV id number to get the timeline back working. I add the season and episode and put it in a video import folder. Next rainy day project is to add MediaScrape to get the metadata back and then some.

I've learned to deal with the way Sage works with this, but it was a surprise when I first moved recordings to a video folder that was listed as an import folder and was not a recording directory. I did a re-scan, but some of the files didn't show up in my videos. It took me a while to figure out that the missing files had re-appeared in my recordings as archived. What was even more confusing is that some of the moved recordings show up in my videos, while others show up in my tv.

Originally Posted by GKusnick

The fact that you're using the same files with two different server installations also accounts for the mislabeling in the recordings list. Database IDs are installation-specific, so if you move recordings from one server to another without also moving Wiz.bin, it will probably connect them up to some random entry in the new database.

I figured that was what was causing my issue, so I never looked into it, but I thought it sounded related to the OP so I thought I'd post in case it was useful.