Should I switch to SD EPG now or wait?

[crarbo1]

Like the subject says, should I wait until SD confirms they have fixed their issues or go ahead and switch this weekend as planned?

Thanks,
Chuck

[KryptoNyte]

As of the EPG update yesterday, here in the Midwestern US, I had full EPG up thru June 25th, 7 pm. After today's EPG update, I have a couple "No Data" items that have appeared on June 23rd.

I'm not sure what's happening, but I'd probably get moving forward with the update sometime in the next weekend or two knowing that the stock EPG is done pretty quick here.

[VCRUser]

It seems like there's a possible gotcha: Suppose that there is a problem with a particular lineup on the SD end. The Sage server is shut down for the coming week and then, not much after that, for good - but I still have Sage epg data th rough roughly 6/25 on one channel I looked at on the tuner that's yet to be converted to SD. So if I convert it over, presumably it wipes out my existing scheduling info and if there's a problem, I am left without data.

So, in which file(s) does Sage store its program guide data? It seems that a prudent thing to do would be to back up that file before changing over the EPG, so the Sage EPG data could be restored until the SD issue gets fixed. So does anyone know which file(s) ?

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by VCRUser

It seems like there's a possible gotcha: Suppose that there is a problem with a particular lineup on the SD end. The Sage server is shut down for the coming week and then, not much after that, for good - but I still have Sage epg data th rough roughly 6/25 on one channel I looked at on the tuner that's yet to be converted to SD. So if I convert it over, presumably it wipes out my existing scheduling info and if there's a problem, I am left without data.

So, in which file(s) does Sage store its program guide data? It seems that a prudent thing to do would be to back up that file before changing over the EPG, so the Sage EPG data could be restored until the SD issue gets fixed. So does anyone know which file(s) ?

If the stations are the same between the old and the new guide data (and that's likely), the worse thing that could happen is Schedules Direct overwrites some of the old data. Nothing that's already populated will suddenly be erased.

All of the program data is stored in wiz.bin. The actual lineup assignments are done in Sage.properties. Creating the backup you desire isn't very straight forward because you'll end up rolling back more than just the guide data.

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by crarbo1

Like the subject says, should I wait until SD confirms they have fixed their issues or go ahead and switch this weekend as planned?

Thanks,
Chuck

I'd sign up, but I wouldn't delete the stock EPG listings per device until Narflex brings them back online later this week, just in case SD is still having problems.

[wayner]

Are the SD problems really that widespread? Many people have been on SD for months without issues. I had been running a V9 server on SD for several months and a V7 server with the old EPG service. I have had no data issues. Yesterday I upgraded the V7 server to V9 and redid the sources without issue.

[Fuzzy]

No, it was a short term issue that started last week, that appears to be resolved before any already up and running users got below a week or two of data.

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by wayner

Are the SD problems really that widespread? Many people have been on SD for months without issues. I had been running a V9 server on SD for several months and a V7 server with the old EPG service. I have had no data issues. Yesterday I upgraded the V7 server to V9 and redid the sources without issue.

The SD problems were badly timed with the Sage EPG being down for a week, that's all.

[crarbo1]

Thanks everyone for the input. I will go ahead with my switch over this weekend.

[jchiso]

Originally Posted by wayner

Are the SD problems really that widespread? Many people have been on SD for months without issues. I had been running a V9 server on SD for several months and a V7 server with the old EPG service. I have had no data issues. Yesterday I upgraded the V7 server to V9 and redid the sources without issue.

Is it possible to use Schedules Direct epg data on a v7 system?

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by jchiso

Is it possible to use Schedules Direct epg data on a v7 system?

Yes, via a plugin that was made but is not supported. Not worth it, since the 'upgrade' to v9 is free and painless.

[trallyus]

I had trouble with the guide data from schedules direct and even had Robert look at the channel in question as it said no data and he found it was good on his end so I used revo uninstall pro to remove sage tv and the registry bits and reinstalled it and the problem was fixed as no amount of removing the channel or tuners would fix the problem until I did that.

I made sure to copy the wiz.bin file before I did this after shutting down sage tv.

[jchiso]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

Yes, via a plugin that was made but is not supported ...

Are there any functional issues to using an "unsupported" plugin?

[graywolf]

If it breaks or you have issues then probably no support since SD EPG support is built into v9 and the plugin is unsupported

[Fuzzy]

That.. and I can't see any actual reason to bother when the built-in setup in v9 seems to work so well.

[jchiso]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

That.. and I can't see any actual reason to bother when the built-in setup in v9 seems to work so well.

Well, integration of the EPG works well, but the v9 app has been a series of challenges on many fronts ...

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by jchiso

Well, integration of the EPG works well, but the v9 app has been a series of challenges on many fronts ...

In what way?

[jchiso]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

In what way?

Lots.

My most recent attempt at a server upgrade (my first attempt on a somewhat "critical" server) has been the worst thus far, but none have been without issues. This one is so bad that any time I attempt to play live TV the app crashes. This is on Windows 8, 32-bit. Even before the crashing started I was not able to use the EXEMultiTuner.

This PC is pretty much dedicated as a Sage server and playback device, and has been rock solid with v7 for at least four years now. Never so much as a tuning glitch, ever. I've spent more time doing the v9 install (three times) and trying to configure the MultiTiner, and another hour or so re-creating the channel lineup since Sunday evening than I have doing maintenance on this system since it was initially installed (on Windows XP) in April 2011.

The OS itself is still pretty clean; free of malware, viruses, disk errors, and system bloat. The only thing causing problems is the v9 ugrade ...