Windows Media Centre in UK - some channels' listings are missing

Does anyone (in the UK) still use Windows Media Centre to record TV
programmes?

If so, have you found a workaround for a few channels (eg Film 4+1, Talking
Pictures TV, Channel 4+1 HD, 4seven HD) having "No data available" in the
Guide?

I've done a Tasks | TV | Guide | Get Latest Guide Listings but this makes no
difference.

It looks as if these channels do not appear in the channels for which
listings are downloaded. If I do Tasks | TV | Guide | Edit Channels and
scroll down to a channel with no listings (eg 81 Talking Pictures TV) and
select it and do Edit Listings, I see a list of channels but Talking
Pictures TV is not in the list.

I'm sure at one time there was an option to set a given channel to use the
broadcaster's listings in the Freeview datastream instead of the downloaded
listings from BDS, for just this eventuality, but I can't find it now and
nothing relevant is coming up when I Google for "Use listings from
broadcaster".

It should be nice to be able to schedule programmes to be recorded from
these channels, but without anything in the guide it's a bit of a problem.

There's definitely something a bit weird because I can't even add a manual
"Time and channel" event for 81: it lets me define channel, times, date etc
but when I click Save, nothing is added to the list of events whereas it is
for other channels.

I can definitely receive the channel because I can tune to it in WMC and I
can make a manual recording by pressing the Record button while watching.

This is on Windows 7 Home Premium with a PCTV 291e DVB-T2 tuner.

NY wrote:

It looks as if these channels do not appear in the channels for which
listings are downloaded.

I've heard problems started when they changed the EPG data provider,
someone in another group (who works for MS) seems to think it won't get
much priority ...

In article:

J. P. Gilliver (John) says...

I can't find a channel 81; nothing between 74 (VIVA) and 120 (CBBC). Or
Talking Pictures TV on any other number. [SD FreeView box; good signal.]

You wouldn't, it is transmitted as part of the Com 7 HD Mux, you need a
Freeview HD DVB-T2 receiver to view it.
http://www.a516digital.com/p/com7-and-com8.html


--
Ken O'Meara

On Thu, 8 Oct 2015 21:31:21 +0100, UnsteadyKen
wrote:

I can't find a channel 81; nothing between 74 (VIVA) and 120 (CBBC). Or
Talking Pictures TV on any other number. [SD FreeView box; good signal.]

You wouldn't, it is transmitted as part of the Com 7 HD Mux

It's not an "HD" mux. Obvious really. It's a DVB-T2 mux.

On 08/10/15 20:08, Andy Burns wrote:
NY wrote:

It looks as if these channels do not appear in the channels for which
listings are downloaded.

I've heard problems started when they changed the EPG data provider,
someone in another group (who works for MS) seems to think it won't get
much priority ...

There were changes to the Freesat setup a while back to try hide data
from users not using official Freesat boxes. One of my TV cards can't
find EPG other than now-next data, and on Freeview some channels are
missing from the same multiplex where other channels appear fine.

Ar wrote:

On 08/10/15 20:08, Andy Burns wrote:

NY wrote:

It looks as if these channels do not appear in the channels for which
listings are downloaded.

I've heard problems started when they changed the EPG data provider,

There were changes to the Freesat setup a while back

The EPG change I referred to is specific to Windows Media Centre, which
doesn't use over-the-air data.

"Paul Ratcliffe" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 8 Oct 2015 21:31:21 +0100, UnsteadyKen
wrote:

I can't find a channel 81; nothing between 74 (VIVA) and 120 (CBBC). Or
Talking Pictures TV on any other number. [SD FreeView box; good signal.]

You wouldn't, it is transmitted as part of the Com 7 HD Mux

It's not an "HD" mux. Obvious really. It's a DVB-T2 mux.

Sorry, I should have said that you need a DVB-T2 decoder to receive it.

Yes, it's transmitted as MP4 rather than MPEG, even though it's only
reduced-SD (544x576 rather than 720x576).

Interestingly, my DVB-T2 decoder (PCTV 292e) is seen as a DVB-T device in
all software that can talk to it (Windows Media Centre, VLC, TSReader); if
in VLC/TSReader I try to define it as DVB-T2, it is not detected but if I
lie and say it's a DVB-T device, it *is* detected.

I discovered the other day that VLC can record a complete multiplex if you
specify its UHF frequency, and then can play back any of the channels in
that mux after the event. It generates a big file (eg 375 MB for a recording
of about 90 seconds from the HD multiplex) but then it is recording data at
a rate of about 30 Mbit/sec!

"Andy Burns" wrote in message
...
NY wrote:

It looks as if these channels do not appear in the channels for which
listings are downloaded.

I've heard problems started when they changed the EPG data provider,
someone in another group (who works for MS) seems to think it won't get
much priority ...

Ah maybe some of the recently-added channels haven't been added (and perhaps
won't be added) to the set which BDS provides and which WMC downloads
periodically.

Odd that there doesn't seem to be an option to use the broadcaster's
listings (which *do* include Talking Pictures - I checked with TSReader) in
place of BDS's for a channel that doesn't have listings. I'm sure it used to
be there even as recently as a few months ago. Odd, also, that a Google for
"Windows Media Center/Centre use broadcaster's listings" doesn't bring up
any matches except a few mentions from several years ago - nothing about
"where has this feature gone?".

"Andy Burns" wrote in message
o.uk...
The EPG change I referred to is specific to Windows Media Centre, which
doesn't use over-the-air data.

But wasn't there an option to tell it to use over-the-air for a channel if
the BDS (downloaded) listings were wrong or missing? I'm sure in the past
I've seen "Use broadcaster's listings" as an alternative to "Show no
listings..." or selecting one of the available channels, when I do "Edit
Channel" in the guide. Looks as if that facility has been removed.

Well talking pictures and film4+1 are not on the sd listing at all, so they
either do not exist or they are this new breed of channel an SD which is
sent out on an hd multiplex.
Brian

--
From the Sofa of Brian Gaff Reply address is active
Remember, if you don't like where I post
or what I say, you don't have to
read my posts! :-)
"NY" wrote in message
o.uk...
Does anyone (in the UK) still use Windows Media Centre to record TV
programmes?

If so, have you found a workaround for a few channels (eg Film 4+1,
Talking Pictures TV, Channel 4+1 HD, 4seven HD) having "No data available"
in the Guide?

I've done a Tasks | TV | Guide | Get Latest Guide Listings but this makes
no difference.

It looks as if these channels do not appear in the channels for which
listings are downloaded. If I do Tasks | TV | Guide | Edit Channels and
scroll down to a channel with no listings (eg 81 Talking Pictures TV) and
select it and do Edit Listings, I see a list of channels but Talking
Pictures TV is not in the list.

I'm sure at one time there was an option to set a given channel to use the
broadcaster's listings in the Freeview datastream instead of the
downloaded listings from BDS, for just this eventuality, but I can't find
it now and nothing relevant is coming up when I Google for "Use listings
from broadcaster".

It should be nice to be able to schedule programmes to be recorded from
these channels, but without anything in the guide it's a bit of a problem.

There's definitely something a bit weird because I can't even add a manual
"Time and channel" event for 81: it lets me define channel, times, date
etc but when I click Save, nothing is added to the list of events whereas
it is for other channels.

I can definitely receive the channel because I can tune to it in WMC and I
can make a manual recording by pressing the Record button while watching.

This is on Windows 7 Home Premium with a PCTV 291e DVB-T2 tuner.