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Scheduled events no longer working - Refresh events does nothing

Aaron said:
These issues sound very much like what some other users (including me) have posted on mike_m's thread (https://hummy.tv/forum/threads/schedule-list-shows-programmes-already-recorded.10474/) regarding the schedule not picking up any future recordings, despite being there in the EPG. It appears to have fixed itself for mike_m but I'm still having to manually schedule things
Click to expand...
Right! Yes, that does look like the same problem indeed. Interesting to see it was first reported last year, at the very same time, early January.

I have a tentative possible success with the follow method and am now waiting on some more broadcasts to occur before I can confirm one way or the other.

1. Uninstall auto-schedule-restore package
2. Sleep and wake system
3. Delete each scheduled item in turn [I did this via menu not webif]
4. Sleep and wake system [I waited a few minutes in between]
5. Schedule each programme afresh [I did this via the on-screen EPG, not webif (and not EPG search either)]

At least one recording successfully took place and then correctly picked up next week's episode, so fingers crossed.
 
James_H said:
Leaving it on BBC One HD, on which it was set to start and spends most of its time, might have been part of the issue. After being changed to SD BBC One, the Webif EPG started repopulating straight away.
Click to expand...

Well that seems to have solved my issue of the series timers not updating.

One of my boxes is "exclusively" HD, ie it currently only records stuff from BBC 4 HD and has an overnight wakeup timer on BBC One HD for the EPG update. On this box, the series timers have not updated properly since Christmas. Seeing this comment got me thinking, so I simply powered the box up and tuned to BBC One SD and within a couple of minutes the series timers had all updated with the correct entries.

I couldn't understand why I was seeing this on my other box, but that would seemingly update the timers on it's own eventually, but I now realise that although I'm mainly tuned to the HD channels, I do switch to BBC One SD for the local news - but I often don't do that at weekends, so the series timers weren't updating then,

Something has changed to cause this because my boxes have been configured like this for ages, but there must be a change to the EPG format as broadcast on the HD channels (the BBC ones at least) that the Humax doesn't like. For now we have a workaround, but if it's a change that gets rolled out to the SD channels, then we could be stuffed.
 
The possibility of a stale EPG has been known for so long it seems to have become forgotten (including by me). Maybe it's got worse if DVB-T2 (or BBC HD specifically) has somehow corrupted the EPG data, but I think the jury is out on that one. I protect against stale EPG issues on my 24/7 machines by defensive programming: I have scheduled permanent daily reminders which not only block the redundant 0430 OTA search, but also ensure there is a channel change (and in my case, with West and Wales regions, I change channels between the two to ensure both EPGs are kept live). Non-24/7 machines still need some kind of intervention, in case you go on a fortnight's holiday.

What every HDR-FOX owner needs to know:
  • EPG data goes stale unless there is a reboot or a channel change, it gets frozen on the current 7-day span.

  • The HALF-AWAKE state (for recording from standby) is not sufficient; although the Humax firmware was updated to overcome this it still gets stuck if there is no channel change.

  • Reminder (rather than recording) schedules enter the ON state, achieving a reboot (if it was in STANDBY).

  • If you use channels from multiple regions (eg to get local news), tuning to Region 1 does not ensure update to the EPG for Region 2.
Note also that RS cannot rescue the situation: it relies on the local EPG having the relevant entries.
 
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Interesting! I just changed BBC1 SD back to channel 1 (Used to be BBC 1 HD) and my series links have magically fixed themselves and picked up future schedules without any issues. Strange this is happening now, I've had it working fine on BBC1 HD for nearly a decade now.

While I don't like BBC1 SD being on channel 1 (EPG looks odd when it shows double programmes having it next to the BBC 1 HD channel), I'm plan to revert the change and use the reminder suggestion by Black Hole, would this be sufficient?
 

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Aaron said:
Interesting! I just changed BBC1 SD back to channel 1 (Used to be BBC 1 HD) and my series links have magically fixed themselves and picked up future schedules without any issues. Strange this is happening now, I've had it working fine on BBC1 HD for nearly a decade now.
Click to expand...
Not including me, plenty of people here have relocated the HiDef services into the equivalent StDef LCNs. It seems overwhelmingly likely that if there was a general problem with this policy there would be more reports.

Aaron said:
use the reminder suggestion by Black Hole, would this be sufficient?
Click to expand...
The illustrated reminder is sufficient only if the unit spends some of its time on at least one other service on a regular basis. It may not be sufficient if it is just sitting there on ONE SE 24/7 for over a week. Here, for example, is my defence (this particular machine is tuned for West only):

C2A74D14-D9E1-4861-9124-E3475A1C0458.jpeg

Being a 24/7 machine, the second refresh event settles on LCN 250 to minimise HDD activity.

Having permanent entries in the schedule like this is also handy for auto-schedule-restore.
 
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Aaron-B said:
Right! Yes, that does look like the same problem indeed. Interesting to see it was first reported last year, at the very same time, early January.

I have a tentative possible success with the follow method and am now waiting on some more broadcasts to occur before I can confirm one way or the other.

1. Uninstall auto-schedule-restore package
2. Sleep and wake system
3. Delete each scheduled item in turn [I did this via menu not webif]
4. Sleep and wake system [I waited a few minutes in between]
5. Schedule each programme afresh [I did this via the on-screen EPG, not webif (and not EPG search either)]

At least one recording successfully took place and then correctly picked up next week's episode, so fingers crossed.
Click to expand...
It could always be coincidence, but this route - deleting all scheduled recordings, rebooting, then reinstating them - does indeed appear to have cleared up the problems for me.

Touch wood.
 
BH - thanks for the reminder about the stale EPG from lack of channel change.

My main box also lost the timings for the schedules yesterday. That has TV diary, so going back I could see that while it did sleep every night and various HD recordings were watched and made across 101 to 105. However, the live watched channel only changed between BBC One HD and BBC Two HD and it was last put onto the SD BBC One for local news a week earlier. Note that the WebIf EPG remained populated for the usual week ahead.

Popping it on BBC One SD for less than a minute restored the WebIf schedule timings for this week's upcoming recordings.

My boxes do sleep at night, so the rebooting alone has not been enough to recover the schedule timings. I need not have them on 24/7 (so no need in my case for BBC Red Button - the schedules will not refresh from that), but will set up a daily reminder to change to BBC One SD a few minutes before the scheduled sleep time to keep the recordings alive.
 
Black Hole said:
It's an enforced channel change. Leave it permanently on even BBC ONE StDef and the EPG will still go stale.
Click to expand...
To clarify, BBC One StDef is my enforced channel change. I should add that the daily power on channel is BBC One HD, so even if unattended this should stop the same EPG issue coming back.
 
Fair enough, but I don't think you said that before. I take it you have set up timer on/off.

Be aware it is the consensus of opinion that leaving a unit on 24/7 is less wearing than turning on and off according to demand, or (possibly worse) routinely turning on for a period every day. The opinion is backed up by the relatively few failures in 24/7 boxes over more than a decade, compared with failure reports in the general population. The cost of electricity has to be discounted from the potential cost of repair/replacement, but there's the inconvenience to factor in too.
 
Urgh no reply notification emails again. :-(
I've read the above a few times but large parts of it fly over my head, save for tuning BBC1 (SD) - upon which magically the schedule has refreshed correctly - yay! :-)

Can someone please advise this simpleton on what I need to do to prevent this reoccurring?
 
mr-b said:
Can someone please advise this simpleton on what I need to do to prevent this reoccurring?
Click to expand...
The jury's out on whether there's something wrong with the HiDef EPG. However, in general, as has been said above: the EPG goes stale if you don't change channels on a regular basis. That means no new new recordings in a series will get scheduled beyond 7 days after the last channel change, regardless of whether it is making recordings from standby in the mean time. Everything suggested above is to ensure the HDR-FOX is booted and changes channels every day, regardless of what else you might do with it.

The easy way is to set two manual reminder schedules, typically in the early hours at around 0430 (for other reasons). To do that:
  1. Guide >> Schedule (yellow) >> New Reservation

  2. Channel = ITV; Date = tomorrow; Start Time = 04:00; End Time = 04:20; Repeat = Daily; Mode = Reminder; then "OK"

  3. New Reservation

  4. Channel = BBC ONE (not BBC ONE HD); Date = tomorrow; Start Time = 04:20; End Time = 04:40; Repeat = Daily; Mode = Reminder; then "OK"

  5. Exit
The consequence of the above is that the HDR-FOX will be sitting on BBC 1 the first time you use it every day. If that bothers you, either choose a different channel for the second reservation, or configure a startup channel in boot-settings (custom firmware users only). If you are in an area served by two sets of regional variations (eg West and Wales), the second reservation channel should be from the other region than the first channel.
 
Great tx. I'm amazed this hasn't hosed folks going away on holiday. Though of course that hasn't been a possibililty for many recently.

Would BBC News HD be suitable for the second reminder? Or does it have to be a non-HD channel?
Finally can the time be changed from the early hours? It's in a bedroom so noise is an issue if it's going to spin up the hard drive (I've never used reminders before).
 
mr-b said:
Great tx. I'm amazed this hasn't hosed folks going away on holiday.
Click to expand...
It's been signposted for nearly a decade – see Things Every HDR-FOX Owner Should Know (click) section 4.

mr-b said:
Would BBC News HD be suitable for the second reminder? Or does it have to be a non-HD channel?
Click to expand...
In that case, make reminder 1 for BBC ONE StDef.

mr-b said:
Finally can the time be changed from the early hours? It's in a bedroom so noise is an issue if it's going to spin up the hard drive (I've never used reminders before).
Click to expand...
Make it whenever you like, but don't you realise it wakes up at 04.30 every night anyway (unless you have disable-ota installed)?
 
Yes I have disable-ota installed.
As for the decade-old info, I set all this up a looong time ago and I likely just read that the main EPG issue was fixed and in any case I'd not experienced any issues before when going away for a period.
Tx for the tip on BBC1SD & BBC News HD reminders.
 
The HALF-AWAKE state (for recording from standby) is not sufficient; although the Humax firmware was updated to overcome this it still gets stuck if there is no channel change.
Click to expand...

So the EPG is not updated while recording? Eg, would the problem be seen if the holidaymaker's recording schedule included two weekly recordings on different channels, or perhaps one on an SD and one on an HD multiplex? Apparently so.

Incidentally Things Every HDR-FOX Owner Should Know section 4 is looking a bit stale itself: the quoted comment and other material from this thread could be good input to an update.
 
bottletop said:
For those affected users - if a channel change is required - why not use this package? https://wiki.hummy.tv/wiki/Custom_Firmware_Package_Notes#Epgfix
Or is that out of date or unsuitable now?
Click to expand...
I had forgotten about that, but I find my reminders sufficient.

Is it suitable? Don't know, but it wouldn't do for me because of the multiple regions. 3 mins is not enough to ensure a complete EPG update, even if I could control it to use the right service.
 
I too have had series link the problem this year. I found this post late. I can confirm that for the past few days on my HDR T2 a scheduled event (not a recording that doesn't work) set up daily (in my case to SD channel 1 BBC1) works fine and clears my problems.

I never seem to use any other channels than the main HD ones, so all my series links seemed to fail. There is a definite issue on HD channels EPG.

I have reported this (I don't seem to have permission to add the link with my profile?) but google "reception tell-bbc" and you will find it.
Can I encourage any others who have had the issue to do the same. I don't know if it will do any good but the more they get the more hope there is of either a fix or fingers crossed that they don't update the EPG on the SD channels to have the same issue!!
 
Done - reported to the BBC.

I can't post links either, but to get to the correct form I googled "reception tell-bbc" as axlegrease suggested above, then chose the Contact Us option (top right) then under "Other" followed the "use this form" link.

This then takes you to a form where you can select Freeview > Electronic Program Guide and submit your report.
 
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