I bought 2 Thomson 160GB boxes 12 months ago; one has always had the 14 day EPG, the other (I am told) never has. It has certainly refused to load it over the last few days. It is in another room connected to the same aerial, and the Channel 5 picture, signal strength (6) and signal quality (7-8) look identical (but quality only goes to 8/green momentarily every few seconds). My daughter tells me that the lack of series link is now making the box "useless"! It has been left on standby for 48 hours to no avail. It has over 90% available space, and she does not keep any old recordings. Software version is 2.99 and it seems to have no problem updating. I am told that scheduled recordings are much less reliable on this box than the other one, especially if left on standby, but I am not sure about that (my test recordings seem fine). Any ideas will be very gratefully received please. I am hoping I have overlooked something stupid. Thank you for your time.
Help! Tried everything, still no 14 day EPG
It seems likely that your box uses the EPG source from 4TV Interactive on LCN 300.
You may well have lost Mux D which provides that service. Check to see if you are receiving the likes of Virgin 1, TMF and Film4. If they are missing, then that is the reason, and you need to look to getting a better signal on that Mux.
You may well have lost Mux D which provides that service. Check to see if you are receiving the likes of Virgin 1, TMF and Film4. If they are missing, then that is the reason, and you need to look to getting a better signal on that Mux.
Originally Posted by woodlyme:
“...the other (I am told) never has...”
“...the other (I am told) never has...”
If that is so, it is just conceivable that a channel search would cure it. If not you could try a re-set. If that does not help it could be the aerial extension to that aerial plug is poor, compared to the plug feeding the box that works properly. To confirm this you could try switching round the boxes. If the same box still fails you could try reversion to factory defaults. If that does not work I guess it could be a hardware fault
Brilliant! The 14 day EPG has now loaded! Thank you so much. Here is the full story and some further questions, for information only:
"EPG source from 4TV Interactive on LCN 300" - is that the one that downloads at 11.30pm? Well, the picture quality on TMF and Film4 look fine (Virgin1 appeared to be off air), but the signal info for Frequency 60 is only strength 2 and quality 3/4. If I nudge it up to frequency 62 the signal is much better (it is still headed "South, TMF" for example)... does that mean anything? Is there no way to check which source is used, or to select the source?
"It is conceivable that a channel search would cure it. If not you could try a re-set" - channel search found 6 frequencies, 86 programmes and 29 TOTV, but the TOTV EPG bar remained grey; what does that mean? I am not sure what you mean by a re-set; I tried the HDD self tests - neither appeared to do anything, HDD partition test passed, HDD power mode test = IdleActive, HDD reset passed, ATAPI reset passed, purge VOD passed... then checked normal functions are still working, put it in standby and waited for the 11.30am download....
Just checked, et voila, it has loaded. I guess I should have tried things one at a time, but having to wait a day each time is just a tad tedious. I also notice that the oldest recording was deleted last night, although it did not appear to be corrupt. A channel search did not (permanently?) resolve the problem when I tried it some time ago, but that would have been with older software, and perhaps when corrupted recordings were present, and perhaps it did fix it temporarily but the user did not realise. Or perhaps it was the "resets" which did the trick.
Very many thanks for your help; please keep the excellent advice coming!
"EPG source from 4TV Interactive on LCN 300" - is that the one that downloads at 11.30pm? Well, the picture quality on TMF and Film4 look fine (Virgin1 appeared to be off air), but the signal info for Frequency 60 is only strength 2 and quality 3/4. If I nudge it up to frequency 62 the signal is much better (it is still headed "South, TMF" for example)... does that mean anything? Is there no way to check which source is used, or to select the source?
"It is conceivable that a channel search would cure it. If not you could try a re-set" - channel search found 6 frequencies, 86 programmes and 29 TOTV, but the TOTV EPG bar remained grey; what does that mean? I am not sure what you mean by a re-set; I tried the HDD self tests - neither appeared to do anything, HDD partition test passed, HDD power mode test = IdleActive, HDD reset passed, ATAPI reset passed, purge VOD passed... then checked normal functions are still working, put it in standby and waited for the 11.30am download....
Just checked, et voila, it has loaded. I guess I should have tried things one at a time, but having to wait a day each time is just a tad tedious. I also notice that the oldest recording was deleted last night, although it did not appear to be corrupt. A channel search did not (permanently?) resolve the problem when I tried it some time ago, but that would have been with older software, and perhaps when corrupted recordings were present, and perhaps it did fix it temporarily but the user did not realise. Or perhaps it was the "resets" which did the trick.
Very many thanks for your help; please keep the excellent advice coming!
Originally Posted by woodlyme:
“"EPG source from 4TV Interactive on LCN 300" - is that the one that downloads at 11.30pm?”
“"EPG source from 4TV Interactive on LCN 300" - is that the one that downloads at 11.30pm?”
Your DTR does not use the EPG from LCN300 which is downloaded at 3am, and for the older Thomson PVR and Digifusion PVR.
You are right in stating that your EPG updates at 11:30am, and this comes from Mux A, the same mux which (channel) Five is on
Originally Posted by woodlyme:
“ Well, the picture quality on TMF and Film4 look fine (Virgin1 appeared to be off air), but the signal info for Frequency 60 is only strength 2 and quality 3/4. If I nudge it up to frequency 62 the signal is much better (it is still headed "South, TMF" for example)... does that mean anything? Is there no way to check which source is used, or to select the source?”
“ Well, the picture quality on TMF and Film4 look fine (Virgin1 appeared to be off air), but the signal info for Frequency 60 is only strength 2 and quality 3/4. If I nudge it up to frequency 62 the signal is much better (it is still headed "South, TMF" for example)... does that mean anything? Is there no way to check which source is used, or to select the source?”
Is 60 one of your listed 6 frequencies?
Originally Posted by woodlyme:
“"It is conceivable that a channel search would cure it. If not you could try a re-set" - channel search found 6 frequencies, 86 programmes and 29 TOTV, but the TOTV EPG bar remained grey; what does that mean?”
“"It is conceivable that a channel search would cure it. If not you could try a re-set" - channel search found 6 frequencies, 86 programmes and 29 TOTV, but the TOTV EPG bar remained grey; what does that mean?”
Ignore the EPG bar on the scanning screen, it's not implemented at this time and won't do anything
Originally Posted by woodlyme:
“I am not sure what you mean by a re-set; I tried the HDD self tests - neither appeared to do anything, HDD partition test passed, HDD power mode test = IdleActive, HDD reset passed, ATAPI reset passed, purge VOD passed... then checked normal functions are still working, put it in standby and waited for the 11.30am download....
Just checked, et voila, it has loaded. I guess I should have tried things one at a time, but having to wait a day each time is just a tad tedious.”
“I am not sure what you mean by a re-set; I tried the HDD self tests - neither appeared to do anything, HDD partition test passed, HDD power mode test = IdleActive, HDD reset passed, ATAPI reset passed, purge VOD passed... then checked normal functions are still working, put it in standby and waited for the 11.30am download....
Just checked, et voila, it has loaded. I guess I should have tried things one at a time, but having to wait a day each time is just a tad tedious.”
It's quite likely that Purging the VoD solved your problem
Yes, 60 and 62 are two of the 6 listed frequencies. What I was trying to say is that it does not seem to be selecting the frequency with the strongest signal for TMF/Film4.
Ah, by searching for "purge vod" I have now found the thread which suggests this as a solution. It would be good to add this to "Thompedia". But what does "purge vod" mean? (I assume vod=video on demand, but what is being purged exactly?)
Thanks again.
Ah, by searching for "purge vod" I have now found the thread which suggests this as a solution. It would be good to add this to "Thompedia". But what does "purge vod" mean? (I assume vod=video on demand, but what is being purged exactly?)
Thanks again.
Originally Posted by woodlyme:
“Yes, 60 and 62 are two of the 6 listed frequencies. What I was trying to say is that it does not seem to be selecting the frequency with the strongest signal for TMF/Film4.
Ah, by searching for "purge vod" I have now found the thread which suggests this as a solution. It would be good to add this to "Thompedia". But what does "purge vod" mean? (I assume vod=video on demand, but what is being purged exactly?)”
“Yes, 60 and 62 are two of the 6 listed frequencies. What I was trying to say is that it does not seem to be selecting the frequency with the strongest signal for TMF/Film4.
Ah, by searching for "purge vod" I have now found the thread which suggests this as a solution. It would be good to add this to "Thompedia". But what does "purge vod" mean? (I assume vod=video on demand, but what is being purged exactly?)”
Thanks woodlyme for reporting your follow-up on ironeagleuk's comment, and the thread about it. Will wait for more from him and then add it
Originally Posted by ironeagleuk:
“...It's quite likely that Purging the VoD solved your problem”
“...It's quite likely that Purging the VoD solved your problem”
thanks, and would this note cover it: "If you only have 7 day listings and don’t get the 14 day listing after a few days, you may need to ‘purge vod’ in the engineer menu: Menu>settings>help, type 1,3,9,7, then ‘purge vod’ is item no.16, click ok to confirm. Then the 14 day epg and TUTV software will need to be reloaded between 11.30 & 12.00 the next day. After getting this it may take 2 days to get TUTV downloads." and does a channel scan purge vod?
Thanks Chris6. What did you actually mean by "re-set" by the way, in your first post to this thread?
should have said re-boot rather than re-set but think it only reloads the info which is on the hard drive, useful after a crash or when the text disappears on various display screens. Re-scan is mentioned under 14-day epg heading and I think it refreshes the 8-day epg software which allows the 14-day epg to be downloaded next time. I have added a note of 'purge vod schedule', but don't understand it except vod is an acronym for video on demand. I would like to know too, how purging vod schedule helps to get the 14 day epg
Just to confirm that several re-boots did not fix the 14-day EPG problem. I see you have updated Thompedia on Kafka, thanks. (I was actually looking at the Wiki, which I find much easier to navigate. I'll make sure I search kafka more thoroughly next time.)
Clearly rebooting was no help but it sometimes does the trick when a crash has corrupted something
Just as you say, also the wiki is potentially miles better because a login is not required to edit it, which everyone is invited to do. I just top up Thompedia on Kafka from time to time, but am very willing to amend anything there
Originally Posted by woodlyme:
“…I was actually looking at the Wiki, which I find much easier to navigate…”
“…I was actually looking at the Wiki, which I find much easier to navigate…”
Just as you say, also the wiki is potentially miles better because a login is not required to edit it, which everyone is invited to do. I just top up Thompedia on Kafka from time to time, but am very willing to amend anything there
Originally Posted by woodlyme:
“That's odd, I tried to edit the wiki myself but was prompted to login.”
“That's odd, I tried to edit the wiki myself but was prompted to login.”
Right again! but at least, once registered, you can edit anything on the wiki and easily add things, not just to own posts. On kafka, once a place was given in the main thomson index it was feasible to do, but correction etc. is ponderous, see the intro.
http://kafkasworld.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=3370
