WisconsinEric

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WisconsinEric last won the day on February 2 2023

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  1. I am not the moderator, and I don't think there is one. If you have a problem, post it here and people will try to help. Or write directly to Geniatech.
  2. If you want to access the guide for using xmltvlistings, it is also posted on their web site under the Help tab; you don't need an xmltvlistings account to access it: https://www.xmltvlistings.com/help/guides/eyetv It looks formidable if you glance at it, but I wrote it up so if you are patient and take it step by step, and follow instructions exactly, you'll have a maintenance free EPG for EyeTV v.3.6.9. I can't speak to EyeTV 4, since I have never used it, given that v. 3 works fine.
  3. EyeTV Version 3 permits use of any standard EPG (electronic program guide) formatted source; it does NOT have to be through a Geniatech provided source. I can tell you for a fact that it works with XML TV Listings (https://www.xmltvlistings.com/) out of Ottawa, Ontario, which covers North America. At $19.95 a year, with automatic renewal built in, it's a bargain (I have no connection with the company, just a satisfied customer). I've been using this without incident since the US TV Guide source was abruptly terminated in January 2019. I collected other people's info and my own experience to write up detailed instructions for setting up Eye TV to use this service; it is tricky but I've never had to fix anything once it was up and running in 2019 and I watch and record a lot of TV programs. These instructions are still posted somewhere on this site, and XML TV Listings asked me for permission to post, so it's on their site also. Since EyeTV 3 is 32-bit software, I have kept my Mac Mini used as a media center permanently at OS 10.14.6. Given the poor customer reports on EyeTV 4, and the fact that EyeTV 3 is an outstanding and mature piece of software running virtually perfectly, I could see no reason to go through the pain and agony of upgrading (I have several other computers running OS 12, but my understanding is EyeTV 3 will not run on anything later than OS 10.14). It should be possible for you to get an inexpensive older Mac Mini, erase it and reinstall OS 10.14, and run EyeTV 3 on it. An Apple dealer I patronize gave me instructions on how to erase a Mac and install an older OS; they are still available on an Apple web site that is not publicized. You notice I haven't said anything about Geniatech here; I've written them off, sad because EyeTV is great software that they apparently lack the technical knowledge to upgrade. Hope that answers your questions.
  4. I have been using XMLTV Listings since February 2019 (that's when Geniatech abruptly canceled the TV Guide EPG with no notice); I've had exactly zero issues. They have good customer service (I've asked them a couple of questions, gotten a quick answer), and you can sign up for automatic annual renewal (which has also worked flawlessly). After reading of all the problems people have had with EyeTV 4, I asked myself: "you have a perfectly [almost] functioning piece of software in EyeTV 3 that has negligible bugs, is mature, and does all you want it to. Why change or upgrade?" The answer is 64-bit software now required by Apple (EyeTV 3 is 32-bit). So I'm keeping a Mac Mini running OS 10.14 as a dedicated media server, and will never be able to upgrade (unless a simulation of OS 10 will run flawlessly within the current Mac OS).
  5. A mystery. I do remember now many years ago (I've been using EyeTV since 2009) something got corrupted and I had to solve it by deleting and reinstalling the software from scratch. Unfortunately I forget what the problem was. If you have a backup from prior to your trouble, you could try that. Someone familiar with zap2it.com (I am not) might have other suggestions: if what I'm doing works, and the one area in which what you're doing differs does not, that's the place to start looking. Good luck, sorry I can't help.
  6. Additional note to T33: I am running EyeTV 3 Build 7524 on a 2018 Mac Mini running OS 10.14.6 (haven't gone through the pain yet of upgrading, since I have a few critical 32-bit programs, of which EyeTV 3 is one). So if you are using EyeTV 4, that may make a difference in your problem.
  7. To t33, I have not seen any change in xmltv behavior. I cannot hypothesize what produced the change; I assume you have rebooted your system (what I do when all else fails). I will ask one question, though: is there any specific reason you're doing this manually, instead of automating it per the how to guide from February 2019? For me the automated nightly downloads have worked without a single failure since mid-February 2019. Every night at 4 am the EyeTV EPG updates from xmltvlistings.com automatically. See the linked PDF guide posted February 20 & 22, 2019 above in this thread. XMLTVLISTINGS.COM liked it enough they asked permission to post it on their site; you will find it here (look for the file "EyeTV & XMLTVListings.com Guide"): https://www.xmltvlistings.com/help.
  8. I had not noticed that, but it would be nice to have. I usually edit that in to descriptions of programs I want to keep. Never used Smart Guides before so I probably won't start now. But yes, XML TV Listings has not included that info previously, which was a minor annoyance. I have noticed that although they never use the "New" marker in the program guide, they do use "Repeat" pretty accurately, so you can assume if it doesn't say "Repeat" it must be a new show. Overall I am glad I switched to XMLTv Listings, since once set up it is 100% maintenance free, even for renewing (that was always a pain in the old EyeTV).
  9. It was my impression that titantv and xmltvlistings are both EPG's. So I'd assume you have to use one or the other, you can't use both. But I am not familiar with TitanTV. Given what you did, you'd now have to set up remote scheduling using xmltvlistings when it appears in the EPG displayed in the EyeTV application. Perhaps someone familiar with TitanTV can be of more help.
  10. If you decide you don't want to fuss any more with the hack, you could switch to using xmltvlistings.com. I posted a step-by-step guide to using this service, which uses an API posted by the service itself. It costs a few bucks less, renews automatically every year if you want, and has worked flawlessly for me since I switched 19 months ago. You can find the guide by scrolling back through this very long thread. Since I haven't used schedulesdirect, I'm afraid I can't help you with your problem otherwise, sorry.
  11. I agree with your assessment. I've used it since late 2009, and have rarely encountered any issues. I know of only 2 bugs, one old and one new. Old: if you are recording and without thinking select "Quit", EyeTV will abort the recording and quit without giving you a warning. This is a bug of omission; the software should have the usual "Do you really want to do this?" dialog box. New bug: when I updated my OS from El Capitan to Mojave, the time left progress bar on a recording you are watching is now blank unless at least an hour is left. Not a deal killer, but kind of inconvenient if you want to go back and find a specific spot in a recording to re-watch. Otherwise very stable software, virtually never crashes, maybe 2% of the time a recording doesn't complete for no obvious reason. And yes, I wish the software were owned by a company that understood it and was invested in maintaining and occasionally developing it (since it is mature not much is needed). PS It may be the application was uninstalled but not supporting preference files. If it was the application that got corrupted, that would fit the facts you have presented.
  12. That's probably because it is in a separate file that didn't get uninstalled with the rest. Maybe in Documents or Application Support or someplace like that. – Eric
  13. Ok, good luck. I'll be interesting in hearing how it goes. The archive is a separate folder and should not be affected, but if you're concerned move it to a separate (disconnected) external drive during your reinstall. I actually have my archive divided into 2 parts so I can spread it out onto an external drive; EyeTV allows only one archive location, but if you put an alias within the archive folder to a second external archive (on a 3TB drive, so plenty of room), it will find the aliased archive folder as well and combine them when it lists your program library. There is no deficit in playback when playing recordings from the external drive. I figured that out (with a little hint from one of their tech support guys) and wrote up a user tip on it around 2010 or 2011, which the folks at the original EyeTV company (forget its name) liked so much they added it to their site. They said they were going to add it to the user guide, but I don't know if they ever did.
  14. Yup, I'm still out here. Unfortunately I just accidentally deleted 20 minutes of typing and the stupid discussion software doesn't allow for "undo." Here's a short version, I'm not going to do it all over: (1) quit and restart EyeTV; (2) reboot the computer. (3) In EyeTV check all the setup preferences for sourcing from xmltv files. When none of that works, go through pain & suffering: (4) write down all your settings, reset EyeTV to defaults (there's a button in there for that), and set up XMLTVListings in EyeTV like you did the first time; and finally if that doesn't work, (5) delete EyeTV (write down all your Preferences first), download a clean copy, and reinstall. I had to do that once, took hours. Sounds like you corrupted something; I remember making a mental note last year to not do anything else, including recording, while EyeTV was updating. I only tried updating manually the first two times after I switched to xmltv listings, have been using automated at 5 am ever since (Feb 2019) without issue. Good luck solving your problem. Stay safe!
  15. So it is the same problem; must have then started with at least 10.13. I had upgraded from 10.11 (where the time tracking counter for a program worked correctly) to 10.14, where it counts down to an hour and then disappears. Anyone report this to the EyeTV people, or figure out a workaround? No point in upgrading to version 7528 if the bug is still present there as well.