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EyeTV 3 and 4 not loading OTA program guide info

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O have not done the "work" needed to get that guide system to work.  Maybe now that I am retired I will.  But, in the meantime, If you can live without the features of the different guides, try using Titan TV  titantv.com .  Create a free account then customize your channels and TV service.  Once done, you will a red record button with each program description (you first click on a listing).  when you go to your EyeTV schedules you will see the listing.  You may need to either enter or correct the channel number YMMV.

TitanTV.com will give you 14 days at a time so you can program that far out.  Titan TV has a powerful search feature (if you click the more search options) and if there are conflicts with other programs, you can click the View Additional Airings in the listing to find other potential times.

Hope this helps

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7 hours ago, alanK said:

O have not done the "work" needed to get that guide system to work.

I'm not sure I understand that sentence.  Are you saying the instructions for downloading an xmltv file in the provided link no longer work or is there a step I or they left out?

Isn't Titan TV just for other countries, but not the U.S.?  Does it work for U.S. listings?

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I've used Titan TV, first as just a very useful guide and then after ETV has stopped providing the guide, as my scheduling system.  As for the xmltv I have just not needed it enough to implement it. Also, it has some limitations but nothing severe.

My ability to customize TitanTV's guide with ONLY the channels I want to follow has been just one of my reasons for using it for well over 10 years.

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Thanks.  I was just asking if TitanTV was for the U.S. because in EyeTV 3 I'm almost sure I read that TitanTV was for Canada or another country and only TV Guide was for U.S..  I can try it of course.

Does anyone who posted the link or used the steps mentioned in this discussion know what I'm doing wrong in the step above in the .xmltv instructions in order to prepare for the file import and how I prepare EyeTV to receive it?  It doesn't say and dragging it to the icon does nothing (no channels show anywhere).

Also, I'm using EyeTV HD connected to my digital cable box with component (analog HD) cables.  Can anyone tell me how to set up the IR blaster that came with EyeTV HD?  From instructions it looks like you have to set up the cable box first but I don't think importing a program guide will help with that.  There doesn't seem to be a step to set up the IR blaster until the cable box is set up, and it won't let me set it up.

If anyone here can help let me know.  I've searched the Internet high and low and weeks later I'm no better off, although I did get it to work (all manually only) with three versions of EyeTV software and three versions of the macOS.

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I ran into many of these same problems recently when I upgraded to a new Mac.  I use DirecTV instead of cable, but I’m guessing the problems are the same.  The issue I had and I think you have is before you can set up the IR blaster or the xmlTV stuff you have to seed EyeTV with a channel list.  I think the automated seeding (where you give it a zip code) has been broken for a really long time.  I eventually solved it by using EyeTV Reporter to move the channel list from the old Mac to the new one.

If that hadn’t worked my next step was to try to add channels manually.  I think you can do that, but when I tried to do it on a different computer I ran into the “your key has been invalidated” problem that support seems to ignore all communications about.  I just bought a new license so I could move forward on the computer I wanted working.

 I emphatically agree with everybody who says EyeTV 4 is a huge step backward, from 3 but I no longer have any working computers that are 32-bit.

Maybe there’s somebody in Phoenix using Cox that could send you their channel list.  I have DirecTV Phoenix but I don’t 9think that will help you.

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2 hours ago, Rick Evarts said:

The issue I had and I think you have is before you can set up the IR blaster or the xmlTV stuff you have to seed EyeTV with a channel list.  I think the automated seeding (where you give it a zip code) has been broken for a really long time.  I eventually solved it by using EyeTV Reporter to move the channel list from the old Mac to the new one.

Wow, thank you so much for this!!!  I thought I was going crazy.  So no one mentioned this part, where even the instructions for the .xmltv file above won't work for me in this case.

Man, this is beyond frustrating!  I have access to several Mac computers and two iMacs alone running old and new macOS side-by-side, so that's not a problem.  So what I have to do is find someone with a Phoenix Cox digital cable channel list?  I mean, if I could get the IR blaster to work at least then I could manually program in my favorite recurring programs.  But I can't get to that step.  Both an interactive program guide and the IR blaster are necessary for a true "DVR experience" but at least one of them would help me a lot.

Are you using the 2010 EyeTV HD box (specifically made to connect to a cable or satellite box/receiver) too? 

Does anyone know where or how I can find and "seed" my channel list -- or add the channels manually at least?

How does this "seeding" process work?

Do you have to first "set up" your cable box/satellite receiver and does it not recognize certain ones, even if the broadcast signal is coming thru perfectly?  I don't know if that's yet another issue.

 

I would be beyond grateful if I could actually start using it as intended.  It saves me $23/mo. in cable fees for the moderate amount of shows I record.

Edited by SWLinPHX

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4 hours ago, SWLinPHX said:

Are you using the 2010 EyeTV HD box (specifically made to connect to a cable or satellite box/receiver) too? 

Yes on my "real" installation.  (Bought several off ebay a while back so I'd have spares in case it went belly up.)

Does anyone know where or how I can find and "seed" my channel list -- or add the channels manually at least?

 

I played with this some more by blowing away the prefs on an EyeTV installation on a different Mac (to get past the invalidated key bug).  I did a ATSC channel scan (this computer has a EyeTV Hybrid hitched up, not an HD) just to get some channels seeded.  Did the xmltv.xml drop and it then let me change the service to xmltv and pick from its channels.  It was showing the frequency in khz and my working installation just uses channel # so I don't think it would work with blaster.

How does this "seeding" process work?

Not sure how how to seed a cable box with the supported way broken.  You might be able to get something if you were using the HD instead of the Hybrid, but that's too much wiring for me to play with.  What you really need is a prefs file from somebody that got Cox working before Geniatech broke it.  That's also key to your next question.

Do you have to first "set up" your cable box/satellite receiver and does it not recognize certain ones, even if the broadcast signal is coming thru perfectly?  I don't know if that's yet another issue.

If things were working you could just say you're in 85268 (or whatever) and it would bring up a list of services there - DirecTV, Cox etc.  If you have the right "service", then part of the setup process, knowing you had a Cox cable box, would bring up a dialog to test that the blaster was working.  In my DirecTV case it has IR signals for like 40 different boxes, so it steps through them sending a signal out until you tell it it worked.

So.. I think the bottom line is you can *probably* get xmltv and its guide working OK with what you have in hand, *probably not* get IR blasting working without a working Cox service either by Geniatech fixing their bug or finding somebody to send you their settings.

 

 

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12 hours ago, Rick Evarts said:

Not sure how how to seed a cable box with the supported way broken.  You might be able to get something if you were using the HD instead of the Hybrid, but that's too much wiring for me to play with.  What you really need is a prefs file from somebody that got Cox working before Geniatech broke it. 

I am using the HD box (not Hybrid).  Did you mean the opposite?

12 hours ago, Rick Evarts said:

If you have the right "service", then part of the setup process, knowing you had a Cox cable box, would bring up a dialog to test that the blaster was working.  In my DirecTV case it has IR signals for like 40 different boxes, so it steps through them sending a signal out until you tell it it worked.

So even if I get channels imported (manually or thru a borrowed file from another user) and then import the .xmltv file, it still won't let me set up the IR blaster and test it because I wasn't able to select a box thru EyeTV, or is there a place to set up the blaster once I get any guide working?

12 hours ago, Rick Evarts said:

I think the bottom line is you can *probably* get xmltv and its guide working OK with what you have in hand, *probably not* get IR blasting working without a working Cox service either by Geniatech fixing their bug or finding somebody to send you their settings.

So I have to find someone who has the exact same Cox service in Phoenix set up with any version of EyeTV?  Is it possible to edit the file enough thru a text editor to tweak the lineup to suit me if I have one to work off of?  Can you tell me where this file is located on the Mac (in my home preferences or...?) and maybe send me a copy so I can see what it looks like.  I really care more about setting up the IR blaster if I have to choose one or the other because then at least I can have it working unattended and only have to make changes when scheduling of certain programs change (using the guide on my Cox box), but of course I would like the guide to work in EyeTV too for full functionality.

 

I did at least get a refund on my EyeTV 4 software update purchase from a few days ago via PayPal since I was able to prove Geniatech has been completely incommunicado and falsely claims they support my software and Elgato unit on their website where I purchased it.

Edited by SWLinPHX

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11 hours ago, SWLinPHX said:
23 hours ago, Rick Evarts said:

Not sure how how to seed a cable box with the supported way broken.  You might be able to get something if you were using the HD instead of the Hybrid, but that's too much wiring for me to play with.  What you really need is a prefs file from somebody that got Cox working before Geniatech broke it. 

<< I am using the HD box (not Hybrid).  Did you mean the opposite?

No.  I just meant the only Mac I could easily play with had a Hybrid attached, and the only services it can create are Analog cable and OTA antenna.  I thought it might be possible to use a Mac with a HD box to create a dummy Digital cable service that could have channels manually added to it, but that would be harder for me to test.

23 hours ago, Rick Evarts said:

If you have the right "service", then part of the setup process, knowing you had a Cox cable box, would bring up a dialog to test that the blaster was working.  In my DirecTV case it has IR signals for like 40 different boxes, so it steps through them sending a signal out until you tell it it worked.

<< So even if I get channels imported (manually or thru a borrowed file from another user) and then import the .xmltv file, it still won't let me set up the IR blaster and test it because I wasn't able to select a box thru EyeTV, or is there a place to set up the blaster once I get any guide working?

No and yes.  If you only did something manually you still wouldn't have a Cox service and the IR blaster software wouldn't know what signals to send.  If you borrowed a Cox file from another user, it would have the Cox service info embedded (see next answer), and rerunning the setup would let you test the blaster.

23 hours ago, Rick Evarts said:

I think the bottom line is you can *probably* get xmltv and its guide working OK with what you have in hand, *probably not* get IR blasting working without a working Cox service either by Geniatech fixing their bug or finding somebody to send you their settings.

<< So I have to find someone who has the exact same Cox service in Phoenix set up with any version of EyeTV? 

I don't think you'd need the exact same - my guess is Cox digital cable boxes are the same everywhere and so anybody with EyeTV Cox preferences would work as far as the blaster goes.  If it wasn't Phoenix channels, then you'd have to do some manual fixups to match the Phoenix layout.  I think the EyeTV version doesn't matter - my old Mini seemed to be sharing the same info between 3 and 4.

<< Is it possible to edit the file enough thru a text editor to tweak the lineup to suit me if I have one to work off of?  Can you tell me where this file is located on the Mac (in my home preferences or...?) and maybe send me a copy so I can see what it looks like.

That's an interesting thought.  AFAIK, all the files all live in /Library/Application Support/EyeTV.  You don't need to know that, though, because if you just use EyeTV Reporter to export and import the prefs, you'll get a superset of what's needed in a zip file containing (on my working machine)

ApplicationSupport
 Locations
  DirecTV_H24_-__channels_4_Copy_2.eyetvloc
  DirecTV_H24_-__channels_4_Copy.eyetvloc
  DirecTV_H24_-__channels_4.eyetvloc
  DirecTV_H24_-_Backup_Channels.eyetvloc
  DirecTV_H24_-_Channel_Backup_3.eyetvloc
  DirecTV_H24_-_More_backup_channels.eyetvloc
  DirecTV_H24_-_Untitled_Channel_Set.eyetvloc
  locations.plist
 crashLogs
 EPGFiles
 EyeTV Archive
 EyeTVRecordings
 NetworkTuners
 Others
 sharedPrefsFiles
 sysPrefsFiles
 userPrefsFiles

All of the info about channels etc are in XML files in the Locations subfolder.  (I have a bunch because i resave each time a do a ~100 xmtv mappings, it's *really* tedious and I wouldn't want to lose edits.  DirectTV_H24 is the name of my service.)  You'd have to make a guess what the name of the Cox service is, but I'd hope that's enough to get the IR Blaster setup to ask the right questions.  Spending a few minutes looking at the intertwingled info about channels, though, would definitely motivate me to use the EyeTV GUI (even if it meant manually adding each channel) rather than hacking with a text editor.

I tried dragging some of my files into this post, but the forum software just kept saying Upload Failed over and over.  If you message me your email I can send you the whole zip file if nobody from Phoenix Cox enters the fray,

P.S.  Having typed all this, I guess I should confirm:  when you run the EyeTV setup and get to the account and following screen, do you have any success?  I don't, and haven't for years, but that's where all this info is supposed to come from.

 

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15 hours ago, Rick Evarts said:

I tried dragging some of my files into this post, but the forum software just kept saying Upload Failed over and over.  If you message me your email I can send you the whole zip file if nobody from Phoenix Cox enters the fray,

P.S.  Having typed all this, I guess I should confirm:  when you run the EyeTV setup and get to the account and following screen, do you have any success?  I don't, and haven't for years, but that's where all this info is supposed to come from.

Thanks again Rick for being so thorough, helpful and responsive to a fellow Phoenician!  This has been quite disappointing to think I discovered the perfect solution (which I had, when it worked at least) and then to run into all these unexpected issues.

I would be more than happy to message you my email address and you can send me what you have.  To answer your question, no, I have no success with the program guide (even when it recognized I have an active account) nor any channels populating, nor the IR blaster set up.  It's such a shame that this tiny software loophole (or unaddressed failure) renders the entire system to be about 80% useless as a DVR at least, other than for manual recordings.

Having said that, I did yet more and more research yesterday and after reading many articles on best non-subscription DVR alternatives that work with and/or without cable I came to a decision.  Since I get expanded digital cable with three receiver boxes (not DVR box or service) and Showtime + HBO channels included in my monthly HOA fee, it behooves me to find one that works with a cable box or card.  Many YouTube videos and other reviews pointed to the newest Tivo Edge (one w/cable and one for OTA) as one of the best alternatives, although pricey.  However the newer Edge surpasses and is slowly phasing out the previously praised Tivo Bolt Vox, which replaced the Tivo Roamio line, which replaced the Tivo Premiere line, etc.  The standard price for the Edge w/6 tuners and a 2TB drive (although can be ordered with larger internal drive or attached to an external drive) is $$399.99 and unlimited lifetime subscription of box is $549.99 for a total of almost $950, definitely pricey (and no point ruling out a $22/month cable DVR service and rental just to have another monthly or annual subscription).  However, for the next two weeks or so they are running a special on Tivo.com for $500 off all of that, so you get the latest Tivo that works with cable card and has many neat features (like one-press instant commercial skip), lifetime subscription paid and 5-yr. Tivo Continual Care Program (warranty) for $450 + tax.  If that seems like a lot just think that in Cox DVR rental fees alone that pays for itself in less than two years (and I've been renting a DVR for about 17 years!).  Also, I only paid like $39 for the EyeTV HD system from eBay and I got my $29 refunded from PayPal for the v4 EyeTV download, so I'm not really out that much money.

I finally got a personal response yesterday from the Geniatech press department in Munich (Europe division) which I responded to and let the know how I felt about their abandonment of customers and EyeTV in general without any notice on their website, while still taking our money and selling EyeTV 4 software that doesn't work, not for newcomers anyway.  I may create a separate discussion here in the forum posting my email and response.

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Good luck with the Tivo, I had one many many years ago but I ditched them in favor of DirecTV during one of their ebbs amongst may ebbs and flows.  Have have using EyeTV in conjunction with HD box since 2010, and probably have about 36TB of HD movies (+36TB of backups) in EyeTV format, so I guess you could call me a captive audience not willing to switch...

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I hear ya.  Well since I got on board late with EyeTV (not only after their guide stopped working last year but even without having the channels seeded) there wasn't much for me to lose.  Also, rerun season has started and we have the writers strike going so my recording demand has been less for a while.  I can certainly understand if you are invested in EyeTV and it still bugs me that they could easily support it if they wanted to but for some reason they won't and keep selling it to new customers full price and then don't support it (which is how I got a refund for EyeTV 4.0, at which point they invalidated my Activation Key earlier today).  But EyeTV 3.5.3 and 3.6.9 still work on my other iMac running Snow Leopard and High Sierra respectively.   So in the end I'm only out less than $50 for the EyeTV HD and an extra long mini-USB cable I bought for it to reach my computer (and all the time and frustration researching it all and emailing and calling Geniatech), so it could be worse.

I never owned a Tivo but we get cable included with our HOA fee so I pay for that anyway.  My sister has DirecTV because Cox is not in her area.  I'm glad I at least got their latest device for $500 off and absolutely no subscription fees as long as I own the device (or else I would've reverted to renting one of Cox's DVR's as I have been doing for fifteen years now).  And even if it fails after the 5-year warranty is completely up, I still would've spent more in DVR rental and service at over $22/mo. in just two more years, so all is not lost.  I may come back with an update though if Tivo set up w/cable card, tuning adapter and MoCA adapters gives me more headaches, but I'm not expecting it.  Thanks again to everyone here for at least saving me from wasting any more time with the EPG and trying to get to configure the IR blaster from the EyeTV HD I hooked up.

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