HTPC and PVR the home for MegaEPG

The MegaEPG 1.3.3 is available in the Downloads section. The only change is the new channels support for HOT (HOT Summer, Kabbalah, CNN, HD Movies and Bollywood HD) and YES (Stars Real, Yes5, RBN). YES has also exchanged a huge number of channels again (I've lost my hope to understand why do they change the channel numbers all the time). Unfortunately I have no announces about the Windows 7 support yet. I want it, I plan it but I just don't have time to integrate and release it. It's been an extremely busy summer for me indeed. Stay tuned!

The MegaEPG 1.3.2 is available in the Downloads section. This is the urgent release due to the massive channel numbers change in HOT and YES Israel providers (again, they change the channels again!). HOT has mostly shifted some channels and added the "Tiulim" channel, YES has changed the HD channel numbers and added 3 additional HD channels. I didn't include much of the planned new stuff into this release except some bug fixes. Users of the windowed MegaEPG version (megaepgw) with the dvb script, please verify that this version works ok.

The MegaEPG 1.3.1 is available in the Downloads section. There are some fixes for the issues have been discovered since v1.3.0. HOT channels 4 and 6 have correct mapping now, BBC Prime channel was also added. This release introduces the automatic EPG database update for MCE/Vista mediacenters. Now you don't have to worry about invoking "Get Latest Guide" after running MegaEPG. The MegaEPG will insert the latest EPG into mediacenter automatically. This is especailly useful with the dvb script: you can update the mediacenter EPG as many times a day as you want.

In order to turn the automatic EPG update on, add automceupdate=1 to the global section of the megaepg.ini (this feature is off by default).

Windows MCE 2005 users should also turn the .NET security off in order to use the auto-update feature (Vista users are ok). This is the requirement of .NET v1.0 and my "no pre-requesties" policy did not allow me to request installation of .NET 2.0 :-). To turn the .NET security off, enter the command line: C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.1.4322\caspol -s off

You may have a different version of the .NET framework (e.g. ..Framework\v1.0.3705). Browse your Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework directory to find the latest 1.x version installed on your system. You should do this operation only once. If you'd like to stop using the auto-update feature and turn the .NET security back on, enter the command: ...\Framework\v1.1.4322\caspol -s on

The MegaEPG 1.3.0 is available in the Downloads section. There is an extensive channels update for Israel HOT provider both in hot and ynet scripts. The version is also introduces the direct DVB support for Israeli YES and HOT providers. The dvb script provides EPG directly from the satellite (DVB-S) or cable (DVB-C) stream. This is the most accurate and updated guide (the same one the set-top-box receives) thus if you own a DVB-S or DVB-C card with a Microsoft BDA-compliant driver, I recommend you to give the script a try. Please note, that the DVB support is still a Beta. I have tested it for YES. Feedbacks from HOT users are yet to be received. A more detailed information about the dvb script is in the Readme file.

The following DVB-S cards were tested and reported to work ok: Hauppauge WinTV Nova S and Nova S-Plus, GeniaTech DVB-S USB SatBox, AzureWave AD-SE200, Twinhan 1025 and all 102x series, Technotrend TT 2400. There is currently only one report for DVB-C card: Technotrend C1500. I want to thank everyone that tested their DVB card! I would like to continue and update the list of supported cards, so your feedback is still very important.

Users of the hot_he/hot_ru and ynet scripts are advised to reconfigure the channels with the epgconfig utility due to the big channels update.

This is currently for Israel users only!

In order to speed up the development of the DVB add-on, I wrote the dvbtest program to build up the list of supported DVB cards. This simple program tries to identify your DVB card and to examine the DVB stream. YES subscribers with DVB-S cards and HOT subscribers with DVB-C cards are more than welcome to download the program, run it and email me the result log file together with the info about the card they own (model and manufacturer). If you are interested, here are the details. Ensure your card is supported!

I've finally found the real reason of the Norway VMC EPG crashes and released the version 1.2.6 in the Downloads section. It wasn't any obvious and I have a good excuse on trying to fix everything around but the issue :). The EPG crashes were caused by... too long program descriptions. It seems Microsoft allocates buffers of 512 characters for a program description and does not check/cut the length of too long descriptions when copying them from the incoming EPG into the VMC Guide database. It rather prefers to crash the mediacenter. Norway EPG source provides very long descriptions for some movies/programs and the MegaEPG will cut them from now on to prevent crashes. Norway users are advised to download the MegaEPG 1.2.6. I'm looking forward to get feedbacks.

It has been reported that the latest MegaEPG 1.2.5 is still having problems with Norway EPG. Users from Norway are advised to wait and avoid installation of 1.2.5 till I verify the report and make another announce. Sorry for the inconvenience!

The MegaEPG 1.2.5 is available in the Downloads section. It introduces two fixes: 1) Norway EPG gap detection that caused Norway EPG to stuck in VMC/MCE and 2) producing no guide if no programs were grabbed. The 1st fix will (hopefully!) make the Norway EPG usable. The 2nd fix is applied to all VMC/MCE users that experienced the guide removal (replacement with an empty guide) at times the MegaEPG grabbed no TV programs due to errors, connection problems, etc. Now in such a case the system will at least stay with the current guide which is much better than no guide at all.

The MegaEPG 1.2.4 is available in the Downloads section. It fixes the Norway EPG crashes. I have completely rewritten the tv programs validation engine (the one that checks for programs' intersection, double and null programs, etc.). The immediate effect now is mostly for Norway users although the fix will cause any produced guides be more accurate in general. Special thanks to Ole Morten, Troels Walsted, Trond-Eirik and others that helped with the bug reporting and feedbacks. Many-many thanks to Ron Shani and Itay Shem-tov for their latest donation to the project!

The MegaEPG 1.2.3 is available in the Downloads section. I'd better wait a little longer with the release in order to add the support for Italian EPG and investigate the latest Vista "No EPG" issue, but the changes I've made already are quite significant and worth the release. The support for Norway has been improved much, including a fix for the annoying "Error 24" Vista bug, removal the episode numbers from program titles and parsing program orginal names making the IMDB script work for Norway EPG. Israel YES users are advised to upgrade as well due to the change in the YES movies channels (Hallmark, MGM, and Yes 5 channel which is now "Yes Stars Israeli" have changed their numbers).