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I've had big gaps in my EPG since I started using dvbviewer, it's never worked as I wanted it to and it's always been a niggle.
Using EPG Collector rather than dvbviewer's own EPG function has totally fixed this for me.
The setup is fairly straightforward - lots of steps but nothing over-complicated. I've re-created my install and done a step-by-step description as I went along, which is plonked below. If you try it and anything's unclear please post here and I'll try to clarify. It's probably much too detailed for most people, but I've tried to leave nothing out.
Anyway, it's here if anyone wants it...

Go to http://sourceforge.net/projects/epgcollector/
Download the latest version.
As of now that means downloading v4.2 from here, and also the latest fixpack from the top of the same page.

Unzip v4.2 (7zip is free and works fine) to wherever you want to stick the folder.
I originally used an installer, so it went in C:\Program Files (x86)\Geekzone\EPG Collector, but the location doesn't matter.
Now unzip the latest fixpack and over-write the v4.2 files in your EPG Collector folder. You now have the latest version.

Make shortcuts to epgcentre.exe and epgcollector.exe and stick 'em on the desktop.
Read the readme! text file that's in the folder!
Click on the epgcentre shortcut
Click File > create collection parameters
Choose broadcast parameters - sky uk in my case.
A new configuration window will open.
On the first tab (tuning) check your tuner is recognised and that the selected satellite looks vaguely right.
Go to the channels tab, click 'Start Scan'. The scan takes less than 30 secs on my machine (about 900 channels found).
Obviously I don't want to generate an epg for 900 channels, so the next thing I did was to select the channels I use in dvbviewer.
To do that:
Open dvbviewer. Click tv/radio and select channel editor.
Export your channel list to a .csv file.
Open the .csv with the program of your choice.
I use Openoffice for this - select 'tab' in the separator options on the 'text input' dialogue and everything displays nicely.
Now I want to select the right channels in epg collector - I do this by comparing the SIDs (service IDs?).
In epgcollector click on 'sid', the channels will be arranged in order of increasing SID.
In openoffice (or your spreadsheet of choice) you need to do the same thing.
In openoffice I click Data > sort then select sort by 'SID' ascending and click okay.
To make it easier to view I then delete all the columns in openoffice except channel names and SIDs.
You now have 2 lists ordered the same way, and it's just a case of selecting the channels you want in epgcollector.
Note that a ticked box means the channel is excluded, so unless you have a squillion channels set up start by ticking the box to 'exclude all' in epgcollector.
Now select the channels you want in epgcollector, by comparing SIDs.

The next step is to test what you've done.
In epgcollector go to the output tab and select 'EPG Collector imports the data to DVBViewer or the Recording Service'
At the bottom of the the same tab select 'Import the data to the Recording Service'
While I was testing I initially clicked the 'clear existing data' option (so I could see what each scan picked up). I now leave it unticked.
I run epg collector on the same machine as the recording service, so I use 127.0.0.1 and port 8089 in the IP addresses (I think that's the default).

Now right click on the recording service tray icon, select Configure > Epg.
I unticked all the boxes except 'automatic time zone' - basically to stop the recording service trying to do it's own epg updates.
Re-start the Recording Service.

Back in EPGCollector select 'Run' and 'Collect EPG data.
Open DVBViewer and check the epg - it should now be full - ish.
If there are gaps check your SIDs match and retry. On the 'output' tab in epgcollector I've ticked 'Create data for channels with the same name if data not present.'

I still found a few gaps, but after unticking the 'clear existing data' option these have more or less disappeared.
There are plenty of extra options you can experiment with here. I saved my settings under a different name each time I made changes so I could easily revert.
Just make sure the one you want to finally use is saved as 'EPG Collector.ini' - the default name.

The next (last) step is to run the collection automatically.
In windows 7 click start and type 'task scheduler' in the search box.
Open task scheduler. Now create a new basic task to run epg collector every night. Follow the prompts and it's difficult to get this wrong.

And breathe. You have a full epg.

Please excuse the lack of punctuation.


Edited to clarify use of fixpacks.

Thank you so much for posting this. I will try it out and report back

Sorry it took so long to do. Good luck, and please let me know if I've missed a step.
If you've still got the same issue when you've finished then there's loads of discussion / active help from the author on the sourceforge page.

The next (last) step is to run the collection automatically.
In windows 7 click start and type 'task scheduler' in the search box.
Open task scheduler. Now create a new basic task to run epg collector every night. Follow the prompts and it's difficult to get this wrong.


this last step .
how do you tell the collecter which satellite to collect if you have more than one satellite

Firstly - you're asking the wrong person. I'm the kid with a new bike telling you how great it is and how I took my stabilizers off. The guy who runs the bike shop is on sourceforge - link at the top.
Having said that...
If you've more than one source then presumably you want to combine all those sources together in dvbviewer? In which case as far as I can see you'd do that within EPG Collector at the setup stage. When you choose collection parameters you can add multiple satellites / dvb-t's, so it's all done in one go.
If you need to run different .ini's for different programs then there may be an easy way around, but I suggest trawling sourceforge / asking the dev there. You could certainly do it with batch files - eg set up a batch file to copy the EPG Collector.ini you want to use into the data folder, run EPG Collector, then replace the .ini file with another and run it again. Then point task scheduler at the batch file.* But there might well be an easier way.
Anyway I'm guessing it's the first option (scanning multiple satellites all going to dvbviewer) that you're looking for, in which case it should (hopefully) be straightforward.
Either way it would be great if you could post your solution here - I'll need to do something similar later this year, and I'd guess there are plenty of people in the same situation.



*I just tried using a batch file to point at an epgcollector.ini file in a different folder (which works for Webgrabplus++, I use that to generate multiple xml's for the tvguide addon), and that didn't work. Which might be down to my lack of competence. But using a batch file toreplace the .ini and run epgcollector will work.

(2015-02-08, 14:28)trogggy Wrote: [ -> ]Firstly - you're asking the wrong person. I'm the kid with a new bike telling you how great it is and how I took my stabilizers off. The guy who runs the bike shop is on sourceforge - link at the top.
Having said that...
If you've more than one source then presumably you want to combine all those sources together in dvbviewer? In which case as far as I can see you'd do that within EPG Collector at the setup stage. When you choose collection parameters you can add multiple satellites / dvb-t's, so it's all done in one go.
If you need to run different .ini's for different programs then there may be an easy way around, but I suggest trawling sourceforge / asking the dev there. You could certainly do it with batch files - eg set up a batch file to copy the EPG Collector.ini you want to use into the data folder, run EPG Collector, then replace the .ini file with another and run it again. Then point task scheduler at the batch file.* But there might well be an easier way.
Anyway I'm guessing it's the first option (scanning multiple satellites all going to dvbviewer) that you're looking for, in which case it should (hopefully) be straightforward.
Either way it would be great if you could post your solution here - I'll need to do something similar later this year, and I'd guess there are plenty of people in the same situation.



*I just tried using a batch file to point at an epgcollector.ini file in a different folder (which works for Webgrabplus++, I use that to generate multiple xml's for the tvguide addon), and that didn't work. Which might be down to my lack of competence. But using a batch file toreplace the .ini and run epgcollector will work.

you lost me at a batch file..lol

No problem. If you're not familiar with batch files I can see how that would look.
What exactly are you trying to do?
Is it just that you're using dvbviewer with 2 satellites (or 1 satellite / terrestrial)?

i have been using epg collector for a couple of years now and it collects perfectly what i ask ....i have 4 ini files for 4 satellites....
but i never could get it to run from the task scheduler. it would start the program but thats it...
i dont have much pc skills so i give up and was happy just running it manually...


mate i just thought i would ask....as i seen your post....no harm done.

That would drive me mad!
Is there any reason why you can't combine them into one .ini?

(2015-02-08, 15:30)trogggy Wrote: [ -> ]That would drive me mad!
Is there any reason why you can't combine them into one .ini?

well i had them combined at one stage i think....but found it was hit or miss in whether the diseqc switch would work.
so i just separated everything into individual ini for each satellite.

and forgot about it...

I know how that works (forgetting).
If you're happy with doing it manually then great.
If you want to try to automate the process I can give you a hand with batch files - you'd need to describe exactly what's in your data folder (C:\Users\[buttonsni]\AppData\Local\Geekzone, back it up, make a new folder for each .ini and re-name them all to 'EPG Collector.ini'. Then test some batch files to see if they give the right output. Then set up task scheduler.

on looking at the Appdata folder i see something that just makes what i said i lie...
i have one ini file that says all epg ....it contains mutli sats....
i remember why i separated everything now.....it was because running the mutli collection took so fking long.....that is why i seperated everything into the important ones i wanted immediately for eg. slyuk./freesat..
and the rest was then combined..

in the Appdata folder i have
1.ALL EPG Collector
2.FREEVIEW EPG Collector
3.sky iti EPG Collector
4.sky uk EPG Collector
these are the names of the ini's
and then of course the TVGuide xml.

Okay.
Just to confirm...
If you could automate 'ALL EPG Collector.ini so it runs eg once a day that would do everything you want?
Or would you rather have each .ini run once a day?

'and then of course the TVGuide xml. '
I don't have this in my folder - are you generating an .xml and then manually importing it into dvbviewer?

the TVGuide xml must be an old file before the setting to import the epg into the dvbviewer recording service was implemented....so its not required...i see that now...

so i would probably want one for everything if it was doing it in auto mode but that would mean combining everything again...
so at the minute can we run as seperates?

Got it. I think.
So (again, for me) - ''ALL EPG Collector.ini' is an ini file for anything that's not Freeview, Sky uk or Sky Italy?
And you want to run all 4 .ini's once a day each?

Just to test things are working, can you:
1. Take a snapshot of the whole 'EPG Collector' folder so you can revert any changes.
2. Copy 'sky uk EPG Collector.ini' to anywhere, re-name it to 'EPG Collector.ini' and paste it back into the folder (so you now have 5 .ini's in the folder).
3. Open notepad, and paste the following* text (not the 'quote though) into it:

Quote:@echo OFF
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Geekzone\EPG Collector\EPGCollector.exe"
exit

Now save this as 'EPG Collector.bat' - the name doesn't matter, but make sure you save it as 'all files', not 'text file'.

Double-click EPG Collector.bat - does it collect your sky-uk data?


*Edit: check the address in the .bat file is the same as yours - it's wherever EPGCollector.exe is installed, mine is in the default place on Windows7 x64.