Guide Data Outage - 2017 Edition

[tsh2000]

Comcast in 02176 has been updated through 8/1 now. Thanks sugarfree!

[havec]

Comcast San Rafael CA. 94941 Just about everything (at least what I care about) but channel 801:HBO Channels above 801 are in the guide.

Just did a manual guide update and for the first time in weeks it said "download successful" and low and behold HBO is back!

Really glad for this forum! Without the Green Button there would be no way in hell that I would have known what was going on.

[jimi1000]

Thanks Sugarfree. Make sure others on the forum have the Rovi/MS contact info from you in case... You go on vacation or something. : )

OTA in Philly market back to normal with data to 8/2. I finally get to see what guests are on the late night talk shows for the next 2 days and that James Cordon this week is repeats.

Thanks,
Jimi

[mpalandr]

Comcast at Eugene OR 97405

Manual download failed immediately this morning.

Just now (17:00 PDT) it completed, now have full listings thru Aug 1.

[bobr31]

Quick update on 02072-Stoughton MA Comcast Bridgewater Digital....all channels appear to be up to date through 8/2.

[VegasBill]

Seems Rovi updates about once every two weeks. I found the following URL which indicates the date for the latest Rovi update by zip code.

http://digitaltransition.macrovision.com/digtrans.aspx

Rovi last updated July 16 for my zip code and everything worked after that. I get the idea someone was on vacation starting the July 4th weekend and the fixed the problem when they got back? This last happened over the Christmas holiday. I almost expect more guide problems after the Labor day weekend.

[foxwood]

Seems Rovi updates about once every two weeks. I found the following URL which indicates the date for the latest Rovi update by zip code.

http://digitaltransition.macrovision.com/digtrans.aspx

Rovi last updated July 16 for my zip code and everything worked after that.

I'm pretty sure that that's simply a list of the different set of listings that are available for any given zipcode - that data doesn't change very often (only when a new provider starts to serve a particular area, or when an existing provider adds additional channels, or re-organizes existing channel lineups), and the 7/16 date has nothing to do with the actual content of the listings, which should change daily, even in stable markets where cable providers aren't making any changes to the set of channels that they are providing.

(In other words, the list of available guide configurations was updated on July 16th, not the actual guide content)

[crawfish]

My Guide recently went back to normal, but just now, I found I can't tune any of my non-locals in WMC in Windows 8.1. The channels still work with my HD HomeRun Prime over DLNA. Looking at the WMC channel sources, they've spontaneously quadrupled in number, such that I have to disable the nonsense ones in order to watch each channel. FFS. What is this garbage?

[JohnnyBluRay]

Did ROVI ever post a Post-Mortem results on the Guide Data Outage? I thought I had read SugarFree was awaiting a update from her contact at ROVI.

[madwad123]

So my guide is looking better now, FIOS in Pittsburgh area.

However, my guide channel list, the channels themselves do not show channel numbers/ call signs. Does anyone know how to correct this? I'm about to blast my install away and restart.

[superdave6653]

Anyone get an update beyond 8/1 actual data with guide end of 8/2?

Still getting "errors during the last update" message. And if I uncheck enable automatic updates it says "update successful next update 7/25". So it appears that regardless of what Rovi is sending Microsoft I am only getting updates from Microsoft about once every 6-7 days. Maybe Comcast only sends Rovi their guide data every 6-7 days?

Comcast
Salt Lake City
84403

With auto updates on WMC is unsuccessfully attempting to download guide data about once every 12 hours at about 3 AM and 3 PM.

Note I have task scheduler set to perform WMC updates at 3 AM every day.

Anyway it seems like the guide updates are still broken here

[JohnW248]

Anyone get an update beyond 8/1 actual data with guide end of 8/2?

Still getting "errors during the last update" message. And if I uncheck enable automatic updates it says "update successful next update 7/25". So it appears that regardless of what Rovi is sending Microsoft I am only getting updates from Microsoft about once every 6-7 days. Maybe Comcast only sends Rovi their guide data every 6-7 days?

Superdave6653,

If you go to the event viewer you'll see your "errors during" is actually caused by a MSFT script error looking for nettv. Turning off automatic updates doesn't show that error message in the popup in ehtray BUT it does limit the number of times MC updates! Turn auto updates ON and disregard that message. It is not going to change unless MSFT changes the update script and they haven't bothered for two years so I don't think its going to happen. (I reported it back then on Connect and it remained an active issue as long as I checked it).

As for "guide end date" that does not reflect the end of listings. For an actual date go to the guide and click on a channel number to get the listing of programs and times and then hit END on your keyboard and it will go to the end of the listings. Currently TCM ends on July 31 even though the guide end date says Aug 2 and the last two entries are placeholders of "TCM MOVIES". But that gives you the real end of the guide listings and not the guide date from the Rovi header.

[jtbnet]

Anyone get an update beyond 8/1 actual data with guide end of 8/2?

...

Anyway it seems like the guide updates are still broken here

FIOS East (MA) I just forced a mcupdate -uf that finished and nothing new since the update we got Wed. evening.

[otfrdok]

Guide data goes out 13 days now, but most of the HD channels once again have no data available starting 7/25. Something still isn't right.

I have guide data till 8/1 on all channels, so something is not right with your system. Did you modify your "hosts" file by any chance? Modifying it has the disadvantage of pointing to a server that is no longer being maintained.

No, but data is finally all there today. The problem wasn't on my end.

[superdave6653]

Thanks John

I appreciate your suggestion about going to listings selecting a channel and hitting the end key. I'm not sure I tried that before. But normally I just scroll to the end of the listings to find the actual end of guide data. I can however see a use for the suggestion when looking for channel specific program info but not so much for general guide end dates and times.

I only posted the two dates of 8/1 and 8/2 to be clear about what I was asking. "Has anyone received a valid guide update since the one ending at 8/1 for actual program info and Rovi reported 8/2 end date?" I am not complaining about the two different end dates and times. I am aware they are normal. My concern is we still have an ongoing problem.

At the moment I believe the answer to my question is NO nobody has received a new daily update beyond the 8/1 and 8/2 dates.

I am aware that the two different end dates are normal. Generally my guide data ends at 6pm on 8/1 as for TCM the place holders go through 8/1 at 10pm but useful data for TCM ends at 4am on 7/31 This particular issue seems to be normal as some networks don't seem to know what they have planned 2 weeks in advance. Your solution works for specific channels but not all channels have guide data that ends at the same time so to suggest that the actual guide end date is 7/31 because of TCM would be inaccurate. I believe the actual guide end date is 8/1 at 6pm (MDT) with the exception that some programs that begin before 6pm and extend beyond 6pm show later end times. Again I believe this is normal. The guide does not include programs that start after 8/1 at 6pm thus that would be the actual EPG end date and time. I also note that the Rovi reported guide end date of 8/2 at 5am is also correct because at least one channel has program guide info through that date and time (the info says just Fox Life "another program place holder" for the FoxLF channel this particular place holder begins 8/1 5am and ends 8/2 5am)

So my point is both the 8/1 6pm actual guide end date and the Rovi reported guide end date of 8/2 at 5am are correct and to not reference both dates and times would confuse some of us.

I am well aware of the nettv error. Which is why I posted the fact that I get a report of "update successful next update 7/25" when clicking on the WMC tray icon with automatic updates turned off. I am not sure the successful update report is valid since no new guide data was received. That next update on 7/25 seems to imply that Microsoft is only sending EPG updates every 6-7 days.

So I am asking are we really getting daily EPG listings updates? I am wondering if that is going to be the norm (updates once every 6-7 days)? I am not yet convinced.

As for event viewer the Media Center log is reporting "EPGlistings package is already up to date" which I assume means that Microsoft has not prepared a new guide download since the one ending 8/1 or 8/2 depending on which date you prefer to reference. So if Rovi is sending daily EPG listings to Microsoft they are ending there and not getting sent to us.

JohnW248 wrote

If you go to the event viewer you'll see your "errors during" is actually caused by a MSFT script error looking for nettv. Turning off automatic updates doesn't show that error message in the popup in ehtray BUT it does limit the number of times MC updates! Turn auto updates ON and disregard that message. It is not going to change unless MSFT changes the update script and they haven't bothered for two years so I don't think its going to happen. (I reported it back then on Connect and it remained an active issue as long as I checked it).

As for "guide end date" that does not reflect the end of listings. For an actual date go to the guide and click on a channel number to get the listing of programs and times and then hit END on your keyboard and it will go to the end of the listings. Currently TCM ends on July 31 even though the guide end date says Aug 2 and the last two entries are placeholders of "TCM MOVIES". But that gives you the real end of the guide listings and not the guide date from the Rovi header.

[anotheruser]

Yesterday's update contained no new data. Today's update available now has 1 day of new data. Actual data ends 8 pm EDT August 2.

[Roginator]

I'm HOPING the next update fixes the MeTV listings for shows like Maverick on Saturday mornings (9am to 1pm depending on time zone). Jose at Rovi was notified early this week and said it might take 24-48 hours. I have to admit, I'm curious how the episode listings handle changes to existing listings -- or if no changes are possible. It seems a full download should include completely new data.

[superdave6653]

OK maybe daily updates really are back

Comcast
Salt Lake City
84403

So I have received an update with guide data to 8/2 6pm MDT and About Guide Listings reports Rovi Guide End Date of 8/3 4am and yes there is a place holder that runs from 8/2 4am to 8/3 4am on DIYHD so Rovi's end at 4am on 8/3 is correct too.

Looks like the update was received at 4:36 pm on 7/21

[jtbnet]

FIOS East (MA) - Yes it does seem we've recently gotten an update to extend us another 24 hrs to 8/2 @1PM so seems the guide is now advancing as expected...

[anotheruser]

Today's update available now contains no new data. So the streak starts and ends at 1 day.

Makes me wonder if sugarfree got them to look at the update reliability issue that's given us well under 50% updates with new data over the last 2+ months or just the missing HD listings most cable/FIOS users had.

I wonder how many terabytes of Internet data they waste with every update with no new data.