Guide Data Outage - 2017 Edition

Global guide related discussion. All Windows versions.
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adam1991

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#1221

Post by adam1991 » Thu Jul 20, 2017 10:48 am

6:54am here; I just checked, and guide was not updated. Data still ended 7/25 at 7:30pm.

So I did a "check for new guide", and voila--end date is now 8/2 at 1am, data through 8/1 7:30pm.

Mike88

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#1222

Post by Mike88 » Thu Jul 20, 2017 11:49 am

anotheruser wrote:
JohnW248 wrote:
otfrdok wrote:People seem overly excited for having only a week of data left. We're right back in a familiar mess.
Very true, BUT until they fixed this problem there was little point in creating un-downloadable guides. Hopefully they're up to speed now and will get the guide data back on track.
OTA users didn't have an issue with missing listings so there was value to them in getting new listings.

I'm beginning to think that Microsoft and TIVO(Rovi) deserve some widespread recognition for their continual record of providing the lowest reliability cloud service on the internet.

I wonder if I could interest a publication like CNET or a major blogger(s) to write an article to help them get the recognition they deserve.

Microsoft can't even write a couple of some scripts to check if updates contain new data and won't provide us with a way of reporting EPG issues. Sad...
I'm an OTA user & did have an issue. Channels 2-20 had guide data through 7-25. But higher channels data ended on 7-20. Those have finally been updated.

n127

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#1223

Post by n127 » Thu Jul 20, 2017 12:15 pm

adam1991 wrote:6:54am here; I just checked, and guide was not updated. Data still ended 7/25 at 7:30pm.

So I did a "check for new guide", and voila--end date is now 8/2 at 1am, data through 8/1 7:30pm.
Make sure that you have automatic guide updates by going to WMC-->Settings-->General-->Automatic Download Options-->Automatically download Windows Media Center data between the following times.

testmonkey

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#1224

Post by testmonkey » Thu Jul 20, 2017 12:33 pm

All good till August 2 after a manual update 7:30 CST
Spetrum Milwaukee Wisconsin 53220

Special THANKS to SugarFree
Standing on the Shoulders of Giants

Cowboy

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#1225

Post by Cowboy » Thu Jul 20, 2017 12:45 pm

testmonkey wrote:All good till August 2 after a manual update 7:30 CST
Spetrum Milwaukee Wisconsin 53220

Special THANKS to SugarFree
My guide update ran this morning automatically and is also good until Aug 2, 2017. Right after that it ran maintenance that lasted for 30 minutes.

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WC_Barnstormer

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#1226

Post by WC_Barnstormer » Thu Jul 20, 2017 1:02 pm

Ran manual update at 11pm EST on 7/19 and now have a GED of 8/2 and AGD thru 8/1
29501 TWC/Spectrum
Last edited by WC_Barnstormer on Thu Jul 20, 2017 1:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.

adam1991

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#1227

Post by adam1991 » Thu Jul 20, 2017 1:02 pm

n127 wrote:
adam1991 wrote:6:54am here; I just checked, and guide was not updated. Data still ended 7/25 at 7:30pm.

So I did a "check for new guide", and voila--end date is now 8/2 at 1am, data through 8/1 7:30pm.
Make sure that you have automatic guide updates by going to WMC-->Settings-->General-->Automatic Download Options-->Automatically download Windows Media Center data between the following times.
Good point. I always have had that set up; I haven't touched this thing for 6 years. Even the Rovi switchover worked for me. So if it's NOT set up for auto downloading the guide, that'll be a major issue.

I'm OTA, by the way.

bencjedi

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#1228

Post by bencjedi » Thu Jul 20, 2017 1:41 pm

I've only got guide for Spectrum in Winchester, KY (Richmond Guide applies to my area of the city) until July 25th at 8pm. I did a guide update and no change. :(

I get the event log:

9:33:59 AM - Failed to retrieve nettv (Error: PackageName is invalid.)

How do I fix this?

jtbnet

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#1229

Post by jtbnet » Thu Jul 20, 2017 2:23 pm

bencjedi wrote:I've only got guide for Spectrum in Winchester, KY (Richmond Guide applies to my area of the city) until July 25th at 8pm. I did a guide update and no change. :(

I get the event log:

9:33:59 AM - Failed to retrieve nettv (Error: PackageName is invalid.)

How do I fix this?
You should ignore that error... it has been occurring with each download for months as that file is no longer part of the updates.

foxwood

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#1230

Post by foxwood » Thu Jul 20, 2017 2:53 pm

dkrom wrote:1. In TV click Search>>Categories>>Premiers then select All. You will see premiers for new seasons and series here. You are much less likely to miss a premier if you can see two weeks out rather than it sneaking in a day or two before air date.
Is that a WMC on Win8 feature? I have 8 categories on my WIn7 WMC, and Premieres isn't one of them (Childrens, Lifestyle, Movie, music, News, other, special, sports - that's the capitalization used).

I've used the "Premiers" feature on the Ceton My Media Center app, so I know it can be handy, and the data is available on my Win7 machine, but I've never seen it within WMC.

foxwood

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#1231

Post by foxwood » Thu Jul 20, 2017 3:05 pm

davidhp wrote: It is not whining to expect a multi billion dollar company like Microsoft to deliver what they said they would when they sold the product. The EPG is supposed to have at least 12 days of listings, that is what you paid for when you bought Windows with WMC and that is what should be delivered. As a customer I am not going to excuse a multi billion dollar company from their neglect in updating their product as promised when the product was sold.
Microsoft has never promised 12 days of EPG listings, and EPG is only made available as a "free bonus" service - the terms of service for the guide that you accepted when setting up WMC explicitly stated that
Furthermore, Microsoft may discontinue providing the EPG at any time.
You also agreed that Microsoft could charge for this guide service at any time, after giving you 30 days notice of such a charge being implemented.

Microsoft has already discontinued guide service (or never provided it in the first place) in other markets. If you don't like the free guide that Microsoft has been providing you, without any explicit obligation, you are free to pay someone else for an equivalent or better service - WMC was designed to allow you to get your guide data from other sources.

Windows Media Center is not dependent on guide data from Microsoft, and Microsoft's support obligations for WMC, such as they are, do not include an obligation to provide 12 days of guide data. You agreed this when setting up WMC to use the guide.

viewtopic.php?p=120353#p120353

mwpeterson

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#1232

Post by mwpeterson » Thu Jul 20, 2017 4:09 pm

jtbnet wrote:
bencjedi wrote:I've only got guide for Spectrum in Winchester, KY (Richmond Guide applies to my area of the city) until July 25th at 8pm. I did a guide update and no change. :(

I get the event log:

9:33:59 AM - Failed to retrieve nettv (Error: PackageName is invalid.)

How do I fix this?
You should ignore that error... it has been occurring with each download for months as that file is no longer part of the updates.
Months? Microsoft discontinued Internet TV five years ago.

Space

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#1233

Post by Space » Thu Jul 20, 2017 5:30 pm

foxwood wrote:
dkrom wrote:1. In TV click Search>>Categories>>Premiers then select All. You will see premiers for new seasons and series here. You are much less likely to miss a premier if you can see two weeks out rather than it sneaking in a day or two before air date.
Is that a WMC on Win8 feature? I have 8 categories on my WIn7 WMC, and Premieres isn't one of them (Childrens, Lifestyle, Movie, music, News, other, special, sports - that's the capitalization used).

I've used the "Premiers" feature on the Ceton My Media Center app, so I know it can be handy, and the data is available on my Win7 machine, but I've never seen it within WMC.
This is one of the features of EPG123.

foxwood

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#1234

Post by foxwood » Thu Jul 20, 2017 6:09 pm

Space wrote:This is one of the features of EPG123.
So nothing to do with complaints about the MS/Rovi guide falling below 12 days in advance, then?

otfrdok

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#1235

Post by otfrdok » Thu Jul 20, 2017 6:48 pm

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.

n127

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#1236

Post by n127 » Thu Jul 20, 2017 7:34 pm

otfrdok wrote: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.

dkrom

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#1237

Post by dkrom » Thu Jul 20, 2017 8:32 pm

foxwood wrote:
Space wrote:This is one of the features of EPG123.
So nothing to do with complaints about the MS/Rovi guide falling below 12 days in advance, then?
That's funny - originally I was going to post the premiers 12 day problem using the My Media Center App as my example, but I figured there weren't that many users of the app! I forgot that epg123 added that capability to Media Center itself (although I believe it was available before the ROVI switchover as well).

So Yes, it does have to do with complaints about the MS/Rovi guide falling below 12 days...

Byteme

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#1238

Post by Byteme » Thu Jul 20, 2017 9:06 pm

muranoone wrote:I am actually going to do a fresh install on a PC just to see what happens. I will report back.
Unless you've mucked up your system trying to get guide data that wasn't being sent, a fresh install won't change anything. The issue is on the provider side, not the user side. No direct correlation between the two.

Space

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#1239

Post by Space » Thu Jul 20, 2017 9:45 pm

dkrom wrote:
foxwood wrote:
Space wrote:This is one of the features of EPG123.
So nothing to do with complaints about the MS/Rovi guide falling below 12 days in advance, then?
That's funny - originally I was going to post the premiers 12 day problem using the My Media Center App as my example, but I figured there weren't that many users of the app! I forgot that epg123 added that capability to Media Center itself (although I believe it was available before the ROVI switchover as well).

So Yes, it does have to do with complaints about the MS/Rovi guide falling below 12 days...
I'm pretty sure that this feature was new to EPG123. WMC didn't have it even before they switched from zap2it/Gracenote to Rovi/TiVo.

I assume what EPG123 does is add the new "Premiere" categories and any show that has the "Season Premiere" or "Series Premiere" flags is also tagged with the appropriate categories. This allows WMC's built-in category system to search for these premiere episodes.

Normally, WMC would have the "Premiere" flags that would show up when you looked at the episode in the guide, but you could not do any kind of searches for them (as far as I can recall).

Rovi data still has this "Premiere" flag that shows up for broadcast network shows, but they apparently didn't bother to make it work for shows on other networks (not sure why, I would assume it wouldn't be any different). Just like they didn't bother to put year of release on all the movies in the guide which causes the extended movie information to not be available.
Last edited by Space on Thu Jul 20, 2017 9:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.

anotheruser

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#1240

Post by anotheruser » Thu Jul 20, 2017 9:45 pm

The latest update was available by 4 pm EDT today but contains no new data.

Still waiting to see any signs of progress in fixing the issue where well less than half of the daily updates have new data.

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