Guide Data Outage - 2018 Spring Edition

Global guide related discussion. All Windows versions.
AnotherDave

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#41

Post by AnotherDave » Thu Mar 15, 2018 5:15 am

Minimal progress. I now have an additional 12 hours, through 8:00 AM on 20th.

Comcast in South Florida.

superdave6653

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#42

Post by superdave6653 » Thu Mar 15, 2018 5:24 am

Whoopie
I have EPG data through 6:00 PM March 24th
With at least one "placeholder" program ending at 4:00 AM March 25th (placeholder program begins prior to 6:00 PM on March 24th)

Comcast
Salt Lake City

Looks like pretty significant progress from here.

AnotherDave

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#43

Post by AnotherDave » Thu Mar 15, 2018 12:49 pm

Mixed results. My Comcast guide has still not progressed farther than 8:00 AM on Tue, the 20th.

However, my OTA system now has full listings for South Florida broadcast channels up to 8:00 AM on Sun, the 25th.

JohnW248

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#44

Post by JohnW248 » Thu Mar 15, 2018 9:16 pm

My update from last night now runs to March 27 at 3:30pm (that's from the TCM schedule and not the end time in the about guide which is later).

Spectrum Los Angeles San Fernando Valley West

superdave6653

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#45

Post by superdave6653 » Fri Mar 16, 2018 12:04 am

Comcast
Salt Lake City
Received update this afternoon to 6:00 PM MDT on March 27th
There are several channels (CMT, MTV, etc) that have a placeholder listing that begins prior to 6:00 PM on the 27th and ends at 4:00 AM MDT on the 28th.
This is why ABOUT Guide says the Guide end date is 4:00 AM MDT on 3/28 here (will be a different time in different time zones)

I noticed that a number of the program listings are incorrectly identified as reruns while other sources say they should be new.
So all is not good yet.

McGary

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#46

Post by McGary » Sun May 13, 2018 7:39 pm

Just noticed that my Guide data SAYS it's good through 24 May, but there is NO data for any SD channels after later TODAY (13 May).
I did a guide update, and it said it was successful, but didn't change anything (end date still shows 24 May; no data for any of the SD channels).

Anyone else having this issue?
Any ideas? Meanwhile, I need to spend a couple hours going through all the scheduled series to see what we'll miss in the next few days and add those as manual recordings.

Octavean

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#47

Post by Octavean » Mon May 14, 2018 11:12 pm

Yeah this is indeed odd,....

I’ve been having a slightly different issue as others have reported here.

RCN is my cable provider.

I’m using a SiliconDust HDHomeRun Prime CableCard tuner with two HDHomeRun Dual (Older white model) ATSC tuners and a single Hauppauge HD PVR USB unit (with HD cable box). So that is a total of 3 (CableCard) + 2 (ATSC) + 2 (ATSC) + 1 (analong HD / H264 / DVB-T spoofed) = 8 tuners.

Guide data is mostly populated about 99%. I’ve only noticed three channels missing guide data (9 WWOR, 11 WPIX and 13 WNET /PBS). Guide data Seems to extend to May 25th fully populated for all other channels.

Here is the thing though. The missing guide data is missing across all iterations for those given channels.

Channel 9 WWOR (SD analog HD PVR), channel 2609 (remapped HD CableCard), channel 609 (HD analog HD PVR) and channel 9.1 (HD ATSC) all have missing guide data.

It’s the same for channel 11 WPIX and channel 13 WNET. However, channel 11 WPIX did have guide data from one of the tuners so I was able to remap that data.

I’m not going to mess with it for now. Basically I only have two channels that are a problem at the moment and it’s not worth the headache.

Space

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#48

Post by Space » Tue May 15, 2018 3:27 am

Just chiming in here to let others know that I am not seeing this guide data issue at all. I use the FiOS Freehold, NJ lineup and I have complete guide data for all channels.

This problem may be related to a specific provider (or providers), which is fortunate for most of us, but unfortunate for those whom it affects, because it is probably going to be more difficult to get people to look at at a problem that is only affecting a subset of users as opposed to a system wide one.

It is possible that I may see this problem in the future (I believe a similar problem in the past was reported here a few days before I also started seeing it), so I will keep an eye on it and let you know.

McGary

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#49

Post by McGary » Thu May 17, 2018 10:00 am

jaimeknapp wrote:No, you are not alone. … I have a legacy Time Warner TV package rather than the current Spectrum package and that may be the issue in the TWC lineup being closed out by Rovi.
Interesting that you're having the same (or at least very similar) issue. I'm also in San Antonio, and am also using the "Time Warner Digital" guide choice. My guide shows it's good through 28 May (and for those channels it's showing that's correct) … but shows "No Data Available" for almost ALL of the channels. Specifically, I have data for channels 15, 80, 81, 92, 94, 1200, 1203, 1206, 1209, 1212, 1215, 1218, 1221, 1240, 1241, 1244, 1253, 1268, 1269, 1270, 1277, and 1285. NONE of the other channels show any data -- they all just say "No Data Available".

ALL of the channels WORK just fine -- if I tune any of them they're good. I just don't have any guide data. Setup is Windows 7 with 3 HD HomeRun Primes (3 cable cards -- total of 9 channels at a time).

jaimeknapp => Did you get this resolved yet? Just curious what you might have tried so far. With the major networks all in the 1200 range (thus with good guide data), the primary things we're missing are the news channels (CNN, MSNBC, Fox) and my wife's favorite Lifetime and Hallmark channels (both Hallmark and HMM) => so this week I've had her look through an online guide and I've created manual recordings for everything she wants recorded. But I DO plan to get this resolved on Saturday (which is the best day for "messing" with the setup without incurring the "wrath of wife" in case it's not available for a few hours :D ) Just curious if you've already solved it.

jaimeknapp

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#50

Post by jaimeknapp » Fri May 18, 2018 1:56 pm

[quote="McGary"][quote="jaimeknapp"]McGary,

Jaime => Are you using the San Antonio Time Warner Cable Digital lineup with EPG? Definitely sounds like that's the way to go … and I'm going to try it as quickly as I can get an 8-hr block of "no scheduled recordings" time (just want to be sure I have plenty of time to resolve any issues).

I use that one and the Local Broadcast Listing for my ATSC tuners. I cleaned up the SchedulesDirect lineups beforehand to include only our subscribed and preferred channels. You will still have to disable all those other channels in WMC, but it will go much faster if those channel numbers have no association with your SchedulsDirect lineup.

One gotcha I had was, when asked to configure tuners in WMC, you have to get past the point of authenticating your CableCard devices before moving on. At first, I was not sure if I would have to go through the validation process again, which can be painful, and cancelled out. Obvious to me then was that there was no signal to be found and went back through it, finding that the validation and authorization had been retained.

McGary

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#51

Post by McGary » Fri May 18, 2018 4:40 pm

This CableCard "stuff" is indeed what I've been leery of, as it took a long time to get my CC's activated => the Time Warner process leaves MUCH to be desired, and there was extensive hold time and then transfers to some other agent before I finally got them activated. It's been a few years, so it may be better now, but it's not a process I would want to repeat if not necessary.

Jaime => Did Gary outline what you did correctly? i.e. you simply proceed with the activation process but it then decides there's nothing new to activate?

McGary

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#52

Post by McGary » Sat May 19, 2018 4:10 am

garyan2 wrote:
I don't have CableCard so this is one thing I have never witnessed myself and it sounds to me like it should be in my installation guide. If you can recall, or someone who has done this or doing this currently, could you fill in the <blanks>?

X. For CableCard users, you may be presented with a <title of validation screen> screen. Your previous CableCard activation is still valid and you simply need to click <OK>.
Hopefully Jaime will reply to this so I can take advantage of his experience … but if not I'll be sure and post the steps I use when I make the switch … which I'm now planning for next Thursday. I was going to do it tomorrow, but my wife has the British wedding scheduled for the morning and several movies scheduled throughout the rest of the day (which I had to set manual recordings for her) …. and we're not going to be here Sunday. So my next "free day" in terms of a long period with no recordings is Thursday.

Hopefully this switch will be a quick, painless process :D

Octavean

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#53

Post by Octavean » Sat May 19, 2018 6:21 pm

OK, I took a closer look and it seems that I have guide data up to the 30th so that is about 11 days. However, the caveat is that the local channels on CableCard, cable box and OTA don’t seem to be updating. So that guide data for the locals ends on the 21st for the local channels that have not yet lost their data.

Typically I can fix this by Nuking it from orbit and reconfiguring Media Center.

Octavean

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#54

Post by Octavean » Sun May 20, 2018 1:39 pm

McGary wrote:
jaimeknapp wrote: I do not know just how many CableCard users are still out there, but I think many, like me, loathe the idea of having to deal with their provider's CableCard support. They are well-known for mucking up already working systems.
Actually I'd think there are quite a few folks with CableCards => not sure how many cable companies it's true for, but as an example when Time Warner went full digital a few years ago, a standard tuner (e.g. my trusty old Hauppauge dual tuner cards) would no longer work, so I had no choice but to go with a cablecard tuner -- which is when I bought my HDHomeRun Primes (replaced 4 Hauppauge 2250's with 3 HDHomeRun Primes). I agree, however, that dealing with TWC's CableCard "support" was a BIG hassle -- it took several hours to get the cablecards activated.

jaimeknapp wrote: This is specially true for legacy clients like me. With a legacy TWC account and ANY account changes made change you into a new Spectrum account generally resulting in a change in their channel lineup and subscription cost that is irreversible.
I wasn't even aware that there is a separate "Spectrum" channel lineup -- I haven't made any changes to my Time Warner subscription in many years -- in fact, the last change I made was when I bought the HD HomeRun's and needed the cable cards (Not sure of the exact timing, but I think that was about 4 years ago) The list of available providers for San Antonio on Zap2It only shows AT & T U-Verse, Time Warner Cable - Cable, and Time Warner Cable - Digital. Are you aware of a separate "Spectrum" lineup?
I don’t even think the cable industry wanted to provide CableCard as an option which might explain why it can be so difficult to deal with. The cable industry was perfectly happy with compulsory renting of cable boxes and DVRs rather then CableCard for ~$1.99.

The first CableCard I received was defective and such issues are just compounded by cable tech support assuming you can only use CableCard in a TiVo or specific models of TV. Basically it’s a nightmare but it’s a nightmare of their own design,.....it’s they way they want it to be.

McGary

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#55

Post by McGary » Sun May 20, 2018 2:36 pm

Octavean wrote: … Good news, for now an elevated command prompt and “mcupdate.exe -uf“ was able to correct the issue. I now have guide data for all channels up to the 31st.
SON OF A GUN !!! Just tried that and Voila!! … all of my guide data is back :D

I'm still tempted to switch to EPG "one of these days" … but clearly the pressure is off for now. I don't think this time the issue had anything to do with Rovi, since the guide was updating regularly and for those few channels I had data for all was well. Somehow my other channels were "messed up" in the lineup -- and apparently the updates didn't resolve that; but forcing a new package download instead of just an update did the trick. Hadn't even thought of that -- I had only tried the "Get Latest Guide Data" option within the MCE interface.

McGary

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#56

Post by McGary » Sun May 20, 2018 2:41 pm

… Now the question is does this survive the next guide data update :D

I suspect it will, but I'll watch carefully for the next couple days until there's an update.

It'd be nice to know WHAT caused this … but at this point it really doesn't matter, since it's nicely resolved.

McGary

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#57

Post by McGary » Sun May 20, 2018 8:13 pm

The HD PVR is certainly a nifty box … I came close to buying a couple of them some time ago, but ended up just switching everything to HDHomeRun primes (3 of them). One frustrating issue is that our provider (Time Warner/Spectrum) marks virtually EVERYTHING as "Copy Once" … so recordings can only be played back on the PC they were recorded on or an extender. Not a problem … but it basically means if the PC ever dies all of our recordings will be useless. My understanding is that most other cable companies are FAR less restrictive … and mark most of their content as "Copy Freely", so it can be played back on any PC. That's really how the copy control flags are supposed to work -- i.e. only premium content should be flagged as "Copy Once" => but I don't have that luxury.

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Scallica

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#58

Post by Scallica » Wed May 30, 2018 2:21 pm

No EPG123 talk here, please. Previous posts have been deleted.
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McGary

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#59

Post by McGary » Wed May 30, 2018 6:10 pm

Scallica wrote:No EPG123 talk here, please. Previous posts have been deleted.
WHY would you delete all those posts? The info provided was VERY useful for anyone having these guide data issues -- and with Microsoft/ROVI seemingly uninterested in long-term fixes (which would eliminate this recurring issue), it's useful to know about the alternative guide options.

Gary wasn't "pushing" the alternative -- just answered a few questions about it from those of us who were getting pretty desperate to not lose our guides.

Perhaps MOVING the discussion to another thread would have been a reasonable thing -- along with a single post noting that there was a discussion of an alternative guide in that thread (along with a pointer to it).

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Scallica

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#60

Post by Scallica » Wed May 30, 2018 7:00 pm

Members come to this thread to discuss issues with Microsoft/Rovi guide data. They are not interested in guide data alternatives, period. We have an entire sub-forum for discussing EPG123, so use it.

We have this issue every time a new guide data outage thread is started. There will be no more warnings issued or posts moved; they get deleted. End of discussion.
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