Media Center EPG: Rovi Guide Data Quality

Global guide related discussion. All Windows versions.
User avatar
garyan2

Posts: 7438
Joined: Fri Nov 27, 2015 7:23 pm
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#761

Post by garyan2 » Sun Aug 21, 2016 9:49 pm

DavidinCT wrote:Over the last few months, recording duplicates started happing. For example on Discovery channel (any channel with east/west shows, discovery, TLC, HGTV, etc), new shows, for example, show up at 8PM, media center will record it with no errors but, it comes on the west coast feed at 11pm, it will record that one as well. They are showed in the "Scheduled recordings" listing as 2 recordings (only NEW episodes are set for this). A few odd ball shows are not showing as New episodes, so it's not recording them.

Then in the guide, Once you list a Movie, the picture/cover art is 95% of the time wrong and a totally different image that the movie listed.

These types of issues are starting to get old...
If only there were a way we could replace that MS/Rovi junk with something more accurate and reliable ... :think:
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

User avatar
NCoastTweaker

Posts: 36
Joined: Fri Apr 20, 2012 11:10 am
Location: Northeast Ohio (The NorthCoast)

HTPC Specs: Show details

#762

Post by NCoastTweaker » Mon Aug 29, 2016 10:36 pm

Yup. And the guide data is inaccurate on more and more channels. Less description on the synopsis too. now the epg download for tv setup is wrong for 50 channels for my zipcode. One really annoying issue... certain shows I record are now showing up as separate catagories due to the title have extra spaces or lower case vs upper case chars... I had to go find a metadata editor and fix it. what a pain... these folks are really causing us poor wmc users some grief.

User avatar
DavidinCT

Posts: 1556
Joined: Mon Feb 13, 2012 3:45 pm
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#763

Post by DavidinCT » Fri Oct 14, 2016 12:40 am

Here's a question for people and see if they noticed anything. The last outage was for the TiVo merger(timing fits exactly), this has me wondering.. Has guide data gotten better for people (in the last week or so)?

I'll be honest, WMC was always recording duplicates from moving to ROVI. For example, I am on the east coast, If I record something on Discovery (for example), it will come on later in the night for the west coast feed, WMC used to always record both of them as new (so I would get 2 recordings of the same show), after this change, I have not seen one dup record yet.

Maybe it's better now ?
-Dave
Twitter @TheCoolDave

Windows Media Center certified and WMC MVP 2010 - 2012

rickmktg

Posts: 67
Joined: Mon Mar 14, 2016 7:05 pm
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#764

Post by rickmktg » Fri Jan 27, 2017 9:05 pm

Didn't record the new Scandal last night, previously had missed some Lethal Weapon and Secrets and Lies. Guess I will have to do "new and rerun" going forward due to poor Rovi data. What crappy data.
Moved to W10 and NPVR in December 2019. Bye.

robnitro

Posts: 35
Joined: Thu May 03, 2012 10:13 pm
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#765

Post by robnitro » Mon Jan 30, 2017 11:33 pm

These idiots are marking every How It's Made as new, with the same generic description.

Lazy jerks, I should do SD, but I hate to migrate and redo my customized channels.

Roginator

Posts: 86
Joined: Fri Nov 02, 2012 5:21 am
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#766

Post by Roginator » Tue Jan 31, 2017 11:22 am

rickmktg wrote:Didn't record the new Scandal last night, previously had missed some Lethal Weapon and Secrets and Lies. Guess I will have to do "new and rerun" going forward due to poor Rovi data. What crappy data.
Same with Grey's Anatomy and NCIS last week.

TiVoPrince

Posts: 6
Joined: Sun Feb 05, 2017 5:02 pm
Location: LandofCotton, Atlants

HTPC Specs: Show details

#767

Post by TiVoPrince » Sun Feb 05, 2017 6:12 pm

Is Rovi actually to blame?
I'm comparing Rovi data on my long suffering TiVo Series3, and it is normal Rovi data, with specific episode information that I am familiar with. OTOH Vista Media Centre has only general series information instead of episode specific data. This might explain the database not recording if the data indicates not a new episode.

Apparently Rovi has the correct data but for unknown reasons it is not getting delivered to WMC. Additionally distressing is the lack of guide data beyond 7PM Eastern time 07FEB2017. Microsoft will be hearing from me on each installation that is no longer receiving data. Previous incidents would indicate that Microsoft only responds to issues once the public is alerting the media.

TiVoPrincess still prefers the Vista menus, once they are stripped down using MC Menu Mender over every option I have been able to present to her. Suppose that I'm going to be trying other things in a hurry if the drought of guide data goes more than a day or two. WAF has always hovered around 7.5/10 but without guide data it will be a 0/10 in about a minute once General Hospital does not get recorded.

Vista ain't dead yet, and we deserve ongoing support for "Project Longhorn" as promised...

robnitro

Posts: 35
Joined: Thu May 03, 2012 10:13 pm
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#768

Post by robnitro » Mon Feb 06, 2017 1:24 am

I switched to epg123 with Schedules Direct ($25 a year well worth it for good support!)

I never had issues with the updates, schedule was on time. BUT:
Rovi liked to mark many episodes as new, I'd get 2 repeats of the same show that aired 3 hours later for Pacific time.

Not to mention the generic descriptions shows, like some How It's Made, Mythbusters, would ensure a huge list of recordings, despite having those episodes.

Bye bye to those issues with epg123/sd.

BigBF

Posts: 4
Joined: Tue Mar 18, 2014 11:59 am
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#769

Post by BigBF » Mon Feb 06, 2017 11:47 pm

TV guide is back now. Update to Feb 19. Whew

gary94080

Posts: 194
Joined: Sun Jun 09, 2013 6:30 am
Location: San Francisco Bay Area

HTPC Specs: Show details

#770

Post by gary94080 » Tue Feb 07, 2017 4:56 am

garyan2 wrote:
DavidinCT wrote:Over the last few months, recording duplicates started happing. For example on Discovery channel (any channel with east/west shows, discovery, TLC, HGTV, etc), new shows, for example, show up at 8PM, media center will record it with no errors but, it comes on the west coast feed at 11pm, it will record that one as well. They are showed in the "Scheduled recordings" listing as 2 recordings (only NEW episodes are set for this). A few odd ball shows are not showing as New episodes, so it's not recording them.

Then in the guide, Once you list a Movie, the picture/cover art is 95% of the time wrong and a totally different image that the movie listed.

These types of issues are starting to get old...
If only there were a way we could replace that MS/Rovi junk with something more accurate and reliable ... :think:
just going by some of the programs we record, there is some improvement in data quality. earlier there was a large problem with generic program descriptions and wrong times. I mostly saw it with Disney Channel and PBS secondary channels.

now the PBS channels look ok. still have generic program descriptions for the Disney Channel.

TiVoPrince

Posts: 6
Joined: Sun Feb 05, 2017 5:02 pm
Location: LandofCotton, Atlants

HTPC Specs: Show details

#771

Post by TiVoPrince » Tue Feb 07, 2017 10:19 pm

Guide
data returned. In the midst of attempting a Vista/EPG123 unsupported installation on a backwater media centre that lives in my office. Got pretty darn excited when I saw guide data appear. Not so much once I noted that other machines also had data. Sanity checked a machine that had been off since Sunday by starting it disconnected from network. There was no guide data beyond what existed somewhere around halftime of the big game when it was shutoff. Reconnected to internet and retrieved latest guide listings.

A joyous day but still a sobering moment that we live and die for EPG data at the whim of the powers at Microsoft...

User avatar
rmeden

Posts: 67
Joined: Wed Jul 29, 2015 3:39 pm
Location: Schedules Direct

HTPC Specs: Show details

#772

Post by rmeden » Wed Feb 08, 2017 7:07 am

TiVoPrince wrote:Guide
In the midst of attempting a Vista/EPG123 unsupported installation on a backwater media centre that lives in my office.
Did you get anywhere with Vista/MXF loading? I've never been able to get the M$ provide MXF loader to work. (I tried before Gary created EPG123, but it still uses the M$ loader)

TiVoPrince

Posts: 6
Joined: Sun Feb 05, 2017 5:02 pm
Location: LandofCotton, Atlants

HTPC Specs: Show details

#773

Post by TiVoPrince » Thu Feb 09, 2017 4:03 pm

Mostly
trying a "hailmary" as Microsoft provided data was basically expiring in a few hours. With no reported solution in sight. I was becoming desperate enough to try just about anything to keep TiVoPrincess happy. What did I have to lose?

Based on reports that Play Ready installation means that it is using the equivalent of Win7/Win8 guide data. Vista end of life update support a couple of months out means I'm scrambling to keep the boat from sinking. I was hoping that this was potentially solid ground and a long term solution.

Fortunately/unfortunately Microsoft (Rovi) data unexpectedly returned to spoil that party. Since my programming skills are worth about $0.05 (or less) per hour this was more a "shot in the dark" than a pioneering effort by a trailblazer.

I would be happy to sign on for any effort to make this work. Volunteering that backwater computer as a guinea pig to be thrashed repeatedly for the cause. I'm great at following instructions and reporting results. Feel free to contact me if you need someone to be cannon fodder to test potential solutions. I may not bring the most skills but with six Vista Media Centres still rolling along, an EPG solution for the long term is near and dear to my heart and wallet...

User avatar
rmeden

Posts: 67
Joined: Wed Jul 29, 2015 3:39 pm
Location: Schedules Direct

HTPC Specs: Show details

#774

Post by rmeden » Fri Feb 10, 2017 6:38 am

I'm not a terrible coder, but was not able to get the Microsoft MXF loader to work at all on Vista so I gave up. I seem to remember there were some permission errors? it's been over a year since I tried it. I think M$ uses a different loader when they add guide data and the load_mxf.exe (or whatever it was called) was never actually tested with the tv_pack. I've never read anyone using the MXF loader on Vista.

User avatar
davidhp

Posts: 181
Joined: Thu Mar 13, 2014 2:28 pm
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#775

Post by davidhp » Fri Feb 10, 2017 9:48 pm

Anyone know how to get Rovi to update their channel line up? Las Vegas Cox Digital Cable updated their line up on Dec 5, 2016 but it is showing in the WMC EPG:
Channel 97 changed from COOL TV to Heartland TV
Channel 99 was added KHSV Decades TV
Channel 125 was changed from Fox Weather to Bounce TV

Space

Posts: 2838
Joined: Sun Jun 02, 2013 9:44 pm
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#776

Post by Space » Fri Feb 10, 2017 11:28 pm

You can try emailing them, before the Rovi/TiVo merger the email was:
ipgcustomersupport@rovicorp.com

After the merger I saw mention of these emails:
lineup@tivo.com
metadatasupport@tivo.com

I would guess try lineup one first.

User avatar
davidhp

Posts: 181
Joined: Thu Mar 13, 2014 2:28 pm
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#777

Post by davidhp » Sat Feb 11, 2017 3:21 am

Thanks will try it.

TiVoPrince

Posts: 6
Joined: Sun Feb 05, 2017 5:02 pm
Location: LandofCotton, Atlants

HTPC Specs: Show details

#778

Post by TiVoPrince » Sat Feb 18, 2017 5:15 pm

While
much of the guide data issues seem solved. The images that appear with movies continue to be hilarious. "Heidi" with an image from "The Sands of Iwo Jima" has me giggling still. While this does not much affect my enjoyment of V-MCE, it does make one wonder if TiVo or Microsoft is simply getting jollies at our expense...

dabretty

Posts: 90
Joined: Tue Feb 19, 2013 3:03 am
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#779

Post by dabretty » Wed Feb 22, 2017 4:05 am

Yeah, it can get a little weird like:

Image

TiVoPrince

Posts: 6
Joined: Sun Feb 05, 2017 5:02 pm
Location: LandofCotton, Atlants

HTPC Specs: Show details

#780

Post by TiVoPrince » Wed Feb 22, 2017 8:50 pm

Looks
like some old guy is interviewing the LA Kings new Left Winger....

Locked