EPG123 success story

I don't know if anyone else has noticed this, but after the Rovi switchover the guide on my MC got slow as heck - it sometimes took over a minute to open. I'm not sure what caused this, but it felt like my system was chewing on the guide data for some reason. After installing EPG123 my guide returned to opening instantly. I'd grown so used to the delay lag I didn't notice this until recently when I hit the guide button on the remote and it popped right up. Now, I have set EPG123 to download 14 days (I don't really need a full 3 weeks), so that may have something to do with it - but still I can't believe downloading 1 more week would cause that long of a delay. I suspect there was something in the way the Rovi data was populated that caused my MC to choke on it.

[Scallica]

I suspect there was something in the way the Rovi data was populated that caused my MC to choke on it.

I think that happened because Rovi was sending unusually large images, which caused WMC to choke.

I think that it is safe for me to say that I am agreeing with all of the positive posts before me and probable after me. After many tries of trying to "beat" the MS WMC issues to only at best had short term successes; I must say the EPG123 have saved the day (for me it was more many wasted days)! With just a day or so before running out of guide data; before this I was able to overcome the missing data issue, but this time I couldn't, I am so glad that I found out about EPG123 just before I kick my system to the street. I successfully installed and now enjoying doing other things besides messing with getting guide data, thank you so much Gary for so intelligently created this fix; a few beers is coming your way!!! My hair have been thinning and thank to you the rate is slowing down.

Sweet and simple solution is the magic of great Engineering, great work!!

This constant Guide Data outage from MS was the final straw for me. Since the switch to ROVI it's been a constant Fuster Cluck. Wrong Guide Data, Inaccurate Images for TV shows and Movies and not to mention the 3-4 times a year that the guide data just won't download. I have finally had it. I got a Subscription to SD for $25.00 a year and installed EPG123. Best move I have made with media center in a long time. Not only do I have 21 days of "accurate" guide data from today but all the images etc. are correct. I should have done this a long time ago. If you have finally had enough like me I can't recommend EPG123 enough.
newfiend~

You were a fellow hold out and you moved ! I'm also very fed up and it's about time...$25 a year, I'll get over it.

Just need to figure out the scheduled shows thing and I'll be good... maybe the c2r option might work, as long as it pulls out the show ID so it can be used with EPG123...

It's my only hold up now...but, after loosing some recorded shows, I'm getting fed up..

[HTPC Specs:]

This constant Guide Data outage from MS was the final straw for me. Since the switch to ROVI it's been a constant Fuster Cluck. Wrong Guide Data, Inaccurate Images for TV shows and Movies and not to mention the 3-4 times a year that the guide data just won't download. I have finally had it. I got a Subscription to SD for $25.00 a year and installed EPG123. Best move I have made with media center in a long time. Not only do I have 21 days of "accurate" guide data from today but all the images etc. are correct. I should have done this a long time ago. If you have finally had enough like me I can't recommend EPG123 enough.
newfiend~

You were a fellow hold out and you moved ! I'm also very fed up and it's about time...$25 a year, I'll get over it.

Just need to figure out the scheduled shows thing and I'll be good... maybe the c2r option might work, as long as it pulls out the show ID so it can be used with EPG123...

It's my only hold up now...but, after loosing some recorded shows, I'm getting fed up..

David,
If you haven't switched to epg123 seriously consider it. It's the best add on to WMC in years. It's breathed new life into it for sure.. worth the effort/money to switch. I hope Gary's PayPal account is overflowing.
newfiend

Sent from my SM-T820 using Tapatalk

Another new convert here. The previous guide issues were minor enough for me to deal with, but the last week or so with the guide being mostly useless, and an annoyed (but patient) wife standing by, I had to do something. Coming here and seeing the gravity of the situation left me no choice. EPG123 was easy to set up and works great. And I got the added "hero" bonus of station logos and season/episode numbers showing up now Great work.

[HTPC Specs:]

My WMC7 HTPC is a dedicated appliance running 24/7. I subscribe to the 'if it ain't broke don't fix it' mantra. I survived the Rovi switchover (even though the data quality degraded) and somehow avoided the outages until last week. So, I really had no reason to browse many forums or research anything as things were working (relatively) fine. I suspect many others were in similar circumstances. Luckily I was familiar with TGB and that was the first place I looked for a solution when things fell apart, which led me here.

Same situation here. I have an HTPC running 8.1 and it's been working fine until the beginning of July, when the guide ran out and refused to update for more than 2 weeks. That was enough for me, so I came to TGB to find alternatives to the default guide. Just finished setting it up and it seems to be a big improvement. I will keep an eye on it over the next couple of days just to make sure it's updating properly, but I don't anticipate any issues. Just wanted to add another "Thank You" to Garyan2 for this elegant solution.

[HTPC Specs:]

Verizon FIOS, Hampton Roads, VA area, with HDHomeRun Prime - only Standard Definition listings where available on my Windows 7 WMC. Before I googled the issue I re-did the "TV setup" and nothing happened (except that I have lost my favorite lineup setup and had to re-do it).
I found here about EPG123, and seeing that uses Schedules Direct (had great experience with SD and the previous ReplayTV boxes), I took the chance, and paid for a full year.
Well, after setting up the server and client, it works great! Took a little bit to populate all the channels but eventually they filled up.
My wife had to re-program her 200 shows (or they just seem to be that many to me) but hey, that's not my problem
Thank you Garyan2 and goodbye Rovi!

After a week and a half or so of no guide, (charter spectrum/madison, wi area), I punted and went the epg123 route...

Just the slow loading guide was almost enough for me to switch, but this outage pushed me over the edge.

so far so good, I had about 90 series recording scheduled shows lost, but I think it was time to clean house anyway.

if there's any time for the guide to fail, the slow summer time was probably good, as it's a lull in new programming on the networks.

[Moderator note: post moved]

[HTPC Specs:]

I had a glitch when the TV tuner disappeared and I had to just scroll through the WMC setup screens until it reappeared. Got a quick response to the problem when I posted it on this forum. Other than that, it's working like a charm. FIOS would only have 13 days of television listings and EPG123 lets you program it for four weeks if you want. I don't record many shows, mostly old movies when they come up so I didn't lose much during the change over. Thanks to Gary for putting the software together.

[Scallica]

Cable Card discussion moved here--> http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=11091

[HTPC Specs:]

So, I have been out of WMC action for the past 2 years, with the exception of using WMC to serve up movies and home videos to all my extenders (I love the old Media Browser look and it just flat out works for now... so no need changing unless needed right?) Anyways back to the point. I have fired up Cable subscription once again simply because I dislike DirecTV and am hoping Mediacom finally has their signal issues fixed.

Installed EPG123 and the process was smoother and easier than it looks! I am also in LOVE with the search functionality and categories added. Anime category and premiere categories are sweeeeet! Great job on making it so simple and user friendly... now I am just praying that the cable signal works so I can finally ditch the dish again!

[garyan2]

Since we have this thread, I think a perfect way to demonstrate EPG123 success is with the below graphic. The graphic shows the number of unique users in a given day that use the EPG123 API key to access TMDb for movie poster art. For the month of June this number was hovering around 1050 users. With the recent problems with guide listings from MS/Rovi, the number of users jumped by nearly 1800. The success indicator would be that most of these additional users do not appear to be temporary ... if they were using EPG123 with the 7-day free trial from SD, they would have dropped off by now and that hasn't happened.

[HTPC Specs:]

Glad to see all the new users. Hopefully most of them donated to you Gary. Your work surely is appreciated, as is your continued support on this forum.. Thank you once again.
newfiend

Sent from my SM-T820 using Tapatalk

I have had to finally go with EPG123 in order to get accurate channel listings for 43026. Channel numbers were incorrect: 7, which is PBS, was listed instead as TNT. I have only made the switch on my HTPC so far, and I have to say that it is most definitely worth it. Accurate channel listings, guide data, accurate and detailed episode info. Why in the heck did M$ make a deal with a bunch of patent trolls called Rovi? Looks like Rovi bought Tivo and shut down any semblance of contact through Rovi's website or social media accounts. And since we aren't Tivo customers we are being told that support cannot help us. Even trying to report channel listing errors requires a valid Tivo serial number.

[Moderator note: post moved]

I don't understand why people continue to put up with the crazy guide issues or talk about completely gutting and redoing their current TV setup. During the last major outage this summer, I decided to try EPG123 and haven't looked back.

I really like WMC and it has been pretty stable (outside of the stray guide issues) for me, as well as my 75 year old Mom. I am on Spectrum, so everything other than locals is locked down with DRM. The combination of WMC, EPG123, Silicon Dust Prime tuners and Xbox 360's as 'cable boxes' has worked well and saved me a ton of money, since I set everything up back in 2014. Money I would have paid Spectrum for crappy cable boxes. I easily saved $50 a month!

My recommendation to anyone wrestling with guide issues; try EPG123 instead of pulling your hair out and having to babysit guide issues. I am in no way associated with EPG123, just a happy user who doesn't have my mom giving me a hard time because her guide isn't working!

[Moderator note: post moved from guide data outage thread]

Really? After wrestling with Microsoft guide data issues, I post a comment in the outage thread. expressing shock that people are still wrestling with it and it gets moved?

Ludicrous. Wasn't aware TGB has such heavy handed moderators.

[HTPC Specs:]

Bit the bullet and have given up on Microsoft, Tivo and this whole freaking mess.

I converted to EPG123 (http://epg123.garyan2.net/) and Schedules Direct (http://www.schedulesdirect.org/). I now have 21 days of schedule and to heck with the problems.

EPG123 installed easy. The only issue I had was when I tried to run the utility to rebuild my recording schedules. The backup of the eHome directory was corrupted and EPG123 couldn't rebuild it with its utility. Not the end of the world and really didn't take that long to recreate.

So long to WMC EPG issues.

[Moderator note: post moved]