WMC TV Guide

[chrisgnv]

All, I'm about to replace DirecTV with Win7/WMC running on an Intel NUC i5, connected to an HD Homerun Connect. I understand WMC is no longer in development but am not concerned because MS will continue to provide security updates for Win7. What I am interested to know, though, is how WMC gets its TV schedule and how long that will be maintained. I'm a victim of Sony dropping the TV Guide subscription for Bravia TVs manufactured before 2013.

Can anyone tell me what the TV schedule source is, and how long that can be expected to continue?

My WMC HTPC will run Win7 because I have a license for that, but not for Win 8 or 8.1. I also have a WHS server which is where the media will be stored after recording. I may run Plex on the HTPC but not until everything's settled with WMC. I have little interest in streaming content to anything other than the TV to which it will be connected by HDMI.

Thanks

[chrisgnv]

Hmm.. perhaps my answer can be found in the EGP forum. Didn't see that earlier.

[Moderator note: topic moved]

[mdavej]

The source is currently Rovi, the same used by Xbox One and a few cable systems. The quality of the guide is pretty terrible and will probably remain so until the end of WMC's life, which should be many years away. Even then, there are 3rd party guide options that should work indefinitely.

Having said that, you're about 10 years late to the WMC party. At this point, the Titanic has just hit the iceberg and you're parachuting in. Save yourself a lot of misery and just get a Tivo. That's what I did immediately when we hit the iceberg, aka, Rovi and Windows 10.

[chrisgnv]

I'd rather not pay a subscription to TiVO. I'm aware that WMC is a dead end and I'm okay with that. If I'm dissatisifed, my only lost investment is, at worst, $80 for a 2-channel HDHomerun Connect. Even that can work with Plex or other PVRs. The NUC I'm buying to serve as an HTPC can become a totally satisfactory replacement for an aging desktop. I already have a Roku which gets me Netflix, Amazon Prime, and other services. In fact, I can already get both on my Sony Bravia but it's an older TV, the menu responds a bit slowly, and the remote is dying and not available. (3rd party universal replacements don't work as well.)

Moderator: thanks for moving this to the appropriate forum.

[dkrom]

I've been annoyed by some ROVI issues, but in the end - you are right - the price can't be beat! Since you really have no frame of reference to the many missing WMC components, it'll bother you even less.

Some of the big problems people take issue with are:

1. Sports schedules are not up-to-date with who is playing - I'm not into sports that much, so I really don't care.
2. The late night shows have/had generic show descriptions with no guests, but the last few nights I've looked and all the guests are listed - not sure if that's because many are in rerun right now though). Again, not a late night watcher so no bother to me....
3. The "cover art" pictures of recorded shows are not always correct. I'd say about 80% are correct for me. A bit of an annoyance for me, but for a free service, again I don't care that much. Some turn out to be funny.
4. I've heard that the Cartoon Network schedule isn't correct for people. Don't have the channel, so don't care.

It still "just works" and I think it's great for the price. It used to be awesome for the price, but still great is great. I looked into buying a TiVO as well - $600 for lifetime service, no thank you, not when I can still do everything I want for free! I'd say you're late to the party, but it's still a great party - welcome to the party!

[chrisgnv]

Thanks for the update. I'm mostly interested in the system maintaining a schedule to record new episodes of prime-time series evening news. As long as it keeps the schedule and labels it correctly as S01E12, or whatever, I'm good. I don't care about sports or late-night. If I'm watching late at night, I'm staring and drooling as I channel surf mindlessly.

[dmagerl]

You can go to http://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/tv-listings and enter your zipcode to see what stations will be in your guide. Rovi guide data doesnt get very high grades for accuracy.

[mdavej]

I'd rather not pay a subscription to TiVO.

You don't have to pay a subscription. I certainly don't. I would never even consider it.

I also consider that my time has value. I was constantly spending time tweaking, fixing and maintaining WMC. Tivo requires nothing of me. I travel a lot, and maintaining WMC from afar is not pleasant. Now I don't have to worry about it. If you don't believe WMC is high maintenance, just look at the threads on this board.

[RyC]

Late night guests and show thumbnails are fixed, at least for me. Some sports schedules and cartoon network still are kind of mucked up but in general I'm pretty happy with the guide quality now

[dkrom]

I had an XP MCE setup for 10 years that I never had to tweak or fix until the ROVI switchover. I had to go to 7 because XP didn't get the ROVI data. Since I've set up my 7 machine I haven't had to tweak or fix anything other than "extras" I setup like My Media Center (a program you should check out chrisgnv). One thing I've learned to is stop ALL windows updates (my old XP machine was still only on the 2nd service pack and I never had any problems). I know that being up-to-date is important, but with a media center setup you need have the attitude of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". Also, when there is a problem be patient and don't mess with things - every year around daylight savings time the guide will almost run out of data, only to be fixed a couple days before actually running out. The forums here light up with people worried and trying workarounds, but in the end it always works out.

RyC - yeah, I thought the late night shows were fixed, but some of my thumbnails are still messed up. I'm happy with the guide quality too. I'm staying with WMC until the end, whenever that may be.

[Mike88]

The late night talk show guests eventually get listed for me. If I look at the EPG a week into the future, no guests are listed.

The guest lists show up 1 to 3 days before the actual air date. If I record the Late Late Show as a series then the guests should be listed on the recordings. If I want to look a week ahead of time and pick & choose which episode to record then I'm out of luck because no guest would be listed.

I noticed the repeat/rerun episodes do list the guests.

Obviously YMMV.