Guide updates stopped?

[newfiend]

So I guess the next question I have is.. What do we do when it does finally end? Are there 3rd party options available for the U.S. Or other countries? I like WMC and will continue to use it until I can't or something better finally comes along. Its silly that guide data falls out every so many months and they have to fix it again.. And again.. I'm glad they did but at some point its going away. We need an alternative if it does.

[STC]

The real question is like to have answered- why did the guide updates stop? And how can we prevent this in the future?

I don't understand how once more it required the public to bring it to MSs attention... The mind boggles....

[IownFIVEechos]

So I guess the next question I have is.. What do we do when it does finally end? Are there 3rd party options available for the U.S. Or other countries? I like WMC and will continue to use it until I can't or something better finally comes along. Its silly that guide data falls out every so many months and they have to fix it again.. And again.. I'm glad they did but at some point its going away. We need an alternative if it does.

I have petitioned to get TV Guide to start printing paper guides again.

[richard1980]

Additionally, does anyone have a good idea whether official Win7 guide support end with 'mainstream' support (currently Jan 2015), with 'extended' support (2020), or somewhere in between? Should it *technically* go to 2020?

The EPG is not part of Windows....it's part of WMC. And WMC is not part of Windows....WMC is a separate product from Windows. In short, the EPG updates have nothing to do with the Windows support lifecycle.

[glugglug]

That may be something that can only be resolved through the connect feedback. But I wouldn't stop there, you may have just been dealing with someone who didn't know what they were talking about.
My own experience is that they verified your complaint then corrected things. I'd press them on the subject.

Good news: I sent them another e-mail pointing out its not how most other channels work, and they said I should be seeing it fixed within the next few days. Response was super fast also.

[storchc]

Same problem San Marcos, TX... I have re-scanned tuners and 3/21/2014 10:00PM is all I get.

[Crash2009]

Same problem San Marcos, TX... I have re-scanned tuners and 3/21/2014 10:00PM is all I get.

Have you tried a manual guide update yet?

http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... f=6#p72701

[mark1234]

On one hand, XP, Win7, and Win8(.1) are all making requests to the same server for guide data, which is why the current issue affected **ALL** media center versions.

XP MCE and standard VMC pull the same dataset. They changed the data for Vista TV Pack (which, surely no one uses anymore?) and 7MC uses the same data, I assume 8MC does as well.

I don't know the detail of what changed, but I know it did. Back in the days when MS still admitted to owning Media Centre, someone internal said this much on the old TGB. I'd point you to a link, but, you know...

[mdavej]

Here's a very interesting response by Microsoft posted on the Media Center Data Quality site:

Posted by Microsoft on 3/19/2014 at 2:19 PM
The Enterprise Programming Guide system experienced a publishing outage due to a format change in the data provided to us by our partner team, which caused schedule validation to fail.

It should be resolved as of 9PM Pacific time on 3/18. If you are still seeing issues please run a manual update or re-run TV signal setup.

EPG is considered a legacy application within Microsoft, which means the developers who designed the systems have been reassigned to other projects, and only provide break fix support in addition to their other duties. As time goes on and people move on, there are fewer people who are familiar with the system, and it takes longer to respond to problems like this.

We understand that there are still many dedicated media center users, and there are currently no plans to shut down EPG. Additionally there are steps we can take to catch issue and resolve issues such as this more quickly. For the past year the server engineering team for EPG has also maintained this site and responded to data quality complaints. However, we also support many other applications in addition to EPG, and it has been difficult to respond in a timely manner to issues raised on this site.

As such, the decision has been made to shut the Media Center Data Quality site down, and route data quality issues through Microsoft Customer Service. Customer service will investigate initially, and then escalate to our team if data quality issues are suspected. This should increase the visibility of issues raised, and provide accountability to getting them resolved more quickly.

New requests for help can now be raised at this link: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/wind ... nvistatab1

Thanks for continuing to use Media Center. We will do our best to keep it up and running for you.

[storchc]

San Marcos,TX... I have guide data through 3/31/2014, issue resolved it seems!

[STC]

Here's a very interesting response by Microsoft posted on the Media Center Data Quality site

This is profound information. Thanks for posting it.
The North American market at least, can be re-assured of a 'working' guide for some years to come.

[makryger]

Here's a very interesting response by Microsoft posted on the Media Center Data Quality site

This is profound information. Thanks for posting it.
The North American market at least, can be re-assured of a 'working' guide for some years to come.

Very interesting--- this is the most "official" information we've got about Media Center in years. Looks promising.

[barnabas1969]

Here's a very interesting response by Microsoft posted on the Media Center Data Quality site

This is profound information. Thanks for posting it.
The North American market at least, can be re-assured of a 'working' guide for some years to come.

Very interesting--- this is the most "official" information we've got about Media Center in years. Looks promising.

Promising? Are you kidding me?

This...

the decision has been made to shut the Media Center Data Quality site down, and route data quality issues through Microsoft Customer Service. Customer service will investigate initially, and then escalate to our team if data quality issues are suspected. This should increase the visibility of issues raised, and provide accountability to getting them resolved more quickly.

New requests for help can now be raised at this link: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/wind ... nvistatab1

... is not promising! It means that EPG issues (and they don't even know that the "E" in EPG stands for Electronic) will be lost in the ocean of customer support requests, which are most likely handled by their CSR's in India... who have likely never even heard of Windows Media Center.

They are shutting down connect.microsoft.com. This is not good news!

Honestly, I think it will be worth paying $35/year ($20 for 2 years of BSEPG + $25/year for guide data) to get rid of this recurring headache. I know that I've personally written posts on connect.microsoft.com which ask the question, "Why don't you have a monitoring system in place to detect these problems before customers complain?"

There has been no answer to that question. Anyone who works in a large tech company knows that every process that is even remotely important to the company is monitored by an automated process so that staff are aware of problems before customers discover them. Microsoft obviously doesn't view the EPG as a process that is even remotely important to them.

[STC]

^ Do you really think Connect has ever helped a guide issue resolve? They themsleves said they're too busy and miss EPG problems.

The promising thing is they have stated continued 'support' read: *continued guide data*
That's all we need to be worried about.
The next time the guide blips we tell erkotz and it gets fixed soon afterwards just because he appears to have the contacts that cut through the mustard.

[Scallica]

Posts unrelated to the recent guide data outage moved here:

http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... f=5&t=7170

[mark1234]

Here's a very interesting response by Microsoft posted on the Media Center Data Quality site:

<snip>

This is at least an honest statement. Very surprising that they rely on previous team members to do side-of-desk fixes though. Do they not have documentation and knowledge transfer processes? Very amateurish.

I followed the link and came to an almost blank page. Certainly nowhere where I could even try and submit any guide data. Is this what everyone else sees?

[prje]

Here's a very interesting response by Microsoft posted on the Media Center Data Quality site:

<snip>

This is at least an honest statement. Very surprising that they rely on previous team members to do side-of-desk fixes though. Do they not have documentation and knowledge transfer processes? Very amateurish.

I followed the link and came to an almost blank page. Certainly nowhere where I could even try and submit any guide data. Is this what everyone else sees?

newguide.jpg

I agree that the "Support" page they are now sending us to does not offer a clear way to enter issues of this nature. Disappointing. This statement by Microsoft says to me that they are not planning to assign any resources to Media Center and if it breaks, sorry...

I'd be willing to pay an annual fee for Media Center if they would put some resources on it. Wonder who wrote that statement and if it's clear to senior management that the engineering team doesn't feel responsible for this "legacy" product. Can't understand how it's "legacy" if they are selling it with Win 8.

[IownFIVEechos]

Can't understand how it's "legacy" if they are selling it with Win 8.

The echo is "legacy" and they that is still being sold, must be a Media Center thing?

[barnabas1969]

I followed the link and came to an almost blank page. Certainly nowhere where I could even try and submit any guide data. Is this what everyone else sees?

Yes, that's what I see too. I assume you need to click the "Help from Microsoft" link.

[IownFIVEechos]

Just saw the Bets on anniversary of the echo topic is locked? Well today is the official last crack at a firmware by them March 20th. Happy Anniversary.. I got to re-pair mine today as a gift so thank you for that.