Guide Data Outage - 2018 Spring Edition

Global guide related discussion. All Windows versions.
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garyan2

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#61

Post by garyan2 » Thu May 31, 2018 4:10 am

Sorry, I took some liberty knowing this thread was started more as a tongue-in-cheek 6 months ago in anticipation to a problem that did not occur 2 months ago. Whatever MS did back in December seems to have done the trick as far as pushing updated guide listings regularly. Now the only real thing to complain about is the quality and there is nothing any kind of tip or trick used in the past can do to get the quality of the listings to where it should be. That lands entirely at Rovi's feet (for US/Canada folks).

That being said, there actually was some good conversation concerning pairing of CableCARDs and such that is a shame to lose.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

McGary

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#62

Post by McGary » Thu May 31, 2018 6:56 am

garyan2 wrote: … Whatever MS did back in December seems to have done the trick as far as pushing updated guide listings regularly. Now the only real thing to complain about is the quality and there is nothing any kind of tip or trick used in the past can do to get the quality of the listings to where it should be. That lands entirely at Rovi's feet (for US/Canada folks). ...
Agree -- the complete loss of updates hasn't happened for a good while now (knock on wood). HOWEVER, the loss of MOST channel's as I noted in post #46 and detailed further (with specific channel #s) in post #49 was a real PITA … and in fact happened AGAIN last night => my wife noticed that there was no data from 1 June forward on the same set of channels !! Fortunately MOST of our recordings are on the major network channels in the 1200 range that still have data … but not all -- and many of my wife's favorites (Hallmark, AMC, etc.) are among those that lost their guide data. Fortunately, I was able to resolve the missing channels the same way that worked before (thanks to another forum member's tip) … although I discovered that it does NOT work unless there are no active recordings.

garyan2 wrote: … That being said, there actually was some good conversation concerning pairing of CableCARDs and such that is a shame to lose.
Definitely agree. Regardless of whether I was trying to simply redo the complete WMC guide installation or install an alternative guide, it would be nice to have the details of how to do that without perturbing the cable card activations, as had been discussed in several of the deleted posts.

6athome

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#63

Post by 6athome » Fri Jun 08, 2018 11:21 am

fleanote wrote:I too was plagued with the guide issues and contemplated EPG123 at a cost but then nixed it when I found a post/string with a batch file you can run to fix your guide running out. It's sort of a flush and re-fill for the guide. Hope it works for you, you only need the 'mcupdate.exe -uf 'command, the rest is me being thorough.

@rem Script to auto refresh TV Guide in WMC
runas /user:NAME-OF-PC\username /savecred cmd
cd\
cd windows
cd ehome
mcupdate.exe -uf
close

This script is plugged into the Microsoft Task Scheduler and runs weekly (every Sunday) and I have had no issues with any of my media centers TV guides since instituting. Important note: the batch and commands must be ran as an administrator. As background, I run Win7 Pro w/WMC on all media centers.
This did work and I got my guide back, but I lost rights to 11 of my 19 movies. I have 3 WMC computers,two have Win 7 and one Win 8.1. One Win 7 and Win 8 computer I was able to rerun TV setup and get my guide back. The last Win 7 computer I ran the TV setup and I got a message that I needed a playready key? Could not get by the key request,so I tried this and got the guide back,but lost my DRM movies and still have the playready key curse? anyone cursed also?

McGary

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#64

Post by McGary » Fri Jun 08, 2018 5:57 pm

I actually set up an almost identical scheduled task to run the "mcupdate.exe -uf" command regularly (I actually run it every night at 3:45AM) … and haven't had any guide issues since I did that. Note that I had found that this command doesn't help IF there are any active recordings when it runs … but it's VERY unlikely that is the case at 3:45 -- and since it runs every night it's no big deal if it doesn't actually do anything on occasion.

I have NOT, however, checked all of our current recordings --- the message above has me wondering if there might be some rights issues with those … so sometime in the next month or so I'll "play" at snippet of at least a reasonable sampling of our recordings (a couple thousand). Hopefully I won't have this issue !!

6athome

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#65

Post by 6athome » Sun Jun 10, 2018 12:04 am

Did anyone get by the playready key lockout?

McGary

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#66

Post by McGary » Sun Jun 10, 2018 7:33 pm

6athome wrote:Did anyone get by the playready key lockout?
Fortunately I didn't have the issue (so nothing to fix) -- not sure if anyone else has seen this or not.

Did this happen as a result of running the "mcupdate.exe -uf" command? This command has resolved my guide issues twice in the past month; and as I noted earlier, I now have a scheduled task that runs it every night, and haven't had any guide issues since I set that up -- and no side effects that I've noted (e.g. playready key, access rights to existing recordings, etc.)

6athome

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#67

Post by 6athome » Mon Jun 11, 2018 12:17 pm

McGary wrote:
6athome wrote:Did anyone get by the playready key lockout?
Fortunately I didn't have the issue (so nothing to fix) -- not sure if anyone else has seen this or not.

Did this happen as a result of running the "mcupdate.exe -uf" command? This command has resolved my guide issues twice in the past month; and as I noted earlier, I now have a scheduled task that runs it every night, and haven't had any guide issues since I set that up -- and no side effects that I've noted (e.g. playready key, access rights to existing recordings, etc.)
The playready key mess started with no guide data, I found a way around it with two of my WMC computers, with rerunning TV setup. The thrid WMC computer I tried rerunning TV setup then the playready key mess started,all my movies were still able to be watched, even without me not being able to get by the key request.
I'm not sure what messed up the copyrights on my movies,I lost 11 out of 19 and don't have any idea why I lost some and not all. I did try other fixes before UF command. Still have playredy key bug and I don't know if it's HD Prime software or something else.

6athome

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#68

Post by 6athome » Tue Jun 19, 2018 9:56 pm

Could the HD Prime software somehow picked up the key from my cable labs certified HTPC? I reran TV setup to get the guide back and then reran TV setup on another HTPC I have and got the playready key request. I think I've tried everything on the internet to solve the key request and nothing has worked.

Space

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#69

Post by Space » Fri Jul 06, 2018 4:19 am

My guide has not updated since 7/3/2018 at 6am, anyone else?

Roginator

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#70

Post by Roginator » Fri Jul 06, 2018 5:45 pm

Space wrote:My guide has not updated since 7/3/2018 at 6am, anyone else?
I'm going to hope it's due to a critical employee on vacation. That or a valuable employee got deported. You there, Jose?

superdave6653

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#71

Post by superdave6653 » Sat Jul 07, 2018 2:46 am

Yup my guide data ends in about 8 days. I have noticed that sometimes guide data updates regularly and other times it updates only about every 5 days or so. Maybe it will update on Monday?

mwpeterson

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#72

Post by mwpeterson » Sat Jul 07, 2018 6:29 am

Just added 4 days of data. Everybody should have it by morning.

Space

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#73

Post by Space » Sat Jul 07, 2018 10:15 am

Good to know, thanks for the information.

Octavean

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#74

Post by Octavean » Wed Jul 11, 2018 3:38 pm

Everytime there is a guide outage / interruption it causes one or some of my local channels to stop populating data. It persists even after the outage has been corrected.

I use three different type of tuners. SiliconDust HDHomeRun Prime, HDHomeRun Duo (old white version in ATSC mode) and Hauppauge HD PVR. Whenever the locals lose their their guide data it’s across all tuners so I can’t get guide data from an OTA channel and map it to a CableCard channel for example. It’s just gone.

In such a case I have to use an elevated command prompt and “mcupdate.exe -uf -dbgc” command.

If that doesn’t work I have to do an “objectstorerecovery“ and possibly have to reconfigure the entire Media Center setup.

At the moment channel 9 (WWOR) and channel 13 (WNET) are out.

Once I came across that I knew something was up,....

McGary

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#75

Post by McGary » Wed Jul 11, 2018 3:56 pm

Octavean wrote:… In such a case I have to use an elevated command prompt and “mcupdate.exe -uf -dbgc” command.

If that doesn’t work ....
Once thing I've discovered when using the "mcupdate.exe -uf" command … it doesn't work if media center is currently recording anything. If nothing's being recorded, then it seems to work every time.

Octavean

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#76

Post by Octavean » Sat Jul 14, 2018 6:43 pm

McGary wrote:
Octavean wrote:… In such a case I have to use an elevated command prompt and “mcupdate.exe -uf -dbgc” command.

If that doesn’t work ....
Once thing I've discovered when using the "mcupdate.exe -uf" command … it doesn't work if media center is currently recording anything. If nothing's being recorded, then it seems to work every time.
Good to know,....

I tend to error on the side of caution so I don’t do much with it if Media Center is actively doing something. Typically I’ll just wait it out.

McGary

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#77

Post by McGary » Wed Jul 18, 2018 8:22 pm

AARRGGHH !! Same issue that's happened several times in the past 3 months … but this time the trusty "mcupdate.exe -uf" isn't fixing it.

To wit, all of the HD channels in the 1200 range show normal guide data; but virtually all other channels only have guide data for 2 more days (see my detailed notes in posts 46 & 49 for more info).

Anybody have any ideas on how to resolve this ?? The guide indicates data through 30 July … and on channels in the 1200 range there is indeed data through this date. But all of the other channels have no data beyond the 20th. In the previous cases, "mcupdate.exe -uf" (from an elevated command prompt) has resolved this … but not this time !!

6athome

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#78

Post by 6athome » Thu Jul 19, 2018 12:18 pm

Never got rid of the playready key lock on my Win Pro 7 HTPC and again guide miss up and speaking of messed up,MICROSOFT are scumbag billionaire's that don't give a dam.
If apple ever comes up with a recording DRM copy rights program,I'm taking a bite.
I was using another HTPC, that is my first HTPC which had to be bought from HP and cable labs certified, with a Key for WMC. Remember those first days of DRM?
Funny thing is that the HP has no problem with the guide updates,yesterday I got the 3 day notice for the guide and clicked update and it did? My other twp HTPC;s will not update the guide,no matter what I try. So is it playready messing up the guide data update?

nikleb

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#79

Post by nikleb » Wed Aug 15, 2018 2:33 am

My guide stopped updating. Don't really get an error. In fact in one occasion when I manually initiated download I got a download complete message rather quickly.

Any ideas what is going on?

superdave6653

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#80

Post by superdave6653 » Sat Aug 18, 2018 3:42 pm

Chances are the person responsible for doing the updates at Microsoft took time off or has been tasked with something else. There seem to be occasional delays in getting updates where data will drop to just a few days before an update happens.

If you have not rebooted your router recently you should probably also try that. Nearly every router in the US has been infected by a Russian virus.

If Media Center is having difficulty connecting to the internet, I recommend rebooting your router(s). Do a hard reboot by unplugging the power to your router, waiting 30 seconds and plug it back in, let the router reboot. If you have multiple routers unplug all of them before plugging any of them back in.

Russia is actively engaged in cyber war with the entire US. The FBI has warned all Americans to go through the router reboot process because of this issue. I recommend rebooting routers once a week because of this cyber war.

If that does not fix the issue try clearing the DNS cache by opening an elevated (administrator) command prompt and issuing the following command ipconfig /flushdns

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