Guide Data Outage - 2019 Summer Edition

Global guide related discussion. All Windows versions.
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billmich

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#101

Post by billmich » Thu Jun 27, 2019 2:02 pm

Billyray520 wrote: Thu Jun 27, 2019 12:46 pm This is the first time I ever noticed this happening since I first set up WMC in 2014. I mean to the point where there was NO GUIDE available at all. I'm thinking about making the switch to EPG123.. Luckily, since it's summer rerun time, we aren't needing to make many recordings. I had to record Krypton last night manually, which worked. I'm going to keep checking this thread to see when the server is back.
I am in the same boat with you, even the 2014 start date.

Usually, I don't notice dead of summer issues because i use mine mainly for sports and this is a quiet time for me. Yesterdays College world series game notwithstanding

SugarFree

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#102

Post by SugarFree » Thu Jun 27, 2019 2:07 pm

Yes, the guide has a ton of program errors, n127 - but what happened this morning, and yesterday morning, is that despite getting no new data (days past sunday) - an incorrect listing magically fixed itself overnight! Bizarre.

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garyan2

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#103

Post by garyan2 » Thu Jun 27, 2019 2:08 pm

SugarFree wrote: Thu Jun 27, 2019 11:30 am Once again the guide has *corrected* today's data without adding new data. Before I put the HTPC to sleep last night at 11:30 I checked the scheduled recorings. I had 18 listed, including Chris Hayes and Rachel Maddow set for tonight. When I did a search on title, the guide showed 5 days left - till Sunday the 30th,which was correct.
I think you might be benefiting from the guide data embedded in the transmission. Are you OTA? What tuner are you using? The data embedded in the transmission stream can be as much as 24 hours and WMC is equipped to use it... I've just never seen it actually done. Sure sounds like this may be the reason though.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

stevethebrain

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#104

Post by stevethebrain » Thu Jun 27, 2019 2:12 pm

Difficulty downloading the latest TV guide Win7 media center

Still using windows7 media center w/ free TV antenna and explorer as net connection.

I have a internet connection w/ very strong signal however when I attempt to download latest TV guide.the mixed messages I get are a download is in progress.

This process is usually very quick like a few minutes for like ten days of data now it never starts or completes this crape started last night.

I have all auto updates turned off and has been for several years and it being off never interfered w/ the TV guide info.
When the guide is DLed I then delete all objects and files. then after DL I disconnect the net connection.

Tried several times to restore sys. To earlier date no improvement.

Is there a problem w/ the people supplying the data? my zip code is 36111
Thanks for any advice STB

[Moderator note: topic merged, search before posting]

jimij1000

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#105

Post by jimij1000 » Thu Jun 27, 2019 2:51 pm

choliscott wrote: Thu Jun 27, 2019 7:03 am
jimij1000 wrote:
AnneM wrote: Wed Jun 26, 2019 11:50 pm isn't this at least the 3rd year in a row that this has happened right before the 4th of July? what's up with that? :shifty:
Saving time changes for Spring and Fall and Summer and Winter Solstice. Go through the posts. Plus a few other anomaly's.

Still here Sugar, keep the dialogue going. MS if your data gathering, fix it! Rovi, Push them to do so for your own company's reputation.

Shameful between both companies if you think about it. Thousands or hundreds of thousands lose their ability to keep their DVR's going over a tv guide data feed issue.
Not sure why you believe people are going to lose their ability to keep WMC going when there is another alternative for guide service.
Well, let MS/Rovi pay for the alternative guide service for WMC users until it's retired which is either 2020 or 2023. I paid for my WMC license and to just ditch us users without notice is ridiculous. If I were to use an alternative guide then MS should refund my 10 bucks per machine, as well as my time for having to modify the clean install of WMC I have. If MS doesn't care about WMC then release the code and make it open source. Let the user community create their own code branch and choices of an EPG provider.

SugarFree

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#106

Post by SugarFree » Thu Jun 27, 2019 2:58 pm

Gary, I don't even have OTA. Verizon Fios, cable card, Ceton tuner. And I can assure you this has never happened (to me at least) before. However, the behavior reminds me of the "stuck loop" problem we've encountered in the last few years - where the media center kerps downloading the last successful file over and over. The fix came only when MS deleted all instances of that file from every server, so the new one could download. Might have something to do with the "Clientupdate Package is up to date" I see just before it tries to download the listings (and subsequent error message).

In any event, Rovi has been informed in detail, and has passed the info on to MS. Maybe it'll give them a clue to where to look.

All digits crossed.

SugarFree

duey

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#107

Post by duey » Thu Jun 27, 2019 5:45 pm

SugarFree wrote: Thu Jun 27, 2019 2:58 pm In any event, Rovi has been informed in detail, and has passed the info on to MS. Maybe it'll give them a clue to where to look.
It isn't hard to find. mediacenter.microsoft.com doesn't connect with either https or http. (none of the IP #s in their round robin for that hostname will connect)

DFox

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#108

Post by DFox » Thu Jun 27, 2019 6:00 pm

I don't think I've ever looked, but how long has it been resolving to the xboxlive.com domain?
C:\>ping mediacenter.microsoft.com
Pinging mediacenter.gtm.xboxlive.com [134.170.29.194]

C:\>nslookup mediacenter.microsoft.com
Non-authoritative answer:
Name: mediacenter.gtm.xboxlive.com
Addresses: 10.223.55.10
191.232.80.197
134.170.29.74
134.170.29.194
Aliases: mediacenter.microsoft.com

AChanceFind

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#109

Post by AChanceFind » Thu Jun 27, 2019 6:27 pm

I posted the Xbox question a few days ago. I also noticed the xbox name in the dns lookup. I believe as long as there is a guide in xbox I think it just works for WMC as they are shared.

If you do a tracert for mediacenter.microsoft.com and data.tvdownload.microsoft.com ( I don't really know the difference between the two) you see it gets inside the guts of the msn.net network but then just stops.

This tells me that it is not dns but either a network route issue caused by swapped network gear etc, a powered off server, or service that needs restarting. If it's a network routing thing I recall it should just bounce to the right route eventually but it's been so long so that is a long shot.

Bottom line is MS will fix it if it impacts xbox. Googling/twittering around it looks to me that TV on the xbox is still a thing so maybe that is our only hope.

DFox

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#110

Post by DFox » Thu Jun 27, 2019 6:46 pm

Right, sorry, trying to keep track of the posts. You had mentioned the xbox domain earlier. Also two days ago jachin99 did an nslookup and there was no record at the time, but a reverse lookup of that guide update IP resolved to data.tvdownload.microsoft.com at that time. Today it looks like there is a record, and potentially to a different domain.

So hopefully this is all just the result of Microsoft migrating some DNS zones. And hopefully they move the guide service properly. The good news is that the alias is there.

JohnW248

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#111

Post by JohnW248 » Thu Jun 27, 2019 7:37 pm

The error first occurred for me on June 19 2019 at 3:47 AM PDT. That was the first time the Failed to retrieve EpgListings ( Error: Unable to connect to remote server)
shows up in the Event viewer for Media Center so this has been going on for 8 days. Seems unlikely that a server was off for that long without some alarm going off somewhere.
Just failed again:-

Code: Select all

- <Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
- <System>
  <Provider Name="MCUpdate" /> 
  <EventID Qualifiers="0">0</EventID> 
  <Level>2</Level> 
  <Task>0</Task> 
  <Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords> 
  <TimeCreated SystemTime="2019-06-27T19:42:24.000000000Z" /> 
  <EventRecordID>35044</EventRecordID> 
  <Channel>Media Center</Channel> 
  <Computer>Dell-8700-Win7P</Computer> 
  <Security /> 
  </System>
- <EventData>
  <Data>12:41:00 PM - Failed to retrieve EpgListings (Error: Unable to connect to the remote server)</Data> 
  </EventData>
  </Event>
Last edited by JohnW248 on Thu Jun 27, 2019 7:48 pm, edited 2 times in total.

jimij1000

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#112

Post by jimij1000 » Thu Jun 27, 2019 7:38 pm

AChanceFind wrote: Thu Jun 27, 2019 6:27 pm I posted the Xbox question a few days ago. I also noticed the xbox name in the dns lookup. I believe as long as there is a guide in xbox I think it just works for WMC as they are shared.

If you do a tracert for mediacenter.microsoft.com and data.tvdownload.microsoft.com ( I don't really know the difference between the two) you see it gets inside the guts of the msn.net network but then just stops.

This tells me that it is not dns but either a network route issue caused by swapped network gear etc, a powered off server, or service that needs restarting. If it's a network routing thing I recall it should just bounce to the right route eventually but it's been so long so that is a long shot.

Bottom line is MS will fix it if it impacts xbox. Googling/twittering around it looks to me that TV on the xbox is still a thing so maybe that is our only hope.
Important networking point to understand is that some routers/firewalls are set to drop tracert/ping (icmp) requests. It might make it to the destination but the source of the request will not see an acknowledgment.

duey

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#113

Post by duey » Thu Jun 27, 2019 7:44 pm

AChanceFind wrote: Thu Jun 27, 2019 6:27 pm Bottom line is MS will fix it if it impacts xbox. Googling/twittering around it looks to me that TV on the xbox is still a thing so maybe that is our only hope.
The XBox guide is working fine. It doesn't affect Xbox.

billmich

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#114

Post by billmich » Thu Jun 27, 2019 7:58 pm

duey wrote: Thu Jun 27, 2019 7:44 pm
AChanceFind wrote: Thu Jun 27, 2019 6:27 pm Bottom line is MS will fix it if it impacts xbox. Googling/twittering around it looks to me that TV on the xbox is still a thing so maybe that is our only hope.
The XBox guide is working fine. It doesn't affect Xbox.
I have an xbox, where do I go looking for it on there?

AChanceFind

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#115

Post by AChanceFind » Thu Jun 27, 2019 8:01 pm

duey wrote: Thu Jun 27, 2019 7:44 pm
AChanceFind wrote: Thu Jun 27, 2019 6:27 pm Bottom line is MS will fix it if it impacts xbox. Googling/twittering around it looks to me that TV on the xbox is still a thing so maybe that is our only hope.
The XBox guide is working fine. It doesn't affect Xbox.
Well I guess there goes my last glimmer of hope. I see those of you who have tried tweeting and as expected from MS just nonsensical confused replies.

I did data center operations for 6 years so do know that it's possible the trace could be blocked down the line but was hopeful since it didn't seem to get a good number of hops into msn.net .

duey

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#116

Post by duey » Thu Jun 27, 2019 8:36 pm

billmich wrote: Thu Jun 27, 2019 7:58 pm
duey wrote: Thu Jun 27, 2019 7:44 pm
AChanceFind wrote: Thu Jun 27, 2019 6:27 pm Bottom line is MS will fix it if it impacts xbox. Googling/twittering around it looks to me that TV on the xbox is still a thing so maybe that is our only hope.
The XBox guide is working fine. It doesn't affect Xbox.
I have an xbox, where do I go looking for it on there?
https://support.xbox.com/en-us/browse/xbox-one/live-tv

DFox

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#117

Post by DFox » Thu Jun 27, 2019 8:51 pm

JohnW248 wrote: Thu Jun 27, 2019 7:37 pm Seems unlikely that a server was off for that long without some alarm going off somewhere.
(Wild speculation) I don't necessarily think that the actual server is offline. I think that if they are migrating some DNS zones (to Azure?) that the updated records are not pointing to the correct NATed IP. So internally the server(s) could still appear healthy.

jimij1000

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#118

Post by jimij1000 » Thu Jun 27, 2019 9:37 pm

DFox wrote: Thu Jun 27, 2019 8:51 pm
JohnW248 wrote: Thu Jun 27, 2019 7:37 pm Seems unlikely that a server was off for that long without some alarm going off somewhere.
(Wild speculation) I don't necessarily think that the actual server is offline. I think that if they are migrating some DNS zones (to Azure?) that the updated records are not pointing to the correct NATed IP. So internally the server(s) could still appear healthy.
The standard TTL for dns records is 24 hours. Not sure what the MS standard TTL is for DNS records. If they were migrating DNS zones it should have cleared up in less than 4 days. Also with that theory as the DNS zone updates happen the issue would not be a complete outage for all users as the DNS zones would push the new updates to the Root DNS servers. MS is fairly solid on DNS updates.

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#119

Post by dahef » Thu Jun 27, 2019 10:07 pm

I had been meaning to give 123 a try, so I got down to 2 days and converted. I'm pretty slow but was only down about 2 1/2 hours, a lot of that checking channel guide boxes. I wrote down my current channel choices before hand to make it easier. The only thing I lost was logo's of already recorded movies in my movie library. All new recordings, upcoming movies, and channel logo's look fine and match up.. Wish lists are still there. Everything looks about the same. I have 2 weeks of listings. A little more info on the listings. The only difference in interface is a Windows icon tool for some config info. The 123 guru (Gary) has been very helpful with questions. $25/year per household. Good luck and maybe see you on the other side..

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#120

Post by loueber » Thu Jun 27, 2019 10:14 pm

well i made the switch to epg123.
I have 2 cable cards, and i got it to work properly with 6 tuners.
So far, i find that the epg 123 is well worth the $25.

its a shame MS ruined things. Even if Rovi comes back, i wont switch back to it.

EPG123 gives a 7 day trial period so anyone that has run out of guide, its worth doing it.

ALSO since the playready is also screwed up, i had to delete and go through the process of resetting playready which means i lost the ability to play my previously copy protected recordings.

I came across a website that talked about how to keep prior DMR but i honestly didnt have time or the energy to try it.

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