Guide Data Outage - Winter 2017 Edition

Global guide related discussion. All Windows versions.
JohnW248

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#341

Post by JohnW248 » Tue Feb 07, 2017 10:02 pm

dottier wrote:Still have no useful response to my problem except to have it moved to this place. Not really appreciating ms right now. I have already ruined a couple of days on this.

I am unable to download MC tv setup data. It stalls out and runs for hours if I don't cancel it.
Don't know if I am now able to download the guide because I have to run set up first.

I am OTA, 64 bit, fresh Real Player download, no file errors,
did this, didn't help - https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/win ... fec58f094e

I am in Phoenix, AZ, not really an out of the way location.
Reinstalled OS last week. Don't want to do that again. no file errors anyway.
internet connection checks out fine.
Don't use this computer for anything else. Anti virus is 360 S C
Since you re-installed the OS, did it work when you did that? Make sure you are fully updated AND the new install is activated or it won't work.

At what point does set-up stall? If it's at Getting Latest Information, then it's scanning for service providers based on your zip code input. If that's where its stalled, try a different Zip Code and see if it runs. If not you can do the Media Center Recovery Task which will reset MC (It's in the Task Library dangerously close to the guide update tasks (there are two of them).
Also what tuner(s) are you using and why do you need Real Player?

antipode

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#342

Post by antipode » Wed Feb 08, 2017 12:51 am

antipode wrote:I have the "not populating" issue with OTA programming - on one WMC (W7) it reports "3 days left" downloads, completes, then has the same complaint all over again, another (W8.1) I futzed with the database and re-set up and that will now not download the guide at all.
And as of Tuesday 2/7, in the PM, all works properly again on both my W8.1 and W7 systems. Server side issue, clearly, and those who said "sit back and relax" were right :)

joeski

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#343

Post by joeski » Wed Feb 08, 2017 3:10 am

dabretty wrote:Is it me or ... has the quality of the guide also improved? My (admittedly limited) data set is college basketball games, which I'm a fan of. I don't think I see a single "Teams to Be Announced" anywhere, all teams are actually listed. I don't think I've seen this since the Rovi switch.

The quality of my guide data is definitely better than before this mess. The show cards alongside the episode descriptions are now showing newer and more accurate pictures/logos as well!

AnotherCordCutter

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#344

Post by AnotherCordCutter » Wed Feb 08, 2017 2:46 pm

DFW Area (Dallas Fort Worth)
As of Monday (February 6th) I manually ran an update to pull down new guide data. I did this on two WMC systems, one of which is a dedicated recorder and the other is for viewing. My OTA EPG guides did pull down approximately 12 days worth, so I'm very happy about that. But there are still errors that show on the task-bar icon indicating that something may have gone wrong in the background. However the guide did populate with data on both machines and my recording schedule looks good.

This has happened again and again over the years, but I'm still very grateful to have been a part of Microsoft's free WMC. I've been involved with it since 2007, back in Analog days and pulling signal from cable. These days I'm doing it in full digital over the air in High Definition. I really can't complain about the price either.

And I suppose if I did complain, they could simply offer me a full refund. :O)

Thanks goes out to whom ever at Microsoft is still taking care of us.

dav8or

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#345

Post by dav8or » Wed Feb 08, 2017 3:05 pm

I am new to WMC and have only had it running for a few weeks now when this guide data problem happened. I read another post from the Houston area that said their guide data is working again. Unfortunately, mine is not and I am not sure if that means I have other problems. My guide ended yesterday 2/7. Are there any other steps I need to follow to get this working again? At the moment I have just been setting this up for a test to see if my wife will be able to handle the change before we cut the cord. The DVR portion is important for that.

Thanks,
Dan

Fatman

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#346

Post by Fatman » Wed Feb 08, 2017 3:40 pm

I just took another update to wmc, win7, Milwaukee Wi area, OTA. The guide goes out to the 20th. In post 337 a couple of days ago i had taken an update to the 17th.

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Scallica

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#347

Post by Scallica » Wed Feb 08, 2017 4:14 pm

dav8or wrote: My guide ended yesterday 2/7. Are there any other steps I need to follow to get this working again? At the moment I have just been setting this up for a test to see if my wife will be able to handle the change before we cut the cord. The DVR portion is important for that.
Nope, just keep trying to download until it works. Also, since you are new to WMC, you should know there has and will be frequent guide data outages unless you use an alternative source.
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dav8or

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#348

Post by dav8or » Wed Feb 08, 2017 4:24 pm

Thanks, I will keep trying. I thought maybe there was a problem since another user reported getting the updates for Houston which is what I am trying to get.

AnotherCordCutter

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#349

Post by AnotherCordCutter » Wed Feb 08, 2017 9:18 pm

In reply to dav8or,
you might try pulling the update from within the settings menu rather than using the taskbar icon. So under settings look for TV and choose Guide, and than from there choose, "Get Latest Guide Listings." I find doing so from within this area it has been more successful than using the taskbar icon. The Taskbar will usually report errors even when it appears to be working. :O)

dav8or

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#350

Post by dav8or » Thu Feb 09, 2017 12:56 am

I had been doing that. It finally updated on its own. I must have been one of the last. Looks like it is good now.

Thanks,
Dan

joeer77

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#351

Post by joeer77 » Thu Feb 09, 2017 4:30 am

Guide updated on 3 PCs here in Hillsboro Oregon. Thanks to everyone for getting this pushed through at Microsoft. Been relying on WMC since 2011. This event and the Rovi change over have been the only guide hiccups for me. Fingers crossed for the future:)

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Peepers

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#352

Post by Peepers » Sat Feb 11, 2017 5:13 am

I'm in Phoenix and using OTA. Guide is not updating. Has the "bug" been resolved or do I need to reinstall WMC?

Space

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#353

Post by Space » Sat Feb 11, 2017 5:22 am

The problem has been resolved. I don' think reinstalling WMC is the go-to solution for this (at least not immediately). Another thing you can try is running "Set Up TV Signal" and going through and choosing your lineup (perhaps the name of your lineup has changed, which can cause this problem). If that doesn't work, you can do it again, but this time pick a different lineup. If that works, then you can run it once more and pick your real lineup again.
These are just some suggestions. I've never had this problem, so I am just going by memory as to what I have seen other people do, I may have missed some other solutions, so maybe others will also chime in here.

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Crash2009

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#354

Post by Crash2009 » Sat Feb 11, 2017 5:42 am

Peepers wrote:I'm in Phoenix and using OTA. Guide is not updating. Has the "bug" been resolved or do I need to reinstall WMC?
Do a System Image, maybe a Restore Point as well, If you have any Series Recordings setup, use Seans WMC Backup and save them. Wipe WMC out using....

If all else fails you can always return WMC to original "Out of the box Factory new".

i. Click on start

ii. In the search box type in cmd, right click on cmd and select “Run as administrator”

iii. Open a command prompt, and run the following command:

%systemroot%\ehome\mcupdate.exe -MediaCenterRecoveryTask

iv. Close command window, and reboot the computer.

Then, open up WMC and use Setup CUSTOM this will give you new everything.

Then run Setup Custom

http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... 51#p106151

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Crash2009

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#355

Post by Crash2009 » Sat Feb 11, 2017 6:04 am

Peepers wrote:I'm in Phoenix and using OTA. Guide is not updating. Has the "bug" been resolved or do I need to reinstall WMC?
Yes the bug has been resolved. Your guide needs a nudge.

Another one, (actually a bit more precise for guide problems) is to go to C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\ehome and delete all the db files...such as...

"C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\ehome\mcepg3-0.db"

You will likely have 3-0, 3-1, 3-2, etc. These db files are your guide data. Then go back into WMC and run TV Setup. WMC will rebuild your db files and hopefully get it right for you.

Do those backups that I suggested in the first post.....so you can always go back to the way things are right now.

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Crash2009

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#356

Post by Crash2009 » Sat Feb 11, 2017 6:05 am

Peepers wrote:I'm in Phoenix and using OTA. Guide is not updating. Has the "bug" been resolved or do I need to reinstall WMC?
A third thing you can try.....and actually this one should be First, is to simply go in to WMC and run TV Setup.

dkrom

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#357

Post by dkrom » Sat Feb 11, 2017 3:55 pm

Crash2009 wrote:
Peepers wrote:I'm in Phoenix and using OTA. Guide is not updating. Has the "bug" been resolved or do I need to reinstall WMC?
A third thing you can try.....and actually this one should be First, is to simply go in to WMC and run TV Setup.
I'd suggest the first thing to try is "Objectstore Recovery Task"

Search for "Task Scheduler"
Expand "Task Scheduler Library">>Microsoft>>Windows and click Media Center
Right-Click on ObjectStore Recovery and select "Run"


- that always worked for me when my guide didn't update. For me I never had to run TV setup, it just started working again. Others report having to setup their TV again, so it may just work, or you'll have to do the TV setup and it should work after that.

joeer77

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#358

Post by joeer77 » Mon Feb 13, 2017 10:59 pm

Guide data quality is definitely better. I checked many college basketball games last weekend all games stated who was playing instead of the usual "Team TBD".

If guide still isn't working for folks agree with doing "Objectstore Recovery Task" first when having update issues. Works for me in the past.

stuartm

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#359

Post by stuartm » Mon Feb 13, 2017 11:31 pm

I suspect the TBD issues are not really fixed. The problem with the Microsoft/Rovi guide data for Sports listings is that for further out games where the games have not been selected as to which ones will air the listing gets a TBD entry. When it gets closer and the games to air have been chosen the guide comes out from then on with the correct listing. The problem I have observed ever since the Rovi switch over is that when the game has been selected, even then the entry doesn't update from TBD to the real data in the guide. Others have worked around this by running ObjectstoreRecovery which "cleans" out the old entry allowing the new entry to come in and show correct data. Since everybody's guides had drained out due to no data coming from Microsoft this week when the data finally arrived it was close enough for the games to be known and have good entries and there were no existing TBD entries that would block the good entries from going in. I hope for your sake that it really was fixed but I doubt it. Time will tell. See if any future TBD entries update to real listings going forward. This is one of the many reasons that I finally abandoned the Rovi data and went with EPG123 since the TBD problem does not happen with those listings. (And if it did Gary is very responsive and would put in a fix).

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Crash2009

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#360

Post by Crash2009 » Tue Feb 14, 2017 5:25 am

I agree. Gary supports his product well.

Thanks Gary.

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