Guide Data Outage - 2018 Spring Edition

Global guide related discussion. All Windows versions.
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Arkar0000

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#141

Post by Arkar0000 » Wed Nov 21, 2018 4:51 am

Spectrum Anaheim Ca been manually updating for a few days and never gets past November 25. Will try again tonight after Midnight PST.

AnneM

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#142

Post by AnneM » Wed Nov 21, 2018 6:34 am

Still no updated guide on Altice Optimum on Long Island.

SugarFree

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#143

Post by SugarFree » Wed Nov 21, 2018 12:41 pm

Anne, the good news is, when the guide finally updates (no go this morning) Altice will be one of the first to get it since fixes roll out alphabetically. :)

SugarFree

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#144

Post by SugarFree » Wed Nov 21, 2018 6:14 pm

Progress - of a sort. Just did a manual DL from tasks - and this time got a "guide did not DL" error message instead of the DL Sucessful message (with no new data) the last 10 days. I'm guessing MS finally deleted that file from their queue, the one causing the hiccup. Maybe we'll get an actual file tonight.

bros

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#145

Post by bros » Wed Nov 21, 2018 7:48 pm

Guide goes out here sunday at 4:30 PM eastern. I'm on FiOS, freehold NJ, I think?

wifiwanderer

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#146

Post by wifiwanderer » Thu Nov 22, 2018 5:54 am

Last WMC EPG listing: 3 PM, 25 Nov 2018; Fresno-Visalia California OTA.

straphanger

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#147

Post by straphanger » Thu Nov 22, 2018 4:28 pm

Still no updates today. Hopefully something will come soon...

Roginator

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#148

Post by Roginator » Thu Nov 22, 2018 4:51 pm

Curious. I'm down to 4 days. This happened last year at this time. Holiday vacations? Luckily, most TV shows go on hiatus in December.

windham9

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#149

Post by windham9 » Thu Nov 22, 2018 5:08 pm

Dear Microsoft,
When you sold us Windows 7, WMC and using PC's for TV was highly touted by you. While you have eliminated WMC from newer Windows versions , you can't just abandon us. The guide is essential to WMC. Free broadcast TV is no longer free if we are forced to pay for guide service. Please don't end guide listings!
Thank You!
Users of WMC

I'm afraid one of these days they will stop fixing the bugs and we're done. Hopefully that wont be for a long time?

adam1991

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#150

Post by adam1991 » Thu Nov 22, 2018 9:36 pm

windham9 wrote: Thu Nov 22, 2018 5:08 pm Free broadcast TV is no longer free if we are forced to pay for guide service.
dude, really?

Free broadcast TV is free, period. Under no circumstances are you forced to pay to receive it--

--unless you count buying the TV, the antenna, and the electricity required to run it, never mind the house/apartment in which you sit to watch that TV.

Oh, wait--you want to DVR it. So you bought a PC *and* a copy of MS Windows. $$$$

So the OTA TV you consume, in the way in which you chose to consume it, was NEVER, EVER "free".

Free broadcast TV is out there for you to consume in other ways. DVRs were never, ever part of that "free" promise under any circumstances.

Guide service is not at ALL required, AT ALL, to watch free broadcast TV. Turn on your TV, spin the dials, consume.

Such is the world. You had something that you liked, but it went (or is going) away. Frankly, it was a great deal--just buy a copy of Windows and buy a PC (whoops! not at ALL "free") and get a great DVR. But then the world moved on. Are you surprised by that?

You have plenty of alternatives. You want free? How about Myth TV. Or you could move on and pay for a Tivo, or one of the other upstarts coming out weekly nowadays.

Face it: you are using this BS "free TV isn't free if I have to pay for a guide service" excuse to cover for the fact that you simply refuse to move on with the world. You have choices: you can fix the problem, or you can sit in one spot and bitch and moan while the world revolves around you, ignoring you. If fixing the problem costs money, understand that you can pay anywhere from very little to a bunch--you're not stuck with only one solution.

You can also choose to go without a free DVR (that was never free to begin with) and simply watch TV.

I will call out this "free TV isn't free if MS/Rovi data isn't working" BS crap every time I see it.

Bunk_Tuppins

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#151

Post by Bunk_Tuppins » Fri Nov 23, 2018 12:33 am

You know, these crunches have been going on once or twice a year for years. Problems are reported, fixes are instituted, and somehow or other Microsoft and people they have contracted with continue to provide this really excellent, basically free service. I have gotten a lot out of it. May I counsel patience and perhaps just a bit of gratitude on this Thanksgiving day?

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Beitie

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#152

Post by Beitie » Fri Nov 23, 2018 2:51 am

Sadly this is a yearly thing. I've been using my HTPC for OTA DVR since 2013, and this has happened every single year around this time. It's just something we have to put up with, or pay a 3rd party for EPG service.

Paul Anderegg

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#153

Post by Paul Anderegg » Fri Nov 23, 2018 2:56 am

I am fairly sure the people responsible for resolving this issue are on Thanksgiving vacation until next week...time to check Black Friday Tivo pricing...

Paul

wifiwanderer

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#154

Post by wifiwanderer » Fri Nov 23, 2018 3:08 am

Bought the PC I'm using with Windows Vista and WMC pre-installed, nothing was free. Some years later, paid for the upgrade to Windows 7. Only glanced over TOS that comes with software, because I don't have a law degree. Generally, seemed like lots of TOS legalese advised buyers, we were at their mercy. I paid to use my copy of WMC and its EPG for as long as Microsoft supports Windows 7 (ending 14 Jan 2020*). We should not have to endure any hassles for a service we paid to receive. Though since Windows 8.1 offered WMC for an extra fee, seems EPG updates might continue through the end of Windows 8.1 support, 10 Jan 2023*.
(*) Windows lifecycle fact sheet https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/hel ... fact-sheet

jefro

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#155

Post by jefro » Fri Nov 23, 2018 4:15 am

Makes me grateful that I have been able to use WMC for many years with only a few issues.


Anyway, Austin area running out of EPG too.

Darn connect went down too so no more complaints to MS.

Paul Anderegg

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#156

Post by Paul Anderegg » Fri Nov 23, 2018 5:08 am

jefro wrote: Fri Nov 23, 2018 4:15 am
Darn connect went down too so no more complaints to MS.
Easiest way to silence a squeaky wheel is to cut off your ears :-P

foxwood

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#157

Post by foxwood » Fri Nov 23, 2018 6:36 am

wifiwanderer wrote: Fri Nov 23, 2018 3:08 am Bought the PC I'm using with Windows Vista and WMC pre-installed, nothing was free. Some years later, paid for the upgrade to Windows 7. Only glanced over TOS that comes with software, because I don't have a law degree. Generally, seemed like lots of TOS legalese advised buyers, we were at their mercy. I paid to use my copy of WMC and its EPG for as long as Microsoft supports Windows 7 (ending 14 Jan 2020*). We should not have to endure any hassles for a service we paid to receive. Though since Windows 8.1 offered WMC for an extra fee, seems EPG updates might continue through the end of Windows 8.1 support, 10 Jan 2023*.
(*) Windows lifecycle fact sheet https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/hel ... fact-sheet
WMC doesn't require an EPG from Microsoft to work - it was explicitly engineered to allow 3rd party EPGs, and WIndows users in many non-US markets have made do without an EPG from Microsoft.

The TOS that you blindly clicked through is only 5 screens long on my screen - https://privacy.microsoft.com/en-us/win ... of-service
It explains how you can terminate your use of the EPG servce (so that you can switch to another EPG provider) and states in plain English
Furthermore, Microsoft may discontinue providing the EPG at any time.
Those Terms of Service were last updated 10 years ago, and you don't need a law degree to figure it out.

Microsoft is doing us a favour by providing an EPG for a software product that they do not support in any other way. You didn't pay for this EPG, and you agreed that Microsoft could discontinue providing the EPG service when you accepted those Terms of Service for the guide when you installed WMC - that separate agreement is not tied in any way to the Windows Lifecycle.

Microsoft has abandoned products with far greater public prominence and commercial importance (people still make jokes about Zune and the Kin phone, and I've got a $120 webcam shaped paperweight for my Smart TV that Skype doesn't support any more) than WMC, and the amazing thing about WMC isn't that we keep having this recurring scheduling issue a couple of times a year, the amazing thing is that MS keeps fixing it, instead of pulling the plug, which just about any other Tech company would have done a long time ago.

Bunk_Tuppins

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#158

Post by Bunk_Tuppins » Fri Nov 23, 2018 6:52 am

foxwood wrote: Fri Nov 23, 2018 6:36 am
wifiwanderer wrote: Fri Nov 23, 2018 3:08 am Bought the PC I'm using with Windows Vista and WMC pre-installed, nothing was free. Some years later, paid for the upgrade to Windows 7. Only glanced over TOS that comes with software, because I don't have a law degree. Generally, seemed like lots of TOS legalese advised buyers, we were at their mercy. I paid to use my copy of WMC and its EPG for as long as Microsoft supports Windows 7 (ending 14 Jan 2020*). We should not have to endure any hassles for a service we paid to receive. Though since Windows 8.1 offered WMC for an extra fee, seems EPG updates might continue through the end of Windows 8.1 support, 10 Jan 2023*.
(*) Windows lifecycle fact sheet https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/hel ... fact-sheet
WMC doesn't require an EPG from Microsoft to work - it was explicitly engineered to allow 3rd party EPGs, and WIndows users in many non-US markets have made do without an EPG from Microsoft.

The TOS that you blindly clicked through is only 5 screens long on my screen - https://privacy.microsoft.com/en-us/win ... of-service
It explains how you can terminate your use of the EPG servce (so that you can switch to another EPG provider) and states in plain English
Furthermore, Microsoft may discontinue providing the EPG at any time.
Those Terms of Service were last updated 10 years ago, and you don't need a law degree to figure it out.

Microsoft is doing us a favour by providing an EPG for a software product that they do not support in any other way. You didn't pay for this EPG, and you agreed that Microsoft could discontinue providing the EPG service when you accepted those Terms of Service for the guide when you installed WMC - that separate agreement is not tied in any way to the Windows Lifecycle.

Microsoft has abandoned products with far greater public prominence and commercial importance (people still make jokes about Zune and the Kin phone, and I've got a $120 webcam shaped paperweight for my Smart TV that Skype doesn't support any more) than WMC, and the amazing thing about WMC isn't that we keep having this recurring scheduling issue a couple of times a year, the amazing thing is that MS keeps fixing it, instead of pulling the plug, which just about any other Tech company would have done a long time ago.
Yes! They long ago deprecated the product. It has to be a huge money loser for them. But they keep supporting it. It's astonishing that they still make available to us a complete set of all the listings in every market in the United States! There is considerable complexity in providing so many different streams of data. Considering the magnitude of keeping abreast of this data anyone who bought a windows operating system (of which this is really only a tiny part) and got this thrown in received a heck of a deal, IMO.

Markinsac

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#159

Post by Markinsac » Fri Nov 23, 2018 11:42 am

Looks like the guide has been updated. New end date is 12/5.

JPM

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#160

Post by JPM » Fri Nov 23, 2018 1:36 pm

Woot! Holiday Miracle... Thx msf for the few of us still using Media Center.

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