Guide Data Outage - 2019 Summer Edition

Global guide related discussion. All Windows versions.
foxwood

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#21

Post by foxwood » Mon Jun 24, 2019 4:30 am

dahef wrote: Mon Jun 24, 2019 1:47 am
Scallica wrote: Mon Jun 24, 2019 1:34 am Please keep the discussion centered on guide data downloads (or lack thereof). Off topic posts will be deleted without warning. Thanks.
I would like to answer your deleted post about why some have not switched to 123

It would be nice if every time we have a delay in guide data we would not have to endure the insults from the 123 side,.
In fairness, the posts were deleted precisely so that you wouldn't have to endure those insults.

I'm with you on this though - every time I come really close to making the plunge, Microsoft fixes the current guide, and aside from the work involved in switching to 123, I stick closely to the principle of "if it's not broke, don't fix it", especially when it comes to WMC - the only "upgrade" that every got 100% WAF was the Ceton My Media Centre tool on her tablet, (and that's not available any more if she wants to upgrade her tablet).

I expect that the MS EPG will go away for good one of these days - I just hope that they will give us a few weeks official notice, and that it won't just be that some server dies, and the clock runs out while we wait for the last minute fix that has always been delivered up to now.

Space

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#22

Post by Space » Mon Jun 24, 2019 7:12 am

I hope this one will be fixed. I've made mention that the last update seemed to include corrupted data entries. I have since went through and found a few more. For some reason it is displaying corrupted entries in the schedule. Here are some examples:

6/26/2019 8pm on the History Channel is supposed to be "Forged in Fire: Cutting Deeper", however the listing indicates "Judge Judy".
6/26/2019 9pm on the History Channel is supposed to be "Forged in Fire", however the listing indicates "The Dead Zone".
6/27/2019 Midnight on Pop TV is supposed to be "Big Brother After Dark", but the listing indicates "Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen"
6/28/2019 Midnight on Pop TV is supposed to be "Big Brother After Dark", but the listing indicates "NHL Tonight"
6/29/2019 Midnight on Pop TV is supposed to be "Big Brother After Dark", but the listing indicates "Cheer in US 22"

The incorrect programming that is listed are for shows that aren't even aired on that channel. Also, the descriptions of some of the episodes are descriptions of the correct title, and others are descriptions of the incorrect title (for instance that last one for BBAD has the correct description for BBAD, however the locale is displayed as "zh-us" (Chinese - US) and it has "News" as one of the tags and Chinese characters as the other; the entry for the one listed as "NHL Tonight" seems to have all the correct metadata for a real episode of "NHL Tonight" with no remnant of a BBAD episode).

It definitely looks like there was some sort of corruption. I hope this doesn't indicate some sort of trouble that may be difficult to fix (at least not quickly).

JohnW248

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#23

Post by JohnW248 » Mon Jun 24, 2019 1:57 pm

Space wrote: Mon Jun 24, 2019 7:12 am I hope this one will be fixed. I've made mention that the last update seemed to include corrupted data entries. I have since went through and found a few more. For some reason it is displaying corrupted entries in the schedule.
It definitely looks like there was some sort of corruption. I hope this doesn't indicate some sort of trouble that may be difficult to fix (at least not quickly).
Are you still getting guide data however (I also noted the weird program titles like Gumball Rally for Fox New Morning News). But checking the event viewer I still fail on all machines to connect to remote server although the update takes place and the pop up shows errors during last will retry at. However there are two attempts to connect to the remote server for the EPGL which fail and there are no local or cable programs downloaded.
For most if you don't check the Task Viewer this would look like the normal the guide is running out but based on your observation it looks like there may have been a server failure and the data is corrupted and MSFT has stopped sending it until its fixed.
I would assume once they get it fixed they can update and client maintenance the clients to get it back to normal.
I don't know when it actually started but discovered it by accident when I had a MC client crash and lose its guide data on Friday at 1:45 AM which is around the time that machine would be getting the normal update. Since that crashed all the extenders and the console, that might have been when it happened or within 12 hours of the initial problem or the time that the data base got so bad that it started crashing clients.

AnotherDave

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#24

Post by AnotherDave » Mon Jun 24, 2019 2:32 pm

No error messages on my systems, but no data past 30 June for either Comcast or OTA. That's <7 days. Seems like this happens about this time each year.

loueber

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#25

Post by loueber » Mon Jun 24, 2019 2:40 pm

tired_runner wrote: Sat Jun 22, 2019 8:51 pm This might be related.

I pay for regular linear TV subscription and rent a CableCARD paired to a Ceton InfiniTV ETH 6. Yesterday my Dell PC kept complaining about PlayReady update is incomplete when tuning into channel flagged copy-once. Click retry didn't help

The usual tricks from Google didn't fix the error message. On a whim thinking maybe something got corrupted, I reloaded the computer from scratch using Dell OEM DVD, but the setup stays stuck during the step for downloading TV setup data.

Did anyone else's PlayReady break as well?
yes, my playready wont update either and on one of my machines, the set up will not go beyond the zipcode section.

tired_runner

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#26

Post by tired_runner » Mon Jun 24, 2019 2:55 pm

^ Ahh.. Alright.... Looking like TiVO is about to get more business soon, or FCC is pushing hard to break CableCARD for the few of us still using it.

Space

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#27

Post by Space » Mon Jun 24, 2019 3:01 pm

JohnW248 wrote: Mon Jun 24, 2019 1:57 pm ...
Are you still getting guide data however
...
No. My guide ends Saturday before 8pm.

loueber

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#28

Post by loueber » Mon Jun 24, 2019 3:07 pm

i wish there was a way we can use our own "set up data" stored on our computer. Then edit WMC to look at our file instead of MS for set up data.
Im unsure if "set up data" is the same as "guide data"
I have yet to find any program as robust as WMC . To be fair, since WMC has always worked for me, i never really looked for another program.
WMC was the only reason im hanging on to W7. That an W10s privacy issues.

wilme2

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#29

Post by wilme2 » Mon Jun 24, 2019 4:00 pm

Some of my local OTA switched frequencies, so I was stupid enough to go back thru setup - which horked my WMC, of course. Luckily I had a backup image via Norton Ghost that was only a few days old. Sure would like the guide data and setup restored - for now will do without some OTAs...

DSperber

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#30

Post by DSperber » Mon Jun 24, 2019 4:50 pm

dahef wrote: Mon Jun 24, 2019 1:47 am There is another explanation. For me it is 2 things. It is not the money.
1 - I would lose all the movies I have flagged for future recording when they become available.(thousands)
2 - I have read the 123 install guide and many of the 123 problem threads and most of the procedures is beyond my knowledge. Thus 123 is an option but only a last option if guide data runs out.

It would be nice if every time we have a delay in guide data we would not have to endure the insults from the 123 side,.
Not to get involved in any hostility trying to make a convincing case for going to EPG123, but I would be glad to be of any assistance you might request (either privately via email or PM, or even "remoting in" to your PC using TeamViewer, etc.) help with the transition and install.

But I understand if you've got lots of existing future recordings set that this really does seem like a deal-breaker. But I comment that let's say your current PC crashed and you actually did have to reinstall Win7 to a brand new machine. You'd also lose all of these future-set recordings, in addition to also losing access to any current copy-protected recording backlog you might have (I don't know if you are using Ceton tuners) that you haven't yet viewed. That happened to me a few months back and I took some time to document all of the backlog series and individual recordings I was about to lose, researching them to see if they were instead also available "on demand" through the basic/premium network's web site where I could then view them using a web browser. Or, might they be available through Hulu or Netflix or Amazon, etc., all of which I subscribe to.

Anyway, turns out virtually everything I hadn't yet watched (which was lots) was in fact still available through alternative means. So my "list of lost recordings" will serve me going into the future, should I ever actually have the time and actual motivation to "view down" this list using streaming/on-demand. The alternative, of course, is just to forget about it. If i haven't watched the last two seasons of "The Americans" by now, will I ever really find the time??

In the end I had no choice. I HAD to replace my now-dead machine with a new one. It did take me a few days to get everything installed properly, and set up WMC as before (I had my own complete set of screenshots documenting setup for WMC, EPG123, series recordings, etc., for use in just such a situation). And then I did have to re-set all my series recordings, at least the ones appearing in the current Guide (as opposed to those whose seasons weren't yet available, and for which I simply had to wait to re-set them when they next appeared). Again, thanks to the documentation I had made I at least had a checklist I could work from. I consider this a one-time task no matter how much effort it requires. Same as if I rented a real DVR from my cable company and decided to upgrade/replace it... and also would have to go through the pain of a complete re-set of all future recordings. It's just "the cost of doing business", and you hope it doesn't happen very often.

But I honestly do appreciate that your own "thousands of future-set recordings" and the work involved in recreating them if you had to, it's on its own scale that I can't imagine. Sure, it would take lots and lots of time to rebuild. But wouldn't you also have to do that if your machine died and you had to rebuild a new HTPC, or simply were forced to reinstall Win7 and WMC?

So, back to EPG123. You cannot believe how actually wonderful it is to have been on this Rovi-alternative for the past few years. Incidentally I've been using WMC since 2010, with both Ceton cablecard (first 4-tuner and now 6-tuner) and Hauppauge OTA (first 2-tuner and now 4-tuner) tuner cards for all that time. Schedules Direct actually has a "ticket system", for reporting problems with the Guide data including both (a) channel lineup issues, as well as (b) mistakes in program scheduling. You get to report the problem with a "ticket" entered through your account site and they respond seemingly within hours (from an actual person) that they're looking into it. Inevitably the issue (of either kind) is resolved within 1-2 days.

In the old days (first of Zap2it, and then Rovi) I recall going through the prolonged semi-annual Guide outages for DST->STD and vice versa, and cursing that "how hard could it be to know that this time change was going to happen" and "how could they not be prepared" and wondering "who can I call, or how can I report this", and not being able to at least have that satisfaction. With Schedules Direct it just doesn't happen that way. They're there for you, as you are their customer, and there IS a way to report issues. And by the way, there is no semi-annual Guide outage for the time change.

Even more important, the usefulness of additional information included in the downloaded Guide data, along with its accuracy and up-to-date nature cannot be praised enough. For example the program descriptions of a 7-game sports series actually get updated each night so that each day you have up-to-date comments regarding who'd winning or playing, etc. Season/episode numbers, original air dates, etc., all with perfect accuracy.

Nevertheless, to each his own. I simply mention that there really is no reason to put up with Rovi and its inferior Guide data (outage or not), when the far superior Schedules Direct data and EPG123 to download it is available. All it really takes over and above the usual start-from-scratch WMC TV tuner setup, and the willingness to re-enter your pre-set recordings. Again, I personally offer to be of any assistance you might ask for in getting you there, if you'd like to avail yourself. One-time pain and suffering, but in the end it really really really is worth it. The benefits are enormous.

Feel free to ignore the above. No need to respond if you don't want to.

foxwood

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#31

Post by foxwood » Mon Jun 24, 2019 6:26 pm

DSperber wrote: Mon Jun 24, 2019 4:50 pmBut wouldn't you also have to do that if your machine died and you had to rebuild a new HTPC, or simply were forced to reinstall Win7 and WMC?
But my machine hasn't died, and I am not being forced to re-install Win7.

I don't think anyone is questioning the benefits of using an alternative guide source. But the actual cost of making that switch is much greater than the $25/year price, and for some of us, the pain of making the switch isn't justified as long as the default solution is "good enough".

DFox

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#32

Post by DFox » Mon Jun 24, 2019 7:36 pm

I have many years of experience with guide data outages, but I only remember the corrupt data and failed to download errors. Can someone refresh my memory of the previous "Unable to connect to the remote server" circumstances and what was the cause(s) back then?

JohnW248

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#33

Post by JohnW248 » Mon Jun 24, 2019 7:48 pm

Maybe five or six years ago we had this issue and Barb (A windows VMP I think) found a solution which was a different DNS server which could connect. At the time it was thought that the issue was one of MSFT changing servers and the DNS data base hadn't updated. The new number worked then (it doesn't do the same trick now, I tried) so the issue is still a connection issue but a different root cause.

The most common issue we've experience in the last couple of years is WC Clients not getting the latest schedule which can be fixed by a Admin Prompt download with the -uf switch which forces the client to get a schedule an run Client Maintenance to clean up the data base afterwards. Afterwards the machine seems to run normally. This is a known unfixed bug so we can only guess at the cause.

DFox

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#34

Post by DFox » Mon Jun 24, 2019 8:03 pm

Thanks JohnW248. Yes, now that you mention it it does sound familiar.

That's what has me a little more concerned than the usual corrupt data issue. If this is more of an infrastructure cause then the skillset might be different from the Microsoft "Support" that usually resolves Rovi referred tickets. Hopefully it is related to the recent corrupt data issue and can be undone/fixed relatively easily.

Or it was done unintentionally by an unrelated process. Or it was done deliberately. I don't like either of those options.

jefro

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#35

Post by jefro » Tue Jun 25, 2019 2:06 am

If it is the dns name again then what was that URL?

However I suspect (I hope) it is the millions of changes to the schedules caused by channel changes and upcomming specials like is seen in Christmas time.

bros

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#36

Post by bros » Tue Jun 25, 2019 2:37 am

So I just checked and I run out at 8 PM on June 29th

ugh if it gets close I guess i'll have to take the leap and do EPG123, but then I bet like usual it will start to work riiiight before I take the leap

wilme2

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#37

Post by wilme2 » Tue Jun 25, 2019 3:21 am

bros wrote:So I just checked and I run out at 8 PM on June 29th

ugh if it gets close I guess i'll have to take the leap and do EPG123, but then I bet like usual it will start to work riiiight before I take the leap
The 29th is when I run out too. 6pm central I think...

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Rainey

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#38

Post by Rainey » Tue Jun 25, 2019 3:33 am

I was going to post this a few days ago but waited and hope it would have fixed its self by now.

It may be worst then that, but i hope not.

I have 3 WMC PC two win 7 and one win 8.1.
I watch the Win7 PC daily but the win 8.1 rarely.

Today i called up WMC on the Win 8.1 and noticed no guide data.
I was asked to update guide and i clicked download button, guide did not update.
Checking event log i got error and have been getting error "Failed to retrieve EpgListings (Error: Unable to connect to the remote server)"

i tried the mcupdate.exe -uf command no help
I was getting "no internet connection" messages when trying things in the WMC tasks menu. I had a good internet connection in all but WMC.

I ran the ObjectStoreRecoveryTask to try and repair it. No help, i had to run tv setup after this

While running tv setup it would fail to download guide data (it would quickly go to 50% and then take 4 minutes to add one more dot, then after a few more minutes jump to 100%
and say it could not download the data check you internet connection) and i had to manually setup tuners. But it did reinitialize everything.
Mean while things were no longer in some of the WMC task menus that were there before . Like under TV/Guide, No download guide choice, or about guide, terms of service just says no internet connection when clicked but is now gone and not listed.
For another one, Digital Cable Advisor is no longer there in extras.
I got a new error even though it seemed everything updated as i got the

Code: Select all

*****************
Exception Microsoft.MediaCenter.UI.HostLoadException: Error while attemping to load: 'http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=252914'.
 Details:
  http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=252914: Failure acquiring MCML markup from 'http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=252914'. (The remote server returned an error: (404) Not Found.)


at Microsoft.MediaCenter.UI.Host.OnPreInitialize()
   at Microsoft.MediaCenter.UI.ViewItem.PreInitializeTreeWorker()
   at Microsoft.MediaCenter.UI.ViewItem.PreInitializeTreeWorker()
   at Microsoft.MediaCenter.UI.ViewItem.PreInitializeTreeWorker()
   at Microsoft.MediaCenter.UI.NewUiZone.DeliverInitializations()
   at Microsoft.MediaCenter.UI.NewUiZone.ImplementUiTask(UiTask task, Object param)
   at Microsoft.MediaCenter.UI.UiZone.ProcessUiTask(UiTask task, Object param)
   at Microsoft.MediaCenter.UI.UiSession.ProcessInitialization()
   at Microsoft.MediaCenter.Queues.Dispatcher.MainLoop(Queue queue)
   at Microsoft.MediaCenter.UI.UIDispatcher.MainLoop(Queue queue, LoopCondition condition)
   at MediaCenter.Extensibility.Host.Main(String[] args)
************************

When you follow that link in the error, it redirects to https://www.microsoft.com/onspot/Window ... deTOS.mcml
where you get the message
"We are sorry, the page you requested cannot be found."

Code: Select all

12:01:38 AM - Testing internet connection.
12:01:39 AM - Connection established.
12:01:40 AM - Retrieving Directory.
12:01:40 AM - Processing Directory.
12:01:40 AM - Processing of Directory is complete.
12:01:40 AM - The NetworkMetadata package is not available.
12:01:40 AM - Testing internet connection.
12:01:41 AM - Connection established.
12:01:41 AM - Retrieving SportsSchedule.
12:01:41 AM - Processing SportsSchedule.
12:01:41 AM - Retrieving SportsSchedule.enc.
12:01:42 AM - Extracting SportsSchedule.mxf.
12:01:42 AM - Processing SportsSchedule.mxf.
12:01:42 AM - Processing of SportsSchedule is complete.
12:01:42 AM - Retrieving SportsV2.
12:01:42 AM - Processing SportsV2.
12:01:42 AM - Retrieving ScheduleSupplement.cab.
12:01:42 AM - Extracting ScheduleSupplement.mxf.
12:01:42 AM - Processing ScheduleSupplement.mxf.
12:01:42 AM - Retrieving SportsTemplate.cab.
12:01:43 AM - Extracting FoxSports.sdp.
12:01:43 AM - Retrieving SportsTemplateCore.cab.
12:01:43 AM - Extracting Microsoft.MediaCenter.Sports.UI.dll.
12:01:43 AM - Processing of SportsV2 is complete.
12:01:43 AM - Retrieving ClientUpdate.
12:01:43 AM - Processing ClientUpdate.
12:01:43 AM - Retrieving ClientUpdate-2.enc.
12:01:43 AM - Extracting DefaultGeoSettings.mxf.
12:01:43 AM - Processing DefaultGeoSettings.mxf.
12:01:44 AM - Retrieving NetopWhitelist-2.cab.
12:01:44 AM - Extracting Whitelist.xml.
12:01:44 AM - Processing Whitelist.xml.
12:01:44 AM - Processing of ClientUpdate is complete.
12:01:44 AM - Retrieving MCEClientUX.
12:01:44 AM - Processing MCEClientUX.
12:01:44 AM - Retrieving dSM.cab.
12:01:44 AM - Extracting StartResources.dll.
12:01:44 AM - Retrieving Logos.cab.
12:01:44 AM - Extracting cbs.png.
12:01:44 AM - Extracting comedy.png.
12:01:44 AM - Extracting drama.png.
12:01:44 AM - Extracting movies.png.
12:01:44 AM - Extracting msn.png.
12:01:44 AM - Extracting msnbc.png.
12:01:44 AM - Extracting news.png.
12:01:44 AM - Extracting sports.png.
12:01:44 AM - Retrieving SMTiles.cab.
12:01:45 AM - Extracting SM_Netflix.png.
12:01:45 AM - Extracting StartMenu_ITV_Browse.png.
12:01:45 AM - Extracting StartMenu_ITV_Search.png.
12:01:45 AM - Retrieving UpdateableMarkup.cab.
12:01:45 AM - Extracting markup.dll.
12:01:45 AM - Processing of MCEClientUX is complete.
12:01:45 AM - Processing of MCEClientMaintenance is complete.
12:01:45 AM - Retrieving Broadband.
12:01:46 AM - Processing Broadband.
12:01:46 AM - Retrieving Broadband-2.enc.
12:01:46 AM - Extracting null-us_null_13_BBPkg.mxf.
12:01:46 AM - Processing null-us_null_13_BBPkg.mxf.
12:01:46 AM - Processing of Broadband is complete.
12:01:47 AM - Errors during the last update.
12:01:47 AM - Will retry at 6/21/2019 6:43:51 PM.
12:01:47 AM - Starting Client Maintenance.
12:02:57 AM - Client Maintenance has completed.


So the page is missing 404 and the terms of service is no longer there it almost looks like it has been shutdown.
My other two systems have guide data until June 30th.

I hope you can setup EPG123 even after you have lost all guide data, because this machine is not even getting the list of channels and the backup i made did not restore what every got removed after running ObjectStoreRecoveryTask so i guess i may have to restore a disk backup if i want to get back to normal.

Rainey

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#39

Post by AChanceFind » Tue Jun 25, 2019 5:04 am

Is there anyone out there with an Xbox that can tell us if that platform's version of the EPG is also not working? A while back it was revealed on here I believe that they share the same EPG service which means if MS is not discontinuing it for Xbox then WMC benefits for as long as it's a thing in Xbox.

I think all any of us can do is wait and see what happens. Fiddling with setting and commands is not going to work as this is a DNS issue or something of that sort. It can also be as others have noted just the way that MS decides to "turn it off" while new lineups are being configured at the source.

Space

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#40

Post by Space » Tue Jun 25, 2019 6:15 am

If it were a DNS issue then you would be able to bypass DNS by using the hosts file, as has been done in the past.

I tested a few of the IP addresses I got from looking up some of the WMC domain names in DNS, and the servers seem to be up (I telnet to the IP on port 80 and port 433 and it is able to connect). So I don't think it is related to DNS, but with the servers themselves in some way. But I really don't know how these work, nor did I do any kind of packet captures to see what is happening when it is connecting to the servers. I suppose it could be an issue with the CDN rather than the actual server, but the corruption I saw in the last update before the outage makes me thing it is some sort of server issue.

Locked