Verizon FiOS Freehold Digital Lineup issue

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Space

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Verizon FiOS Freehold Digital Lineup issue

#1

Post by Space » Tue Jul 09, 2019 5:37 am

Sorry to make a separate post for this issue, but I want to make it more visible so that people who have WMC and FiOS may see this.

Since 7/5 I have not gotten any downloads of guide data for my FiOS lineup (Verizon FiOS Freehold Digital) ID: 49738308

It downloads the "New York OTA Antenna" lineup fine, but the FiOS lineup never appears in the EpgListings sub-folders.

Can anyone who has FiOS check to see if they have cable channel listings past 7/17@8pm ET? I have broadcast listings (OTA) for the local networks but no cable channel listings past that date.

I am trying to find out if this is a problem with FiOS lineups, my particular lineup (ID: 49738308), or just my system. I don't want to have to go through the procedures to try to fix this issue on my system if it is a wider issue.

You can see what lineups you are configured to download by going to:
Settings -> TV -> Guide -> About Guide Listings

Press the right arrow and then use the down/up arrows to see the lineups that should be downloading. I have always had the FiOS lineup and the OTA lineup listed here (and still do), even though I only have FiOS and no OTA tuners.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Also, if you know how I might go about fixing this problem (assuming it is only my system) then any advice would be appreciated.

I figure going through "Set Up TV Signal" would be the first thing, but perhaps there are other options.

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garyan2

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#2

Post by garyan2 » Tue Jul 09, 2019 2:32 pm

Sorry, Space. I tried to setup a Freehold lineup in WMC on a VM but it just hung at 'Downloading TV Setup Data'. You could probably get past that, eventually, since you already have that information downloaded, but it is a bad sign.

Good luck.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

Space

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#3

Post by Space » Tue Jul 09, 2019 3:11 pm

Thanks for trying, Gary.

Were you able to setup any other FiOS lineup in the 07728 area code? I think there were two Freehold lineups for FiOS for some reason, also another lineup for Basking Ridge. If I recall, all three had a similar channel lineup.

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garyan2

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#4

Post by garyan2 » Tue Jul 09, 2019 4:05 pm

I wasn't able to get past the 'Download...' part so never saw any lineups to download. I'll be able to try again around midnight your time if you don't get a response from anyone else.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

Wlau29

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#5

Post by Wlau29 » Tue Jul 09, 2019 6:35 pm

I can confirm, OTA shows up fine, I am having the same issues with no guide data for cable on FiOS, but I believe I am using basking ridge. I'm in Monmouth. Cable Guide data runs out tomorrow (7/10) at 8pm. I tried downloading the guide this morning and still no data

oakley516

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#6

Post by oakley516 » Tue Jul 09, 2019 9:21 pm

I have Verizon and I just checked the guide data. It does run out after July 10th for the cable channels, while the broadcast channels have data through the 21st.

My lineup number is ID:218933635 which is Queens-Massapequa Digital. Updating the guide manually doesn't seem to fix it.

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#7

Post by Space » Tue Jul 09, 2019 10:59 pm

OK, well I think that proves it is not just my system. But it is interesting that it is not just my lineup but seems to be related to all (or multiple) FiOS lineups. This is actually a good thing as it might get more focus if it is a bigger outage (sorry to those affected).

I think this needs to be sent to Microsoft to fix, seems to be something wrong with the FiOS lineups. I think the way to get this done is to send email to lineup@tivo.com and ask them to forward it on to Microsoft.

Is there anyone with a FiOS lineup that is NOT experiencing this issue?

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#8

Post by foxwood » Wed Jul 10, 2019 7:35 am

I have OTA and FiOS listings through July 23rd.

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TheReaper

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#9

Post by TheReaper » Wed Jul 10, 2019 9:01 am

Space wrote: Tue Jul 09, 2019 10:59 pm .
.
.
Is there anyone with a FiOS lineup that is NOT experiencing this issue?
Back in March / April there were problems in the FIOS New York area where guide data wasn't all loading:

Guide Data Outage: viewtopic.php?f=96&t=12152

The solution that was working for some people then was:

#8 Post by garyan2 » Sat Mar 23, 2019 12:42 am

From a command prompt, run "start /wait c:\windows\ehome\mcupdate.exe -uf -dbgc" and wait for it to complete. This may clear everything up for you... it does a garbage cleanup of your database (-dbgc) and forces a download/update of all packages (-uf).


-----------
I have New York FIOS Queens or Poughkeepsie (HD Homerun, HD Homerun Prime).

My last guide data update was July 8, and I have guide data for both OTA and cable channels to July 21 7:30 pm.

Verizon FiOS Queens-Massapequa Digital ID: 218933635 Guide End Date: 7/22/2019 7:00:00 PM
New York OTA Antenna ID: 309582182 Guide End Date: 7/22/2019 7:00:00 PM
Verizon FiOS New York Digital ID: 45359723 Guide End Date: 7/22/2019 7:00:00 PM

-----------
Personally because I was also having problems with channel assignments at the time (back in March/April). I did the following:

WARNING: this might reload the channel assignments

(Start -> Search programs -> Task Scheduler)
Task Scheduler -> Task Scheduler Library -> Microsoft -> Windows -> Media Center -> ObjectStoreRecoveryTask -> Action -> Run

Which deletes data and then reloads it with mcupdate
<- My Media Center PC

Wlau29

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#10

Post by Wlau29 » Wed Jul 10, 2019 4:07 pm

Awesome, the command "start /wait c:\windows\ehome\mcupdate.exe -uf -dbgc" worked and cleared up my issue. Thank you.

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#11

Post by oakley516 » Wed Jul 10, 2019 4:53 pm

Just chiming in to confirm that the command "start /wait c:\windows\ehome\mcupdate.exe -uf -dbgc" worked on my system too.

Guide updated to around the 22nd for broadcast and cable channels. Thanks for the assistance :thumbup:

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#12

Post by Space » Thu Jul 11, 2019 1:04 am

Nice to hear that you both were able to fix the problem with that command. But I assume you both just started to have this problem recently, so I wonder what triggered it and if subsequent updates will work without having to run that command again.

Also, according to this thread, you need to run the command in an ELEVATED CMD window, but apparently you guys did not have to do that.

Also, according to that thread the -dbgc is redundant and not needed, so just "mcupdate.exe -uc" should suffice. I will have to try this out later when my WMC is not recording. Oh, and for anyone else doing this, it might be a good idea to make an image backup before doing any potentially destructive activity, or as in this case, activity that is unusual that you haven't done before.

Thanks for everyone's help on this.

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#13

Post by garyan2 » Thu Jul 11, 2019 2:59 am

Space wrote: Thu Jul 11, 2019 1:04 am Nice to hear that you both were able to fix the problem with that command. But I assume you both just started to have this problem recently, so I wonder what triggered it and if subsequent updates will work without having to run that command again.

Also, according to this thread, you need to run the command in an ELEVATED CMD window, but apparently you guys did not have to do that.

Also, according to that thread the -dbgc is redundant and not needed, so just "mcupdate.exe -uc" should suffice. I will have to try this out later when my WMC is not recording. Oh, and for anyone else doing this, it might be a good idea to make an image backup before doing any potentially destructive activity, or as in this case, activity that is unusual that you haven't done before.

Thanks for everyone's help on this.
There is no need to run from an elevated command prompt.

I'm not so sure about the -dbgc being redundant. Below is an image with all the available arguments for mcupdate.exe and the flags that are set. I haven't dove into it too much, but it would seem to me that if -dbgc is redundant, then every task that does not set fdoUpdate to FALSE would do a garbage cleanup. It will, however, automatically perform garbage cleanup if when mcupdate.exe is executed and the Client Maintenance is due (I think).
mcupdate_flags.png
Back to your original issue. I had managed to setup your zipcode last night and would get the 'Download Complete' message for downloading guide listings within seconds and there was nothing there. I changed to another provider in your zipcode and it worked just fine. So I did confirm an issue with Fios, and since my setup was from scratch I don't see how running the mcupdate command could have helped. The problem must have been fixed, or very localized. I'll set it up on my VM again to see what the status is before you start poking things.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

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garyan2

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#14

Post by garyan2 » Thu Jul 11, 2019 4:07 am

It took quite a while to get the listings, but I have Verizon FiOS Freehold Digital, ID: 49738308 with an end date of 7/23/2019 4:00:00 PM (MDT) which is really only out to 7/22/2019 5:00:00 PM (MDT).
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

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#15

Post by Space » Thu Jul 11, 2019 4:56 am

Cool, so that means it looks like the listings for that lineup are working. I think I'm going to hold off on running the mcupdate command and see if it corrects itself in the next few days, if not then I'll try it.

I was going to do it tonight but my Macrium Reflect backup failed, and it looks like my system disk is going bad, so I'll have to deal with that as well.

The last successful OTA download had a file timestamp of 7/10 12:28 am ET and I just tried to download a new one and there was none available (at around 7/11 12:40am). Usually the download becomes available around the same time every day, and when it doesn't it often means they did some kind of maintenance on the server, so maybe they fixed something and it is rebuilding the new guide download.

Thanks so much for taking the time to do this testing for me, Gary, I really appreciate it.

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#16

Post by tired_runner » Fri Jul 12, 2019 10:15 am

I have FiOS in the Bronx. EPG works fine. But I use Schedules Direct and EPG123.

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#17

Post by Space » Sat Jul 13, 2019 3:00 am

I initiated a manual guide update through the WMC GUI and got a full guide tonight. So I did not have to run the mcupdate command. However, client maintenance is set to run automatically every 5 days, and it did happen to run earlier today, so I am assuming that may be what fixed it.

Thanks for everyone's help!

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#18

Post by Space » Tue Aug 20, 2019 7:16 am

Same problem is back, I have OTA listing to 9/1 @ 8pm but only have cable listings to 8/29 @ 8pm. So three days without cable listing updates...

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