Microsoft ending EPG for WMC in January

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mwpeterson

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Microsoft ending EPG for WMC in January

#1

Post by mwpeterson » Wed Sep 25, 2019 8:24 pm

Plan for change: Windows Media Center Electronic Program Guide retiring in January 2020
Starting in January 2020, Microsoft is retiring its Electronic Program Guide (EPG) service for all versions of Windows Media Center. To continue receiving TV Program Guide information on your Windows Media Center, you’ll need to configure an alternate TV listing provider.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/window ... age-center

choliscott

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#2

Post by choliscott » Wed Sep 25, 2019 9:07 pm

Thanks for the notice. A while back, I decided to move over to W8 and EPG123, so not to have to worry about if MS starting pulling necessary files and updates that are needed/used during the setup of WMC. That being said, I'm thinking if someone was planning on moving from W7 to W8 and has a W8 key and WMC install key, to probably convert sooner then later.. However that being said, I know that digital cable advisor no longer gets installed, (thus you need the offline install file) and I thought I saw not too long ago, that Playready no longer installed and that it looked like MS pulled down the offline playready install file... So just keep that in mind, and make sure to take an image backup before trying to.

Now that being said, come January (or even sooner), I'm wondering how many messages will be about:

1) Complaining guide service is now going to cost money and that paying $10 for WMC for W8 was supposed to mean that MS is going to provide guide service until the end of time
2) How to configure EPG123
3) What an alternative to WMC, because they don't want to deal with reconfiguring WMC to work with EPG123

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#3

Post by adam1991 » Wed Sep 25, 2019 9:18 pm

My vote is 90% whining about "but I have to pay $25/year for a guide?????? WAAAAAAH!"

bros

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#4

Post by bros » Sun Sep 29, 2019 1:19 am

ughhhh I guess I have to switch to EPG123

Couldn't they have made this announcement *before* the TV season started?

hansolo89

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#5

Post by hansolo89 » Sun Sep 29, 2019 5:37 am

it was a good run, been using epg123 for a few years with no issues. hope i can still wmc if i need a to a reinstall, only use ota

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#6

Post by dab2kab » Mon Sep 30, 2019 4:19 pm

Makes one wonder if the guide will actually make it until JAN 2020. If it randomly goes out like it sometimes does between now and then...will microsoft even bother fixing it?

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#7

Post by bbf » Sat Oct 05, 2019 1:39 am

I clicked on the "Learn More" link that was on the announcement and it opens a page that deals with Guide Problems.

They've added one paragraph:
"You set up Microsoft's Electronic Program Guide (EPG) as your TV listing provider. It's being retired after January 2020, so you'll need another TV listing provider if you want to continue receiving TV Program Guide information."

It's so nice of them to not help out with a FAQ on how to add "another TV listing provider" to WMC.

It's definitely not trivial to find another guide provider, let alone install another guide to automatically download for WMC. It actually takes a bit of effort to set up epg123 and choose a guide provider (and get an account set up.) The good thing is that tgb is still around to help people out.

Oh well, I guess it's nice that Microsoft actually informed people about it. All their other guide interruptions of service were not acknowledged at all.

Paul Anderegg

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#8

Post by Paul Anderegg » Sat Oct 05, 2019 10:43 pm

This popped up on my WMC on opening this morning. Fortunately I already have EPG123...time to make a donation.
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#9

Post by Paul Anderegg » Sat Oct 05, 2019 10:45 pm

Just got this pop-up today.

EPG123 was not as hard as I imagined to set up, only had slight issues with the instructions, such as not warning to backup the guide data before wiping your eHome folder, and specific way to run TunerSalad if you have more than 4 tuners. Give yourself an hour to do the full install and you should be fine.
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garyan2

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#10

Post by garyan2 » Sun Oct 06, 2019 1:52 am

Paul Anderegg wrote: Sat Oct 05, 2019 10:45 pmEPG123 was not as hard as I imagined to set up, only had slight issues with the instructions, such as not warning to backup the guide data before wiping your eHome folder, and specific way to run TunerSalad if you have more than 4 tuners. Give yourself an hour to do the full install and you should be fine.
Thanks to some feedback from new users/installers, I think the current release is practically an "Easy Button" to install. On my own VM setups, I can go from Rovi to Gracenote in less than 7 minutes which includes OTA channel scanning. I need to set everything back up so I can record the process and post on the website.

EPG123 automatically performs a backup of your WMC configuration prior to deleting the eHome folder contents. I'm not sure what you mean with your statement above concerning that.

The challenge with the tuner limits was some setups would lose the tweak shortly after it was completed. This has been addressed with somewhat of a work around... if the user sees that the limit is back to 4 during setup, they can exit WMC, EPG123 will detect the failed tweak, and offer to apply it again and restart Step 2 from the beginning. This way, the client setup can continue without any further interruptions.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

Paul Anderegg

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#11

Post by Paul Anderegg » Sun Oct 06, 2019 2:08 am

I saw that it had backed up prior to the wipe, but it had hidden the backup where I had a difficult time locating it until I went to the backup menu and saw where it would save a new backup. I scheduled it at an hour for the hiccupps, but I don't think you can FUBAR your WMC by attemting the install multiple times...as I had to for the tuner salad "fiasco" :)

$20 coming your way garyan! :-D

Paul

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garyan2

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#12

Post by garyan2 » Sun Oct 06, 2019 2:13 am

Ah yes. That is one of the first things to go into the FAQ or Support page on the website is "Where is my backup?" thanks to your suggestion/input.

Thank you!
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

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#13

Post by rickmktg » Sun Oct 06, 2019 2:24 pm

Just got this message today. Of course, support for Windows 7 ends also, so plan on upgrading to Windows 10 and finding a new option to record OTA programming before the end of the year.
Moved to W10 and NPVR in December 2019. Bye.

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#14

Post by Octavean » Sun Oct 06, 2019 2:37 pm

choliscott wrote: Wed Sep 25, 2019 9:07 pm However that being said, I know that digital cable advisor no longer gets installed, (thus you need the offline install file) and I thought I saw not too long ago, that Playready no longer installed and that it looked like MS pulled down the offline playready install file... So just keep that in mind, and make sure to take an image backup before trying to.

It sounds like a very effective effort on the part of Microsoft to end the ability of W7 / W8 users to install and configure WMC regardless of the separate Guide issue. Also the Windows 8 WMC add-on Activation could be another vector of attacking future installs.

Without the digital cable advisor and playready I don’t see how CableCard could be made to work with new installs. Unless there is a repository somewhere and a reliable one at that, this is a real problem.

If one can’t get through setup successfully how can one even implement EPG123,.....?

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#15

Post by jachin99 » Sun Oct 06, 2019 2:47 pm

I think a lot of people have offline installers for the DCA, and PlayReady for Windows 7. Getting those files for Windows 8 might be a little trickier but I'm sure SOMEONE has them.

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#16

Post by mattiedread » Sun Oct 06, 2019 6:13 pm

Can anyone post a bit about the various alternatives, price, reliability, configurability etc?

choliscott

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#17

Post by choliscott » Sun Oct 06, 2019 6:52 pm

There is always Windows 8 WMC... Assuming people took advantage of getting a license to W8 and WMC when it was available and cheap. I recently updated my WMC machine to a clean install of W8 with WMC and made sure to take a full image of it after I got W8 and WMC activated for it.

For OTA, there is always NextPvr, JRiver (or something like that), Plex, Emby and if your tuner is a Silicondust product, the SiliconDust DVR
rickmktg wrote: Sun Oct 06, 2019 2:24 pm Just got this message today. Of course, support for Windows 7 ends also, so plan on upgrading to Windows 10 and finding a new option to record OTA programming before the end of the year.

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#18

Post by choliscott » Sun Oct 06, 2019 7:12 pm

Some of the other alternatives:

W8 WMC (this assumes you already have or can obtain a key for W8 and W8 WMC
NextPvr - $0 - I can't comment on this. I did get it setup to play live tv
Emby DVR - Cost $5 per month, $55 for 1 year or $119 for lifetime
Plex - Cost $5 per month, $39 for 1 year, or $119 for Lifetime
SiliconDust Dvr - $35 per year
JRiver - Windows license $60
MediaPortal - $0


Emby DVR was fairly simple to setup and haven't had any issues. SilconDust was easier to setup compared to Emby, but the issue I have is when a particular episode of a show is recorded, it won't record again even if the show is set to record all episodes. I tend to get shows recorded that have a glitch. NextPvr - I can't exactly remember the difficulty to setup, I believe it wasn't too difficult, but not sure about extenders. MediaPortal was kind of a pain to setup (using cable card tuners) but the most I got thru was setting up for live TV. I didn't try setup recording anything.

mattiedread wrote: Sun Oct 06, 2019 6:13 pm Can anyone post a bit about the various alternatives, price, reliability, configurability etc?

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#19

Post by mercalia » Sun Oct 06, 2019 7:36 pm

I got that message on my Windows 8.1 media center. I did have alook at epg123 but i read that the source it uses supplies tv data for the Americas not the UK ( it seems ) SO what should I do living in the UK and want receive epg data? I know that Freeview does download epg data but what about the initial grab when you install the tuners etc ( or move to another UK regions with difference frequencies?)

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#20

Post by garyan2 » Sun Oct 06, 2019 8:12 pm

mercalia wrote: Sun Oct 06, 2019 7:36 pm I got that message on my Windows 8.1 media center. I did have alook at epg123 but i read that the source it uses supplies tv data for the Americas not the UK ( it seems ) SO what should I do living in the UK and want receive epg data? I know that Freeview does download epg data but what about the initial grab when you install the tuners etc ( or move to another UK regions with difference frequencies?)
Schedules Direct supports 50+ countries which means so does EPG123. Here is a link to what we support. http://schedulesdirect.org/regions
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

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