Media Center EPG Cutover

Global guide related discussion. All Windows versions.
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webminster

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#1101

Post by webminster » Mon Jul 27, 2015 11:22 pm

So far, the series recoding issue seems much better, daily recording are getting scheduled for me.

The metadata, however, leaves a ton to be desired. For my wife's daily "Days of our lives" soap:
* one day out of 5 seem to have an episode description. The rest are just generic.
* Some guide entries have no title (expected). Some have "days of our lives" (series name) for an episode title (wtf?)
* I've seen the scheduled recordings, on the recorded TV title list, split into two seemingly-identical titles. Perhaps due to the above, having a title vs. no title. Otherwise the titles don't match in some invisible fashion (but I'd expect that to bork the schedule as well).

So WAF -2, I wish they'd figure out how to do a decent job with the guide information, is well below Zap2it standard (never thought I'd say that). I guess it beats nothing... I'm just shocked a little how all over the board this is.
-Alan

pcguy

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#1102

Post by pcguy » Mon Jul 27, 2015 11:28 pm

kdurbin82 wrote:Canadians, do you see your provider here? (http://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/tv-listings or http://www.msn.com/en-ca/tv/tv-listings) It is my understanding that this is a mirror image of the Rovi EPG. My provider showed up in here exactly the same way it showed up in WMC after I got my system fixed. Another thing you can try is to use my zip code/provider as a test. Use 66217 while running TV setup. If you see SureWest as the provider in the list, then you are still getting Zap2It data; if you see Consolidated Communications in the list, you are getting the new Rovi data. It just so happened that the cutover coincided with my provider's merger with another provider, so it is very clear if the data is correct or not.
FrancoLoco wrote:Ok good for the vista part...! Now what about the Canadian part...?
I am using OTA here in Winnipeg Canada using MediaTemple software and so http://www.msn.com/en-ca/tv/tv-listings is of no use to me since all those items are cable/provider based. There is one that purports to be OTA for Winnipeg and Brandon but one of the major networks here in Canada, CBC is missing from the listing.
Last edited by pcguy on Tue Jul 28, 2015 12:10 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Ladislaus

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#1103

Post by Ladislaus » Mon Jul 27, 2015 11:48 pm

webminster wrote:So far, the series recoding issue seems much better, daily recording are getting scheduled for me.

The metadata, however, leaves a ton to be desired. For my wife's daily "Days of our lives" soap:
* one day out of 5 seem to have an episode description. The rest are just generic.
* Some guide entries have no title (expected). Some have "days of our lives" (series name) for an episode title (what the heck?)
* I've seen the scheduled recordings, on the recorded TV title list, split into two seemingly-identical titles. Perhaps due to the above, having a title vs. no title. Otherwise the titles don't match in some invisible fashion (but I'd expect that to bork the schedule as well).

So WAF -2, I wish they'd figure out how to do a decent job with the guide information, is well below Zap2it standard (never thought I'd say that). I guess it beats nothing... I'm just shocked a little how all over the board this is.
I've created two different Feedback entries to help address these guide data-related issues:

Episode title missing (e.g., HUMANS)
https://connect.microsoft.com/site1145/ ... ls/1597097

ROVI's channel guide category/subcategory data is unorganzied
https://connect.microsoft.com/site1145/ ... ls/1596983

Please "pile on" and vote these items up; add comments to each, as appropriate.

(Note: You must be logged in to view/add Feedback.)

Slugbait

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#1104

Post by Slugbait » Tue Jul 28, 2015 12:06 am

timidhermit wrote:Slugbait,

I don't understand your reply, "Your option #2 requires that you run step #1 first, and run step #6 sixth". Are you referring to "killing WMC" as mentioned by another post above? How do you do this exactly. I rebooted first, then with activating WMC, I used the command line option to reset. If I am to truly kill WMC or uninstall WMC (in Vista), how do I do this exactly?

Note that I am on Vista (not 7). In the "Turn Windows features on or off" dialog, there is NO option for me to select "Windows Media Center" under "Media Features". It does not exist.

Please help.
Sorry, I thought you read my instructions on the previous page. When you nuke from orbit with the MediaCenterRecoveryTask command, you must have WMC already shut down, then you must reboot after running the command (and before running WMC again). Here's a link to my original post: http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... f=5#p93005

Makuna

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#1105

Post by Makuna » Tue Jul 28, 2015 12:17 am

Crash2009 wrote:
Makuna wrote:
Slugbait wrote:I found a link via google that took me to page 7 or whatever of this thread. After an hour of reading and trying various solutions (which all failed) to get a guide again for my OTA machine, I reverted back to google and found a solution at answers.microsoft that worked for me: nuke from orbit.

1) Kill WMC
2) Click Start
3) Type CMD
4) Right click on CMD->Run as Admin
5) Copy-n-paste the following into the command window: %systemroot%\ehome\mcupdate.exe -MediaCenterRecoveryTask
6) Reboot (required) and launch WMC

You'll be notified that WMC has suffered a catastrophic error (I forget the exact feedback dialog wording...editor's embellishment) and you need to run setup again (like the first use).

7) Select Express
8) Go to Tasks->Settings->TV->Set Up TV Signal
9) Run the setup wizard, select your area listing, etc

I got my guide again. And the About screen now says I have Rovi.
Followed all the steps though, on step 9, got an error about guide not found.

Still no guide and now I don't have an About menu item!
that means Rovi is not available in the zip code that you put in try the neighboring Zip and keep trying alternate zips the direction of a major city close to you eventually you'll find one that Rovi is available in

The zip code shuffle is like the old game of battleship.
I tried neighboring zip codes, didn't work. Even tried Microsoft zip code (they are a neighbor of mine) and that didn't work either.

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Crash2009

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#1106

Post by Crash2009 » Tue Jul 28, 2015 12:35 am

al_wilson2 wrote:After messing with WMC for the weekend, I finally fixed my issue. A ten year user of WMC, and I had never used the guide tool at http://1geek1tool.com/guidetool/. This tool is what fixed my problem though.

Problem:
- I live between the Youngstown and Cleveland TV markets.
- My zip used to grab OTA listings from both markets (about 50 stations).
- After the Rovi cutover, my zip would only grab the Youngstown listings.
- Cleveland listings showed "no data available".
- I ran setup numerous times with different zips to no avail.
- If I tried a zip just 8 miles away, it would grab just the Cleveland listings (ARGHH!).

Solution:
- I found and installed the guide tool at http://1geek1tool.com/guidetool/
- This tool allowed my to view 33 different complete guide listings with 14,000+ channels.
- Many of these 14,000+ channels were just duplicate channel data on neighboring cable systems.
- I could now see both Youngstown and Cleveland OTA guides within this tool.
- I was no longer limited to one OTA market.
- I was able to assign channels to any channel data in those 33 different guides.

Notes:
- I am now able to see data for all my channels.
- There was a lot of manual configuration needed, as I pull locals over antenna and QAM.
- WMC setup tended to merge a lot of antenna and QAM channels that were not the same.
- You need to be proficient in splitting and merging channel sources to correct this.
- I ran a guide update afterwards, and my guide was still populated.
- I'm not sure what will happen when WMC runs a background channel scan.
- Hopefully all my changes hold after a background channel scan.
- This guide tool was very promising. I plan to mess around with it more and see if I can even get listings from Erie, Pittsburg, and Wheeling.
- I can pull all those markets by rotating my rooftop antenna, which would be great for football season.
- I thought my WMC setup was just killed by the EPG cutover; now I have renewed optimism that I can keep this going for many more years.
Seems like you are the only one that has a grip on GuideTool Al. Could we learn about some of your splitting and merging methods over here.....

http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... 308#p92308

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Crash2009

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#1107

Post by Crash2009 » Tue Jul 28, 2015 12:39 am

Makuna wrote:I tried neighboring zip codes, didn't work. Even tried Microsoft zip code (they are a neighbor of mine) and that didn't work either.
have you done the hosts edit and dns flush yet? If you have, you might need to go all the way like I had to.

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davidhp

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#1108

Post by davidhp » Tue Jul 28, 2015 1:03 am

I am getting updates on all the channels I have now, however in the guide more than half of the movies are showing graphics for another movie - this means you have to click on every movie to see what it really is.
Can this be fixed or is there some way just to display the name of movie in the movie guide.

al.rob

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#1109

Post by al.rob » Tue Jul 28, 2015 1:36 am

I reverted back to google and found a solution at answers.microsoft that worked for me: nuke from orbit.

1) Kill WMC
2) Click Start
3) Type CMD
4) Right click on CMD->Run as Admin
5) Copy-n-paste the following into the command window: %systemroot%\ehome\mcupdate.exe -MediaCenterRecoveryTask
6) Reboot (required) and launch WMC

You'll be notified that WMC has suffered a catastrophic error (I forget the exact feedback dialog wording...editor's embellishment) and you need to run setup again (like the first use).

7) Select Express
8) Go to Tasks->Settings->TV->Set Up TV Signal
9) Run the setup wizard, select your area listing, etc

I tried the above fix to no avail. I tried a bunch of zip codes in the Washington DC area and none worked. I also now do not have an about menu item for the guide, and got the guide download error. Does anyone know of any working zip codes in the DC metro area?

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#1110

Post by PhoebeAnn » Tue Jul 28, 2015 1:57 am

spanner wrote:I am getting page not found when I follow the OP feedback link
You're not alone. This is another nail in the WMC coffin, I'm afraid. On the bright side, I appear to have my guide back after going through Tasks->Settings->TV->TV Signal, and then editing the guide to get the channels back to where they were. But I am actively looking for a reliable subsitute for WMC for OTA TV.
Last edited by PhoebeAnn on Tue Jul 28, 2015 2:20 am, edited 1 time in total.

Ephrem

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#1111

Post by Ephrem » Tue Jul 28, 2015 2:11 am

Hi folks,

I've been reading through this post for the last week (yes every page :crazy: ). (As an aside: I planned to post earlier, but though I registered about 3 days ago, I just received the confirmation email to activate my account today - who knows?)

Anyway, I just wanted to report that I noticed this cutover only after I noticed some programs which were scheduled as a series didn't record. After playing around with various settings in WMC and not seeing any changes, I decided to Google the issue figuring (and rightly so) that I couldn't be the only one having this issue. That's how I found this forum and specific post.

I really want to thank everyone for all their hard work and many hours of trying to figure out what happened, since MS didn't make a major announcement about this cutover. I'm sure they were hoping it would have gone smoothly and no one would have even noticed. (I'm trying to give them the benefit of the doubt.) Obviously that didn't happen!!!

Apparently I'm one of the luckier persons, as my HTPC did switch over to Rovi on my Ceton InfiniTV4 Tuners, though it still says zap2it on "Digital Terrestrial Antenna" (which I don't have). The only issue I've been having is with the "Series Recording", in which some days it's recording and others not. As others have described, it does fine on the days in which it states "Original Air Date" and there's an actual description, but other times the data has only generic information. I can at least manually set recordings for those in the mean time (feels like the old VCR days). It seems that from 8/4 or 8/5 the series recording is getting better, so it's possible that the issue has been fixed.

I have not attempted any of the "fixes" in this post, as it seems this particular issue still remains for many even after they have gone through setup again. I still have all my channels and I can record (even partially series record). I'm trying to be patient and hope in the next week or so, all will be resolved.

Just and FYI, I live in New Castle, PA (16101), which is near Youngstown, OH and about an hour north of Pittsburgh, PA. As I said, I haven't re-run the setup, but maybe someone in the area who needs to get Rovi information can try this zip code, as I'm getting updated EPG data everyday, which is at least 99% correct.

P.S. Sorry for the long post! :yawn:

al_wilson2

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#1112

Post by al_wilson2 » Tue Jul 28, 2015 2:12 am

STC wrote:
mdavej wrote:I get the same message for my locale, yet I have full guide data in WMC. I don't think this is a good test. Use http://www.tvguide.com/listings/ instead.

If you click the "Find more information" link in each program detail, you get exactly the same info you see in WMC.
Unfortunately tvguide.com displays a totally different provider with only 60 analogue channels. Their site is definitely not a sync to WMC for me. Still yet to find a working online guide....
Not sure if this is what you are looking for, but Rovi does have an online guide http://roviguide.com/. You can at least see what data/channels Rovi is providing in their guide for your zip.

PhoebeAnn

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#1113

Post by PhoebeAnn » Tue Jul 28, 2015 2:24 am

I'm going to have to manually add a bunch of stations; is there a Rovi-compatible listing of all channels with whatever data WMC/Rovi is going to want when I go to add channels?

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Crash2009

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#1114

Post by Crash2009 » Tue Jul 28, 2015 2:31 am

I just tried the Rovi link. According to Rovi, 48103 should be working. Maybe I'll rerun setup again.

webminster

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#1115

Post by webminster » Tue Jul 28, 2015 2:34 am

al_wilson2 wrote: Not sure if this is what you are looking for, but Rovi does have an online guide http://roviguide.com/. You can at least see what data/channels Rovi is providing in their guide for your zip.
Metadata (like program descriptions) to me look more complete there. If only they could figure out how to transfer the data to WMC.
-Alan

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#1116

Post by al_wilson2 » Tue Jul 28, 2015 2:48 am

PhoebeAnn wrote:I'm going to have to manually add a bunch of stations; is there a Rovi-compatible listing of all channels with whatever data WMC/Rovi is going to want when I go to add channels?
Are you sure you have to manually add channels? WMC should be able to do a channel scan and find/add all of the OTA or QAM channels that the tuner finds. Then you just need to match the scanned channels with the proper channels in Guide Tool http://1geek1tool.com/guidetool/. I only had to manually add one channel 19.1, because the guide had the wrong frequency for it. However, upon checking all my sources for each channel, I found that channel scan already found it and merged it with another incorrect channel. I get two 19.1 channels off of different frequencies from Youngstown and Cleveland. If you are doing only OTA, then run a channel scan after initial setup as WMC seems to skip the channel scan and just configure channels it sees in the guide data. If you are doing QAM (unencrypted cable), then WMC seems to automatically do a channel scan during setup.

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#1117

Post by GnatGoSplat » Tue Jul 28, 2015 2:57 am

Has anyone been able to get this working on a clean install? I tried changing to Google DNS, adding those entires to the hosts file, and using every zipcode reported as working, and can't get past the guide setup on a clean install. Even tried removing and reinstalling Media Center.

There's a post by Elliot239 here http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/wind ... 6e8?auth=1, he says it's not possible to get the guide working on a clean install no matter what. Only solution is to copy files from a working old install. My experience seems to indicate he's correct. Anyone else have a different experience?

sparkinstx

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#1118

Post by sparkinstx » Tue Jul 28, 2015 2:59 am

Microsoft completely dropped the ball here. I know they've basically given up on WMC, and for Windows 10, they don't even support playing .wtv files in Windows Media Player (I had to install VLC to get that capability, even in Build 10240). Thanks for treating us like the poor stepchildren, Microsoft.

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#1119

Post by jbburlison » Tue Jul 28, 2015 3:09 am

After much frustration I was finally able to get the Rovi guide for Nashville Comcast (37209). Changing to a static DNS is what seemed to do the trick for my situation....

I was wondering if people are leaving the DNS static or going back to obtain DNS server automatically?

Thanks for your help!

Makuna

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#1120

Post by Makuna » Tue Jul 28, 2015 3:13 am

sparkinstx wrote:Microsoft completely dropped the ball here. I know they've basically given up on WMC, and for Windows 10, they don't even support playing .wtv files in Windows Media Player (I had to install VLC to get that capability, even in Build 10240). Thanks for treating us like the poor stepchildren, Microsoft.
Drop the ball? I am not even sure they showed up to play the game.

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