Media Center EPG Cutover

[dmac]

A GREAT BIG THANK YOU TO ALL

Long time lurker, first time poster here. Seriously, I can't thank you enough. I know that those of you who posted solutions to this put in some serious time acquiring the knowledge to even begin to troubleshoot this issue. I have been running Media Center on Win 7 for over a year now and it has basically been bulletproof, up until now (on Vista for a year before that worked well too). I used to code so I know the digging and trial and error involved, and now just do "tech support" for my family. I can't wait until the day I have more time (i.e. kids grow up and move out) to actually contribute to efforts such as these.

What worked for me in the end was the DNS change (8.8.8.8/8.8.4.4), then mcupdate -uf -pscn 0 (twice) after nuking Media Center (mcupdate.exe -MediaCenterRecoveryTask). Probably didn't have to nuke, but I did after trying everything else (except the DNS change for some reason - stress most likely).

Additional info: Ceton Infinitv 4 Card: Had to repair/reinstall drivers before Media Center would see the tuners.

Again, THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO PUT IN TIME ON THIS, YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE.

-dmac

[vtools.elb]

My issues:

1. I am running Vista Home Premium.
2. When I look at "About Guide" I see that Zap2It is still the provider and my dates are something like 7/15/2015 through 8/12/2015 - and today is 7/30/2015.
3. When I "Get latest Guide Listings" it gives me a message that it's completed successfully, yet when I go to the Guide, all I get is "No Data Available".
4. I've tried re-running my tuner card setup and re-setting up the guide with Zip codes listed on this site (for Morris County NJ) to no avail.
5. My TV stations are all OTA - basic stations.

This is unbelievable that MS could drop the ball like this...

[Moderator note: post moved]

[timidhermit]

STC,

Are you answering my question about the nettv schedule error? Unsure. Can you please elaborate what this is about?

^ Ignore.
It's a disabled feature and wasn't available to anyone outside the US anyway.

[STC]

^ Sure. Here's an easy way to explain

[raynewman]

I would like to report today I was able to verify all my computers work with all my cablecard tuners & OTA tuners.
NEW install only.
Every one downloaded setup data
All guides are Rovi
All schedules seem to work.
Some time zone errors & some dupes of channels but workable.
After 7/7/15 no install worked
after 7/12/15 only old computers and HDhome run prime worked
after 7/20/15 (about) all computers worked but not with any Ceton tuners
after 7/29/15 all computer, all tuners work.
Also when something worked it worked for me with every zipcode I tried.
If it did not work, no zipcode I tried worked.
I did go through ALL the suggested fixes. No help.
Conclusion:
As far as new installs go, ONLY time waiting fixed ALL problems.
Win7 home/pro/ultimate
What a waste of my time. Hope trying EVERYBODY's suggestions was not too much a waste of time.
I assume not doing new installs were harder to fix.
Thank you for your attention.
Ray

[columbia93]

So I guess there is nothing to do about this?

Just wait and hope it corrects itself?


_______________________

I get NO DATA AVAILABLE for all channels - and they worked fine up to about a week ago (mid-July 2015)

Tried SET UP TV again, scanned channels, etc. etc. and still same result.

I'm using an old Kworld USB HDTV "box." Has worked just fine in all regards except for this EPG issue.

does your about guide still say zap2it?

I'm using VISTA and I tried to find the ABOUT WMC but could not find it.

It sounds like people are getting a fail on some zipcodes - but mind all process like they are good.
It sounds like people are getting wrong or missing channels in the lineup, but mine are all correct and all NO DATA AVAILABLE.

I picked a zip from downtown Pittsburgh and it didn't work either (15222 - and my home 15644 did not work.)

Maybe I should just try a test of a zip that does work? (unfortunately, there were non in PA when I checked that short list on this forum.)

But ultimately, isn't Rovi going to fix all the zip codes?

I'm also a Vista user and my guide is perfectly fine (if fine is "No Data Available") as it is not converting to Rovi. I have tried many things over the past 5 days and neither MS or Rovi is interested. Tweets to Rovi didn't get me any kind of a response other than to tell me to contact Microsoft, which I did on the 26th and still no answer.

WMC is integrated into Vista so we can't uninstall it like the one person provided as a sure-fire solution. I can't delete eHome from the ProgramData file. I can delete everything individually EXCEPT for the 3 SQL Server files but that doesn't change the provider. I don't know what some of the other suggestions are...never quite certain what you guys mean when you say "burn WMC" or "Kill..." or "Nuke..." Perhaps someone can come up with a solution that works for Vista and Hauppauge cards who is a Time Warner user, AND explain it in layman's terms. I built this PC so I'm not illiterate, and I can work with files and stuff, but I don't necessarily know the lingo AND my OS is obviously much older than most posting here.

I don't believe the zip codes have anything to do with it, especially if we're talking set-top box and not OTA. All the zip code seems to do is enable WMC to populate the provider options.

[MrCreosote]

I think I may be having trouble finding where ABOUT is or not being able to run mcupdate.exe -MediaCenterRecoveryTask because I am running VISTA.

Regarding ABOUT, this is all I could find TASKS > SETTINGS > GENERAL > ABOUT WINDOWS MEDIA CENTER

Then I can select from

SOFTWARE VERSION (basiic stuff about my OS and WMC version)
GUIDE TERMS OF SERVICE (long legalize mumbo jumbo)
DATAPROVIDER CREDITS (related to cutsie sounds WMC makes and a Dolby Digital acknowledgement)

There is nothing that suggests zap or Rovi.

I tried Windows\ehome\mcupdate.exe -MediaCenterRecoveryTask and it does absolutely nothing.

____________________________________
EDIT: Found the ABOUT

TASKS > SETTINGS > TV > GUIDE > ABOUT GUIDE SETTINGS

And YES, it says ZAP2IT right up on top.
++++

OK, so wouldn't there be some kind of update for WMC to change from ZAP to ROVI?

[MrCreosote]

People were talking about reinstalling WMC updates from 7/21 or 7/25 (or ?) and the last WMC Update (Cumulative) was in 2014.

Or is the Rovi change done in a VISTA update?

[MrCreosote]

I've gone to Rovi's website and it appears to have EPG's for European Countries only. No USA.

So its not even possible to look for lists of Zip Codes.

So how to contact Rovi?
______________

Found a Company Contact page and I had to represent myself as a Content Provider to fill out their form - they definitely are not interested in talking to Little People.

[al_wilson2]

I picked a zip from downtown Pittsburgh and it didn't work either (15222 - and my home 15644 did not work.)

I just configured 15222 and it pulled an OTA guide.

I know this is semantics (orwhat it actually means for that matter): I get a guide with all the right channels with either zip (15222 or 15644), however there is NO DATA AVAILABLE for all those channels.

So the EPG is getting the channel list from somewhere - if it isn't zap2it, then it must be Rovi - but if it isn't Rovi, where is the channel list coming from?

I'm still configured for 15222 zip, and I have full programming data. Find the fix to your WMC, and you will get full guide data from MS/Rovi.

[stevethebrain]

W7MC has no option to update latest TV guide it allways had this option until the downgrade.

since 7-7-15 W7MC decided to down grade
the co. that downloads the lastest tv guide listings I haven't been able to
completely resetup my TV channels w/ tasks setup
tv.

I have been able to parshealley resetup a few few channels then manualley add
a few.

however there is no option to update latest TV guide so I have no guide recordings

all I see is no data available where the guide should be.

I am forced to use the antiquated TV guide from the TV which is usalley wronge to
program a scheduled recording.

what am I doing wronge ? or do I have to wait on the down grade of the co. thats now
doing the DL of lastest guide listings?

useing a free antenna for OTA TV.

edit whats strange is there a few extra channels a cop channel it's icon is a J, LAFF, and a homeshopping channel (not network channels)
and NBC is missing until I manuelley added it I can actually watch these channels however I want my guide so I can record.
Thanks for any advice

[Moderator note: topic merged]

[MrCreosote]

EDIT: Regarding Zip Codes and Zap2it -v- Rovi:

How can I be using Zap2it and still getting the correct channel lineup. Supposedly the license has expired with Zap so where are the channel lineups coming from?

END EDIT


I guess I'm going to the Obsolete XP/VISTA sub-forum. Not much activity there, but who knows? I think it is a VISTA specific issue.

[Crash2009]

That's not the TV Pack, that's the update for it. The TV Pack can be downloaded from here:
http://digiex.net/guides-reviews/guides ... guide.html

Ok, so TV Pack was an OEM only release for new HP PCs with cable cards. Boy, you guys are really brave (or desperate) to install something like that!

Besides, all the download locations seem to be broken or deleted. The one place that was still active had a .rar file and I have always been leery about them.

I'll pass for now. If things don't get any better, I'll swallow hard and upgrade to W7, which will probably be abandoned in another year anyway.

get Winrar for .rar files. Basically it's the same as win zip or 7zip. Open and extract.

Brave desperate, probably a little of both. on the upside I see he is watching TV tonight you are looking at a blank screen.

[MrCreosote]

Did the sfc /scannow
it completed and looked at the CBS.log file: way, way, way to verbose and complicated.

At any rate, did a Setup Guide again and no change - still stuck on Zap2it

[akwalker]

Everyone stop assuming it's a DNS Issue it's more likely not. Simply open up your command prompt and perform a DNS lookup.
Type this in your command prompt: nslookup data.tvdownload.microsoft.com

This is what you should see:

C:\Users\HTPC>nslookup data.tvdownload.microsoft.com
Server: cdns01.comcast.net
Address: 75.75.75.75

Non-authoritative answer:
Name: data.tvdownload.windowsmedia.com.akadns.net
Address: 65.55.186.115
Aliases: data.tvdownload.microsoft.com

As you can see the dns works fine. I have Comcast and It returned and IP address of 65.55.186.115 for data.tvdownload.windowsmedia.com.akadns.net

Basically MS & Rovi F-ed up. I just built a new HTPC and I am running in the same issues with the guide for cable channels. (Who knew I should of saved my guide data) I am in Houston 77095. Your TV in the Media Center will still work fine. Your Guide for OTA (Over the Air) channels will work just fine. It's only the cable channels in the guide that you cannot see correctly. until the issue gets resolved you can use this channel guide. http://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/tv-listings ... ston%2C+TX

Daley'O

Is this guide for those of us that cannot see the higher cable channels or just the people who cannot see the OTA.

[columbia93]

I've gone to Rovi's website and it appears to have EPG's for European Countries only. No USA.

So its not even possible to look for lists of Zip Codes.

So how to contact Rovi?
______________

Found a Company Contact page and I had to represent myself as a Content Provider to fill out their form - they definitely are not interested in talking to Little People.

I did the same thing and they didn't respond. What I did was "Tweet" - which limits you to only a few words. They tweeted back, which means little was said. They told me to go to Microsoft and file a report. I told them I did that on 7/26. They tweeted back that they would escalate it. For crying out loud, how hard is it to just answer the **** questions!!!

[columbia93]

Everyone stop assuming it's a DNS Issue it's more likely not. Simply open up your command prompt and perform a DNS lookup.
Type this in your command prompt: nslookup data.tvdownload.microsoft.com

This is what you should see:

C:\Users\HTPC>nslookup data.tvdownload.microsoft.com
Server: cdns01.comcast.net
Address: 75.75.75.75

Non-authoritative answer:
Name: data.tvdownload.windowsmedia.com.akadns.net
Address: 65.55.186.115
Aliases: data.tvdownload.microsoft.com

As you can see the dns works fine. I have Comcast and It returned and IP address of 65.55.186.115 for data.tvdownload.windowsmedia.com.akadns.net

Basically MS & Rovi F-ed up. I just built a new HTPC and I am running in the same issues with the guide for cable channels. (Who knew I should of saved my guide data) I am in Houston 77095. Your TV in the Media Center will still work fine. Your Guide for OTA (Over the Air) channels will work just fine. It's only the cable channels in the guide that you cannot see correctly. until the issue gets resolved you can use this channel guide. http://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/tv-listings ... ston%2C+TX

Daley'O

Is this guide for those of us that cannot see the higher cable channels or just the people who cannot see the OTA.

What I see is
Server: Unknown
Address: 192.168.1.1

The other is the same. Meaning: (Non-authoritative answer:
Name: data.tvdownload.windowsmedia.com.akadns.net
Address: 65.55.186.115
Aliases: data.tvdownload.microsoft.com)

So what does this mean and what do I need to do to fix it.

(By the way, who needs a freakin' guide! I've got one of those on my TV. I can't program recordings without the WMC guide working. THAT is the problem! How stupid are these people?)

[glugglug]

^ Your CableCards channel map which gets it direct from your cable companies headend.

The EPG actually pays no attention to the CableCARD channel map. There is a fixed list of channels for it default to based on the listing you pick to download. When you pick a channel to watch/record, it tells the tuner to go to that cablecard channel, and the tuner looks at the channel map to figure out the QAM frequency and subchannel ID. If it isn't in the map (or you have a tuning adapter that can't find it), then it fails to tune.

In some areas, there would be more junk to scroll through if it automatically added channels for everything in the map. For example with FiOS I have 80 channels in the channel map that are named "Target Ads #x", which are not in the guide by default. You can add them with my editor, but not very useful -- They serve either ads, blank screens, or screens with the Verizon logo 24/7, and the rented set top boxes receive instructions to tune to the commercials based on demographics during some of the commercial time slots, instead of serving whatever commercial the channel you are watching has by default.

Actually now that I think about it, maybe they would be useful as a timing signal to something like comskip or ShowAnalyzer.

[hansolo89]

Rovi still updating guides, I had some new useless sub channels appear in my guide overnight that I had to disable

[Bob.Blockerlundt]

so what bugs still exist besides epg dl errors?

Maybe a separate thread should be made for Rovi data quality and feature issues.

Yes, I think it would be helpful to separate out folks still trying to get the new guide to download at all, versus now that we have the new guide, here are all the data problems.

Also, it would be great to see a table of all known bugs and their current status (bug # and link, open/fixed, verified working, etc.). That will also help folks find their relevant issues on the Microsoft site, and add on their own details or vote up those bugs as applicable.

Is there a way we can have a wiki post? Some forums have a wiki space after the first post, where anyone can create a summary and others can add updates as needed.

Or if not, then someone can maintain the current list of bugs and status in the first post, but that seems inefficient to burden just one person.

I see we also have a wiki http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/wiki/ so another option could be to create a page there, and link to that? I tried creating a page, but it looks like I don't have permission. I also tried logging in, but my credentials don't work there for some reason - is it different from the one used to post to the forum?

Not sure what the protocols are here... I guess it's easy for me to throw out suggestions if other folks are doing the work, haha. But I'm willing to help contribute and get this organized. I do feel it is weird that end users have to do this QA Testing that Microsoft and Rovi should have done themselves, but since we're doing it anyway, might as well get organized about it!

Thanks for starting the other thread for Rovi EPG data quality issues
http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... =30&t=9026

I replied in that thread too, but just a quick follow up on my wiki idea here, I put together a wiki page here:
http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/wiki/index ... ta_Quality
Note this page is only listing general issues about the Rovi guide data assuming Rovi download is at least working for you. I did not tackle the long list of bugs related to downloading problems, zip code problems, location specific or provider specific channel problems, etc. But that may be a idea for another wiki page...

Also, turns out you sign into the wiki with the same username and password as the forum. But I was getting an error because my password contained <. Worked around that by changing my password.