Media Center EPG Cutover

Global guide related discussion. All Windows versions.
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Augustus

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#1541

Post by Augustus » Mon Aug 24, 2015 11:25 am

Still in hell on this.

I had one PC, my backup, install Rovi no problem first time. It was a newly installed Windows 7.
So I know my zip is good (05672), it even had OTA schedules.

My main HTPC however cannot seem to get any guide data.
It was running windows 7 and I did everything in this thread and more, including completely reinstalling windows.
I edited the Hosts file, added new IPs to my network adapter, flushed the DNS, ran WMC ObjectStoreRecoveryTask, rebooted along the way, removed WMC, added it back, yadda yadda yadda.

Finally I started over with windows 8.1, I even spent the ten bucks to buy WMC for it. Then I went through all the suggestions all over again, but I still get the download failure error.

I am at my wit's end with this. At this point I'm beginning to think that this is all random and all the fixes are bogus - whatever someone was trying at the time it randomly worked was seen as the solution.

I'm not sure what to do at this point, I'm open to suggestions.

HDTV-WMC-fan

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#1542

Post by HDTV-WMC-fan » Mon Aug 24, 2015 1:09 pm

Augustus wrote:Still in heck on this.

I had one PC, my backup, install Rovi no problem first time. It was a newly installed Windows 7.
So I know my zip is good (05672), it even had OTA schedules.

My main HTPC however cannot seem to get any guide data.
It was running windows 7 and I did everything in this thread and more, including completely reinstalling windows.
I edited the Hosts file, added new IPs to my network adapter, flushed the DNS, ran WMC ObjectStoreRecoveryTask, rebooted along the way, removed WMC, added it back, yadda yadda yadda.

Finally I started over with windows 8.1, I even spent the ten bucks to buy WMC for it. Then I went through all the suggestions all over again, but I still get the download failure error.

I am at my wit's end with this. At this point I'm beginning to think that this is all random and all the fixes are bogus - whatever someone was trying at the time it randomly worked was seen as the solution.

I'm not sure what to do at this point, I'm open to suggestions.
Hi Augustus,

Have you tried doing everything exactly as shown in post #1512 on page 76. So far this has worked for everyone that I have talked to.

Please note that most will get the TV setup download error until the very last step. One WMC user didn't have an internet connection at the time they did the fix, but after their internet was restored all went well. Had another WMC user that had to delete the hidden folder (as shown in post #1535) before the guide came back (do this before the post #1512 fix). Also had a WMC user that had to try the download several times because the MS servers were overloaded. You should have an internet connection at all times during the fix. The fix itself only takes about 5 to 10 minutes, it's the TV setup in WMC that takes the most time. Nobody that I have talked to has had to reinstall Windows (Windows 7 or Windows 8.1).

Be sure to use the CMD window (logged in as administrator) and follow each step closely, double and triple check everything.

Please let us know what happens after you try the fix in post #1512. Good luck!

Augustus

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#1543

Post by Augustus » Mon Aug 24, 2015 4:08 pm

I went back again and went through the whole thing, 1512, 1535, 1501, still get the download error after 1512 and then again after 1501.

What's puzzling is that my other computer had no problem getting the Rovi connection. This one is on the same network and cannot get any guide data, Rovi or zap2it, despite reinstalling win 7 and then installing win 8.1.

How can this be on my end after all the reinstalls and wiping out ip addresses and mc itself? It makes no sense except to believe that this is an issue on the Microsoft side.

I'll be happy to try any other ideas anyone might have.

JohnW248

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#1544

Post by JohnW248 » Mon Aug 24, 2015 4:24 pm

If you have a problem with some MC files, what you have done may or may not have fixed that. Depending on how you re-installed (which would kill any DMR recordings by the way) should have been a full clean install.

BUT you don't have to do that. Removing and adding back MC in the control panel really only hides it and brings it back. If you have a problem with MC itself you need to do the Media Center Recovery Task. Go to your computer icon and right click and choose manage. Then the top listing is the Task Scheduler, open that and you get the task scheduler library, keep opening (Microsoft, windows, etc) until you get to Media Center. Open that and then you'll have all the tasks to choose from. Under the TWO MCUPDATE tasks (which is what runs your auto guide update) you'll find the Media Center Recovery Task. Make sure media center is closed and highlight this and drop down the Action menu from the top menu bar and choose run. Close the management console and then then reopen Media Center and it will open with set-up and a new set of files. You'll have to go through all operations and any scheduled recordings will be lost. However if you have DRM recordings you previously made, they will still play. You'll have to do the full tv signal set up and probably run the digital cable advisor if you're using cableCARD. What you did, didn't reset Media Center.

Augustus

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#1545

Post by Augustus » Mon Aug 24, 2015 5:02 pm

JohnW248 wrote:If you have a problem with some MC files, what you have done may or may not have fixed that. Depending on how you re-installed (which would kill any DMR recordings by the way) should have been a full clean install.

BUT you don't have to do that. Removing and adding back MC in the control panel really only hides it and brings it back. If you have a problem with MC itself you need to do the Media Center Recovery Task. Go to your computer icon and right click and choose manage. Then the top listing is the Task Scheduler, open that and you get the task scheduler library, keep opening (Microsoft, windows, etc) until you get to Media Center. Open that and then you'll have all the tasks to choose from. Under the TWO MCUPDATE tasks (which is what runs your auto guide update) you'll find the Media Center Recovery Task. Make sure media center is closed and highlight this and drop down the Action menu from the top menu bar and choose run. Close the management console and then then reopen Media Center and it will open with set-up and a new set of files. You'll have to go through all operations and any scheduled recordings will be lost. However if you have DRM recordings you previously made, they will still play. You'll have to do the full tv signal set up and probably run the digital cable advisor if you're using cableCARD. What you did, didn't reset Media Center.
Well, when I did the reinstalls of win 7 and the new install of 8.1 I erased all partitions and reinstalled cleanly. That, certainly, reset media center and removed any old files associated with MC. Whether I had to do it or not is besides the point, I did and started with a clean install.

I followed your instructions to run the mediacenterrecovery task and it did indeed rest MC, but it had zero impact on the problem. I still got the same download error.

Something else is going on here.

By the way, at this point I have no epg data at all so I can't even look to the guide section to see if zap2it or Rovi is in there. Are there any modifications to the process given this?

Also, I just use OTA signals, no cable or anything, so will I get epg data from the OTA signal itself?

Thanks,

dnsacks

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#1546

Post by dnsacks » Mon Aug 24, 2015 5:21 pm

i'm in pretty much the same boat as Agustus -- History -- Early this month, while watching recorded tv (and recording a show), our Media Center computer had a hiccup -- media center stopped working and required a reboot. Post-hiccup, had to reinstall tuners (running a ceton 6 tuner cablecard ethernet tuner) and, when running setup tv signals, ran into the guide download failure. Followed all of the various instructions on these pages, including #1512 and #1535 without success. Have now performed a clean install of windows 8.1 and still having same issue after about a dozen attempts. I live in the denver, co area (zip code 80209) and use Comcast for my viewing needs, have used the confirmed zips of 80228 and 80207 with identical results.

To be clear, media center runs, plays tv, records tv, etc. all is a-ok except for the guide data issue. Wondering whether one poster's idea of pasting the contents of the program data\ehome directory from a known working install of WMC might be the "ticket" -- Thoughts? Happy to provide dropbox/server info to accomplish if anybody is willing to share and thinks this might help.

Also happy to drop $25/year to go the schedules direct route if this will both provide my cable lineup on the guide and be a robust(ish) solution going forward.

My previously good WAF is going downhill at a snowballing rate . . . and, given the # of times I've tried and retried, wondering if I'm just unlucky in the Microsoft EPG lottery . . .

HDTV-WMC-fan

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#1547

Post by HDTV-WMC-fan » Mon Aug 24, 2015 6:08 pm

I'm hearing whispers that the Microsoft Media Center servers are overloading as more and more people are beginning to panic over the loss of their EPG. Have you tried pinging the servers?

dnsacks

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#1548

Post by dnsacks » Mon Aug 24, 2015 7:00 pm

HDTV-WMC-fan --

What should I be pinging, the numerical value added to the hosts file or the two server names in the host file or ???

Will let u know what i find out -- Interesting, as this might help explain why folks had success going through a VPN to a foreign (UK, NL, etc.) host computer, which could cause the request to route to a completely different server.

thx~!

LrngToFly

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#1549

Post by LrngToFly » Mon Aug 24, 2015 7:28 pm

Hi everyone-

~5 year user of WMC 7. I have four Echoes. Only one cable co supplied box (in case something like this happens!). My Guide Data apparently ran out Saturday 8/22 around 11 am (that was my final recording.) Back in July my system switched over to Rovi fine- some tv channel names changed, some series stopped recording. I was able to fix up all of that and everything was fine.

So yesterday I decided to look into the problem (didn't completely read this forum thread first, nor did I do a system backup) and did a "mcupdate.exe -MediaCenterRecoveryTask" so I lost the ability to tune in channels in addition to not having the guide data. After that I read a bit more of other's trials and tribulations and did lots of uninstalling the WMC "Feature" from control panel, deleting \ProgramData\Microsoft\eHome folder, reinstalling the WMC "Feature", doing lots of "ipconfig /flushdns", setting the MS server IP addresses up in the hosts file etc. The one thing I haven't tried yet is a VPN. I haven't looked into how to use that. I'm not in China or Russia and so I don't normally need a VPN. :)

No luck- I can't pull down my channel listings or my guide data of course.

One question I have for people w/ working systems: Can you successfully ping both data.tvdownload.microsoft.com and cdn.epg.tvdownload.microsoft.com? I am unable to ping data.tvdownload.microsoft.com, but cdn.epg.tvdownload.microsoft.com works (I might have that backwards.) The IP address also doesn't return pings. Perhaps that server is configured to not return pings? If people w/ working systems can successfully ping both servers, perhaps I'll go to the VPN path (or take my HTPC over to my neighbor with Verizon Fios) to get the channel data back.

If anyone has anything else to suggest, I'm all ears. My family is going to string me up if I don't get 3 TVs working...! Thanks!

FWIW, I'm in Eastern Massachusetts on Comcast.

dnsacks

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#1550

Post by dnsacks » Mon Aug 24, 2015 7:55 pm

I just tried pinging both data.tvdownload.microsoft.com and 65.55.186.113 and had timeouts on both -- the cdn.epg.tvdownload.microsoft.com (and associated numeric IP) both worked fine . . .

Might be onto something -- start by confirming successful pings on both before proceeding . . . .

HDTV-WMC-fan

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#1551

Post by HDTV-WMC-fan » Mon Aug 24, 2015 8:04 pm

dnsacks wrote:HDTV-WMC-fan --

What should I be pinging, the numerical value added to the hosts file or the two server names in the host file or ???

Will let u know what i find out -- Interesting, as this might help explain why folks had success going through a VPN to a foreign (UK, NL, etc.) host computer, which could cause the request to route to a completely different server.

thx~!
Just start the DOS command window (using the same CMD as you did when you edited your hosts file in post #1501) and type:

PING 65.55.186.113 and press enter (the first server)
PING 72.246.56.59 and press enter (the second server)

I can't verify if the server IP addresses may have been changed

dnsacks

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#1552

Post by dnsacks » Mon Aug 24, 2015 8:15 pm

HDTV-WMC-fan (or anybody) -- can you successfully ping 65.55.186.113 (or data.tvdownload.microsoft.com)?

I'm currently getting consistent timeouts on my ping requests to both from both my office ISP and using my iPhone's ATT connection as a wireless hotspot (i.e. not one packet pinged back to me).

HDTV-WMC-fan

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#1553

Post by HDTV-WMC-fan » Mon Aug 24, 2015 8:31 pm

dnsacks wrote:HDTV-WMC-fan (or anybody) -- can you successfully ping 65.55.186.113 (or data.tvdownload.microsoft.com)?

I'm currently getting consistent timeouts on my ping requests to both from both my office ISP and using my iPhone's ATT connection as a wireless hotspot (i.e. not one packet pinged back to me).
I am getting intermittent results. Sometimes I get 3 packets back with one lost, so they must be having problems.

I forgot to add, PING works with the IP address or the domain name.

dnsacks

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#1554

Post by dnsacks » Mon Aug 24, 2015 8:40 pm

interesting -- just tried again from my work ISP -- pinging data.tvdownload.microsoft.com, I had 35 successive timeouts before I shut down the process (doing this via terminal on my mac) -- pinging the other site (numeric or alpha) works just fine.

Also seems that MOST of the folks posting success stories have updated at odd hours . . . . at a minimum, clear that I need to see at least SOME successful pings to data.tvdownload.microsoft.com before trying the processes outlined in this thread again . . .

Progress!?
Thx!

Space

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#1555

Post by Space » Mon Aug 24, 2015 9:09 pm

Microsoft blocks pings to the data.tvdownload.microsoft.com server, so getting no response to pings does not indicate a problem.

dnsacks

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#1556

Post by dnsacks » Mon Aug 24, 2015 9:24 pm

oh well -- was getting hopeful -- any other thoughts regarding my predicament? Think I'm going to next try disconnecting my PC from my home network/DSL connection and using my phone's wireless hotspot as the access point?

Here's a question -- since I've now followed the steps that HDTV-WMC-fan posted (repeatedly) without luck, what (if any) steps need to be repeated to put my HTPC in a state where it will be likely to work during setup (i.e. do I need to /flushdns? run the objectstore recovery task? uninstall and reinstall WMC, run setup using the 11111 zipcode, etc.?)

grittree

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#1557

Post by grittree » Mon Aug 24, 2015 10:15 pm

Pinging the servers is useless. They don't respond to pings.

Augustus, here is what I wrote on AVS:
I have never seen a thread with more wrong info than this one. The switch from zap2it to Rovi.

The truth is none of the "solutions" that have to do with changing the HOST file, or the zipcode, or dnsflush, or whatever actually matters.

There is overwhelming evidence that those who have problems (and there are lots of them), eventually get solved. Doing nothing is just as good as doing something. I did nothing, and eventually all were fixed.

Other people tried all kinds of things, and when they got Rovi, they assumed the latest thing they did was the reason. Nope. But their intentions were good.

LrngToFly

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#1558

Post by LrngToFly » Mon Aug 24, 2015 10:19 pm

I just brought my work laptop home that has Win7 with WMC on it. I had never even started up WMC on it previously. I installed the Ceton InfiniTV drivers on it, shut down my HTPC and connected the work laptop to my InfiniTV 6 Ethernet. Same download data problem. So that helps provide some evidence that there's nothing corrupt/misconfigured on my HTPC.

So some of you have been dealing with this since early July? Mine only started three days ago.

The only other thing I can think to try is to bring my InfiniTV and laptop over to my neighbor's with Verizon Fios instead of Comcast and give it a try- although of course there my cablecard won't authenticate.

Anyone ever tried to get the Microsoft/Rovi channel listing data & EPG to download when the tv tuner isn't fully authenticated with the cable company?

This is g-d nuts...!

HDTV-WMC-fan

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#1559

Post by HDTV-WMC-fan » Mon Aug 24, 2015 10:56 pm

dnsacks wrote:interesting -- just tried again from my work ISP -- pinging data.tvdownload.microsoft.com, I had 35 successive timeouts before I shut down the process (doing this via terminal on my mac) -- pinging the other site (numeric or alpha) works just fine.

Also seems that MOST of the folks posting success stories have updated at odd hours . . . . at a minimum, clear that I need to see at least SOME successful pings to data.tvdownload.microsoft.com before trying the processes outlined in this thread again . . .

Progress!?
Thx!
Hi dnsacks,

For about the last 10 minutes I have been able to ping 65.55.186.113 just fine (sent 4 packets and getting 4 packets back). Then I started losing packets, would get 1 out of 4 packets or 2 out of 4 packets. Now I'm getting good pings again. Just makes no sense that Microsoft would only block pings part of the time! The post by grittree is way over the top, the fix DOES WORK when the Media Center servers connect.

ronaldo47

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#1560

Post by ronaldo47 » Tue Aug 25, 2015 1:00 am

dnsacks, I also live in the Denver area and have a working Rovi guide for Comcast in zipcode 80125. I can send you my whole ehome directory if you want to try it.

Ron

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