Guide Data Outage - 2019 Summer Edition

[Roginator]

If something IS corrupt in the TV listings, the lazy person's way to deal with it would be to let the guide run out on Saturday and start fresh.

Here's hoping!

[wifiwanderer]

My SmartTV allows me to automatically turn on program selections from their guide listings. Similar to EPG, except I can only watch live. Will do for the time being since network programs are on their summer reruns, anyway. If EPG is gone for good, will implement my longterm EPG replacement, the Hauppauge DVR/PVR software that comes with their TV tuner cards, not as convenient as WMC and EPG, but an acceptable no fees alternative.

[Roginator]

I've found http://www.tvismypacifier.com/category/this-week-on-tv/ is useful to alert me about new shows in the coming week. It's usually updated on Saturday afternoons. Invaluable while the WMC guide is down.

For example, "Instinct" returns Sunday. Almost identical to "Elementary", but survives because it caters to a certain demographic currently being targeted. (it isn't nearly as good as "Elementary", but the female lead on "Instinct" has an unusual background.)

[Space]

Nice site, I've been using http://thefutoncritic.com/listings/2019/06/premieres/ for premieres, but this one also has NEW episodes. I used to use zap2it to keep track of new episodes (you could mark a show as a "favorite" and get a list of all new episodes of all your favorites in chronological order), but the redesign completely made this feature worthless. I now use titantv in the same manner, and it works for the most part, the biggest issue is that the data is much less accurate that zap2it (Gracenote) was.

[bros]

TV Guide has a watchlist, but their site is very bloated.

[Chalres]

If something IS corrupt in the TV listings, the lazy person's way to deal with it would be to let the guide run out on Saturday and start fresh.

Here's hoping!

No joy here! My guide ran out over a week ago and still doesn't do a thing. Can't find the server, can't connect. Same will be the case come this Saturday.

[suzakuofLE]

3 separate systems, with similar setups, none of which are updating the guides, something is broken someplace, if they don't fix this by July 1st, many people will be very peeved at Microsoft.

[superdave6653]

If Microsoft is migrating EPG data to a new server, does anyone know the ip address of the new server? If so, is it possible to fix the guide by manually changing the hosts file to add the new server ip address? It seems to me that was the solution that worked when Microsoft migrated to Rovi for EPG data.

[Chalres]

3 separate systems, with similar setups, none of which are updating the guides, something is broken someplace, if they don't fix this by July 1st, many people will be very peeved at Microsoft.

I think many people are already peeved at Microsoft, and also that Microsoft doesn't care (even a little).

[bencjedi]

The reason why I am slightly more concerned than usual is that the nature of this outage is different than the typical corrupt data, where now the server is effectively offline/inaccessible.

I’m still not totally clear on the impact if this continues indefinitely. From what’s been explained I think we’re fine if we already have a functioning Media Center with an activated CableCard, then we can switch to EPG123.

But for a brand new Media Center install, given the current situation, would CableCard activation be available? Rainey’s experience leaves me uncertain.

I would like to know the answer also to a nuke & pave\clean setup of Win7 and WMC. A few weeks ago I had the bright idea to update the RDP on my machine to RDP8 using https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/hel ... dows-serve
Installed:
KB2592687 - The Remote Desktop Protocol 8.0 update enables you to use the new Remote Desktop Services features.

KB25748 - An update is available that adds support for DTLS in Windows 7 SP1 (pre-req for RDP 8.0)
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/hel ... -7-sp1-and

KB2830477 - Remote Desktop Connection (RDC) 8.1 client update that lets you use the new Remote Desktop Services features. These features were introduced in Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2, and they are now available for computers that are running Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1).

KB4103712 - Addresses an issue that may cause an error when connecting to a Remote Desktop server. For more information, see CredSSP updates for CVE-2018-0886. windows6.1-kb4103712-x64_44bc3455369066d70f52da47c30ca765f511cf68.msu (From Microsoft update catalog site)

Well these updates gave me the more modern RDP client I needed to use to connect to a certain machine for work through their VPN gateway, but now using the WMC extender Xbox360 is non-responsive if I leave my machine up too long between reboots. It's like that extender connection is using RDP and is stalled at the black logo 'Contacting' screen with the bubbles highlighting for eternity (I've waited as much as 15 minutes.. same screen). Usually a reboot of the machine will fix it, but it is getting annoying!
.
Sometimes a reboot won't fix it until I use another device (like my iPhone with Microsoft RDP app) to first connect. It's like that action wakes up RDP to start responding.

I removed those 4 updates and the behavior remained even though RDP was back to the old version. Wish I hadn't done it now.

I would like to redo my machine entirely and will just have to make my peace with losing access to my recorded shows (CopyOnce flag on lots of movies). I will be forced to go through PlayReady and CableCard activation again. In the current situation this is not possible right? I wouldn't mind going to EPG123, but don't know the options.

[bros]

Guide is running out after 7:30 PM eastern tomorrow (June 29th). I guess if I don't have anything by like noon tomorrow, I will have to switch to EPG123, ugh.

[stevethebrain]

anyone know of a decent TV guide so I could do manuel recordings.

I tryed both TVguide.com and MSN.com and both bombarded me w/ adds and still couldn't find whats on.

please advice I think american ninja is on tonight and there's a nascar car on NBC. Thanks STB

[suzakuofLE]

So, nobody really knows what is going on, or if this will be fixed by Monday...

[jimij1000]

So I put on my engineering hat and took a video of the TCP connections in resource monitor on windows 8.1 once the manual click of the "get latest guide listings" was pressed inside MCE. The video shows that an instance of mcupdate.exe makes a connection to a few different IP addresses, and then spawns additional mcupdate.exe's to run over the course of about 3 minutes. the IP's that were recorded are these:
10.223.55.10
65.55.186.113
191.232.80.197
134.170.29.74
134.170.29.194
10.223.55.10

I have the 10.223.55.10 address listed twice intentionally as it opens, closes the connection several times. Also important to note is that 10.x.x.x IP's are not routable over the internet. Not being able to fully understand or decompile the mcupdate.exe code it seems the process is trying to make a TCP connection to a non routable IP address. I'd be curious if others could give it a try and see if my findings match yours?

[Space]

anyone know of a decent TV guide so I could do manuel recordings.

I tryed both TVguide.com and MSN.com and both bombarded me w/ adds and still couldn't find whats on.

please advice I think american ninja is on tonight and there's a nascar car on NBC. Thanks STB

From my observations, Gracenote has the most accurate guide data, https://tvlistings.zap2it.com/ uses their data. However I don't know about ads, since I use an ad blocker.

I also use titantv.com, although their data tends to be less accurate than Gracenote. I use them because you can go through your Series in WMC and add each series on titantv.com as a "Favorite" (click on the yellow star) and then go to https://titantv.com/favorites/default.aspx and get a listing of all the new episodes (select the "New only" option in the "More" section) for all your "Favorites" in chronological order (you have to select each day in the drop down menu). You need to set up an account and specify your provider/lineup, then you can check off the channels you subscribe to in your plan so that you don't get episodes in the list that are on channels to which you don't subscribe.

EDIT: http://www.tvismypacifier.com/category/this-week-on-tv/ also gives a list of all NEW episodes as well as any new series, but you have to sift through a bunch a shows that you may not care about.

[Billyray520]

I was sick of not having any guide listings, so I switched to EPG123.
It was not what I would call easy, but it was doable, and I didn't have to call anyone etc. My WMC has a Ceton Infinitv with 6 tuners, so I had to reinstall them again, and then do the guide stuff. ( found that out the hard way ) I left one PC/tuner with Rovi to see when/if it ever comes back. But so far, it was good, since I am back in business with the guide. And yes, it is way more accurate with the info, I can tell already.

[stevethebrain]

anyone know of a decent TV guide so I could do manuel recordings.

I tryed both TVguide.com and MSN.com and both bombarded me w/ adds and still couldn't find whats on.

please advice I think american ninja is on tonight and there's a nascar car on NBC. Thanks STB

From my observations, Gracenote has the most accurate guide data, https://tvlistings.zap2it.com/ uses their data. However I don't know about ads, since I use an ad blocker.

I also use titantv.com, although their data tends to be less accurate than Gracenote. I use them because you can go through your Series in WMC and add each series on titantv.com as a "Favorite" (click on the yellow star) and then go to https://titantv.com/favorites/default.aspx and get a listing of all the new episodes (select the "New only" option in the "More" section) for all your "Favorites" in chronological order (you have to select each day in the drop down menu). You need to set up an account and specify your provider/lineup, then you can check off the channels you subscribe to in your plan so that you don't get episodes in the list that are on channels to which you don't subscribe.

thank you sir: you are the man for manuel recordings the old fashioned way. tv guide and MSN is a joke. or maybe I didn't navigate enough too much adds for me.

I thought my american ninja show was on friday but never really paid attention basically let WMC do all the thinking so I could save the remaining brain cells.
I'll attempt to schedule programs manually for at least the weekend car races like indy and those other guys you know the redneck racing I think it's on NBC which is a clear reception channel lately CBS is extremely poor reception just lately it's sometimes strong and then weak when you need to watch.
will report back the accuracy of the manuel guide. thanks STB

I need a plan B

Billy ray thats a cute little cuddler is that a cat or dog? and doe's it behave? I'm wanting a little critter but it must be small and take up little space on my weekend cruiser boat but have enought sense to stay away from giant fish flopping around on deck some fish could seriously injure a small mammal.

[suzakuofLE]

anyone know of a decent TV guide so I could do manuel recordings.

I tryed both TVguide.com and MSN.com and both bombarded me w/ adds and still couldn't find whats on.

please advice I think american ninja is on tonight and there's a nascar car on NBC. Thanks STB

From my observations, Gracenote has the most accurate guide data, https://tvlistings.zap2it.com/ uses their data. However I don't know about ads, since I use an ad blocker.

I also use titantv.com, although their data tends to be less accurate than Gracenote. I use them because you can go through your Series in WMC and add each series on titantv.com as a "Favorite" (click on the yellow star) and then go to https://titantv.com/favorites/default.aspx and get a listing of all the new episodes (select the "New only" option in the "More" section) for all your "Favorites" in chronological order (you have to select each day in the drop down menu). You need to set up an account and specify your provider/lineup, then you can check off the channels you subscribe to in your plan so that you don't get episodes in the list that are on channels to which you don't subscribe.

EDIT: http://www.tvismypacifier.com/category/this-week-on-tv/ also gives a list of all NEW episodes as well as any new series, but you have to sift through a bunch a shows that you may not care about.

Will titan TV link into WMC and record things as scheduled ? I have never tried it with WMC, before, but if it will work, it may be the best choice if the normal guide does not return.

[Paul Anderegg]

On January 14, 2020, when Windows 7 officially goes "end of support", I would assume they will just turn off all these guide servers and such and pull the plug on it for good. #ripguide

Paul

[jimij1000]

On January 14, 2020, when Windows 7 officially goes "end of support", I would assume they will just turn off all these guide servers and such and pull the plug on it for good. #ripguide

Paul

Another possibility is for the win8/8.1 users that bought a MCE license. win8/8.1 support doesn't retire until 2023.