Media Center EPG: Series Recording Issues

[Haba]

I have recently came across major issues with the guide that is creating series recording problems. I live in Central IL and checked both Zap2it in WMC and then just before posting updated to the Rovi provider of guide data in WMC. Some of the problems have shown up on both providers guide data. I am not certain if the problems are with the company that owns channels such as History channel, AMC or if it's a guide format change problem or something else.

AMC's Humans series- My guide shows no episode title at all so all the episodes are now marked repeat including new episodes, WMC cannot find any new episodes. On BBC America the show has only a general description, no episode description and no repeat marking. Were I to start a series recording of Humans on BBC only with new shows only, WMC will record every show.

History Channel's Modern Marvels- The guide data with episodes up to July 18 have an episode title, episode level description and are marked repeat. Episodes starting on July 20 have no episode title, episode level description and are not marked repeat, the listing only shows a general show description. If I had Modern Marvels series set to record new episodes only starting on July 20 WMC would start recording every episode.

A&E's Storage Wars-The guide data with episodes up to July 19, 1:03 AM have an episode title, episode level description and are marked repeat. Episodes starting on July 19, 1:30 PM and later have no episode title, episode level description and are not marked repeat, the listing only shows a general show description. Again, If I had Storage Wars series set to record new episodes only starting on July 19 1:30 PM and later WMC would start recording every episode.

Pawn Stars was showing up with a similar issue as Modern Marvels/Storage Wars with Zap2it, but when I updated guide listings which switched to Rovi as the provider, the proper data for each episode appeared. I originally started checking out the guide problems when I had trouble with Humans and then Pawn Stars started showing up in the scheduled to be recorded as recording every episode after a certain date which was when the proper episode level data disappeared out of the guide when using Zap2it as the guide data provider.

I am certain this is just the tip of the Iceberg. Check your scheduled recordings frequently to hopefully avoid issues. Unfortunately, without proper series episode level data in the guide listings, WMC will become worthless as a DVR. I hope some of you will check your guide data to see if your guide does have or does not have the very same issues I have posted and report back. What can be done about these issues?

[RyC]

Dunno if things will be different now, but in the past, whenever there wasn't specific episode data for airings more than a week in the future, it always got filled in in a future guide update at least a few days before those shows without data aired if that makes sense.

Bottom line, I've seen what your describing, and the guide data always updated in time for it not to be a real problem. Hopefully that continues...

[Haba]

I did note to myself that many of these issues occurred late in the guide data cycle . Humans is another possible separate issue perhaps related to AMC bringing a BBC show to AMC. Thanks for checking and posting.

[richard1980]

The AMC airings of Humans episodes are reruns. The first run occurs on Channel 4 in the UK, two weeks prior to the AMC airings.

[Windom]

It looks like my guide is now using Rovi. I noticed that "Big Brother: After Dark" didn't record tonight. So I created a new series recording, but it says it will only record the next episode and not any future ones. It airs every night and has no episode title and the description is the same for every episode. I set it to record New & Rerun episodes but that didn't help at all. Thanks a lot, Microsoft...

[Haba]

The AMC airings of Humans episodes are reruns. The first run occurs on Channel 4 in the UK, two weeks prior to the AMC airings.

I sent AMC an email explaining the DVR issues created with Humans guide data. I mentioned that the many viewers that only watch recorded TV may end up giving up on the show. Hopefully AMC can get it together.

[mcewinter]

It looks like my guide is now using Rovi. I noticed that "Big Brother: After Dark" didn't record tonight. So I created a new series recording, but it says it will only record the next episode and not any future ones. It airs every night and has no episode title and the description is the same for every episode. I set it to record New & Rerun episodes but that didn't help at all. Thanks a lot, Microsoft...

For any particular show that you're having trouble with, try disabling series recording. Navigate to a future episode in your guide, particularly one that didn't have the red circle when you verified previously. Initiate series recording from that episode. You may have to set the previous weeks episode manually.

[Haba]

It looks like my guide is now using Rovi. I noticed that "Big Brother: After Dark" didn't record tonight. So I created a new series recording, but it says it will only record the next episode and not any future ones. It airs every night and has no episode title and the description is the same for every episode. I set it to record New & Rerun episodes but that didn't help at all. Thanks a lot, Microsoft...

I checked my guide, set up recording with the same results. My greatest fears are realized. I would like to know why this is happening and who is behind it? There is another thread on the provider change with a link to provide feedback. Please fill out the feedback to Microsoft.

[randman]

I noticed something similar this weekend too. I had a series recording for the local nightly news as I usually miss the start and catch up later. The title changed from news 'at 9' to '@ 9' so I figured this was probably the issue. I set a new series recording and it only sets the show that you initiated the series recording from. All the other showings display a conflict saying that the show is being recorded at another time. Even changing the settings to New and Rerun doesn't resolve this. I tried the last active guide listing (as mentioned above) and only that recording is set. All others are in conflict. I think I'll go back to tonights showing and see if tomorrow will "activate" after tonight's airing is recorded and/or deleted. Other series recordings appear to be ok.

[mike_ekim]

First world problems. Yeah, messed up or incomplete guide data bugs me too. I'm just sayin'.

AMC's Humans series- My guide shows no episode title at all so all the episodes are now marked repeat including new episodes, WMC cannot find any new episodes. On BBC America the show has only a general description, no episode description and no repeat marking. Were I to start a series recording of Humans on BBC only with new shows only, WMC will record every show.

I've seen this with other shows too. Some shows have complete or limited guide data on one network but not another. Some shows on some networks are never listed properly. One solution/workaround is to look up the listings on another source and see if one network is broadcasting them in the correct order, and then start recording only that network.

I have seen a new episode flagged new on a SD channel and the same new episode was flagged repeat on it's HD counterpart-Agents of Shield, and it was fixed by the time it aired-but I recall other shows that were never fixed so I only got the SD version. I set my recording preferences to 'HD Preferred' instead of 'HD only' so I don't completely miss an episode because of that flag.

The AMC airings of Humans episodes are reruns. The first run occurs on Channel 4 in the UK, two weeks prior to the AMC airings.

Many shows air in other countries weeks (or years) before they are shown in the US. For example 'My Babbysitter is a Vampire" and "House of Anubis" were shown on Nickelodeon after first airing in Canada and Great Britain but they were still flagged as 'New' the first time they were shown in the U.S.

[DavidinCT]

I started recording this too. There is 3 episodes as of now. Media Center will show No new Episodes, I also have a dish DVR here (long story) and all those episodes recorded in a new only series.

It's guide data, it's very rare that I have seen this but, it does happen time to time. I keep a note of it and manully check Sunday to see if a new episode is showing and manually set it to record.

Media Center stores a max of 12 days of guide data, it seems sometimes when the guide data comes down first, if it's not on a major network (ABC, CBS, NBC or FOX), it seems to update it later. Seeing 20 repeat episodes of a show scheduled to record is not totally uncommon time to time but, right before they are recorded (a day or 2) with the guide updates every day, most times they are never recorded.

[Mike88]

The AMC airings of Humans episodes are reruns. The first run occurs on Channel 4 in the UK, two weeks prior to the AMC airings.

I've been recording Humans on AMC with my Dish DVR & here's what it is doing. I was doing manual one-time recordings but just changed it to record all New episodes.

The Sunday 7-12-2015 first broadcast of episode #3 on AMC was 8:00pm CDT and it listed as New with an original air date of 7-12-2015 . Because of a recording conflict the DVR should have caught the re-broadcast at 10:00pm, however the DVR indicated this was being skipped. It still showed episode #3 but an original air date of 6-28-2015. In fact all subsequent re-broadcasts of episode #3 showed an original air date of 6-28-2015 on AMC & therefore none of them were going to be recorded. I noticed this when I set up to record the new episodes so I changed back to a one time recording at 10:00pm.

The Dish DVR does show the BBCA re-broadcasts & there it shows the original air date of 6-28-2015. So AMC is listing their first broadcast as New, but all their re-broadcasts are using the BBCA original air dates.

It's the same scenario for next week. AMC's first broadcast of episode #4 on 7-19-2015 is labeled New with an original air date of 7-19-2015, but all rebroadcasts of #4 use an original air date of 7-14-2015, 2 weeks earlier.

[BackPack037]

I haven't scanned thru all of the new guide listing for Rovi. I'm just trying to get past these next few days, but my major issues are with news programs.

They appear to be listing as a one time occurrence, and everything beyond that as a copy of that first airing. It will schedule the first to be recorded as part of the series, and the following as a backup, or rerun to that individual showing.

Short of clearing the recording history each day, I'll have to create a recording for each program a week in advance as the guide updates.

I still have to look at my full recording schedule and compare it to the guide listing on the net to ensure that nothing else has been passed over, but a solution will have to be had at some point. I'm in the process of contacting Rovi now, but thought I'd share my experiences up to this point.

[adam1991]

You can always simply set up a timed recording, just like a VCR, and not worry about having to press record for every instance of the news program in the guide.

[surprisedonkey]

I discovered that Humans is listed as HUMANS in the newer guide listings, and I had to record it as a separate series (series names must be case-sensitive in WMC?)

What really stinks is that AMC HD went missing from my channel lineup when WMC switched from zap2it to Rovi. So I totally missed the recording and had to watch the latest episode on AMC's website (where I discovered their player doesn't work with Chrome - video crapped out halfway through, so I had to restart watching in IE).

[SJMaye]

I have used MC since 2007 without issue. Recently, I have had long held series just stop recording. They show in the series list as still there, but when you look at programs scheduled to record with them there are none shown. Even when you look in the EPG and see the programs there. I reschedule a new series and maybe they do or do not record there after.

Is this part of the MC EPG update? Is there anything I can do to get things back on track?

[mdavej]

Yes. Set manual recordings until fixed

[SJMaye]

Thank you!!

[CXK]

By set manual recordings, do you mean set it to record a channel at a certain time regardless of what is on at the time? Or just go through the guide and record each episode? I can't remember how to make it record at 5:00pm every day...if thats even a setting.

[Space]

It's easiest to just set up a one-time recording (single red dot) for each of them. But this should only be necessary for shows that are on daily. For weekly shows, you should be able to select one of the shows that is not recording and select "record series" (it should be available even though you already have a Series for that show) and it will create a new Series that should work. You can delete the old Series (you will have two Series for the same show) after all the shows it is set to record have been recorded (or delete it now and set manual recordings (single red dot) for the episodes you want to record).

You may need to do the same thing for daily Series recordings, check the episodes that are not set to record (but should be) and see if any have "record series" available (instead of "cancel series"). If so, then you should create a new Series for that show as well. Note that daily show Series recording was just recently fixed, so you may see that the Series is only set to record episodes towards the latter part of the guide; you will have to set up manual (single red dot) recordings for the others until the old bad data is naturally purged from the database.