Guide stopped listing HD channels

[cuafpr]

So, all of a sudden today my WMC guide stopped showing any HD channels, its only listing the SD channels. I can't even manually tune to the HD channels via entering the number. I've re-ran the tv signal set up and tried down loading new guide data a few times. From browsing the forums seems like this was an issue before for zip codes? I'm in 29730 very frustrating to suddenly be stuck with only SD channels.

[NoogMan]

Same with me....I'm assuming you're on Comporium too. CALL COMPORIUM at 803-329-7117 and ask for Jason. I spoke to them this morning. They say there isn't anything they can do. I say we keep on them. Mine, like yours probably only goes up to Channel 700..........1104 and up is GONE. If you go to http://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/tv-listings ... ted+States it's WRONG there too. Wish we could just put zap2it back in as our EPG provider.

I also have emailed ROVI twice since last night....no response yet.

[cuafpr]

Yep its comporium, and it wasn't Jason but I was told everything is fine on their end and they don't support WMC setups (something I've been told before). I've worked with Jason before though when i first got my cable card seems like a knowledgeable guy. I'm thinking this is a Rovi issue esp with that link you provided. My one fear is that since my parents can go to 105 and it shows in HD, that comporium has changed something; matter of fact if i recall awhile back the said you no longer had to tune to 1104+ to get HD you could just go to 104 and the set top box would auto chose the HD signal for that channel... but that was months and months ago. also my parents guide shows channels 1104+ like normal. I did get the response from Rovi that my email was sent to the proper team and I'd hear back in 5 business days. A week of SD is gonna suck (yeah first world issues).

[Scallica]

The same issue happened to Cablevision customers a few months ago. They deleted the HD channels (700 range; 2 = 702) from the channel guide on the set-top boxes as well as from the WMC channel guide.

After a few days, a new lineup appeared in the WMC setup labeled (SD & CableCard), which contained the 700 range HD channels.

[cuafpr]

The same issue happened to Cablevision customers a few months ago. They deleted the HD channels (700 range; 2 = 702) from the channel guide on the set-top boxes as well as from the WMC channel guide.

After a few days, a new lineup appeared in the WMC setup labeled (SD & CableCard), which contained the 700 range HD channels.

thank's that's what i'm hoping happened here.

[NoogMan]

The same issue happened to Cablevision customers a few months ago. They deleted the HD channels (700 range; 2 = 702) from the channel guide on the set-top boxes as well as from the WMC channel guide.

After a few days, a new lineup appeared in the WMC setup labeled (SD & CableCard), which contained the 700 range HD channels.

thank's that's what i'm hoping happened here.

I'm not so sure....I'd call and ask them if that's the case. You know how slow comporium is! If I have to watch SD for 6 months, I'll have to figure out something else. This sucks!

[CaptnDanLKW]

Comporium here too. It happened sometime late last night or early this morning. There are also a number of SD channels missing too. I thought my WMC setup was hosed so I did a full OS reinstall only to find the same issue.

Assuming the MSN TV guide listings are fed from the same Rovi feed to the same back-end guide service that WMC pulls from, I wonder if the issue on Rovi's side? (I know my HDDVR STB uses Rovi too and it still has the 1xxx range... not sure if any conclusion can be drawn from this though).

I submitted a Guide error issue on the Microsoft Connect site that's set up to report EPG issues but I may still call the and complain in case there is something that Comporium is no longer sending out to 'external' guide services. I suspect guide services in general is a ugly part of the business full of fees, legal ramifications, etc... which makes it prone to errors and mystery.

I hope this is fixed real quick, completely messed up my TV usage and recordings.

Dan

[cuafpr]

I'm hoping its on Rovi's side from searching here it seems it happened else where, also Scallica said as such. I have no clue who pushes the data though, does Rovi send stuff to comporium for their boxes or does comporium send stuff to Rovi to send out.. ? It could be that set top boxes haven't had to pull new data yet so hence they still have the 1xxx range. hard to say without know more of the technical behind the scenes stuff. I have done some just incase looking and seems its either a new setup or a lot of work to get around, and as much as I love IT and computers this would prob kill WMC for me MS so coulda owned the home entertainment sector with WMC, I'll never understand dropping it.

[Space]

It is my understanding that the cable company provides the lineup to Rovi.

When Cablevision converted their cable boxes to tune to the HD channel when you "tuned" the SD channel # (for HD boxes), they removed the separate HD channels from the lineup. They did this to simplify things. When someone with an SD cable box tunes to channel "2" they get the actual channel 2 (the SD version of, say CBS), but when an HD box "tunes" to channel 2, it actually tunes to the HD version of the channel. Before this change, you would have to tune to channel 702 to get the HD version.

After they made this change, there was no longer a reason to manually tune to channel 702, since the cable boxes would do this automatically behind the scenes.

Since they no longer needed those HD channel number mappings, they had them removed from the lineup in the TV listings.

Unfortunately, the hate that the cable companies have for CableCard device users made them not think about what would happen to them when they removed the HD channel mappings from the lineup.

WMC is not able to tune to any channel unless it is in the lineup, so by removing the HD channels from the lineup, you effectively make it impossible for WMC to tune to them.

Assuming that your cable company also made this type of change, you will have to demand that they provide a new lineup that includes ALL the channels that they offer, including the HD channels. I am sure that the FCC would not appreciate that your cable company is preventing CableCard customers from viewing the same programming that their cable-box renting customers enjoy.

If they continue to refuse to make a separate CableCard lineup available (through Rovi), then you can place an FCC complaint. See here: https://www.fcc.gov/media/cablecard-know-your-rights

They are legally required to provide a lineup that can be used by a CableCard device which allows you to receive all “linear” channels (channels other than “on-demand”) in your subscription package. No CableCard device will have the special "proprietary" programming that they put in the cable boxes that allows them to select the SD or HD frequency based on what type of proprietary cable box you are using. So they are effectively preventing your "generic" CableCard device from receiving all the channels that they are legally required to provide. This is against FCC rules.

[cuafpr]

thanks for the detailed write up Space seems i'll have to call and pester them again.... and somehow i don't think this will be a quick fix uhg.

[CaptnDanLKW]

Same, here. Thanks Space. If the consensus here is that the cable provider provides a feed of their channels lineups, labels and Channel numbers then I'm still hoping its an issue with Rovi and/or Microsoft's ingestion of the data and not that Comporium themselves have truncated their list. I think the former would be easier to fix. Hope.

For area code 29745, TV Guide . com shows the name of the provider's name as "Comporium (Rock Hill) (Standard Cable)" and it contains all the channels. However MSN's guide listings as well as WMC shows "Comporium Rock Hill Digital" and that's missing them. I suppose it could be that TV guide . com uses a different guide service, like zap2it too... that would explain it, but not really help solve the issue.

This has forced my hand to look further into Kodi with NextPVR as the backend. Fortunately, today, Comporium doesn't flag any channels except Hallmark Movie Channel HD and QVC HD (?!?!) as copy once... everything else is wide open, so we can make the shift to a new solution, with one caveat. The EPG - best I can tell we need to subscribe to schedules direct for $25 a year, but I have not started my 7 day trial, so I don't know how accurate it is yet. That might be worth not having to maintain extra Win 8.1 systems alongside my Win 10 systems.

Only time will tell but I'm impatient and this is forcing my hand.

[cuafpr]

I'm pretty sure comporium did what space mentioned about HD boxes auto tuning to the HD signal like 6+ months ago so with that it could be them. the sad and hard part will be finding someone over there that understands it all and has the power to verify it let alone fix it. Honestly if they push to much or drag their feet i may look into TiVo tired of having to deal with IT issues after working in IT all day. I looked into Kodi / nextPVR and just didn't care for it. WMC is by far the best interface i've seen and tried. Maybe 3 on your side can help push comporium, or threat of a consumer law suit but again so drawn out..uhg.

[NoogMan]

Yeah, I'm irritated by this.....

I had to stop by my mom's on the way home from the office and I tested your theory about the "auto tune" to HD on her Comporium supplied DVR. YEP, it'll auto tune to HD every time. I don't know what we're gonna do....chances are, Comporium won't change a thing....when I spoke to them Friday, they said they have no way of changing it....which is complete bullshit. I'll be harassing them on Monday.

[NoogMan]

By the way..........something interesting....tune to channel 241and watch what happens. H2 goes to HD.......

[Space]

...
For area code 29745, TV Guide . com shows the name of the provider's name as "Comporium (Rock Hill) (Standard Cable)" and it contains all the channels. However MSN's guide listings as well as WMC shows "Comporium Rock Hill Digital" and that's missing them. I suppose it could be that TV guide . com uses a different guide service, like zap2it too... that would explain it, but not really help solve the issue.
...

I just checked tvguide.com and both Comporium lineups for that zip code only have channels up to 424, so it looks like it just took a bit longer for it to update.

You are going to have to contact Comporium and have them add the old lineup back (they can use a new name for the lineup and have both the current one (using the old name) and the old one that included all the HD channels (using a new name)). Make sure you keep a record of all contact with them and if they continue to refuse to create a CableCard lineup, make a complaint with the FCC. You can even tell Comporium that you will be making a complaint to see if that helps, cable companies don't like having FCC complaints filed against them.

EDIT: Note with regard to TiVo... It appears that this is the only third-party CableCard device that cable companies think exists. When CableVision did this to the lineup, TiVos were fine, since they took them in to account, it was just every other CableCard device that had a problem.

EDIT2: Another thing that slipped my mind. I believe the reason that TiVo boxes continued to function was because Tivo's get their guide from Gracenote and not from Rovi. So CableVision brobably supplied a correct CableCard lineup to Gracenote, but did not give the same lineup to Rovi.
So it would just be a matter of having Comporium supply the CableCard lineup (that they are already supplying to Gracenote) to Rovi. If you look at the lineups on zap2it.com (which uses Gracenote data) you will see that the "Comporium Communications - Digital" lineup still has the HD channels.

I would suggest also contacting Rovi about this problem since it could be that Comporium did give them the correct lineup, but they just haven't made it available yet. They are no way as savvy as Gracenote with regards to these things.

[CaptnDanLKW]

All but one of the Music Channels 424- the MC channels from ~424 -> 474 are gone too. The new SD Channel 282 - Discovery Life is not there. It sounds like a combination of a deliberate change plus a slew of mistakes.

Yes, I'll be contacting them first thing Monday morning as well. As Space suggests, the FCC complaint warning will be used if they play the ignorance card.

Thanks

[Space]

Just thought of another thing from when this happened with CableVision.

Some people were able to find lineups that still had the HD channels by putting in a different zip code.

If you can make a list of all the zip codes that your cable company services, you can input each one in to http://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/tv-listings and see if the lineup for your cable company still includes the HD channels. If it does, just use that lineup in WMC until they fix the problem by adding a separate CableCard lineup.

Note that this will only work if there are some lineups that were inadvertently missed when they were updated them to reflect the non-HD channel lineup. Also, because of this, it could revert to the non-HD lineup at any time.

[NoogMan]

Just thought of another thing from when this happened with CableVision.

Some people were able to find lineups that still had the HD channels by putting in a different zip code.

If you can make a list of all the zip codes that your cable company services, you can input each one in to http://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/tv-listings and see if the lineup for your cable company still includes the HD channels. If it does, just use that lineup in WMC until they fix the problem by adding a separate CableCard lineup.

Note that this will only work if there are some lineups that were inadvertently missed when they were updated them to reflect the non-HD channel lineup. Also, because of this, it could revert to the non-HD lineup at any time.

That's the first thing I tried. I looked up every zip code they service, and being that they are a small southeast company, options were limited. I couldn't find an old channel lineup that was neglected.

[cuafpr]

I guess in the AM we can all try and call them.... grrr this would be on my first week at a new job. I suggest we all try to keep track of who we talk to and when for FCC complaints and in case we have to speak with a consumer rights group, which i suspect we will.

[NoogMan]

I've reached out to someone I know that works in Comporium's main office, and can possibly help get this information on the right desk for everyone. I'll keep you guys posted.