I decided to start a seperate thread for all the problems with the TV Guide On Screen system in the Toshiba DLP TVs. I have compiled all the relevant posts from the Toshiba DLP (HM/HMX) Owner's Thread in the next post. If you have one of these TVs or any other TV with the TV Guide On Screen feature please post your info (location, signal source (antenna, cable, cablecard), TV model, and any other relavant info) and how the TV Guide is working for you.
This has been an ongoing problem for me since I got this TV (Toshiba 52HMX94) in November. The TV Guide has never worked correctly yet.
My current configuration is digital cable from Millennium Digital Media in Anne Arundel County, MD, connected directly to the TV's Antenna 1 input and using a Motorola cablecard. I also have an OTA antenna connected to the Antenna 2 input.
I have gone through the setup all over again and as of today the TV Guide has only loaded as much as it ever has in the past. All the channels I can receive via cablecard and antenna are listed in the lineup and program listings for today and part of tomorrow are listed then there is a 5 day gap with no listings then the last day in the 8 day lineup has program listings loaded. This is about the best I have ever had it work in the past and usually it won't stay this way for long. It usually ends up losing all of the program listings and never loads anymore until I go through the whole setup process again.
If you read through the next post you can see many other people are having problems with it also. Many calls to Toshiba have not resolved the problem yet, although they keep promising a fix from TV Guide (Gemstar).

So post your info and problems here, if it is not already listed in the next post. Also any contact via email or phone to Toshiba or whovever, you can reference this thread to them so they have more to go on.


Jeff

Originally posted by dsr15 on 11/11/2004
I setup the TV Guide feature, but it says that it will take up to 24 hours before it populates the info. It's been a little over that, and I still don't see anything there. perhaps tomorrow morning.

dsr


Originally posted by dsr15 on 11/15/2004
Question for other 94 owners: Does the integrated TV Guide work for you? If so, what is your source (OTA, cable, dish).
Mine has not populated. I've tried different configurations and no luck. I have basic cable w/o an STB. Anyone have ideas if this configuration is not for some reason compatible with the TV Guide online?

tx,
dsr


Originally posted by henrywh on 11/15/2004
Yes, the TV Guide works using an OTA antenna on input 1, but it takes an overnight delay to populate.


Originally posted by manny1025 0n 11/29/2004
has anyone been able to get the tv guide working on the hm94 sets? i have a 52hm94 with cable on antenna 1. i can see the channels but nothing shows up on the tv guide. i did the setup thing several times and waited days but no updates.am i missing something?


Originally posted by dsr15 on 11/29/2004
manny - I have the 62HM94 and have the same problem with the TV Guide On Screen not working. My input is direct cable (no STB) on ANT1. I've called customer service, had a local tech come out, and now they are ordering a replacement card for the TV Guide On Screen. They estimate it will take 2-3 weeks for the part to arrive.
I have tried the following to no avail:
- different zip codes
- unplug/plug back in to reset
- antenna input on ANT2


Originally posted by Shaner1 on 11/29/2004
Manny,
Do you have a cable box? If so then the TV guide will not populate. I had the same problem, the tech told me that since the cable box has it's own TV guide feature that it will not send that data to the TV. I took my cable box off and now TV guide works.

Shane


Originally posted by dtomlinson on 11/29/2004
I'm having the same TV Guide problem with my 62HMX94. I've had the set connected to an outdoor antenna (ANT-1) for more than a week and the guide has yet to populate. I'm in the Los Angeles market, so I'd be surprised if TV Guide On Screen doesn't have an affiliated station here.


Originally posted by tcimpidis on 11/29/2004
Same location, same set, same hookup (except my antenna is on ANT 2 and I also have Dish Satellite), and same problem here... I guess a call to TV Guide or Toshiba is going to be in order...

Tom


Originally posted by manny1025 on 11/29/2004
i don't have a cable box as well and having the same problem. i called toshiba and they gave me a phone number to the nearest service tech to call. i hope they fix my ghosting problem as well


Originally posted by Shaner1 on 11/29/2004
Did you guys call Toshiba about the TV guide problems?
I have logged my problems with them, they want to know about every problem with these TV's. The tech I talked to said they are logging all these issues, I assume they are building a knowledge base and will tackle the most common ones first.
The more calls they get the better the answers will be once they work on the problems.


Originally posted by capt320 on 11/29/2004
No TV Guide on Screen for me either (62HM94 with Adelphia cable card). I have other issues with my new toy :-( Called Toshiba a week ago on a 10 day old set ... still waiting for a call back.




Originally posted by jph1207 on 11/30/2004
i aslo have the tv guide problem on my 46hm94 with cablevision & a cable card...what phone number are you guys calling to complain to toshiba...i cant find one


Originally posted by dtomlinson on 12/1/2004
I just got off the phone with Toshiba technical assistance regarding my inability to obtain TV Guide On Screen data. While we were trying various things I asked him if trying another zip code during set-up might help. He said that during training with the TV Guide people, they were told that they have had occasions when a particular zip code was omitted from the database causing a no data situation. So I've tried an adjacent zip to see if that works. Might be worth a try for others having a no data situation. I should know more tomorrow.


Originally posted by dsr15 on 12/1/2004
dtomlinson - I tried about 5 different zip codes to no avail. The best test you can do is plug an antenna into your TV ANT2 and see if you get TV Guide info off of it. If you don't, you're probably in the same boat as me. Not sure where this boat is heading, though.
Who did you talk to at support? I talked to Sharon, I didn't get a last name. (Doh!) Last time I talked to her, she didn't know of anyone else having the same problem. If you talk to them again, feel free to reference me - Dave Robinson as having the same problem on my 62HM94. Maybe we can get these CSRs talking to each other to realize this is not an isolated problem.

tx
dsr


Originally posted by whjeffs on 12/2/2004
Just got my 52HMX94 yesterday. I now have everything hooked up and will wait to see if the TV Guide info loads. I hope so because that was a major selling point for me on this set. I know the info is in the signal in my area because I also have a Panasonic DMR-E85H DVD/Hard drive recorder with built in TV Guide and the guide loads on that.
Current configuration: digital SD/HD cable provided by Millennium Digital Media in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. I've got the cable split for now with one going directly to the TVs Antenna 1 input and the other going to the Motorola HD cable box (will be upgraded to cablecard as soon as they get more in stock). Cable box connected to tv via component cables. I set the box to output 1080i (it was better looking than 720p). The Panasonic DMR is also connected via component cables. Played The Fifth Element superbit dvd tonight, it looked pretty close to HD.
I'll report back here on the TV Guide issue once I see mine load (or not).


Jeff


Originally posted by BJMoose on 12/2/2004
Jeff, I just placed my order for a 52hmx94 yesterday and will be interested to hear your results. I have Comcast SD/HD cable through the dual tuner DCT6412 DVR and have been very pleased with its performance on my current set. My plan is to continue to record through Comcast's TV Guide and the box. That's one of the big reasons I decided on this combo. I will be pretty disappointed if the box's TV Guide function no longer works with the 52hmx94. Looking forward to your review.


Originally posted by Shaner1 12/2/2004
I have no problems with TV guide on my 52HMX94.
I have standard analog cable and an antenna hooked up, with TV guide picking up listings for both. Works fine...
It may take longer then 24 hours to populate. I'm not sure exactly how this works but I think it's one of 2 ways. I think you have to go through the TV guide setup, then turn the TV off and back on. It then gives you a choice of the local provides to pick from. OR (because I can't remember) it takes 24 hours to give you the choices, then it populates.
On mine it listed Comcast analog and digital, along with Wide Open West analog and digital... Actually there were 3 choices for each, with the 3rd being cable ready TV.


Originally posted by dsr15 on 12/2/2004
Thanks for the info Shaner. In my experience with the problem, you never get to the point where there is a choice of local provides to pick from.
Does anyone with an HMX94 have the TV Guide problem?
So far in this thread I think it's been only the HM94s.


Originally posted by dtomlinson on 12/2/2004
I've had a 62HMX94 for about ten days, still no TV Guide On Screen. I've never been offered a choice of data providers. It just says no data available. I'm in the Los Angeles area and get my signal from an OTA antenna with excellent signal strength.
It's been 24-hours since I changed the zip code in an attempt to get TV Guide data. Still no information.


Originally posted by whjeffs on 12/3/2004
TV guide info is slowly getting there. Yesterday afternoon (after being connected about 32 hours) it had loaded channel icons. This morning it finally gave me the choices of cable provider listings. It had 8 different choices! 6 were for Comcast, 2 were for my cable company, Millennium Digital Media. So I chose their listing and now we'll see how long it takes for all the program info to load up.
Keep in mind this is using cable directly into the tv's Antenna 1 input, no cablecard yet. I am still splitting the cable and using the HD Motorola box for premium channels. The thing that I think is dumb about it is the TV guide CAN be set up to work with the cable box, but only if the box is hooked up through Antenna 1 or Video 1 (composite) inputs. You can't get the HD signal that way! So I am stuck with doing it like this for now until the cablecards come in.

Jeff


Originally posted by whjeffs on 12/3/2004
So far I have about 2 days worth of programs downloaded to the TV Guide.


Jeff


Originally posted by dtomlinson on 12/6/2004
I just got off the phone with Toshiba with whom I was trying to follow-up on my 62HMX94s failure to load TV Guide data. I was told that they just received a memo indicating that there is a problem and that it will be resolved with an automatic download. The estimated date for the fix is the last week of December. From the posts I'm seeing, some people have gotten their's to work, with very slow data aquisition, and others, like me, have received no data. Hopefully this automatic download will resolve the problem.

Dan


Originally posted by dsr15 on 12/6/2004
Dan - Interesting... so the TV can get code fix downloads through broadcast? I wonder how that all works...
Thanks for the update. I have the same problem as you - no TV Guide data. In my case, they have ordered a replacement TV Guide On Screen card. I just called the Toshiba CSR, and told them what you were told. The rep put me in a 'research' category and I'll get a call back. I hope this fixes itself as you said.... I don't want anyone opening my TV and fiddling around!
Do you have the name of the Toshiba rep that told you about the automatic download?

tx
dsr


Originally posted by dtomlinson on 12/6/2004
DSR,
I didn't get the reps name. He seemed to think it was a firmware update, but wasn't really sure how it worked. He said there was a memo, but he couldn't find it. He asked another CSR who relayed the information. I'm a bit concerned that if I'm not exchanging data with TV Guide now, how am I supposed to exchange data to get the update? I guess we'll see in a couple of weeks.

Dan


Originally posted by whjeffs on 12/6/2004
My TV guide data is still not loaded completely. I get todays listings and most of tomorrows, but then there is no info for Wednesday and Thursday, but then it's almost all there for Friday through next Monday. Weird.

Jeff


Originally posted by dsr15 on 12/9/2004
I got a call back from the Toshiba CSR (Sharon) that's been helping me with my TV Guide On Screen problem. She said that she received a memo yesterday that the TV Guide should receive a fix in 7-10 days, and should then start populating with data. This pretty much matches up with what dtomlinson was told (though his rep said last week of december). I asked her how is it going to receive a fix if it currently doesn't receive data, but she didn't have an answer to that.
Hopefully this takes care of things!

dsr


Originally posted by Shaner1 on 12/14/2004
I have started to have problems with TV guide. Twice now when I have turned the TV on it has prompted me to input which cable service I use. This wipes out TV Guide and then the next time I turn the set on it is populated again.
I don't know why this is happening but since I hardly use TV Guide I'm not bothered by it too much.
Just wanted to let you guys know since some have trouble with it.


Originally posted by maddogFool on 12/14/2004
From my search I noticed that you are one of the people who got TV Guide On Screen to populate OTA. I too was unable to obtain any guide info from the cable connection on ANT1, so I connected rabbit ears to ANT2 and was successful. I wasn't sure whether Comcast was stripping out the VBI data or there is a problem with the TV. Other posts has said that TVG will transmit something to fix a problem with guide data not populating. Does anyone know if the problem they are going to fix is specific to cable? Or is it hit or miss and I'm getting lucky with the antenna.
I've observed that any time I try and edit the channel display order in the TVG setup screen, all channel and guide data dumps and must be reloaded over the 24/48 hour cycle, including selecting which channel map to use. Anyone else notice this?


Originally posted by whjeffs on 12/15/2004
Same here. I edited my channel lineup Sunday afternoon resequencing the channels and removing ones I don't watch. It has not loaded any info since. I just tried selecting "No Match" from the list of cable providers to see if that corrects anything. Maybe when you select a cable provider from the list the guide might only work right if the channel list and order stays the same as how it is loaded? So maybe "no match" will work. I do notice that when I go to the channel editor that there are A LOT of channels in the list that are not even on my cable system (Millennium Digital Media) but are on the competition (Comcast) and some other OTA and cable channels that are not on either system. I'll post back in a couple days if it works or not.

Jeff


Originally posted by stiplit on 12/15/2004
I have had my cable card from TWC NYC functioning in my 52HM94 for 2 weeks and still no TV Guide on Screen Data?!?!?


Originally posted by maddogFool on 12/15/2004
It makes me feel better that someone else has the same behavior. I always re-selected the same cable provider map after each reload. Not sure what will happen with selecting "No Match". You may never get anything to reload. Mine always did after at most 48 hours. I noticed that it retained the positions of the channels I moved that caused the dump. It's normal to see many channels not on your system in the edit list. I'm in the Philly market, but I see New York and Lancaster, PA broadcast channels in my list (disabled), I guess because I'm using an antenna and it's theoretically possible for me to receive them.
What I think is happening is this. I suspect TVG implemented their data structures in a boneheaded way, such that schedule data is directly tied to channel position in the list. When you move a channel, the associated schedule data is unable to be moved with it, so the firmware has no choice but to flag the entire guide data as invalid, forcing a dump and reload. Not a user-friendly experience. I've dealt with Gemstar in a previous VOD job, and I can tell you they aren't always the most elegent programmers.
I only know this behavior to be true on Toshiba DLP's, which is why I'm posting in this thread. The guide data dumping should be unrelated to failure to obtain data from a cable only RF input. I haven't seen posts on either issues with other brands. I'm curious how/if a TVG broadcasted firmware update will fix cable no data problem. If they're being truthful about it, it implies that the cable input can receive the TVG data stream, but for some reason can't parse the channel info.


Originally posted by whjeffs on 12/16/2004
Well all that selecting "no match" ended up doing was resetting the guide. This evening when I turned it on it asked me to select a cable provider from the list again. There are 2 choices for Millennium Digital Media (my cable co) and about 6 different choices for Comcast. They all have 4 digit numbers after them. I don't know what the numbers mean or how to know which one to select so I will just pick one and try it again.

Jeff


Originally posted by mjensen on 1/2/2005
My TV guide service also has not captured any data despite variations with cable box, direct antenna connection to TV, etc... I am working on this.
Mike


Originally posted by mafoo on 1/3/2005
Has anyone who has posted on problems w/ TV Guide (dsr15, whjeffs, dtomlinson, et. al.) had any luck in getting issues resolved (ie. firmware update of some kind)?
Has anyone had TV Guide working consistently?
I had listings at one time, but none lately. I'll probably return the Symbio if this isn't cleaned up soon. For someone like me who was weaned on Tivo's version of DVR, this TV guide interface is like going back to the dark ages!


Originally posted by GmasterB on 1/4/2005
My TV Guide works just fine. It took about 4 days to populate on regular broadcast (TV antenna), and 1 day to populate when I got cable. It's been working ever since, with no hiccups. I've had my 52hm94 for about a month now...


Originally posted by whjeffs on 1/4/2005
I'm still having problems with mine. It works for awhile then it loses all the listings AND the channels listed in the guide. I get "There is no data" on the guide and have to go through the setup process all over again. Last time I did this was over a week ago and I went out of town for a week so it was off but plugged in the whole time and never loaded any info. So I ran the setup again and the next day I had the channel lists back after choosing my cable provider but still waiting to load listings again. I do not have a cablecard yet but I am running the cable directly into ANT1 and also it is split to the cable box which is connected via component for my premium channels for now.
I wish they would get these problems resolved. I want to buy a Symbio but it will be useless to me if the guide doesn't work. I haven't been in contact with Toshiba about this yet since I expect to get a cablecard sometime this month and I will see what happens with it after I have that.
Jeff


Originally posted by dsr15 on 1/4/2005
My problem with the TV Guide On Screen is that it has never populated. I was told by Sharon (Toshiba CSR) that it should automatically download a fix sometime in the last 1/2 of December. Well, that has come and gone and it still doesn't work. Time to get her back on the horn...

dsr


Originally posted by tboo on 1/4/2005
The TVguide on my 52hmx94 works great-all my channels are present & accounted for


Originally posted by tboo on 1/6/2005
The TVGuide onscreen is starting to tick me off. It lists all of my channels & the shows on them but it has other glitches. When I hit the info button on a highlighted show it doesnt expand the box for more information-it sort of just splits the listings in half with the 1st half listing channels(lets use for example) "y-z" & the second half listing the same "y-z" channels. If i hit the info button again it splits the screen into thirds-each third with the "y-z" listing.
I also cant access the TVGOS menus. If I hit the menu button it locks up the TVGOS & the only key that works is to exit it. This better get resolved before my Symbio arrives


Originally posted by dsr15 on 1/6/2005
For those of you who have the TVGOS problem of no data...
I got a call back from Sharon (Toshiba CSR). She said that the december fix that was supposed to go through didn't work. She also stated that they have a TV there that has the same problem. They are waiting for another fix attempt and will let me know when to expect this.
Not much of an update, but I am glad that she has a TV there with the same behavior.

dsr


Originally posted by tboo on 1/8/2005
Okay, it loks like I spoke too soon when I said I dont have any problems with the TVguide onscreen. At first it worked great-all my listings were present. Then I statred having lockup problems with the guide & finally, one day, when I hit the tvguide button m tv shut off. When I restarted all of my listings were gone. I though it lost then, but after some digging I found that in the channel setup every channel was there but was set to do not display-so I had to turn every one of them back one. I am really starting to worry, because my Symbio is on its way & it will be a $500 piece of junk if the tvguide doesnt work


Originally posted by 196thLIB on 1/11/2005
TV guide has finally loaded and appears to be working correctly, after about three weeks of playing with it. Channel line up and several days of listings loaded last night with about a three day gap after the first two days. This should fill in over the next twenty-four hours. I've experienced the same problems as many others with the info box options and had it dump everything and lock up so have decided not to mess with anything other than "small".
Background: 52HMX94 with CableCard(SA) connected directly to ANT 1 which appears to be the only input cable card allows.


Originally posted by tboo on 1/11/2005
Yeah, TVGuide is now working for me as well. They must have sent out another update. This is good since I have a Symbio on the way


Originally posted by maddogFool on 1/12/2005
Are you using it cable or OTA? If cable, with or without cable card installed? Originally I got no data with direct cable only (no STB) and had to connect an antenna to get it to populate. (Still unsure if problem is TV or Comcast is stripping out the VBI data.)
The last post I saw from someone here said that CSR "Sharon" told him that the fix candidate didn't work and never was transmitted, but they did have a TV which exhibited the "problem"-- exactly what range of problems I'm not completey sure at this point.
I have a Comcast/Motorola cable card which is not decrypting digital channels (known HM94 issue, held onto card in the faint hope that this issue will be resolved in the near future), but does map the QAM-in-the-clear channels to Comcast's lineup (ch. 231 as opposed to 29-1, etc.) Having this card installed somehow interferes with the guide populating. I took it out on Saturday and then got the guide to load.


Originally posted by sharonf on 1/12/2005
I have a TV Guide set up question. When I get to the screen where it asks which input my cable box is plugged into it only gives me two choices..... ANT 1 or Video1. We don't use either of those inputs. We are routing everything through our Yamaha 2500 receiver and do not have a VCR set up. We have the video from the TV hooked up using the ColorStream HD-1 input which goes to the Yamaha receiver. The Motorola 6208 DVR is also hooked up to the receiver as is the DVD player. We are getting a very good picture and fantastic sound so we want to keep it hooked up this way, but does that mean we can't set up the TV Guide then?


Originally posted by tboo on 1/12/2005
Right now Im using cable without a cable card(its on backorder)-this is through Time Warner


Originally posted by sharonf on 1/13/2005
I asked the question of Toshiba and just heard back forom them. Their answer is that the TV guide does only work through those two inputs (Ant 1 or Video 1) So appently if you hook up your TV any other way TV Guide will not work. Right now I am using a DVR cable box because my cable company doesn't have the cable cards yet, so I can get a TV Guide that way. When I get the cable card though I will be out of luck in less I change the hook ups for my system, which I don't want to do.


Originally posted by whjeffs on 1/14/2005
I had a guy from the technical research department of Toshiba call me back today about the problems I have been having getting the TV Guide onscreen to work. He said that all of the Toshiba 94 series TVs potentially have this problem and that it's related to the way TV Guide is sending out the signal that the TV cannot recognize it properly. He said TV Guide is aware of the problem and have been working on correcting it. I asked when this would happen and he said hopefully in about 2 weeks. He said nothing different needs to be done with the TV. Once they fix the problem on their end the listings will start showing up.
I'll have to wait and see. The TV Guide On Screen listings work fine on my Panasonic DMR-E85H DVD recorder so the signal is there but the problem with it on the TV may be a blame game between Toshiba and TV Guide.

Jeff


Originally posted by tboo on 1/14/2005
I hope they get this fixed. I see I lost all of my listings again


Originally posted by BasicCable on 1/16/2005
Does anyone know where I can find out
If my area is supported by TV Guide On-Screen feature? I checked Toshiba website with no luck and tried what I think is the official website of the TV Guide On-Screen program. I live In Bismarck, ND if anyone can find out or let me know how to my self It would be greatly appreciated.
The reason question 3 is so important is I want to order the Symbio 160HD4 along with the TV but the symbio is no good if the TV Guide On-Screen don't work(That's what it says in the manual)
Thanks guys for all the help.


Originally posted by BasicCable on 1/17/2005
Now I've emailed Toshiba about the TV Guide question but so far no reply...Its not a deal breaker If It don't work In my area but at least knowing in advance I won't waste money on the Symbio then.


Originally posted by 196thLIB on 1/19/2005
This has got to be the most exasperating thing I've ever dealt with! I had almost all eight days of program listings with only a single 24 hour gap and then it dumped the whole thing. I'll bet I've gone through the initial set up process a dozen times. On several occasions, after leaving the TV off overnight, the next morning there is the blank " no data " screen and when accessing the channel portion of the setup menu, all the channels are there but are set to "OFF". So who is going to fix this problem, TV Guide or Toshiba? Should we start a new thread on just TV Guide problems? Is this feature included on other brands of sets that use CableCard?


Originally posted by Rudy1 on 1/19/2005
The same thing happens sometimes with my LG LST3410A tuners. On Friday, both of my tuners had full guide listings....then on Saturday evening the one in the living room lost all of the listings and it still hasn't regained them. And some of the channels were changed to "OFF" in the setup menu.


Originally posted by whjeffs on 1/23/2005
I had the TV Guide set up for a couple weeks to work off my antenna only as an experiment. It didn't load anything through that either until a few days ago listings finally started to show up. So I went through the setup again and changed it back to work off the cable signal. After a day I was able to select my cable provider from the list. Then after another day listings started to show up. So far it seems to be working like it was when I first got the TV. Yesterday (Saturday) I had Saturdays and Sundays listings, then nothing for Monday thru Friday, then listings for next Saturday. Today it has Sunday's listings, nothing for Monday thru Friday, then listings for next Saturday and Sunday. I'll keep checking it to see if it ever loads the full 8 days of listings. I don't know if this means that TV Guide has finally fixed the problem or not.

Jeff


Originally posted by whjeffs on 1/25/2005
All listings gone again. Listings that were on there already for later this week are gone.
Just when I thought it was working.......
I guess I'll call Toshiba again today if I have time. I doubt it will fix anything but atleast the problem is being documented. If they can't get it working right I think I should be refunded the price difference between the 94 and 84 series. The TV Guide feature is the reason I bought this TV instead of the 52HMX84 or Mitsubishi 725 series.

Jeff


Originally posted by Shaner1 on 1/25/2005
Jeff,
I have the 52HMX94 and TV Guide was giving me problems until recently. It would just lose the listings and ask me to pick my cable provider again. It hasn't gone out for probably a week or more and it looks different now too. Before all the programs were in blue, now some are green and another color as well. (can't remember the color... bah, mornings...)
Anyway, it looks as if TV Guide changed some and since the change I haven't had any issues. I'm not saying it's fixed but just wanted to share how mine is acting.


Originally posted by DanofNJ on 1/25/2005
Shaner1,
I have the same model... Are you getting the TV guide from the cable box, or the cablecard?? Mine has yet to work and I have Comcast (unfortunately).

Dan


Originally posted by Shaner1 on 1/25/2005
I have wide open west cable and I don't use the cablecard or box. I just have the cable line running right into the TV. I also have an antenna hooked up to it and it populates as well.


Originally posted by whjeffs on 1/26/2005
This time when it had started working for me again I also noticed the different colors of the listings. There should be a different color for movies, sports, etc.
Has yours loaded the full 8 days of listings?
Something else to add to the mix now is a cablecard. My cable company called today to let me know the cards are finally in so I will be getting that installed next week. They did ask what brand TV I had and whether or not it was high def. I really hope the TV Guide is working by the time they come out.

Jeff


Originally posted by whjeffs on 1/26/2005
Called Toshiba this morning about TV Guide problems again. Now they tell me the TV Guide people anticipate having a fix downloaded in 24 - 48 hours.

Jeff


Originally posted by maddogFool on 1/26/2005
Just to be clear on this, let me restate the solution -- The fix is a change in how the data is formatted for broadcast, so that the latest TV's (like our Toshibas), can receive it reliably. It is not an update to the TVGOS firmware inside the TV.
Do I have that correct?


Originally posted by whjeffs on 1/27/2005
Yeah that sounds like the way they explained it to me. You would think they could have gotten this right before they started selling products with the TV Guide feature built in. The Gemstar/TV Guide listings have been available for a long time and worked reliably in other products. My Panasonic DMR-E85H DVD/HDD recorder receives the listings fine. Now these TVs come out and have a problem with the data and they blame TV Guide? Somehow that just doesn't seem right. It's no wonder Mitsubishi dropped the TV Guide feature from the 725 series TVs.

Jeff


Originally posted by tboo on 1/28/2005
Dammit! My tvguide went on the fritz again. Everything was working great-I started to get the color coded listings(like other have mentioned & something I havent seen before) & then when I turn on the set today-whammo!!, nothing. Tvguide is dead again. Im supposed to pick up my Symbio tomorrow. A lot of good that will do me since its operation hinges on the tvguide


Originally posted by whjeffs on 2/3/2005
Still no TV Guide listings and I have the cable company coming to install the CableCard this morning.


Originally posted by whjeffs on 2/3/2005
Well the CableCard install went well this morning. I have Millennium Digital Media as my cable provider here in Anne Arundel county, Maryland. 2 guys showed up, a tech and a supervisor and they basically had a little training session on the install procedure right there in my room. Once they got the card authorized I had all the channels that I did with the box.
Now if Toshiba/TV Guide can just get the guide problem fixed I will be set!
So far today after going through the TV Guide setup again, and turning it off for a few hours, all the channels are now loaded in the guide. But, of course, no program listings yet. And still no call back from Toshiba regarding my "escalated" complaint about the TV Guide problem.

Jeff


Originally posted by maddogFool on 2/4/2005
I had to disconnect my set (which is temporarily in the bedroom) when we got the carpets cleaned. Originally I had been using rabbit ears on ANT2 to get the guide to load. Reconnecting it a week later, I left the antenna off, and to my surprise it obtained new program data from the cable input on ANT1. It looks like the fix is in place for my data source. I haven't changed any configuration setting for now, just to make sure it keeps working. The true test will be redoing my config and telling it there is no antenna on 2, just in case it's able to receive my PBS's VBI data even with a snowy picture.


Originally posted by whjeffs on 2/4/2005
Another day still with no TV Guide listings


Originally posted by DanofNJ on 2/5/2005
I have the 94hmx52 and I have not encountered any ghosting. As per the cablecard issue, mine picks up all that are fed into the digital box (I run both of them into the set). As per my Comcast provider...NO TV Guide yet...quit annoying because I could use it with my DVD recorder.....
I hope they fix it in here soon.

Dan


Originally posted by whjeffs on 2/6/2005
The TV Guide problem has nothing to do with Comcast or any other cable provider. The TV Guide information is embedded in the signal from your local PBS station. You can get it through cable or an antenna. The problem (according to Toshiba) is in how TV Guide is sending the information. To use my situation as an example, I have my cable split and one line going directly into the TV's ANT1 input (now using a CableCard) and the other line is going to my Panasonic DVD/HDD recorder. The Panasonic also has the built in TV Guide and it is able to receive the info just fine. So far, all the TV will receive is the channel list. No program listings.
Comcast may be confusing the TV Guide with the guide that is built into their cable boxes and they are relating it to one way versus future two way cable cards.
When the guys came to install my cablecard they were surprised to hear that my TV had a guide built in. This was news to them.

Jeff


Originally posted by DanofNJ on 2/6/2005
Jeff,
Thanks so much for the reply..and of course I have the 52mhx92 (it was late :).
In other words, until TV guide can fix the problem, and then send it through PBS, this problem will continue. I wonder why toshiba messed with it if it was working? I can't get a TV signal here or that would solve the problem ...I might have had a chance is Southern Jersey when the WTC's were in place, but the Empire State Building is too far. Oh well...I will post if I get ANYTHING on TV guide. Thanks for the info, really clarified the issue for me.

Dan


Originally posted by tboo on 2/6/2005
TVGuide has essentially been working for me-to a point. After I reset my TV(including the guide) & after a few days TVguide works great, however, a few days after that,when TVguide is starting to download color coded shows & the multiple icons it can display, is when it starts to act up. It almost acts like there is too much info for the guide to handle(not enough memory, perhaps?)-its extremely slow getting the guide to come on & some times it wont turn on at all & I have to hit the reset button.
Ive had the Symbio recorder for 2 weeks now & it works great, but(& this is a big but) when the guide isn't working the Symbio is essentially useless. If I cant access or use the guide then I cant record shows with the symbio(if the guide isn't working & can still record on the fly & pause live tv) from the guide list(such as scheduling recordings) This is important to me(scheduling) because the Symbio/Toshiba TV combo's main downfall is that when you are recording you have 2 choices-watch the show you are recording or turn the TV off. You cant watch another channel or switch inputs while your recording- a major bummer. However, I am keeping the Symbio because(when the guide works) I can record movies in HD which blows away(picture wise)any dvd I currently have. It will also record in 5.1 which is cool.


Originally posted by BasicCable on 2/7/2005
tboo the reset button is on the side of the tv in that little compartment correct? What is the correct steps to reset the tv? I tried pressing the button and then the tv cycles off and back on again but It didn't reset my info...
Any help would be great as I to would love to get my guide to work so I can enjoy my symbio. :)


Originally posted by tboo on 2/7/2005
Yes the reset button is on the side of the TV-it just resets the TV when it locks up but you wont lose your settings. A system setting reset can be done in the installation menu-this resets everything including TVguide


Originally posted by BasicCable on 2/9/2005
Now If I could just get my TV Guide to show up some data....All I get Is It saying There Is no Data and I've had this TV hooked to cable(Midcontinent Communications...There owned by Comcast I believe) since Saturday and nothing.
I tried switching to another local zip code but so far no luck. I'm hoping to figure this out soon ad this was one of the reasons I went with the 52HM94 over the 84( So I wouldn't need a cable box but get most of the same features)


Originally posted by dtomlinson on 2/10/2005
Don't feel bad. I've had my 62HMX94 for about two months and I haven't gotten anything but "no data" yet. I'm hooked to an outdoor antenna. I've tried several zip codes, as well. Several calls to Toshiba have brought promises of downloads to fix the problem, but nothing has worked, yet.


Originally posted by FrankieP on 2/10/2005
I'm just wondering if you guys have the G-Link cable connected to recieve data for the TV Guide setup and have one of the G-Link ends if not in front of the infrared sensor, just near enough where it could take over the cablebox. I had did this once and had recieved TV Guide data aftr 24 hours of setting it up. The only complaint I have with using the Tosh's TV Guide feature was that it takes a whole lot longer to tune in if you change channels.


Originally posted by BasicCable on 2/10/2005
Frankie I don't have there cable box. Thats the reason I bought the hm94 over the 84 so I wouldn't need to rent a box anymore. Sadly I bought a Symbio on the word of a Toshiba tech and ordered it along with my TV.
Now I have 10 pound, $400 paper weight as its worthless without the Guide working. I'll wait a few till next week to call back to tech support before I get real upset about them misleading me.(I have since getting the tv seen the disclaimer In there manual making no promise that the guide will work for you....Even though there Tech told me It would work in any market and doesn't matter what cable service you have)


Originally posted by maddogFool on 2/10/2005
Meanwhile, my TV Guide continues to chug along without any problems (12 days), with direct cable connection to ANT1 only (no OTA on 2, which was my original work around). Even after I reinstalled the CC to check its firmware rev. Surprisingly, the guide data did not dump. I have not yet edited the channel display setup, which previously caused the guide data to dump and reload.
For those still having TVGOS problems, I can only speculate that your local PBS station data source has not yet received the update, or as someone just posted, if you have a cable box connected to the antenna input, there is an issue with tuning control so that a PBS stations is chosen at the proper time. Why I was able to sort of receive guide data OTA and not cable, but can now receive over cable, is a mystery. Unless the data was positioned in the VBI where Comcast resyncing was stepping on it, and now has been relocated.


Originally posted by sharonf on 2/10/2005
TV Guide
I had an email from Toshiba today saying " The TV guide issue has been resolved by the TV Guide company sending out a software download."
However. my TV Guide is still not working. Is anyone else's?


Originally posted by 196thLIB on 2/10/2005
No!!!!!!! At one time last week, all eight days had loaded and then mysteriously vanished. Could you post the e-mail address that you are complaining too? Is there anywhere in the menus to find the TVGOS software version that is in use by the set?


Originally posted by dtomlinson on 2/10/2005
Mine still has never worked. 62HMX94 connected to an outside antenna with excellent signal strengths.


Originally posted by BasicCable 2/10/2005
You guys keep referring to the TV Guide feature getting the info it needs from PBS...where did you guys hear that PBS is the channel that transmits this info?
Seems strange that PBS would be the channel and not the TV Guide channel which I get through my local cable company. The reason I ask Is If your sure that there the channel I was thinking of connecting them to verify they are sending the signal or not.


Originally posted by maddogFool 2/10/2005
Your cable company has nothing to do with the TVGOS data stream, other than rebroadcasting it on a channel they carry. In fact, they have the right to strip it out, if they so choose -- there's a landmark FCC case between Gemstar and I think Time Warner about this you can Google. I am not aware if TVGOS data is being broadcast in the VBI (vertical blanking interval) of the TV Guide channel. Maybe it is, but it's not included on my cable lineup. Check out this link which explains PBS:
http://www.pbsnationaldatacast.com/Analog_Network.htm
Don't forget that TVGOS is designed for an OTA input as well as cable. People using an antenna won't have access to the TV Guide channel. PBS is the closest thing to universal channel (and they could always use the extra money), which is why the VCR manufacturers implemented the auto clock set feature, which is also based on PBS VBI data. Local network affiliates may have cut deals with Gemstar to broadcast the data stream, but that varies by market.
Since eventually the analog NTSC broadcasting will go away, does anyone know if TVGOS as it exists in our HM94 TV's is capable of operating with channel-specific guide data which may be transmitted in ATSC PSIP?


Originally posted by dsr15 2/10/2005
Yes, I still have the same TVGOS problem from day 1 - no data. I have never seen any data. This has now been 4 months. I have a 62HM94 with cable input (no cable box).
I believe that dtomlinson and sharonf have the same problem of never having seen any data.
I talked once again with Sharon (Toshiba CSR) earlier tonday. She was surprised that mine hadn't populated yet. Her test model populated at the beginning of this week.

dsr


Originally posted by sharonf 2/10/2005
My reply came from Scott at Toshiba Customer Support at this email address:
customer_support@tacp.com
I just checked my set again and still no data.


Originally posted by BasicCable 2/10/2005
My questions Is are there any other TVGOS users In the ND\SD area that are using Midcontinent Communications for there cable provider? And If you do Is It working for you? I'm trying to figure out if there blocking the transmission or not.
Or Any TVGOS users that are using a antenna In North Dakota and receiving there data?
I've hooked up my indoor antenna but sadly I get terrible reception as I'm currently living In a trailer and since I'm renting It I can't get permission to put up a outdoor antenna.


Originally posted by whjeffs 2/10/2005
I made my weekly call to Toshiba again today. (All the emails I've ever sent have been given a generic "call customer service" type reply)
This time while on the phone the girl had me enter a code while in the TV Guide setup menu. This brought up another screen with the software version number and a lot of other info such as the VBI host channel (PBS channel). I didn't have time to write down the code and it was too long to remember but it didn't look like there was anything there you could change so I don't know how much use it would be to us other than when calling customer service.
Anyway, she said all the info looked correct. The VBI host channel was set to my correct PBS channel. She took the software version I read her off the menu for the technical department to look into and hopefully find the problem.
I had gone through the setup again a few days ago and yesterday had the channel list loaded and as of this morning when I called some program listings started to show up but now they are all blank again.

Jeff


Originally posted by Arlin on 2/11/2005
TV Guide
Still not working for me either.
I get nothing. Not even a partial listing.


Originally posted by Bill Shenefelt on 2/12/2005
I have both a Toshiba 62HM94 and an LG LST3410A. They both use Gemstar "TV Guide". The LG does fine. The Toshiba is determined to set the "time" 1 hour and 3 minutes slow. (As if I live in a time zone west of Pittsburgh, but still 3 minutes behind that zone.)This messes up any use of the Toshiba Symbio recorder since it does not have the capability of adjusting time for recording by 63 minutes (It does allow 1 to 5 minutes and then jumps to 15 minute increments so 63 minutes is not an option). I am in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area. I have been in contact with Toshiba since last fall and still no resolution. They do not yet have either a service manual or parts available for this set. Due to this lack of support for my set, they have (just this week) replaced my set with a new 62HM94 but the problem is still there.
I don't know if it is a chipset problem with the Toshiba or a problem with the station(s) that are sending out the guide time and listings information that are used by Toshiba. I cannot get in touch with Gemstar to find out what station(s) are sending out their guide information. The LG works just fine (right time and listings) but the Toshiba gets the time incorrect by 63 minutes no matter if I change zip code, whole TV set, or try to put the time manually.
The LG seems to load listings during the midnight to 6 am timeframe but the Toshiba seems to do it a little later. It may be that they are looking at two different guide broadcasts and one of the broadcasts is just wrong, or the Toshiba is interpreting the broadcast incorrectly.
Anyone know anything?


Originally posted by tboo on 2/12/2005
Im having my own problems with TVguide which has pretty much turned my Symbio into a $500 piece of wothless junk. I am really pissed off that Toshiba didnt get the TVguide ironed out before they released these products. maybe we should start a seperate thread on "Toshiba TVGuide problems"


Originally posted by Rudy1 on 2/12/2005
Starting a separate thread may be an excellent idea. From what I've been reading here it seems like Toshibs engineers did not put much work into implementing the TV Guide function on these sets. My 2 LG boxes occasionally have some issues with the guide, but nothing as serious as what you guys have been describing...and both boxes ALWAYS regain full listings eventually.


Originally posted by bob62 on 2/14/2005
I don't think that this is accurate. I had to reset my 62HMX94 recently because the TV would not respond to the remote and the TV behaved as if there was no cable signal. All TV Guide data was lost. Can you provide more detail about how to reset the TV without losing TV Guide data ?


Originally posted by DanofNJ on 2/15/2005
As of yet, I have not had any TV Guide data at all. It has been two months :).
I have Comcast, and a 52hmx92 model. Cablecard is installed.
My questions is:
Has anyone with Comcast received TV Guide in NY/NJ area?
Has anyone received TV Guide with a Cablecard installed?
Has anyone received TV Guide on Ant. 2
This problem is really annoying. I wish I could get it because the picture with cablecard is superior.

Thanks,
Dan


Originally posted by tboo on 2/15/2005
I have a cablecard & receive TVguide on my 52hmx94

My TV guide on screen has worked fine for over a month now on my Toshiba 52HMX94. I don't know what changed but it used to ask me for a channel line up every week or so. Now it hasn't done it in over a month and a half.

Actually the change happened when I started seeing different colored boxes for the different shows.

Wide Open West cable on Ant 1 (No cable box, just basic analog cable)
Over the air antenna on Ant 2
Clinton Township Michigan

I have had very little luck with the TV Guide, but I think part of the problem is related to my 62HMX94 being unstable. I initially had cable directly connected to antenna 1 for about a week with absolutely no TV Guide info. It took Cablevision 5 days to figure out how to install the cablecard, then another week of no TV Guide. During that time, the TV reset itself twice and another time I unplugged it to move the TV to a UPS.

Finally the TV guide worked -- for about 24 hours before the TV froze and I manually reset it using the button on the right side of the TV. Since then (about 3 days) absolutely no TV Guide info -- unless you count the clock.

One small note, the signal to set the clock always works. If the TV is reset or unplugged or anything, the clock is correct the next morning.

Okay, I think finally TVGuide is working for me. I haven't had to reset the tv in over a week-which is a first. I am still having problems setting future recordings with TVguide & my Symbio & it seems to be tvguide related, but I finally got Toshiba to listen to me & they are going to do some troubleshooting

What may be helpful is to list your model, how you have the set connected to receive the guide (i.e. cable on ANT 1, using cable box, etc), what area you live in (may be a geographical issue), and what your service is (i.e. Comcast, OTA, etc).

Thanks Jeff for setting up this thread. Here's my info.

Toshiba 62HM94
Problem - No TV Guide data, since TV purchase in November '04
Source - Cable on ANT1 (no cable box)
Location - Littleton, CO 80123

I have tried different zips, antenna, etc., all to no avail. I have been dealing with Sharon at Toshiba support.

dsr

Toshiba 62HM94
Problem - No Guide data ...TV purchased November 5, 2004
Source - Cable on ANT1 with cable card. Antenna for OTA HD on ANT2
Location - Bangor, ME

I have tried different zips, antenna, reset to factory defaults, etc.

Toshiba 62HM94

Have had TV since 1/7/05 and TV Guide has never worked.
Screen always says "There is no data for this screen"
Direct cable connection on ANT1
I have a DVR cable box connected but it is on the ColorStream input.
I selected "connected to cable but no cable box" for the set up on ANT1.
Located in Lake Havasu City, Arizona

I have logged the problem with Toshiba who went through all my settings and had me reset the TV. So far still no listings at all.

Reseting the TV is an interesting idea. Maybe (hope against hope) this may trigger something to happen. I may as well try it. Will let group know...

Never had TV Guide work, ever....

Dan

Well my replacement 62hm94 suddenly decided the correct (not 1 hour and 3 minutes earlier) time was ok to display. Not a single listing yet(3 days) but at least it has the correct time and the channels listed. Gee, I kew what channels I received and what time it was without the tv??? Oh well. DEspite the contacts above including those with"Sharon" who is the rep that finally sent me out the new TV, Toshiba to me does not seem to want to admit this set TV guide is a real problem for them and it is not just MY SET !!!!
Note that my tv guide on my LG LST3410A works almost perfectly !!!

I was on the phone with Toshiba again tonight. Someone named Jennifer called earlier in the day and left me a message to call them back because they needed more info from the TV Guide. By the time I called back the person that was dealing with this had left for the day so I had to get walked through the whole process by another girl who was VERY unfamiliar with the process but with some patience we made it through and I gave her all the info they were looking for. Now I just have to wait for another call back.

If you want to look at your TV Guide code data, here is what to do.
Open the TV Guide screen, go to setup, and highlight Change System Settings. While this is highlighted press "753159852" this will get you into a series of menus. You can navigate through the menus with the UP, DOWN, LEFT, and RIGHT arrow keys. There doesn't seem to be anything you can change here so I wouldn't worry about screwing anything up but maybe we can all figure out what some of the different data means and understand why we are having problems. There are 42 menus of info total. So far the people at Toshiba seem to be most interested in the info under the System - System Info , System - Statistics , and Reception - Slicing menus.
I wish there was a guide somewhere we could find that would help interpret all this data.

So far my TV Guide has not lost any data, but it has not gained any more either. It only loads program listings for today, tomorrow, and 7 days from now. Nothing inbetween. I have not tried to resequence or add or delete any of the channels manually as I have done in the past because I want to see what it does automatically and not interfere. I thought maybe some of the changes I made in the past such as deleting the channels I did not watch and resequencing the channels so the ones I watched most were at the top may have had something to do with the problems I am having but so far that does not seem to be the case because I have not touched anything on it for days and it is still not completely loading the listings.


Jeff

Jeff -

I also got a call from Jennifer yesterday. She wanted me to call back when I was at the TV, apparently to go through the same troubleshooting you went through. She said that all of the reps now knew this procedure and could walk me through it. I tried to get her to fax or email me the instructions, but she wouldn't.

Unfortunately by the time I got home Toshiba CS was closed for the day. I'm going to try to get home in time and contact them this evening.

dsr

Jeff,

I was having a similar situation with my TVGOS. It loaded today, tommorrow and then 7 days from now but nothing in between. After a couple days it never corrected. I use Time Warner Cable in NJ which is the same as TWC NYC. Let me know if you have any luck. I've yet to badger Toshiba hoping I would get some help from here. For now I also have a cable box on that TV.

Jennifer was the person from Toshiba that I talked to on Tuesday. Like with Jeff she had me go into System Settings to access the different menus. She also had me change a setting for Closed Captions and then tune to our local PBS station. From there she had me access several other menus where she asked for information and then recorded it. When I asked she said that the information was being forwarded to TVGOS. She then had me reset the TV and said that hopefully the TV Guide would begin to populate withing 24 hours. However, here it is two days later and still absolutely nothing on the screen.

Ditto for me. Finally talked to Chris at Toshiba and went through the system info screens(using the same number as a previous post) where he recorded several numbers and said they would be forwarded to TVGOS and they would send a fix(?)

We've had the set since December and other than this problem am very happy with it. I've tried adjacent zip codes, factory reset, different channel lineup, program standing on my head and drinking a glass of water!

Only once in the past two months has it appeared to load correctly with all 8 days of programing. Sometimes it reloads with local channels turned "OFF", displays "NO TITLE" for many channels, or "NO LISTING". Once , the cablecard decided to do a handshake while I was in the listings menu and it went completely berserk. Its enough to make you want to get a set top box! Would really like to add the Symbio but not until this is straightened out.

Everyone who is having problems with this needs to log a complaint with Toshiba or this will never get fixed.

52HMX94
TWC CableCard (SA)
Direct hookup to ANT 1

I also called Tosh today and they had me do the same steps as above(Tune PBS,gave them lots of values from the hidden menu, etc.)

The one item that caught my eye in that hidden menu has theres a screen called Section Memory-Listings and on that screen there was four Columns Scheds,Shows,Descs,Cast and under each of those Columns there was 8 items(Stored,Match,Changed,Rejected,Failed,Expired,Purged,Du mped) and under all four columns the only place I had a number was under Rejected.

I'm not sure If this has anything thing to do with my problem but by the look of the screen this looks to be about the TV Guide and I mentioned It to my tech on the phone.

Well after 6 days, the time suddenly changed to my honest local time in the guide. Also two stations's programming actually showed up for the next two days. Maybe more tomorrow (I hope!).
Just out of curiosity, has anyone ever purchased the NSL long term extended Warrantee for anything. I just ordered a 5 year Extended warrenty and am double checking to get something in writing that states the DLP bulb is included in the coverage. Any experience with this outfit (thru OneCall where I got my TV)

62HMX94 with outdoor antenna on ANT2, Never received any data
I'm in the Los Angeles area and get 4 PBS stations (LA, Orange County, Riverside, and LA City Schools).

I also got a call Tuesday from Toshiba and was directed through TV Guide set-up, closed caption (CC1) and several "hidden" menus from which she gathered numerous figures (most of the values = 0). She then had me do a reset using a code entered via the remote not using the reset button and told me the information would be forwarded to TV Guide and they would send a download to resolve the problem. She said to look for guide information in 24-hours. Two days later and still "NO DATA"

Dan

I think it's good that they are gathering all the same information from all of us now to forward to TV Guide. Hopefully at some point they will figure it out.
As of this morning, all my program listings are gone again. Channels are still there but all 8 days say No Listing and last night there was data still on there at the beginning and end of the 8 days.

I took pics of the screens for all 42 menus and I'll do the same now so I can compare them now that all the listings are gone.


Jeff

I have a very similar story. Have a 52HM94 for 7 weeks connected via cable card with Cablevision of Westbury as the cable company. Made weekly calls to Toshiba about having no TVGOS and was told a software fix was in the works. I sent a complaint e-mail to them with no reply. Tried changing zip code and resetting TV to no avail. Last Friday it suddenly loaded 340 channels and the following day loaded all the program information. Seemed to work fine until Monday when everything disappeared. Called Toshiba on Tues and went through the diagnostics described by others here. Typed in the code and the rep took down data from various screens. I was told that it would be fowarded to TV Guide and they would resolve. The following day 13 HD channels appeared with no program information. It hasn't changed over the last three days.

Welcome to the neighborhood Jim. I was wondering how your TV Guide situation was coming along. When I talked to Jennifer from Toshiba earlier in the week I told her you were the only one I knew of that TV Guide was working for. Now it seems as though your problem is back. I still have no listings at all and I never have. I'm going to call them back again on Monday.

My guide(on the second 62hm94 which I recieved on Friday, Feb 11) loaded the incorrect time the next morning. Tuesday, it magically got the time right. Yea!
For a couple of days it loaded no programming though. Friday morning after again letting the tv off to try to load something) the guide magically got listings for Friday , Saturday and Sunday morning. I actually used the guide Friday night to record on the Symbio. This morning(Sat Feb 19, I turned it on to see if the listings were continued further through past Sunday at 4 pm where they stopped.
TIME WRONG AGAIN BY 1 HOUR AND 3 MINUTES!!!! No listings past those loaded fRIDAY MORNING. I wish Toshiba would as least admit there is a problem and let all concerned know that they are working on it and update us when it is solved. It is not just the TV gide people since the guide works great on my LG LST3410A tuner/recorder.
grrrr!
Bill Shenefelt, Pittsburgh, Pa

I went thru issues with several things and still OTA TV guide sets up with the incorrect time. I received an email from a Toshiba rep last night which read as follows:
I Quote Toshiba:

Dear Bill,
Thanks for writing!
I apologize for the inconvenience.
TV Guide has sent out a fix in the last few weeks that should have taken care of the TV Guide problem. If your TV Guide is still not functioning correctly, we will need you to call when you have about 20 minutes or so, we will need to walk you through a diagnostic to gather further information about your individual situation.
Scott
Toshiba Customer Service

End Quote

Has anyone gotten their guide working in the past couple of weeks and what did not work that got fixed?

My guide still has not loaded any program listings again since it lost them all a couple days ago. So now I'm going to try deleting some channels from the guide that I don't watch to see if freeing up some memory helps. When it has done this in the past it has never worked again until I went through the setup process all over again.

Jeff

P.S. My time has always been accurate though. No problems there.

Well, TVguide was working for me lately, but today i turn on the set it lost all of the listing information. My Symbio still doesnt work as well.

My TV Guide is still not...and never has loaded. I've noticed something interesting though. Often when I turn the TV on for the first time each day it is tuned to a channel that we very seldom watch and it's always the same channel (Channel 34). I started paying attention to the channel it was on when turned off the previous night just to be sure. For instance if I turn off the TV after viewing channel 12 when I turn on the TV the next day it will be on channel 34. If the TV Guide is trying to tune to our local PBS channel to download the TV Guide listings it is tuning in to the wrong channel. Has anyone else noticed anything like this? I'm wondering if this may be at least one of the causes of the Guide not loading.

Yes I have noticed this on mine too. My PBS station is channel 25 on cable and also channel 22 or 67 on antenna. I have noticed several times when I turn the tv on it will be on antenna channel 47, which there is no signal on in this area. I think this has only happened if I had the input on antenna 2 when I turned the tv off.
But in the TV Guide service menus, the VBI/Host channel ID is correctly set to channel 25.
I'll mention this next time I talk to Toshiba.

Jeff

We'll yesterday early evening 340 channels loaded all in the off position and with no listing infomation (TV Guide Setup: "Change Channel Display"). This was a good sign. Most of the channel numbers were wrong however and I spent an hour correcting them. This morning the Cablevision channel line up screen popped up asking me to select one of four lineups. I selected "Cablevision Digital (591)". Subsequently I had to spend another 1/2 hour turning on the channnels again as they were all off and correcting the numbers of only a handful. We'll see if by tommorrow if it loads any program information.

Sharon I have not noticed any channel change when I start up the TV the next day. I'll make sure of this over the next few days.

I knew this would happen. Last week I called to swap my 52hm94 for a Mits 52725 because I was frustrated with TV Guide and the gray bars. Well today, the delivery date, TV Guide started working. It loaded the Comcast channels and OTA. I must of picked the wrong comcast lineup because all the channels were wrong. I should have picked the Comcast Rebuild. I'm still swapping because of the gray bars but at least Toshiba is finally getting the problem with TV Guide fixed. I'm in Oregon.

Originally posted by RedRich
I knew this would happen. Last week I called to swap my 52hm94 for a Mits 52725 because I was frustrated with TV Guide and the gray bars. Well today, the delivery date, TV Guide started working. I just hope you're not swapping one problem for another. There are many instances of issues with the Mitsubishi TV's and cable cards. See below.

http://forum.ecoustics.com/bbs/messages/2/103212.html

Nothing is perfect but so far I'm very happy with the Mits. No gray bars. I have Dish (not HD), Comcast Cable (a few HD unscrabled channels) and OTA. I have no plans on using a cable card so hopefully I will not be dealing with those problems. Good luck with TVGOS.

I'm back having problems like the rest of you. Where I last left my story in the Toshiba DLP thread, I was one of the few who had my guide fully populated. But I noticed last Friday that while I had the channel lineup, all programs displayed the dreaded "no listings".

Don't know if this is a coincidence yet or not (haven't had chance to test it), but it originally obtained program info with the cable card uninstalled on my 46HM94 (mine doesn't decrypt anything at present), but it may have been 8 days after I installed that I ran out of data. Not ready to draw the conclusion that the cable card re-install effected program data gathering, but it's possible. I know some people here have sets without cable card, so that can't be the whole story.

I haven't had time yet to use the key sequence to see what the TVG status window says. I also still have ANT2 input declared as OTA, but nothing plugged in. While that could be a problem (it's still searching for my source on ANT2), I'll need to see what is reported before floating any theories.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by maddogFool
[B]I'm back having problems like the rest of you. Where I last left my story in the Toshiba DLP thread, I was one of the few who had my guide fully populated. But I noticed last Friday that while I had the channel lineup, all programs displayed the dreaded "no listings".

There is a whole Toshiba TV Guide separate thread here:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=510125 It's also a Poll to see how many people are having problems and how they have things hooked up.
My TV Guide is still not...and never has loaded. I've noticed something interesting though. Often when I turn the TV on for the first time each day it is tuned to a channel that we very seldom watch and it's always the same channel (Channel 34). I started paying attention to the channel it was on when turned off the previous night just to be sure. For instance if I turn off the TV after viewing channel 12 when I turn on the TV the next day it will be on channel 34. If the TV Guide is trying to tune to our local PBS channel to download the TV Guide listings it is tuning in to the wrong channel. Has anyone else noticed anything like this? I'm wondering if this may be at least one of the causes of the Guide not loading.

I talked to Toshiba again today. They are forwarding all information gathered from all of us to TVGOS, but are now saying that they do not have an estimated time for a fix.....not good for us and not good for Toshiba. Actually except for the TV Guide problem I'm pretty happy with the set.

I wish they could just tell us what stations in a given area are broadcasting the signal OTA. My LG 3410A loads jsut fine, but during the night. My toshiba seems to get listings between 8 and 10 AM and has only once gotten the time correct, but then changed it back to 1 hour and 3 minutes off.

Well my channels never listed any program information and yesterday all the channels disappeared again. I called Toshiba who took down additional information to foward to TV Guide and said they would call me when they had a resolution. They said they had no additional information on the nature ofthe problem or when it would be fixed.
As far as the TV tuning to a different channel overnight that hasn't happened on my set.

It has been posted here earlier, and was confirmed by Toshiba Customer Service during one, of several, calls about TVGOS problems, that the data is carried by your local PBS station. In my case (Los Angeles area) there are two local and two regional PBS stations I can receive OTA or via satellite. That hasn't helped, though, as I've never received any data for TVGOS.

I'm in the same boat as most of you. Here's a brief history:

- Purchased the 52HMX94 on 12-28-04.

- Had cable card installed a week later. Noticed that my HD channels only came in about half the time. (Cable card is a Motorola hooked up up Charter cable.)

- Charter came out and took the card so they could diagnosis it. They gave me a box in the meantime so I could watch the Superbowl.

- No HD problems when I had the box.

- Charter returns three weeks later with a new card. It works fine when installed. However I end up having the same HD problems. Sometimes works other times I get a "Low digital signal" error. Same error as before.

- TV Guide wroked a little at first but has not worked at all lately. Makes my Symbio a desk weight.

- Called Toshiba. They suggested a local technician come out and take a look. (I'm travelling so I can;t do that till next week. I guessing they will find nothing wrong with the TV.)

That's where I stand. I sure hope Toshiba will make this right for all of us.

Dave

Well I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Have TV Guide and Toshiba finally got it working right? I now have 5 days of program listings loaded so far. It's never gone this far before without losing all the listings. I have program listings for today, tomorrow, then it skips 3 days, then it has 3 more days of listings.
I did not even bother leaving it alone this time. I went into the channel editor and deleted channels I never watch and also rearranged the channel order so all the ones I watch most were at the top and also I had to turn a few channels on that the guide had turned off by default. So far, over the past few days, it keeps loading more info each day.
Before this as far as I ever got was 3 days of listings (the first 2, then a 5 day gap, then the 8th day) then all the listings would disappear.

I guess I'll wait til I have a couple weeks of reliable operation then I'll buy a Symbio.


Jeff

Great news, Jeff. What kind of cable card are you using? What cable/satellite service do you have?

Dave

Before you jump on a Symbio, you should know it is not a bad machine but has limitations that are stupid. You cannot watch ANYTHING but what is being recorded. While in the record mode, you cannot change channels(to be expected since you have only the set tuner) but you cannot change to an external input either while the Symbio is recording. With an external recorder like the LG LST3410A, you can record on one channel on the LG while watching a different channel on the toshiba tuner, or a DVD or anything you have connected to the set. Also you can if you want transfer the recording to a tape(HD), edit it or do anything else you want. Not so with the Symbio. About all it is good for is to record while you are not at the set or do a pause (For which you cannot save the recording(which is limited to an hour anyway) Had I to do it over again, Symbio would not be present much less mentioned at my place. Put your bucks toward a LG instead. At least my LG has an operational TV guide that knows what time it really is!

DutchDave: Motorola cablecard , Millennium Digital Media cable service in Maryland.

Bill: Thanks for the info. However the LG doesn't have a cablecard slot so I would not be able to use it on any of my premium channels. I watch more movies than anything else so right now the ability to record HD movies to watch at a more convenient time is the main thing I am looking for. Perhaps when the Blu-Ray or HD-DVD recorders become mainstream there will be better options. I'd like to eventually have a Blu-Ray recorder with a built in hard drive that will work via the firewire output on the tv and work with the TV Guide in the tv like the Symbio does. I hope Toshiba is listening.


Jeff

Originally posted by whjeffs
DutchDave: Motorola cablecard , Millennium Digital Media cable service in Maryland.

Bill: Thanks for the info. However the LG doesn't have a cablecard slot so I would not be able to use it on any of my premium channels.
Jeff

Hate to tell you this, but I don't think it is going to happen, for sure on the DVD side. The cable companies and small dish companies are going to block recording of premium material
Not TV network movies, but hbo ish stuff. The only way I know of to record these things is via a moddified receiver to include a firewire out jack and a computer to translate the firewire and send it via another firewire to a DVHS recorder or the LG. There is a cojmpany called 169time (read that 16 9 time referring to format- go to www.169time.com and read their information on this subject) They sell a custom mod to dish boxes including C band dishes(I have that one) and an AVX somputer to allow such recording. MAybe the cable companies will set up to allow single one time recordings of some premium stuff, but that has been one of the holdups in going ot HDTV. Hollywood is terrified someone will be able to make a copy of thier movies.

Thanks Jeff. I, too, have a Motorola cable card. I just can't figure out why sometimes the HD comes in and sometimes not. I check the signal strength on the installation menu and the reading is always 86 or 88 whether it is working or not. I even tried a Motorola signal booster with no luck.

It should be interesting to see what the tech guy says next week.

Dave

Well after all this time dealing with these problems, this seems too good to be true. My TV Guide now has ALL 8 days of program listings filled! I hope it stays working like this. Has anyone else's started working? If not, try going through the setup procedure again.

Jeff

Mine still has no data (going into 5th month now). I'll try going through setup (for probalby the 100th time) this weekend.

Originally posted by whjeffs
Well after all this time dealing with these problems, this seems too good to be true. My TV Guide now has ALL 8 days of program listings filled! I hope it stays working like this. Has anyone else's started working? If not, try going through the setup procedure again.

Jeff

After two months mine is still not working. I always just get the "This screen has no data" message. I have gone through the set up and called Tohsiba several times.

Well I guess it was too good to be true. This morning I had all 8 days of program listings loaded. Today I got home and turned the tv on, hit the tv guide button and now I'm back to "There is no data for this screen". Lost all channels listed and program listings. Immediately called Toshiba. After explaining everything to them, I was put on hold for a while. Then she came back on and the explanation this time was that the TV Guide people were in MY AREA working on the software updates and that is what reset it.

I am really fed up.


Jeff

Originally posted by whjeffs
Well I guess it was too good to be true. This morning I had all 8 days of program listings loaded. Today I got home and turned the tv on, hit the tv guide button and now I'm back to "There is no data for this screen". Lost all channels listed and program listings. Immediately called Toshiba. After explaining everything to them, I was put on hold for a while. Then she came back on and the explanation this time was that the TV Guide people were in MY AREA working on the software updates and that is what reset it.

I am really fed up.


Jeff

That doesn't make any sense at all. They certainly can't be going to every area with Toshiba owners with TV Guide problems ....and, if they were working on updates why did you lose everything? I don't think that they know what is going on.

I finally got a call from TV Guide technical support this week. They indicated that not everyone was having these problems, but some were, and they were still trying to determine what the cause was. They had gotten the information I had summitted to Toshiba technical support and asked me to reset the TV guide and record before and after data. It sounds like its going to be a while before they figure out what the problem is. They were comparing all the information that has been submitted by Toshiba and were trying to understand what the commonalites are that may be causing the problem. I'll keep you posted if I find out more next week.

sharonf,
Maybe they have to go to all the local PBS stations that are broadcasting the TV Guide VBI data and correct the problem on a regional basis. I wouldn't think so, but what do we know?


Jim777,
You actually got a call from TV Guide and not Toshiba? I'm glad to hear that. I think it's more likely to get fixed if they are talking directly to us instead of getting information second hand through Toshiba's customer service department. I hope they call me. I would have called or emailed them but as far as I ever got in searching for contact information for them always said to call the manufacturer of the product that had the TV Guide built in.


A day later after running setup on mine again and I still have no data. Not even "select your cable provider" yet.
UPDATE: 2 days later and it asked to select cable provider now so atleast it's doing something and I have the channel list back.


Jeff

Starting to get program listings again. I hope it's fixed soon. I just bit the bullet today and bought the Symbio from OneCall. They are running an awesome limited time deal on them and I couldn't beat the price, even on eBay.


Jeff

TV Guide CSR called me yesterday as well. Went back through the hidden TV Guide screens and recorded numbers and such. One thing I did learn is that my TV does not seem to recognize what channel is PBS to receive the listings from, which makes sense, as I get no listings at all. Then she had me do another forced reset of the TV, which means i then had to go back and reset all my settings (video settings, favorite channels, etc.).

Overall, I really liked dealing with the TV Guide CSR. She was very knowledgeable.

They want me to call back today so they can see what data has changed over night.

dsr

Hope you realize that while recording onthe Symbio, you cannot go to any other source to watch. What you must watch is that which is recording. Station as well as internal input are locked! IF your TV guide is not working, you basically can only use it to record while watching or TIVO chase record to allow pause.

Originally posted by whjeffs
. I just bit the bullet today and bought the Symbio from OneCall. They are running an awesome limited time deal on them and I couldn't beat the price, even on eBay.


Jeff [/B]

Originally posted by Bill Shenefelt
Hope you realize that while recording onthe Symbio, you cannot go to any other source to watch. What you must watch is that which is recording. Station as well as internal input are locked! IF your TV guide is not working, you basically can only use it to record while watching or TIVO chase record to allow pause.

Bill,
Yes I realize that. It should be ok with my viewing and recording habits. I will mainly be using it for recording HD shows and movies when I'm asleep or not at home. Very rarely do I find myself needing to record something while watching something else. Plus I do still have my Panasonic DVD/HDD recorder that can handle the standard def stuff on basic cable in case of emergency.
You had suggested the LG LST3410A to me and I said that would not work well for me since it couldn't use a cablecard. Well now I see Sony is going to be releasing two very similar products that do use a cablecard. The features of these units sound good. I just don't want to spend that much on them right now. The model numbers are DHGHDD500 and DHGHDD250. Do a Google search on them.


Jeff

Sure hope your TV guide is working. The Symbio does not work well for me since it lets you select shows only on the guide, not by input of station or time. . It has the ability to be set 1, 2, 3, 4 or 15, 30, 45 or 60 minutes early or late to start and stop recording a guide program selection. Problem is my guide shows the time off by 63 minutes so even if I start recording a show an hour early to get it, I miss the first 3 minutes. Hope to get the TV guide problem resolved "someday" Most people have a problem with the guide only loading 2 days of shows, but mine does only 1.5 days and has te wrong time! Been that way since november and even the same on a totally new set Toshiba sent as a replacement in February. They have a real guide problem at toshiba. My 3410 A gets the guide perfectly so it is not my local stations that are the source of the problem.

I got the call from Gemstar/TV Guide tonight. They took a bunch of info off the guide menus to pass along to the engineers. For anyone that's curious, here is another menu that they had me access to get some numbers from. Go to MENU, SETUP, INSTALLATION, SYSTEM STATUS, SYSTEM INFORMATION and while the PRODUCT INFORMATION window is displayed type in 3570 and you will get to a SYSTEM DIAGNOSTICS menu. All she asked for off here was the Seine Version, which on mine is 1.4.3.
I played around in this menu a little bit. The "check flash", "check POD i/f", and "check QPSK lock" all came back saying "DONE" so I guess that means they are OK. The "Gemstar Tests" failed, but I'm not sure if that means anything. The "TV Micro Update" said "Skipped - version not newer". "Adjust Settings" came up with a screen for "Capture Port Offset" and a blank to input a number in. I didn't do anything with that since I have no idea what it means. ANT1 and ANT2 Cable Types allows you to change from STD to IRC to HRC. Mine was already set on IRC. I assume this is done automatically and should not be changed. "Show Event Log" displayed all the latest errors. Not sure how significant they are. I didn't touch "Restore Settings" since mine has started to load the program listings again. I just exited out of that menu by pressing the MENU key the same as the lady from Gemstar had me do.
A few things that she asked me about my TV Guide problems was how many channels I had enabled (I have over 200 with the cablecard and antenna) and how many days before it dumped the data (she said most people are experiencing about 4 days). She said they think there may be a bug in the memory causing it. Since mine has been loading again the past couple days she did not have me reset it and she is going to call me back Friday for an update.



Jeff

How long between the time you gave Toshiba the diagnostic screen data till you got a call from Gemstar? Mine is driving me nuts with incorrect time, consistantly 1 hour and 3 minutes slow. Makes the symbio a piece of junk.

Originally posted by Bill Shenefelt
How long between the time you gave Toshiba the diagnostic screen data till you got a call from Gemstar? Mine is driving me nuts with incorrect time, consistantly 1 hour and 3 minutes slow. Makes the symbio a piece of junk.

It's been 4 days since my last call to Toshiba to complain about the TV Guide but it's been since Feb 17th that I actually gave them the data.

Jeff

Hi All-

Glad to hear that I'm not the only one having this problem. I have a Toshiba 46HM94 with installed CableCard through TWC Houston. Despite trying almost every zipcode in the greater Houston area, I've never had any TVGOS data. Upon going through the hidden TVG menus, it seems that the host channel is not set. Sounds like we're all in the same boat. Does anyone have a number for someone at Toshiba to report this information to? I've looked at their website but have been unable to find anything but local service people. BTW- I bought my unit in November 04.

I also have another strange occurance. I'm hooked into my home theatre system from the digital audio out. Once the TV has been turned off and finished its cool-down period, all of the sudden I'll hear the audio of the channels as if they're being changed. This happens about 1-2 times every 2-4 hours. I suspect this is related to the TV Guide problem as it might be searching for the channel to download program information. Anyone seen similar behavior?

Other than the above problems, I love the TV!
Thanks in advance.

Just lost all my channels the other day, this hasn't happened since December I think. Anyway, I checked last night and they still aren't back yet.

Originally posted by kingpin867
Does anyone have a number for someone at Toshiba to report this information to? I've looked at their website but have been unable to find anything but local service people.


Tobshiba TV Customer Service is:
1-800-631-3811, Option 1, Option 4


dsr

Originally posted by kingpin867
Hi All-

Glad to hear that I'm not the only one having this problem. I have a Toshiba 46HM94 with installed CableCard through TWC Houston. Despite trying almost every zipcode in the greater Houston area, I've never had any TVGOS data. Upon going through the hidden TVG menus, it seems that the host channel is not set. Sounds like we're all in the same boat. Does anyone have a number for someone at Toshiba to report this information to? I've looked at their website but have been unable to find anything but local service people. BTW- I bought my unit in November 04.

I also have another strange occurance. I'm hooked into my home theatre system from the digital audio out. Once the TV has been turned off and finished its cool-down period, all of the sudden I'll hear the audio of the channels as if they're being changed. This happens about 1-2 times every 2-4 hours. I suspect this is related to the TV Guide problem as it might be searching for the channel to download program information. Anyone seen similar behavior?

Other than the above problems, I love the TV!
Thanks in advance.

The sound issue happened to me a couple times also(scarred the heck out of me the first time) now I just make sure to turn off my stereo at night also.

Also I'm getting my cable-card installed today and I'm hoping this helps my TVGOS problem.

Originally posted by kingpin867
Hi All-

Glad to hear that I'm not the only one having this problem. I have a Toshiba 46HM94 with installed CableCard through TWC Houston. Despite trying almost every zipcode in the greater Houston area, I've never had any TVGOS data. Upon going through the hidden TVG menus, it seems that the host channel is not set. Sounds like we're all in the same boat. Does anyone have a number for someone at Toshiba to report this information to? I've looked at their website but have been unable to find anything but local service people. BTW- I bought my unit in November 04.

I also have another strange occurance. I'm hooked into my home theatre system from the digital audio out. Once the TV has been turned off and finished its cool-down period, all of the sudden I'll hear the audio of the channels as if they're being changed. This happens about 1-2 times every 2-4 hours. I suspect this is related to the TV Guide problem as it might be searching for the channel to download program information. Anyone seen similar behavior?

Other than the above problems, I love the TV!
Thanks in advance.


I've never had that audio problem on my 52HMX94. I also have mine hooked to my home theater system with the optical digital output and I almost always leave the receiver on after the tv is turned off. Never heard any audio after the tv was off. You should call Toshiba and tell them about this as well as your TV Guide problem.

Jeff

Originally posted by whjeffs
I've never had that audio problem on my 52HMX94. I also have mine hooked to my home theater system with the optical digital output and I almost always leave the receiver on after the tv is turned off. Never heard any audio after the tv was off. You should call Toshiba and tell them about this as well as your TV Guide problem.

Jeff Jeff, do you or anyone else use an HDMI DVD player? I'm trying to determine if the display will pass 5.1 dolby digital from the optical connection. I know some players will default to 2.0 PCM depending on what it receives from the display. If I can eliminate one optical connection (i.e. DVD player to receiver) and just use the optical from the TV to the receiver it would be helpful. I know it passes 5.1 from broadcast if using cable card but haven't been able to determine if it will pass it from the DVD player through the HDMI connection. Of course Toshiba support says yes but I was hoping someone who owns this set can confirm.

We'll unfortunately if appears that its still going to take a good deal more time for this problem to be fixed. I spoke to a TV Guide rep again today and this is after e-mailing them diagnostic screen photos twice. They are still not sure what the problem is. I just e-mailed them another series at their request. They are interested in "Section System- Info" which shows what software patch has been loaded (I still don't have the latest one), "Section System Statistics" , "Section Reset Info", "Section Reception-Slicing" and "Section Reset Dumps". They said my TV shows a high data error rate and is not receiving "C" data packets. They are forwarding my photos to their engineers who are still trying to diagnose the problem. They have some theories, but still need to collect more data.

I received my 52HM94 set yesterday. Woot!

Turned it on this morning and it received no data over night. During the night it opened the guide popup. Is that normal? I called support and they told me to give it 24 hours. They said if not working by then to call on Monday.

Mark

Originally posted by Mracacia
I received my 52HM94 set yesterday. Woot! So, give use your impressions of the set.;)

I can't really give an impression yet. I only got to played with it for an hour or so last night. I have a infocus X1 dlp projector that I can see rainbows on if I try, but on the tv I can't no matter how hard I look. The built in HDTV tuner works well, and the HDTV picture is great. The one issue I did have I posted here:

AVS Link (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?postid=5311674#post5311674)

More in-depth review to follow.

Mark

I have never recieved ANYTHING on the TV Guide of my 62HMX94.
Recieved the TV in early January, 2005.
I live near Sioux City, Iowa.
Cable into ANT1 (local cable company called Premeir Communications)
No cable card or sattelite.

After a couple calls to Toshiba, they sent me a software update on an SD card. It updated my software from 1.4.3 to 1.4.5. I installed this last night, but I have not yet seen any change. I will give it at least the weekend and see if anything happens before I call Toshiba again.

Originally posted by Arlin
I have never recieved ANYTHING on the TV Guide of my 62HMX94.
Recieved the TV in early January, 2005.
I live near Sioux City, Iowa.
Cable into ANT1 (local cable company called Premeir Communications)
No cable card or sattelite.

After a couple calls to Toshiba, they sent me a software update on an SD card. It updated my software from 1.4.3 to 1.4.5. I installed this last night, but I have not yet seen any change. I will give it at least the weekend and see if anything happens before I call Toshiba again.

That's the first I've heard of them doing that. I was wondering if our TVs could take a software upgrade via the cardslot like the Mitsubishis can. Is the data still on the card after you installed it or does it reformat itself after it is installed?

Jeff

Now I'm experiencing a different problem with my TV Guide. My program listings are almost completely loaded again (all except for 1 day) but for the past 3 days every day I have customize my channel lineup changes because they are not being saved. I have to go through and turn some channels on manually and some off that are set wrong by default. I guess this has something to do with updates they are sending.

The TV Guide rep did not call back tonight to check on my progress like she said she would either.

Got the Symbio yesterday. It seems to be working as it should.


Jeff

I have been researching the whole TVGOS/CableCARD situation. I would like to ask all participants that have problems (with guide data) to list their cable provider as well as location and if they are using a CableCARD or direct cable connection. I believe this would be a great help to everyone involved finding a solution, since these issues seem to be isolated by market and provider. I am curious if (for example) many or all TWC markets have problems, or if it is only certain markets they serve with others properly operating.

Thanks

Gary Merson
HDTV Insider

Gary:

As you may already realize my Cable Provider is Cablevision of L.I. and I use a cable card connection on the 52HM94. You can also tell from my prior posts here that TVGOS technical support did contact me and they are trying to troubleshoot my set by viewing photos of various hidden TVGOS data screens before and after resetting the TV. They are still not sure what the problem is although they have some theories. This process is still ongoing. I believe that the problem may be limited to only certain Toshiba models based upon what they have told me. My guess is that the solution is going to have to come from some kind of software patch once they figure out the exact problem.

Jim

I have had a 52hmx94 since 12/01/2004. I have never recvd TV guide since day one. I have basic cable thru Charter, no cable card and connected thru ANT1. Alta Loma Ca. I have a HD Antenna on Ant2 also a Toshiba RS-TX60 DVD Burner TiVo on component 1. I have been dealing with Toshiba for months. They have had me give them all the codes so they could send them to TV Guide. Reset TV several times. Customer service tries to help but lets be honest, they don't have a clue. I have been dealing with TV Guide Customer Service for a couple of weeks sending pictures to them. TV Guide informs me that my TV has not recvd the update yet. They don't know why, yet. TV Guide Customer Service calls me and Emails me. I have to give them credit for that. I called Toshiba friday and just nothing gets done! They blame TV Guide. I don't care who's fault it is! FIX IT! Toshiba is useless. Still no TV GUIDE.

I have been trying to get TV guide working so I could get a Toshiba Symbio. I would like to record HD TV. I have been reading about Symbio and I will probably pass.

Gary,
My cable provider is Millennium Digital Media. I am using a Cablecard with the incoming cable connected to ANT1. I am in Pasadena, (Anne Arundel County) Maryland. I receive TV Guide data, but so far not complete data for all 8 days, and also the guide regularly loses all data and has to start all over. Also the default channel lineup for my cable provider in the TV Guide setup is not 100% accurate and I have to go into the channel editor and manually turn on some channels, turn off some channels, and change the channel number of a few channels. Most notably, the default lineup does not automatically list the HD channels I am able to receive on the cablecard. Over the past week, I have had to redo these channel edits every day because they go back to the default lineup, even though I have not lost any other guide data over the same time period.
I also have an antenna connected to the tv on the ANT2 input if that makes any difference.


Jeff

P.S. Next time someone talks to the TV Guide people please refer them to this website. Maybe that will help them gather info.

For those that are still undecided about the Symbio due to the TV Guide issues, I just thought I'd let you know that you CAN schedule a manual recording just like you would on a VCR. I just set one up for a movie that was not yet loaded in the program listings. Open the TV Guide, highlight the SCHEDULE tab, hit MENU, then go over to the left side and select NEW MANUAL RECORDING. Then just input the date, start and end time, and the channel. You should be able to do this even if there is no data loaded. I know it's not as convenient as scheduling it via the program guide but it still works.

Bill, you could schedule your recordings this way until they get the clock offset corrected for you.


Jeff

Thanks Jeff;
I never saw this method. I whad gone to schedule but it escaped me to then go to the menu button reather than "scroll down" under schedule. What you suggested seems to work at least to bring up the screen. Toshiba never told me this.

Hey Jeff - I did a manual record of Jay Leno last night. Worked great. Thanks for the reminder.

Dave

My tvguide has been working OK for the past few weeks. I did have a hiccup with the time once, but it corrected itself after a few days. I still can record anything with my Symbio using tvguide. Every time I choose a show thats on overnight & set it to record, the next day when I check nothing is there. Tonight I'm going to try a manual recording

Well today I got the call from a TV Guide rep and they went through and asked for the same info I gave to Toshiba already and then had me reset my TV and said they'd call back In a few days to check on if that helped.(Like I didn't try that already :) )

One thing I got from the call was they were really in the dark about whats the problem causing this...And weren't sure If It was even there problem or a problem with the TVs themselves.

I know for a fact people with other products with the TV Guide feature have It working in my region so Its not where I live. Also I asked her what channel should my TV be trying to connect to for the programing she did confirm that PBS is one of the channels but went on to state there were a few cable channels that carry it just to make its accessible.

Oh she said there getting lots of calls from Toshiba owners about this problem and are working hard on figuring out the cause so they can fix it...So It looks like all our calling is helping.

I just received my 62HMX94 and I am receiving no guide data either. I will call toshiba when I have more time to be on hold, I hope they get this fixed soon, part of the reason I purchased this television was because of the TVGOS.

I am now part of the collective. I made my call to Toshiba and they took me through the same menus that I am sure you all have been through. One disturbing thing was that my television shows a build date of December 2004 but the menu insisde the television shows a build date of July 29, 2004.

Television - 62HMX94
Build Date - December 2004. (Menu in the system shows July 29, 2004)

Originally posted by bigdaddy10
I am now part of the collective. I made my call to Toshiba and they took me through the same menus that I am sure you all have been through. One disturbing thing was that my television shows a build date of December 2004 but the menu insisde the television shows a build date of July 29, 2004.

Television - 62HMX94
Build Date - December 2004. (Menu in the system shows July 29, 2004) Where are you getting the build date from? I don't see anything on the serial plate that shows a build date. Mine shows the software version in the service menu as Oct 07, 2004.

Should all 8 days of listings show up at once? I just received my TV Friday and Comcast connected everything on Saturday. I was able to get all the channels to load but the TV hasn't been "off" for very long this weekend.:D This morning it looks like I have two days of listings but nothing after 3:30 AM on Wednesday. I'm not sure if I should bother calling if the updates do not happen all at once.

Originally posted by kdog044
Where are you getting the build date from? I don't see anything on the serial plate that shows a build date. Mine shows the software version in the service menu as Oct 07, 2004.


When the person from Toshiba took me through the menus one of the screen listed the build date. I mentioned this to the technician and they told me that it was strange that the TV was showing a build date of July. When I call them back tommorrow morning and try to take photos of the screens.

Originally posted by bigdaddy10
When the person from Toshiba took me through the menus one of the screen listed the build date. I mentioned this to the technician and they told me that it was strange that the TV was showing a build date of July. When I call them back tommorrow morning and try to take photos of the screens. I looked on my display in the TV Guide system menu and I have the same date so I imagine it is just a software or firmware version for the TVGOS. Mine states Build time: July 29, 2004 13:53:16.

In the Menu from Setup, Installation, System Status, System Information it lists

Software Version
1.43
Nov 05, 2004 13:11:02
FW: 1.20
BPEP: 65

Originally posted by kdog044
Should all 8 days of listings show up at once? I just received my TV Friday and Comcast connected everything on Saturday. I was able to get all the channels to load but the TV hasn't been "off" for very long this weekend.:D This morning it looks like I have two days of listings but nothing after 3:30 AM on Wednesday. I'm not sure if I should bother calling if the updates do not happen all at once.

They don't all load at once. It usually takes several days to get all 8 days (but that has only successfully happened on mine once, then it dumped all the guide info). If you scroll over to the last day you will probably have listings for that day too. That's the way mine usually loads. Day 1,2, and 8, then the ones in the middle slowly fill in over a few days time. The lady I talked to from TV Guide confirmed that this was normal behavior.


Jeff

Originally posted by whjeffs
They don't all load at once. It usually takes several days to get all 8 days (but that has only successfully happened on mine once, then it dumped all the guide info). If you scroll over to the last day you will probably have listings for that day too. That's the way mine usually loads. Day 1,2, and 8, then the ones in the middle slowly fill in over a few days time. The lady I talked to from TV Guide confirmed that this was normal behavior.


Jeff Jeff, thanks for the response. I did check the guide and you are correct there are entries for the following Monday. The weird thing is the Day 2 entries end at 3:30 AM and the Day 8 entries start at 4:00 AM. I will keep an eye on it for the next few days and see if it fills in any more.

One other question I have is when you first turn on your TV is the guide always displayed or is it just mine?

Just as an FYI, I have Comcast cable directly connected to ANT1 for SD channels. I also have a Motorola DCT6412 connected via DVI>HDMI cable for HD and digital. They were supposed to install a cable card but they screwed up my order so it won't get installed until this Saturday.

That is a setting you can change. It's under SETUP > CHANGE DEFAULT OPTIONS > GENERAL DEFAULT OPTIONS > AUTOGUIDE and change it to OFF.

Jeff

Originally posted by whjeffs
That is a setting you can change. It's under SETUP > CHANGE DEFAULT OPTIONS > GENERAL DEFAULT OPTIONS > AUTOGUIDE and change it to OFF.

Jeff Jeff, thanks for the tip, it works like a champ. I guess it might be a nice feature if you only use the ANT inputs but since I have the DVR I don't want the guide displayed unless I need it.

Also, the guide does appear to be slowly filling in. I now have next Monday and Tuesday's data while still waiting on Thursday-Sunday. I'm wondering if it depends on how long you have the TV "off" since this is when the updates are supposed to occur.

I received another call from Toshiba today regarding my TV Guide problem. Mine has never worked at all. They are replacing my whole TV! I was really surprised. I don't know why they think that the problem is related to the set but they do and are sending me a new one. I should receive it in about 10 days. I really don't think that the problem is with the set but if they want to replace it I'll let them. I'll post back when I get it regarding the guide on the new set.

Originally posted by sharonf
I received another call from Toshiba today regarding my TV Guide problem. Mine has never worked at all. They are replacing my whole TV! I was really surprised. I don't know why they think that the problem is related to the set but they do and are sending me a new one. I should receive it in about 10 days. I really don't think that the problem is with the set but if they want to replace it I'll let them. I'll post back when I get it regarding the guide on the new set.

VERY interesting that they are replacing the set. Did you ever speak to anyone from TV Guide? How is Toshiba handling the replacement? Where did you buy your TV? I guess I better keep on them about mine since this is how they are handling yours. I wonder if they have made any hardware changes to the new ones? I wonder if the TV just needs more memory to accomodate all the guide data?

Jeff

Well I figured out another problem with the TV Guide this morning. For the past week I have had the Symbio disconnected to see if it was causing any of the new problems I was having with the TV Guide. Two things had started happening since getting the Symbio. It would sometimes take 30 seconds for the guide to come up after the button was pressed. And any changes I made manually to the channel lineup would not stay. It would go back to the default lineup. Since having the Symbio disconnected I did not have either of these problems. This morning I hooked it back up and right away my channel lineup reset. I guess I'll call Toshiba again tomorrow since I will be off work and have some time to spend on the phone with them.

Jeff

I wonder if the TV just needs more memory to accomodate all the guide data?

Thats what im wondering as well.

Oh, by the way-Ive had my symbio for over 2 months now and Im still not able to set any recordings with it except for the 1st week I got it Ive also had to reset my TV to get the guide to work properly about every 2 weeks

Okay, here is my latest update. As of today I have listings for today and tomorrow, nothing for Friday-Sunday and listings for Monday-Wednesday so I have 5 days of listings of the possible 8. I guess I will check later this afternoon before calling support and seeing what they have to say.

I do have another question for you all. when I first open the guide there is the info option but as soon as I start scrolling it goes away. The only way to bring it back is to left arrow into the TV guide box and then back to the channel listings. I've tried all the info box settings and can't seem to get the info box to stay. if I press info more than once it splits the listings into two or three boxes but the info box is not in any of them. Anyone else having this problem?

Originally posted by sharonf
I received another call from Toshiba today regarding my TV Guide problem. Mine has never worked at all. They are replacing my whole TV! I was really surprised. I don't know why they think that the problem is related to the set but they do and are sending me a new one. I should receive it in about 10 days. I really don't think that the problem is with the set but if they want to replace it I'll let them. I'll post back when I get it regarding the guide on the new set.

Sharonf - How long have you had your TV? Are they giving you the same model? Did you try to get them to upgrade you for the hassle? Which CSR did you talk to?

I have had my set, an 62HM94, since November with no TVGOS data, and would really like to get a replacement to be done with this problem.

tx
dsr15

Originally posted by whjeffs
VERY interesting that they are replacing the set. Did you ever speak to anyone from TV Guide? How is Toshiba handling the replacement? Where did you buy your TV? I guess I better keep on them about mine since this is how they are handling yours. I wonder if they have made any hardware changes to the new ones? I wonder if the TV just needs more memory to accomodate all the guide data?

Jeff

Someone from cable guide called once but called my cell phone instead of my home phone for some reason and I missed the call. I called them back with my home phone number but no one ever got back to me again. That's one reason why I was surprised when Toshiba called yesterday. They said that I would receive a return label in the mail within five days that I am to attach to the set. Then within 10 days they would deliver the new set and pick up the old one. I bought my set from amazon.com the beginning of January. Toshiba is using their own delivery company to do this excahge though. They are not going through amazon at all. I have the Tohsiba 62HM94.

I decided to call Toshiba about the missing days and while I was talkng to him I pressed the TV guide and the TV turned off. When I turned it back on the guide was completely wiped out and I lost all the channels as well as the listings. They were going to send my information to TVGOS and someone from there is supposed to call me. I searched through this thread and saw that this happened to another poster. I think it was tboo.

Originally posted by tboo on 1/8/2005
Okay, it loks like I spoke too soon when I said I dont have any problems with the TVguide onscreen. At first it worked great-all my listings were present. Then I statred having lockup problems with the guide & finally, one day, when I hit the tvguide button m tv shut off. When I restarted all of my listings were gone.

Has this happened to anyone else?

Sharon:

I'm curious, what is the software version and firmware version of your set? (Setup/Installation/System Status/System Information/Software Version) . I am surprised that they are exchanging your set rather than trying to fix it. Perhaps it relates the the fact that you never had any data downloads. I did have TVGOS working for one weekend several weeks ago but not since then. I've been in contact with a manager of technical support at TVGOS but still do not have it working. I've reset the TV two different times in different ways and sent numerous data screen photos to him as recently as last night.

Jim, I am rather surprised too. I'm wondering if it has something to do with the information they copied down and forwarded to TVGOS when Jennifer called me before...and because I still have not had any data downloads at all. I also mentioned to them previously that I often find that my TV has tuned itself to a completely different channel than I left it on the night before. It is always the same channel. I'm wondering if it is trying to tune itself to the wrong PBS channel. My software version is 1.4.1 with a date of October 19, 2004.

Thanks. My software version and date are the same. So I'm not sure why Toshiba is replacing your set and yet TVGOS are still trying to troubleshoot mine. I assume they talk to each other. Perhaps some other factor.

Originally posted by Jim777
Thanks. My software version and date are the same. So I'm not sure why Toshiba is replacing your set and yet TVGOS are still trying to troubleshoot mine. I assume they talk to each other. Perhaps some other factor.

Jim,

It may be as you suggest and have something to do with the fact that I have never received any data at all. I'm also wondering if it was because of something in the information they got from my set. I asked them about it yesterday when they called but the person I spoke with didn't seem to know. He seems to be just the person responsible for giving me the exchange information. It will be interesting to see if another set makes any difference. I hope so. Now that I've got everything but the TV Guide working like I want it to I dread having to do everything all over again. It should be faster this time though.

I have software version 1.4.3 dated Nov 5th 2004. I do receive data but not complete and have other guide problems I've posted on here. I wonder does everyone who has never received any data have version 1.4.1? I wonder if Sharon's replacement set will have a version newer than 1.4.3? It seems like if it's just a software problem they could send an update on a flash card. I thought someone had posted on here before that Toshiba sent them one. Well, I guess Toshiba is open now so I will make my call to them.

Jeff

Jeff,

Someone mentioned getting 1.45 via SD card.

Does anyone know the approximate times the host download is sent? According to TVGOS the downloads occur approximately 4 times a day typically in the morning and afternoon and are about 3 hours in length. I did a screen capture of the different menus when you use the 753159852 code. There is a screen called "Section VBI Data- VBI Info". In this screen there is an entry called LastDLStart and another called LastDLEnd. I had a time of 10:56:19 for the start and NA for the end. This was captured after I was successful in getting the channels and a partial listing. I don't have anything now that it was wiped out yesterday but I want to make sure I leave the set off if I know when the download may occur. The screen now says NA for both entries. If anyone else has the screen captures or can check this screen for the LastDLStart I would appreciate it.

kdog44,
I checked that out on mine. Last D/L Start 12:01:21, Last D/L End N/A. I notice that the time in the hidden TVGOS menu is 5 hours ahead of the actual time here so that would mean it started at 7:01 this morning. If it really does take about 3 hours to download the listings that might explain something because I usually have the tv on in the morning for a little while before I go to work. I am off work today and for the next few days. I did turn it on this morning at about 8:30 so maybe that interrupted the download?
In that same menu it says D/L Timer 18:11 which would be 13:11 or 1:11pm today. I think this is the next time it is going to perform a download so I will make sure the tv is off today from 1pm to 4:30 and see what happens.

I called Toshiba a little while ago to report my ongoing TVGOS problems and the new problems that have started since adding the Symbio. They said this is the first they have heard of the Symbio related problems so they are going to try to duplicate it on the setup they have there and are escalating my complaint and should get back to me in a day or 2.

Jeff

Originally posted by whjeffs
kdog44,
I checked that out on mine. Last D/L Start 12:01:21, Last D/L End N/A. I notice that the time in the hidden TVGOS menu is 5 hours ahead of the actual time here so that would mean it started at 7:01 this morning. If it really does take about 3 hours to download the listings that might explain something because I usually have the tv on in the morning for a little while before I go to work. I am off work today and for the next few days. I did turn it on this morning at about 8:30 so maybe that interrupted the download?
In that same menu it says D/L Timer 18:11 which would be 13:11 or 1:11pm today. I think this is the next time it is going to perform a download so I will make sure the tv is off today from 1pm to 4:30 and see what happens.
Jeff, I can't remember when I took the original screen shots but if what you're saying is accurate the download on mine would have started at 6:56 AM. I did check the D/L timer and mine has the exact same time, 18:11:00. If that is the time for the next download then maybe around 7:00 AM EST is the first download with 1:00 PM EST being the second. I think my wife had the TV on this morning which would have interrupted this first download. My kids get home about 2:15 PM so I may have them use one of the other TV's and see what happens around 4:00 PM or so. Keep me posted as I'm still waiting to hear from TVGOS.

One other question I have for you. When you get the listings is your Info box working correctly? I had the same problem reported by tboo that the screen would split two or three times when you pressed the Info button but the info box would disappear. If you left arrow into the left section and then right arrow back the Info box would reappear but only until you started navigating in the listings. It's really wierd and may be tied to the problems with the download.

Okay, after leaving the set off until 4:00 PM EST I checked and still have no listings or channels. I remember the first time I had data when I went into the guide I was presented with different options for my cable company and had to select the proper 4 digit number to get the channel list. I have not been prompted for that information again. One thing I did notice is the time in the left corner of the diagnositc menu was N/A after the last reset and now appears to be filled in. I did notice, as Jeff indicated, that the time appears to be 5 hours later than my current time. My guess is that time is based on Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). See here (http://wwp.greenwichmeantime.com/)

I called Toshiba a little while ago to report my ongoing TVGOS problems and the new problems that have started since adding the Symbio. They said this is the first they have heard of the Symbio related problems so they are going to try to duplicate it on the setup they have there and are escalating my complaint and should get back to me in a day or 2

They told me the same thing over a month ago & I havent heard a peep since

UPDATE!!!. I finally got some sort of a decent answer from Toshiba on my Symbio problems. Turns out that when Symbio was designed they didnt count on the fact that the cable card needs power from the TV in order to tune the channel. This is why whenever I would schedule a recording overnight & then turn off my TV the next morning nothing would be on the recorder. So now they are trying to figure out how to resolve this. At least they have discovered the problem-this is some sort of progress.

On a side note, I wonder if those with the cable cards(with or without a Symbio), are having problems with TVGuide because the cablecard would need power to tune to the PBS channel to download the guide info.

I only get listings sporadically and never more then 2 days. On several occasions I have changed the order of the stations only to have them change back in the morning. This is very frustrating, I work from 9:00AM to 6PM and customer support is only open from 8:00AM to 6PM. Only leaves me 30 minutes to call them in the morning and try to get this worked out.

Originally posted by tboo
On a side note, I wonder if those with the cable cards(with or without a Symbio), are having problems with TVGuide because the cablecard would need power to tune to the PBS channel to download the guide info.

Interesting. Now that you mention it my 52HMX94 TVGOS worked the best before I got my cable card two months ago. I suppose I could take the card out at night but then I could not record the HD channels on my Symbio.

That would sure be a major snafu if you are right that the cable card loses power when the TV is shut off. I wonder how Toshiba would make things right in that case. What a mess.

Dave

Originally posted by kdog044
Jeff, I can't remember when I took the original screen shots but if what you're saying is accurate the download on mine would have started at 6:56 AM. I did check the D/L timer and mine has the exact same time, 18:11:00. If that is the time for the next download then maybe around 7:00 AM EST is the first download with 1:00 PM EST being the second. I think my wife had the TV on this morning which would have interrupted this first download. My kids get home about 2:15 PM so I may have them use one of the other TV's and see what happens around 4:00 PM or so. Keep me posted as I'm still waiting to hear from TVGOS.

One other question I have for you. When you get the listings is your Info box working correctly? I had the same problem reported by tboo that the screen would split two or three times when you pressed the Info button but the info box would disappear. If you left arrow into the left section and then right arrow back the Info box would reappear but only until you started navigating in the listings. It's really wierd and may be tied to the problems with the download.

My info box works fine most of the time. When you press info while in the listings, it toggles between 3 info box sizes. The first is a single line that just shows the program title, the second is a box about the size of 3 lines that shows more of the program description and the third is a large box almost the full size of the guide that shows any additional info on the listing. I have only seen what you are describing maybe 1% of the time and exiting and reopening the guide fixed it.

Back to the other problem. I turned the tv back on at about 6pm (23:00 GMT) and checked the VBI menu and it had already started another download at 22:46 GMT. The D/L timer now says 3/25/05 4:01:00 GMT which will be 11:01pm here. I probably won't have the tv off by then. I checked my listings and it didn't look like any more listings had loaded during the mid-day download.

Jeff

Originally posted by tboo
UPDATE!!!. I finally got some sort of a decent answer from Toshiba on my Symbio problems. Turns out that when Symbio was designed they didnt count on the fact that the cable card needs power from the TV in order to tune the channel. This is why whenever I would schedule a recording overnight & then turn off my TV the next morning nothing would be on the recorder. So now they are trying to figure out how to resolve this. At least they have discovered the problem-this is some sort of progress.

On a side note, I wonder if those with the cable cards(with or without a Symbio), are having problems with TVGuide because the cablecard would need power to tune to the PBS channel to download the guide info.

I don't think this is correct. As long as the TV is plugged in the cablecard should be getting power. The fan that cools the cablecard runs all the time when the tv is off. My Symbio recordings work fine with the TV off and I am using a cablecard. It sounds like they are just guessing.

Jeff

Originally posted by whjeffs
I don't think this is correct. As long as the TV is plugged in the cablecard should be getting power. The fan that cools the cablecard runs all the time when the tv is off. My Symbio recordings work fine with the TV off and I am using a cablecard. It sounds like they are just guessing.

Jeff

the TV does have some power on all the time, but the power to tune the channels must be off-although I think the problem depends on the type of cable card.

I just bought the 46hm94. Before I call Toshiba, I was wondering a couple of things about the connection for the TGOS. I have tried using the output from the cable box to ant 1 input on the tv and the g-link cord. When the tv is off and the box on I see the box changing channels etc.. It never loads anything. I have left it off for over a day and still nothing. I am going to try splitting the cable input before the box and running that to the ant 1 input and see if that works.

If anybody has any input as to the exact way to connect a cable feed, either before box or after box I would appreciate the input.

The box being used is a Motorola HD with component out to the tv.

Originally posted by godsend1
I just bought the 46hm94. Before I call Toshiba, I was wondering a couple of things about the connection for the TGOS. I have tried using the output from the cable box to ant 1 input on the tv and the g-link cord. When the tv is off and the box on I see the box changing channels etc.. It never loads anything. I have left it off for over a day and still nothing. I am going to try splitting the cable input before the box and running that to the ant 1 input and see if that works.

If anybody has any input as to the exact way to connect a cable feed, either before box or after box I would appreciate the input.

The box being used is a Motorola HD with component out to the tv.

I have a Motorola 6208 HD DVR cable box. I use that connection to view digital and HD channels. I also have my cable split so that one end goes to ANT 1. The ananlog channels come in much better with that connection. That is also the connection that I'm trying to get TVGOS working for but I have had set since early January and I have never had any data loaded.

We'll here's what I learned today after speaking directly with a manager of technical support at TVGOS. I'm told the 4 downloads occur 2:20 AM, 7:00 AM, 10:05 AM and 1:45 PM local times and last for 3 hours. Not sure how this squares with the times everyone has been reporting here. He also indicated that the software version does not appear to be the problem as there is no correlation between them and the software versions. Some sets with 1.4.1 and 1.4.3 have a problem and others do not. He said that Toshiba has provided software updates for some sets because there was some kind of compatibility problem with the cable card used by a particular cable company and the set. The updates are not for fixing the TVGOS problems. He indicated that they are narrowing it down and it preliminarily looks like two problems, at least for my set. One is that Cablevision of Long Island recently changed something about the way they transmit, which they think is the reason why I no longer am receiving any data downloads from the PBS station here (WNET Channel 13). He is currently working with 15 others with Toshiba sets in my area who have the same problem. They are now contacting Cablevision to try to understand what was changed and how it can be fixed. But that's not the whole problem because I did receive some data downloads prior to this change however the downloads showed a high error rate. He said it may have to do with one of two things. If the PBS channel is transmitted both in digital and analog on the same channel number (in my case 13 and 713) the TV is looking at the digital channel whereas it is supposed to look at the analog PBS channel to get the data. Because of this confusion the data gets screwed up. The other possibility I didn't understand that well but had something to do with the fact that channel transmissions can "bleed" to other frequencies or channels causing high data error rates when TVGOS does the downloads. So net net it appears that although they are narrowing the problem down its still going to take a while before they sort all of this out and figure out a fix. He was also unaware that Toshiba was replacing sets because of this problem and would look into that. He was aware of this forum and has reviewed the posts in the past.

Quote:
"He was also unaware that Toshiba was replacing sets because of this problem and would look into that. He was aware of this forum and has reviewed the posts in the past."

Gee, I hope that he doesn't stop the replacement of my set now.:(

Originally posted by sharonf
Quote:
"He was also unaware that Toshiba was replacing sets because of this problem and would look into that. He was aware of this forum and has reviewed the posts in the past."

Gee, I hope that he doesn't stop the replacement of my set now.:(

On the other hand, if replacing your set solves the problem, he better authorize replacements for all of us! I doubt it will solve the problem though because at this point if they still haven't figured out what the problem is a newer set is not going to be any different.


Jeff

Originally posted by sharonf
Quote:
"He was also unaware that Toshiba was replacing sets because of this problem and would look into that. He was aware of this forum and has reviewed the posts in the past."

Gee, I hope that he doesn't stop the replacement of my set now.:(

Sharon I would doubt that he could do that as it had to be someone in Toshiba that authorized your replacement and not someone at TVGOS. But it does sound like there is less than complete communication between the two service/technical departments.


Jim

Okay, as of this morning I got my channels back but no listings. I checked the VBI information in the diagnostics and the LastDLStart was at 12:01:06 GST which would put it at 7:00 AM EST so it sounds like that is one of the scheduled download times. The DLTimer indicated 15:01 so my guess is the next scheduled download is at 10:01 AM EST which is pretty close to the 10:05 AM time indicated by a previous poster. I turned the TV back off to see if it does start getting the listings again now that I have the correct Comcast lineup and I will check it around 1:05 PM which would be the end of the thrid download cycle.

I checked after the latest DLTimer and I now have today, tomorrow and next Friday's listings. I also figured out the problem with the Info box. Unless I select "last used" for the box size the Info box disappears and I get the three split screens without the Info data. Then you need to left arrow into the TV guide box to get it back. I think it is a bug in the software. If anyone wants to validate it then go into the default options and change the Info box size to something like "small" or "large" and see how it affects the Info box and what happens when you repeatedly press the Info box until it disappears. The down arrow into another channel and see if the Info box comes back.

I also verified the download times the other poster indicated. If I go into the Section VBI Data- VBIDL Sched I get the following schedule for today:

07:21
12:01
15:06
18:46

These times are GMT. So for EST it translates to:

02:21 AM
07:01 AM
10:06 AM
01:45 PM

The times that TVGOS reported to the poster was

02:20 AM
07:00 AM
10:05 AM
01:45 PM

It also appears as they ARE 3 hours in length. My suggestion for those of you who are experiencing problems is to check to make sure it is correctly identifying your host channel (local PBS station). This can be found in the Section-System Statistics section. My channel is 6 and in the Host Chan it indicates 1:0-6. Before it found the channel it indicated 1:0-2. I think the first number is the Antenna Input and the rest is a range of channels.

Secondly the Section VBI Data- VBI Info and all the screens from this point using the right arrow key have some useful information. The LastDLStart will tell you when the last download occured. The DLTimer will tell you when the next scheduled download occurs. See example in the attached picture.

If you don't know how to access these menus it was reported in an earlier thread. If you select the TV Guide and get into the "settings" by up arrow into the service bar and then highlight "change system settings" (but don't press enter here) you can type 753159852 to access the diagnostics menu. You can navigate from here by using the arrow keys. If there is multiple menus on a page you can right arrow to cycle through them. Using the down arrow will take you to the next page. This is view only data so you can mess anything up. When you are done just press Exit to get out of the diagnostic section.

Lastly, depending on your time zone make sure your set is turned off during the download times indicated and leave it off for the three hours for each cycle. What that means is you may need to leave your TV turned off from 02:15 AM EST until 4:45 PM EST to get a complete download. I don't think this will do any good until at least the set recognizes your cable carrier. For example, there were two downloads this morning but when I turned on the set I had to choose my four digit cable carrier code. Once I did this I had my channels but no listings. The subsequent download populated Today, Tomorrow and next Friday. I am waiting until the final download to see if I get any more days.

Here is the other page where it indicates the download schedule. The Download ID for today is 70, note the duration.

Also, before you get any succesful downloads your Section VBI Data - VBI Info will probably look like this. Note the N/A for the time in the left corner and for the LastDLStart and DLTimer.

Kdog,

YOU ARE THE MAN!
I'll go home and check my settings.

Well today I have one additional day. It's almost like the download only gives you day 1, 2 and 8. Each day you would pick up an additional day. For example, yesterday I had Fri, Sat and next Fri. Today I have Sat, Sun and next Fri and Sat. If it keeps the days currently downloaded then maybe by day #6 I have all eight days. If my theory is correct it would work like this:

Day 1 - 1,2, and 8
Day 2 - 1,2,7, and 8
Day 3 - 1,2,6,7, and 8
Day 4 - 1,2,5,6,7, and 8
Day 5 - 1,2,4,5,6,7, and 8
Day 6 - 1,2,3,4,5,6,7, and 8

I also found that other than the 180 minute downloads there are others that take place. Another good screen that show this is the Section VBI Data-VBIDL see attached.

There appears to be three different download ID's that don't change 70, 81, and 27. The 70 ID is the 3 hour update that occurs 4 times a day. The 81 ID is scheduled for 12:41 AM, 1:11 PM, and 11:01 PM but I have only one entry for this and it appears to be 30 minutes in duration. The last one 27, occurs at 1:16 AM, 5:56 AM, 5:46 PM and 11:36 PM and are 60 minutes in duration. I also have one entry for this download but I don't know what information is sent during these downloads. I'm thinking it might be the one that checks your zip code and gives you the options for the cable lineup but I am not sure. Take a look at this screen on your display and see what you have. I do know if you interrupt the download you should see ActiveSusp or something similar in the state. If your TV is on during the attempted download I don't think you get anything in the LastSuStrt (Last Successful Start?). If it was successful your LastAtStrt and LastSuStrt should have the same date and time. If the download has not occured yet for the day then the LastAtStrt and the LastSuStrt should have yesterdays date and the same time. Hope this is some help for you all.

My Set did not load TV guide at all till I hooked up an outside antenna. I have Comcast cable. I attempted to use a cable card but that will not work at all. Toshiba is working this problem. For now I have the cable straight into antenna 1 and outside antenna on Ant 2. When my TVGuide is working you can tell because the TV is on PBS (ant 2) when you power it up. At the moment my TV has once again lost all listings. When I go into the TVG hidden screens the host CH# is now Blank. Does anyone have any Idea what would cause it to lose the host ch ID. Because I can't get the cable card to work, when my channels load I go into TV guide and change tune #'s for some of my channels. For examle NBC HD is Tune Ch 83_1 instead of cable CH 105. I do not do any changes to the PBS channels. I have seen posts reffering To Talking with TVG representatives. What is there PH#? Also Does anyone have Comcast with the Motorola Cable card working?
Thanks
Alan

Originally posted by a.b.christie
My Set did not load TV guide at all till I hooked up an outside antenna. I have Comcast cable. I attempted to use a cable card but that will not work at all. Toshiba is working this problem. For now I have the cable straight into antenna 1 and outside antenna on Ant 2. When my TVGuide is working you can tell because the TV is on PBS (ant 2) when you power it up. At the moment my TV has once again lost all listings. When I go into the TVG hidden screens the host CH# is now Blank. Does anyone have any Idea what would cause it to lose the host ch ID. Because I can't get the cable card to work, when my channels load I go into TV guide and change tune #'s for some of my channels. For examle NBC HD is Tune Ch 83_1 instead of cable CH 105. I do not do any changes to the PBS channels. I have seen posts reffering To Talking with TVG representatives. What is there PH#? Also Does anyone have Comcast with the Motorola Cable card working?
Thanks
Alan Alan, I posted the question of cable cards in the main HM/HMX thread. I just had Comcast out Saturday and they were unable to get it working. You indicated Toshiba is working on the problem. Are you saying they know of an issue with cable cards and the display? When they attempted to install the cable card what did you get? My 62HMX94 recognizes the card but I can't get an IP address nor does it scan any of the channels. If you try to change the channel you get an error message that says "Cable card connected - acquiring channel information. Cable card services will only operate with cable signal connected to ANT 1." They tried two different cable cards with the same result. The problem is since the cards are one way they can push the provision information but have no way of knowing if it was successful. I suspect that is also why you are having problems with the TVGOS. In order to talk with TVGOS you need to report the problem with Toshiba and they fax your information to TVGOS. They then contact you. I called last week and they indicated it could be about a week before you hear from them.

The problem with losing guide data is still a mystery. It may be a memory issue. I was tracking the guide information on my display but when trying to get the cable card working we did a TV reset so I am back to square one.:(

If you try to change the channel you get an error message that says "Cable card connected - acquiring channel information. Cable card services will only operate with cable signal connected to ANT 1." They tried two different cable cards with the same result

That means its working-it takes a while-sometimes 10-15 minutes to gather the channel info. Once its finished it will then allow you to change channels

Originally posted by tboo
That means its working-it takes a while-sometimes 10-15 minutes to gather the channel info. Once its finished it will then allow you to change channels LOL, it's been saying this for two days.:D It's definitely not working as it doesn't see the IP address and the download says not configured. I guess I'll try Toshiba on Monday. The other thing that pissed me off is they were sending DL's to my STB also. I asked if it would affect my recordings and was assured it wouldn't. Later when I checked the DVR was wiped clean and all my recordings and future schedules were wiped out.:mad:

Originally posted by kdog044
My 62HMX94 recognizes the card but I can't get an IP address nor does it scan any of the channels. If you try to change the channel you get an error message that says "Cable card connected - acquiring channel information. Cable card services will only operate with cable signal connected to ANT 1." They tried two different cable cards with the same result.

How long did they wait after installing the card? It seems like it takes awhile for the cablecard to acquire the channel information. I think when I did a full reset of mine a couple weeks ago while working on the TV Guide problems it took about an hour before I could tune any channels. Now when the cable company was here to install the card it only took a few minutes. This is my guess how this works: The cable signal probably has all the ID #s of all the boxes and cards embedded in the signal on a repeating cycle so it can automatically turn on or off authorized or unauthorized boxes or cards. The more subrscribers they have on their system the longer the cycle takes. When my cable company was out they had to call in to the main office to get the card activated. When they do this the main office probably modifies the embedded signal being sent so the card they are trying to activate turns on right away. After that it's back to the regular cycle so when you reconnect everything after it was reset it might take longer to acquire the channel information.
Did the tech(s) that were out make any calls to activate your card while they were there? Have you tried just leaving the card in and waiting awhile to see if the card ever starts working?

I have Millennium Digital Media as my cable provider and they had no problems with getting the Motorola cablecard to work in my TV. They had called a few days prior to coming out and asked what brand TV I had so maybe they have specific cards to work for different brand TVs.

I don't think my TVGOS problems are related to the cablecard because the TV will always tune to all the channels properly, even when the guide isn't working.


Jeff

Originally posted by whjeffs
How long did they wait after installing the card? Jeff, they installed the card and tried repeated "hits" to the card. They left with the card installed and returned a few HOURS later. No change. They then tried the same process with another card and eventually left after a few hours. I left the card plugged in and checked again this morning (total of about 16 hours). No change. I realize it may take a while but not THAT long. Since you have your working can you tell me what you get in the various cable card menus? (i.e. status, network info, pairing, etc). As I stated the TV recognizes the card and the serial information but doesn't get an IP address and never seems to configure. Comcast also uses the Motorola card so it's nice to know they do work with the Toshiba TV's. The problem is Comcast has no way of knowing if the "provisioning" or whatever they call it is successful since the cards are one way devices, unlike the STB. Any feedback would be appreciated or if you could post screenshots I would know what to look for.

Here's the IP service menu.

Here's the conditional access.

Here's the cable card status.

Here's the network setup.

Lastly, the cablecard pairing.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by kdog044

"
It also appears as they ARE 3 hours in length. My suggestion for those of you who are experiencing problems is to check to make sure it is correctly identifying your host channel (local PBS station). This can be found in the Section-System Statistics section. My channel is 6 and in the Host Chan it indicates 1:0-6. Before it found the channel it indicated 1:0-2. I think the first number is the Antenna Input and the rest is a range of channels.
Lastly, depending on your time zone make sure your set is turned off during the download times indicated and leave it off for the three hours for each cycle. What that means is you may need to leave your TV turned off from 02:15 AM EST until 4:45 PM EST to get a complete download. I don't think this will do any good until at least the set recognizes your cable carrier. For example, there were two downloads this morning but when I turned on the set I had to choose my four digit cable carrier code. Once I did this I had my channels but no listings. The subsequent download populated Today, Tomorrow and next Friday. I am waiting until the final download to see if I get any more days.
"

I think that mine is incorrectly identifying the host channel, which I have already reported to Toshiba. Often when I turn on my TV I find it tuned to channel 34 which is not the host channel and is not the channel I left the TV on.

Also, if we are to leave our TVS off for the full 12 hours of updates that sort of takes a lot of viewing time away. There needs to be a better way. In any case, even when my TV was left off for a couple of days while I was out of town I still had no data.

Originally posted by sharonf
[QUOTE]Originally posted by kdog044

I think that mine is incorrectly identifying the host channel, which I have already reported to Toshiba. Often when I turn on my TV I find it tuned to channel 34 which is not the host channel and is not the channel I left the TV on.

Also, if we are to leave our TVS off for the full 12 hours of updates that sort of takes a lot of viewing time away. There needs to be a better way. In any case, even when my TV was left off for a couple of days while I was out of town I still had no data. Sharon, do you get the menu that pops up to pick your cable providers and it's four digit code? I would think that based on your zip code the TV should be able to determine the host channel. Have you tried accessing the diagnostic menus and checking what is displayed for the host channel? As far as the downloads you only need to get one of the four timeslots for the 180 minute download. I do know that until you get the menu to properly identify your provider you will not get any channels and consequently any listings. Once you get past that important step you should get at least a three day download (current day, next day and day eight) on the next scheduled time. Have you spoken to anyone from TVGOS? I know you have to work through Toshiba and they fax the information to TVGOS to contact you about the problems with the guide and downloads.

Originally posted by kdog044
Jeff, they installed the card and tried repeated "hits" to the card. They left with the card installed and returned a few HOURS later. No change. They then tried the same process with another card and eventually left after a few hours. I left the card plugged in and checked again this morning (total of about 16 hours). No change. I realize it may take a while but not THAT long. Since you have your working can you tell me what you get in the various cable card menus? (i.e. status, network info, pairing, etc). As I stated the TV recognizes the card and the serial information but doesn't get an IP address and never seems to configure. Comcast also uses the Motorola card so it's nice to know they do work with the Toshiba TV's. The problem is Comcast has no way of knowing if the "provisioning" or whatever they call it is successful since the cards are one way devices, unlike the STB. Any feedback would be appreciated or if you could post screenshots I would know what to look for.
Here is a picture of all my cablecard menus. Notice the difference on the conditional access menu. Yours says "CA Disabled" mine says "Subscribed". I think this is where your problem is. Don't worry about the IP address. Mine never has anything but zeros on that menu. I think that menu is for 2 way cablecards (which people said would not be compatible with first generation cablecard TVs but after seeing this, who knows?)

Jeff

Originally posted by sharonf


I think that mine is incorrectly identifying the host channel, which I have already reported to Toshiba. Often when I turn on my TV I find it tuned to channel 34 which is not the host channel and is not the channel I left the TV on.

Mine does this sometimes too. Even though in the TVGOS menu it is correctly identifying the Host and VBI channel as 1:0-25 I sometimes turn on the tv and find it tuned to the ANT 2 channel 47 and there is nothing on that channel in my area.

Jeff

My channel list in the TV Guide was reset again this morning. This is my biggest problem with the TV Guide right now. I can deal with incomplete program listings for some of the days in advance but having to go through and change 26 things in the TV Guide channel lineup really pisses me off. It takes so long to do. Sometimes I think I spend more time dealing with these problems than actually WATCHING the TV. Toshiba's response to this was that "the channel list is sent by your cable company to TV Guide so it is their problem if it is incorrect". Well sure, that's one thing but I should still be able to reorder the channels, putting the ones I watch most at the top and turning off ones I don't use and these changes should stay in there but since adding the Symbio recorder they do not. The last time I made the changes to the list was 3 days ago and today they have reset to the default lineup again. They told me Thursday when I called they would try to duplicate this with their set. They said they had a 52HMX94 set up their with cablecard and Symbio, so we will see.

Something I notice with the Symbio that may or may not be related is when I press the TV Guide button the bright blue power light on the Symbio goes dim until the guide actually displays.

Jeff

Originally posted by kdog044
Sharon, do you get the menu that pops up to pick your cable providers and it's four digit code? I would think that based on your zip code the TV should be able to determine the host channel. Have you tried accessing the diagnostic menus and checking what is displayed for the host channel? As far as the downloads you only need to get one of the four timeslots for the 180 minute download. I do know that until you get the menu to properly identify your provider you will not get any channels and consequently any listings. Once you get past that important step you should get at least a three day download (current day, next day and day eight) on the next scheduled time. Have you spoken to anyone from TVGOS? I know you have to work through Toshiba and they fax the information to TVGOS to contact you about the problems with the guide and downloads.

I have never even seen the menu that pops up to pick my cable provider. I am trying to get TVGOS to work for the ANT 1 connection which is the direct cable connection (no cable box) that I watch the analog channels on. Right now I have a Motorola 6408 HD DVR that I use for the digital and HD channels and I can use the cable guide that comes with that. However when my cable company gets the cable cards in I want to get one...if I can get the TV Guide to work.
I haven't checked the diagnostic menus since I went through them with Jennifer and at the time I didn't know how things worked. I will try to check that again.
Someone from TVGOS called me once but I wasn't available to take the call. I returned the call but after being on hold for a long time just got the option to leave a message. I did that but haven't received another call back,

Originally posted by whjeffs
Here is a picture of all my cablecard menus. Notice the difference on the conditional access menu. Yours says "CA Disabled" mine says "Subscribed". I think this is where your problem is. Don't worry about the IP address. Mine never has anything but zeros on that menu. I think that menu is for 2 way cablecards (which people said would not be compatible with first generation cablecard TVs but after seeing this, who knows?)

Jeff Jeff, thanks for taking the time to post the screenshots. Now I know the only menu that seems to matter and that there doesn't seem to be a problem with the TV and the CC's. I will call Toshiba in the morning but I think the problem is with Comcast and them not provisioning the card correctly.

You should contact toshiba and give them your cable card info. There is a tech named Paul who seems to be putting togeather the data on the cable card issues. When I last talked with him 25 out of 27 cable card problems were with comcast and the motorola cable card. They will take data from your cable card menu....and hopefully it will help them fix this problem soon.
Alan

kdog044,

Your posting of the CC menu pictures is a good idea. These menus are filled "snapshots" of data, that is to say the data is not dynamic, only was valid data at the time you selected the menu. At the time you called each individual menu up, the data fields were populated with the a "snapshot" of the current information.

It seems that you have successfully mated the CC to the Host TV, as shown by the presence of a number in the Data field in your Pairing menu.

The Conditional Access menu is interesting also. It shows CA as disabled. This means that the last successfully tuned digital channel (a channel that is digital AND you were able to watch it) was one that your CC is not Authorized to decrypt. For example, maybe you had tried to tune to a premium service such as HBO, but you had not been authorized by the cable company for HBO. That is why the ECM and Component PID numbers are all zero. Maybe you could try tuning to a digital Service that you are able to watch, and then re open the menu, looking at the CA data field, and ECM and Component PID values.

The fact that your Validation status is Unknown tells us that the cable company has not yet performed a successful Validation procedure for your CC/Host. The Copy Protection key data and other status data would only be useful information after a successful Validation and successful tuning had been accomplished.

About your IP menu, I happened to notice that you have a certain brand of CC indicated in your status menu. The information about IP below MIGHT NOT BE TRUE for other brands of CC. Your IP menu would be meaningful if you had a two way Host, allowing for the request and granting of an IP address. I suspect that your Host may be a one way device, which means that you won't be able to request an IP address, therefore none will be granted by the cable company equipment (equipment that is not in your house), and blank fields here is OK. Other brands of CC have other operating modes, check with your cable company about when to expect an IP address to appear.

Spartycus,

Thanks for the feedback. I didn't know about the IP address but the guy from Comcast seemed to think it should have been populated. I think you guys are right and since it is a one-way device it will never be populated. That goes to show you the technicians still think in terms of the STB's. As far as the channel that was tuned when the screenshots were posted it was just the PBS channel. I can't change to any other channel as I get the "acquiring channel information" pop-up box. The only way to get another channel is to remove the CC and tune using the remote. Once the CC is inserted I can't change the channels anymore. I think the display and CC are working fine as the display does get the ID information from the card. I believe the problem is in Comcast's inability to "hit" or "provision" the card.

I will call Toshiba this morning once they open but I doubt there is much they will be able to do. I checked other boards and there have been people with Comcast and CC's who have had success so it may just be a local experience. I have the Comcast supervisor's number and once I speak to Toshiba I'll probably be calling him. I doubt if sending another technician will help as long as I can get someone competent at the office who can send the signal needed to get the card working as I believe this is where the problem lies. The Motorola card does seem to have the latest firmware (4.05).

I heard that besides the CC serial number they need the host ID from the TV. Perhaps they got this number wrong and that's why I can't get this working. I will have them double check that this morning.

I had the same problem with cablecard when I first got my TV.
After inserting the card, I could not change channels. It would only say something like "Recieving channel data: Please Wait." It would remain this way for days.

My cable company thought it might be their cable cards (it seems other tvs were behaving likewise). I contacted Toshiba and they sent me a softwar update for the TV. My cable company also worked on the issue on their end.

Now, after installing the software update and trying the cable card again, everything is working great. I don't know what fixed the issue, the software update or the cable company.

Paul (tech support from Toshiba) has left a message for me, but I have not called him back yet regarding this issue (and its resolution).

Originally posted by Arlin
I had the same problem with cablecard when I first got my TV.
After inserting the card, I could not change channels. It would only say something like "Recieving channel data: Please Wait." It would remain this way for days.

My cable company thought it might be their cable cards (it seems other tvs were behaving likewise). I contacted Toshiba and they sent me a softwar update for the TV. My cable company also worked on the issue on their end.
Arlin, thanks for the information. What you describe is exactly what I get. If you try to change channels you get the pop-up box that says "cable card connected - acquiring channel information. cable card services will only operate with cable signal connected to ANT1". Do you by chance know what version of software Toshiba sent you? I know I have version 1.43 but I heard of someone who was sent 1.45, perhaps it was you.

Also, what cable company and CC do you have?

Update: I spoke with Toshiba this morning and they said there is a firmware upgrade that was just to address with compatibility with cable cards and supposedly Motorola is one of them. I asked what the version number was and they said there isn't one?:confused: It appears to be a SD card and just updates certain parts of the firmware. That doesn't seem to make sense but unless someone has experience with this I will have to wait until the SD card arrives and see what the result is.

I was sent the software upgrade about 1 month ago. I still can not get the cable card to work. Does anyone here have Comcast with the motorola cable card working? I believe the upgrade# was 1.45
Alan

Originally posted by a.b.christie
I was sent the software upgrade about 1 month ago. I still can not get the cable card to work. Does anyone here have Comcast with the motorola cable card working? I believe the upgrade# was 1.45
Alan The "conditional access" seems to be the important menu related to the cable card. What does your say in the state? Mine says CA disabled but Jeff's, who has his working says "subscribed".

Originally posted by a.b.christie
I was sent the software upgrade about 1 month ago. I still can not get the cable card to work. Does anyone here have Comcast with the motorola cable card working? I believe the upgrade# was 1.45
Alan

Hey Alan - I have a 52HMX94 with a Motorola card hooked up to Charter Cable. My issue is that my HD channels only come in about half the time. (That and the TVGOS of course.) The other half I get a "low digital signal strength" error. The signal strength is fine and has been tested. The card has been replaced and the software was updated at the service center last week. I still have the same problem. I talked with the local repair guy and he said they are expecting the new software version this Friday. He said if that did not work then they are going to start replacing the hardware.

Originally posted by a.b.christie
I was sent the software upgrade about 1 month ago. I still can not get the cable card to work. Does anyone here have Comcast with the motorola cable card working? I believe the upgrade# was 1.45
Alan Alan, in another forum I found someone who's friend has Comcast and the 46HM94 set with the Motorola card and his is working. He never upgraded his firmware and is also using 1.43 like I am. There doesn't seem to be any type of pattern to resolving this issue. I am going to call Comcast and make sure they have all my valid information and see if they can try to "provision" my card again.

Originally posted by kdog044
Jeff, thanks for taking the time to post the screenshots. Now I know the only menu that seems to matter and that there doesn't seem to be a problem with the TV and the CC's. I will call Toshiba in the morning but I think the problem is with Comcast and them not provisioning the card correctly.

I posted a reply to your problem in the Toshiba DLP thread -- I have the same problem too, which I described over there. I had conversed with Jeff about this earlier, and had previously posted some info about his functioning CC.

My status says "CA disabled" just like yours, and the same channel map load problem. I've been putting off calling Toshiba, so I'll be interested to hear what you find out. Don't know offhand what my firmware rev is.

I don't use the TV that much yet, so my TV Guide could be dumping and reloading without me knowing it. But it seemed to be populated more often than not, both with and without the card. That is, since the beginning of January when TVG tweaked their transmission. When I do use it, I generally don't look ahead more than one day.

Originally posted by maddogFool
My status says "CA disabled" just like yours, and the same channel map load problem. I've been putting off calling Toshiba, so I'll be interested to hear what you find out. Don't know offhand what my firmware rev is. I called Toshiba and they are sending out an update via SD card to try but it may take a week or so to get it. I have found other Comcast users with the 1.43 firmware that I have that have been successful in getting the CC operational. I have Comcast coming out again tomorrow to see if they can get the card to subscribe while I'm waiting on the firmware. I'll post back after they visit and give you an update.

Originally posted by kdog044
I called Toshiba and they are sending out an update via SD card to try but it may take a week or so to get it. I have found other Comcast users with the 1.43 firmware that I have that have been successful in getting the CC operational. I have Comcast coming out again tomorrow to see if they can get the card to subscribe while I'm waiting on the firmware. I'll post back after they visit and give you an update.

Thanks -- I just checked, I have 1.4.1, FW 1.20, from Oct 19, so if I'm reading that right, I'm pretty out of date. (Took delivery in November, so I got an early one.) I don't think I said explicitly, I have Comcast/Motorola CC 4.05. I wonder if the other people succeeding with 1.43 have Mot cards as well.

BTW, previously when I could change channels with the CC, I was never able to view any of the digital channels I on my package. The only digital I received were QAM-in-the-clear network. I got the message: encrypted channel, contact cable operator, or words to that effect.

I know someone who works at Motorola/GI, who knows someone in the CC group, who said he has seen some TV's (not specifically our models) that have a problem where if the first activation attempt with a particular card has a problem, the TV is unable to work further with that card. Another one has to be installed to "clear" the configuration. Sounds strange, but that what I was told. Unfortunately he didn't have any specific info on the Toshiba DLP.

Originally posted by maddogFool
I know someone who works at Motorola/GI, who knows someone in the CC group, who said he has seen some TV's (not specifically our models) that have a problem where if the first activation attempt with a particular card has a problem, the TV is unable to work further with that card. Another one has to be installed to "clear" the configuration. Sounds strange, but that what I was told. Unfortunately he didn't have any specific info on the Toshiba DLP. That does seem wierd but even if it were true they tried two different cards in my set with the same result. I'm going to make sure when they arrive today that I confirm they have all the numbers correct (i.e. serial number of cc, unit address, host ID of TV). It still seems like a provisioning issue. I also noticed that my OnDemand is not working on my DVR and other digital boxes. It never tunes to the channel and keeps saying "channel will be available momentarily". I also noticed something else on the DVR yesterday. If I am on ANT1 and I switch to the HDMI input of the DVR I will get a "du1" flash in the display before it tunes to the channel. I don't remember seeing that before.:confused:

Toshiba send me the 1.45 software update. I origingally had 1.43.
The cable card was/is a Motorolla.
My cable company is Premier Communications (a locall company here in Iowa).

Like I said before, the cable company also did some changes to the cable cards and/or broadcast hardware/software at the same time I had my TV sofware updated, so I do not know which fixed the cable card issue.

I have finally been able to get at least the channel line-up to load on my 46hm94.

I had to re-set the tv then with the straight cable into ant1 port, I set the guide up. It has been slowly adding the channels. Yesterday it asked that I select my cable provider. I am now waiting to see if it populates the listings.

Originally posted by godsend1
I have finally been able to get at least the channel line-up to load on my 46hm94.

I had to re-set the tv then with the straight cable into ant1 port, I set the guide up. It has been slowly adding the channels. Yesterday it asked that I select my cable provider. I am now waiting to see if it populates the listings. If you got to the point where you select the cable provider then you should have a channel listing and that is the first step. Once you have that the next scheduled download should give you three days of listings (current day, next day, day 8). As indicated earlier there are four scheduled download times and each is 180 minutes. You only need to have the set turned off for one of them. For your reference the times are GST:

07:21 AM
12:01 PM
15:06 PM
18:46 PM

If everything is working correctly then the next day you hould have four days of listings (current day, next day, day 7 and day 8). I believe each successive day should give you day 6, day 5. day, 4 and day, 3 but due to my issues with getting a CC operating I haven't had one week straight to test the theory. I don't think it adds those days but since you get day 1, 2, and 8 each day I believe it just stores the information from the previous download until you eventually fill all eight days. If anyone knows for a fact how this works feel free to jump in.

Oh, joy my channel info disappeared today. I'm really getting sick of this-especially the 500+ dollars I spent on the useless Symbio

tboo tell me about it.....I still get the dreaded no data to display screen in my TVGO and I for some reason can't get the Symbio to record anything by just setting a channel and time in the guide to record.

For some reason the time comes and goes but it don't record.

Maybe if enough people complain to Toshiba about the paperweight called Symbio, they will assign a little more priority to getting the TV guide to work. Abopout all the symbio is good for is "chase" watching a show TIVO style. My TV guide occasionally loads a day or two and goes back to sleep, but even then the time is always incorrect so it is still useless. To record by "time" and chnannel it is a real pain to try to figure recording times when the stupid time keeps changing and has yet to be even close!
Can't even record one show while watching an outside input! Brilliant Toshiba!!!

Basic
Your Symbio will only record by time and date if the time in the upper left corner of your TVG screen is present. If you have time there you may need to reset the symbio. I have manged to get mine to work by disconnecting the symbio from power and the TV and reconecting. This whole toshiba setup clearly seems to have software problems in every aspect of it's operation.

Originally posted by tboo
Oh, joy my channel info disappeared today. I'm really getting sick of this-especially the 500+ dollars I spent on the useless Symbio I wish we could figure out a pattern to this problem to help find a resolution. I've had the TV reset twice on me and wipe out the listings including the time and the channel listings. The last time was right after pulling out a cable card that I haven't been able to get working. It always happens when pressing the TV Guide button on the remote and the TV goes blank with the flashing green light in 3 blink sequences. It attempts to restart three times before it is successful. When this happens I can get the time and channel listings back with 24 hours and usually the next download I get the day 1, 2, and 8 data. The following day I get 1, 2, 7, and 8. Because of the resets I haven't had consecutive days to see if the guide populates further. Perhaps this is some type of memory issue. I called Toshiba and they faxed my information to TVGOS but I have yet to hear from them. I am leaving the cable card out until I receive the software that hopefully will address this issue so I will report back with what listings I get over the next few days.

Originally posted by Bill Shenefelt
My TV guide occasionally loads a day or two and goes back to sleep, but even then the time is always incorrect so it is still useless. To record by "time" and chnannel it is a real pain to try to figure recording times when the stupid time keeps changing and has yet to be even close!
Can't even record one show while watching an outside input! Brilliant Toshiba!!! Bill, have you ever accessed the diagnostic screens for the TVGOS? If so, what is the time reported there? If you can't remember, with the guide active and the change system settings highlighted, you press "753159852". There is some useful information in these menus that you can access to determine where the problem lies. From what I can tell TVGOS sends the time out as GST and I think the guide based on your zip code knows what offset to apply. The first menu to look at is the one called Section System Statistics. This one has your zip code and state ID lsited and also should have the offest in minutes (item Local Off). Also, look at the menu, Section Other Clocks 1. If you look at the attached file you will see the GST in the upper right window. There is a time zone element and an offset in seconds from the UTC (Universal Time Clock). In my example the -18000 seconds translates to 5 hours which is my correct time for EST. For example the GST is 16:26 PM which would translate to 11:26 AM EST and that was the correct time. If you have the correct GST but wrong offset then the problem may be in the TVGOS portion of the software and I would think that could be easily correctable.

Bill,

here is the Section System Statistics page I referenced.

Originally posted by BasicCable
tboo tell me about it.....I still get the dreaded no data to display screen in my TVGO and I for some reason can't get the Symbio to record anything by just setting a channel and time in the guide to record.

For some reason the time comes and goes but it don't record. Have you checked the TVGOS diagnostics screen. See my post above. It's pretty easy to determine if you have the correct host channel and are not getting the information from the VBI channel. Feel free to PM me and I can help you figure out where the problem with your guide is. I have a decent understanding of what happens and when and would be happy to try and help you figure out what is going on.

Originally posted by kdog044
I am leaving the cable card out until I receive the software that hopefully will address this issue so I will report back with what listings I get over the next few days. Okay, here is what I think happens with the different downloads. When you first connect your TV to the ANT input or reset your settings there is no information in the download schedule or any time and date in the TVGOS window. The download ID of 27 which occurs four times a day at 06:16, 10:56, 22:46, and 04:36 GST is the one that populates the download schedule, the channel listings (once you pick your provider) and the time and date for the guide. Until you validate your provider code you will never get any listings even if they are scheduled and the TV is off during the times of the download. Once the DLID 27 completes and you validate your provider then the DLID 70, which is the listings download can occur at the next scheduled download. Even if you leave your TV off during more than one of the downloads you will never get more than DAY1, DAY2, and DAY8 data. The following day if your TV is off during any of the scheduled downloads you will have DAY1, DAY2, DAY7 and DAY8. I'm thinking each day after will fill in as the TV stores the current listings and repopulates DAY1, DAY2 and DAY8 but will have to track it over the next few days unless my guide resets again.:rolleyes:. I currently don't know what DLID 81 does as with the latest reset I have not had an occurance but if anyone else knows or has different information let me know.

It's been 3 days since my tv asked for the cable provider and still no listings. I noticed that there were choices for Charter and Charter Digital. I have charter digital so I chose that. I will probably re-set the tv and re-try using charter.

Originally posted by godsend1
It's been 3 days since my tv asked for the cable provider and still no listings. I noticed that there were choices for Charter and Charter Digital. I have charter digital so I chose that. I will probably re-set the tv and re-try using charter. You don't need to reset your TV. All you need to do if the channel lineup is incorrect is go to system settings, change, and choose the option that says "your lineup is incorrect". You will then have the ability to choose a different four digit cable company code. I suggest that since you have not received the listings that you access the diagnostics menu and see if there is a schedule for the downloads. You can refer back to some of the screenshots I posted. The ones you want to focus on are the Section VBI Data (VBI Info, VBIDL, and VBIDLSched). In the VBI Info menu look for a DLTimer and see if it has a time and date. make sure the VBIDLSched has times listed for the DLID's. lastly, check the VBIDL menu and see what is scheduled to occur and what has completed and report back your findings. The DLID of 70 which is 180 minutes in length is the one that provides the listings.

I'll check them when I get home. :)

I re-selected the charter today and here are the numbers requested.

The dltimer date is :03/27/05 0401

laste aset end 03/27/05 1404
last srchst 03/27/05 0949
last srch end 03/27/05 1053

Also all dlid's are inactive.

Originally posted by godsend1
I re-selected the charter today and here are the numbers requested.

The dltimer date is :03/27/05 0401

laste aset end 03/27/05 1404
last srchst 03/27/05 0949
last srch end 03/27/05 1053

Also all dlid's are inactive. The DLTimer is for the next scheduled download but that is not a listing download, but type 81. In the VBIDL section even though they are inactive is there any dates and times for the DLID of 70? If it was successful the LastAtStrt and LastSuStrt would have the same dates and times. If it hadn't occured there would be a date and time for the LastAtStrt but the LstSuStrt would have the previous days date or would indicate N/A. Also, check the menu VBIDLSched to see if there are entries for the different DLID's 70, 81 and 27. the listing downloads occur at 2:21 AM EST, 7:01 AM EST, 10:06 AM EST, and 1:46 PM EST. As I mentioned the times in the menu are GST which is five hours later than EST. Just make sure your set is off for one of these times and for the 3 hours the download takes. Again, this should occur if you do show entries in the VBIDL menu.

Do you have an entry for the LastDLStart? This would have been the last download that occured on your set. If so, what is the time listed?

Originally posted by DutchDave
Hey Alan - I have a 52HMX94 with a Motorola card hooked up to Charter Cable. My issue is that my HD channels only come in about half the time. (That and the TVGOS of course.) The other half I get a "low digital signal strength" error. The signal strength is fine and has been tested. The card has been replaced and the software was updated at the service center last week. I still have the same problem. I talked with the local repair guy and he said they are expecting the new software version this Friday. He said if that did not work then they are going to start replacing the hardware.

DutchDave

I live on Holland's nothside and have a 52HM94, mine does the same thing. I have charter with the Motorola cable card. I started out with a cable box and everything worked fine. I did not try the TVGOS because the box had it. When my cable card came in they installed it. Could not get the TVGOS and my HD channels only part of the time. Cable guy came out and put a new end on the cable, still had the same problem. Called a friend that works there and he came out and Tested the line. I had a very strong signal but no HD channels. 5 min later I had HD channels but did not work the next time. He came back and put the 2nd new card in. Tried it for a while, it did the same thing. I did get the upgrade from Toshiba and put that in, did the same thing. I am keeping him informed what I am doing with Toshiba CS (Talked to 3 times now) and he is letting me know what happens on his end. He is concerned and wants to know what the fix will be. Now that I know I'm not the only one with that problem could help solve the problem of the HD channels but the TVGOS could take some time.

Dubie

The dltimer page is now blank, as is the vbidl schedule page. All the channel info is gone as well. The lastdlstart is n/a so it looks like it is getting ready to dl the new channel line-up. I'keep posting info as it rolls in.

Thank you very much kdog044.

Originally posted by Dubie
DutchDave

I live on Holland's nothside and have a 52HM94, mine does the same thing. I have charter with the Motorola cable card. I started out with a cable box and everything worked fine. I did not try the TVGOS because the box had it. When my cable card came in they installed it. Could not get the TVGOS and my HD channels only part of the time. Cable guy came out and put a new end on the cable, still had the same problem. Called a friend that works there and he came out and Tested the line. I had a very strong signal but no HD channels. 5 min later I had HD channels but did not work the next time. He came back and put the 2nd new card in. Tried it for a while, it did the same thing. I did get the upgrade from Toshiba and put that in, did the same thing. I am keeping him informed what I am doing with Toshiba CS (Talked to 3 times now) and he is letting me know what happens on his end. He is concerned and wants to know what the fix will be. Now that I know I'm not the only one with that problem could help solve the problem of the HD channels but the TVGOS could take some time.

Dubie

Hi Dubie - It's interesting to hear that we both have the same issues. It sounds like you went through the same steps as I did. I think we can safely say it has something to do with the TV and card and not our signal.

When I called Toshiba a while ago they said to contact my local authorized service center (Teermans). They picked up the TV and all they did was upgrade the software and bring it back. They are vey nice to deal with but the problem still exists. I talked to them on Monday and they said the new software realease is supposed to be out on Friday. They will load that and see what happens. They said if that does not work then they will start replacing hardware.

Once the HD issue is resolved then I'll start tackling the TVGOS problem. They might be interrelated. Who knows.

Originally posted by godsend1
The dltimer page is now blank, as is the vbidl schedule page. All the channel info is gone as well. The lastdlstart is n/a so it looks like it is getting ready to dl the new channel line-up. I'keep posting info as it rolls in.

Thank you very much kdog044. That's not unusual if you change the cable provider code. Hopefully by today you should have that page populated again. Keep me informed the next time you have a chance to check the menus as this can give you an idea of what will occur and when as well as what has happened.

Originally posted by DutchDave
Hi Dubie - It's interesting to hear that we both have the same issues. It sounds like you went through the same steps as I did. I think we can safely say it has something to do with the TV and card and not our signal.

When I called Toshiba a while ago they said to contact my local authorized service center (Teermans). They picked up the TV and all they did was upgrade the software and bring it back. They are vey nice to deal with but the problem still exists. I talked to them on Monday and they said the new software realease is supposed to be out on Friday. They will load that and see what happens. They said if that does not work then they will start replacing hardware.

Once the HD issue is resolved then I'll start tackling the TVGOS problem. They might be interrelated. Who knows.

DutchDave: I am hoping The HD channel problem is not related to the TVGOS, because that could take along time to fix. I did find that if I go to a HD channel and it doesnt work, I go into the Setup menu go to installation and then to the Signal meter. It will say Signal unlocked. I wait a few seconds and it will change to Signal Locked, hit ok and exit out. Most of the time my HD channels will work but not all of the time. Please keep me informed about the new upgrade or if you need new hardware. I will let you know how I turn out with charter.

Dubie

Originally posted by kdog044
IWhen this happens I can get the time and channel listings back with 24 hours and usually the next download I get the day 1, 2, and 8 data. The following day I get 1, 2, 7, and 8. Because of the resets I haven't had consecutive days to see if the guide populates further.I am leaving the cable card out until I receive the software that hopefully will address this issue so I will report back with what listings I get over the next few days. Okay, I am as far as I have been in the past. As of today I have listings for today, tomorrow, next Wednesday and next Thursday. We'll see what tomorrow brings.:D

The other strange thing about the downloads is the listings always start at 4:00 AM for the last days that I have listings for so apparently the listings run from 4:00 AM to 3:30 AM instead of 12:00 AM to 11:30 PM that you would think they would.

Originally posted by maddogFool
I don't use the TV that much yet, so my TV Guide could be dumping and reloading without me knowing it. But it seemed to be populated more often than not, both with and without the card. That is, since the beginning of January when TVG tweaked their transmission. When I do use it, I generally don't look ahead more than one day. If you get a chance can you check if you have all eight days of listings? I haven't had more than four days but as I said earlier because of resets I haven't been able to see if it will populate more. I called Toshiba to verify when I originally reported the problem and it was on the 23rd. When trying to get the cable card working on the 26th we reset the TV data on purpose. The TV reset again on the 29th so it was about 3 days between the intentional reset and the unplanned one. We'll see what happens tomorrow.:rolleyes:

Okay, today things are appearing as I expected. As of this morning I now have DAY1, DAY2, DAY6, DAY7, and DAY8. If my theory holds true tomorrow I will also have DAY5 in addition to the ones mentioned already. By Monday I should have the full eight days unless I get another reset. As I mentioned earlier I don't think the download gives you more days than originally (DAY1, DAY2 and DAY8) but that the ones stored are carried over to the next day. I'm sure any changes to the schedule are captured but so far I have not received any days not expected in the downloads. So again, this is the way I think the guide populates

1st Day - DAY1, DAY2, DAY8
2nd Day - DAY1, DAY2, DAY7 and DAY8
3rd Day - DAY1, DAY2, DAY6, DAY7, and DAY8
4th Day - DAY1, DAY2, DAY5, DAY6, DAY7, and DAY8
5th Day - DAY1, DAY2, DAY4, DAY5, DAY6, DAY7, and DAY8
6th Day - DAY1, DAY2, DAY3, DAY4, DAY5, DAY6, DAY7, and DAY8

I think the reason it does this is there is only so much information that can be sent in these downloads. By limiting it to three days of information they can rely on the TV's storage capability to assist in populating the guide. Most people look at the current day and possibly one day ahead so they need to make sure that is in the download. By sending DAY8 they maximize the time that data can be used as the week rolls on. That's my story and I'm sticking to it unless I discover something different.:D

For the first time since I got the set last november, the OTA TV guide time loaded correctly. Hope it holds thru this weekend's daylight savings time change ! I only got about 8 hours of programming loaded with it but that is a start at least. Hope things hold up!

Originally posted by Bill Shenefelt
For the first time since I got the set last november, the OTA TV guide time loaded correctly. Hope it holds thru this weekend's daylight savings time change ! I only got about 8 hours of programming loaded with it but that is a start at least. Hope things hold up! Bill, that's good news but I am curious as to why you only got 8 hours of programming unless you interrupted the download. Every time mine has downloaded guide data I have always received 3 days.:confused:

Not sure
My downloads seem to happen mostly in the AM. TV is usually on by about 5:30 AM and on most of the day. It is off right now and I'll check it around 11 AM to see what came in. My LG downloads during the night and has always been correct time. The Tosh seems to do daytime downloads. The downloads on the Tosh have never been consistant. Last night, I recorded CBS from 9 till 11 pm Calling it 7:55 to 10 pm to get the time right for the difference from real time, and shut it off. There was no programming loaded at all. When I trurned it on about 3:30 AM, the guide channels were out of order, back to network sequence with more channels per network than I ever can receive, (not unusual to have happen) with about 12 hrs of downloads and for the first time the time right.

Originally posted by Bill Shenefelt
Not sure
My downloads seem to happen mostly in the AM. TV is usually on by about 5:30 AM and on most of the day. Bill, based on your viewing patterns you only have one timeframe to get the listings. Here are the times of the downloads in EST.

02:21 AM to 05:21 AM
07:01 AM to 10:01 AM
10:06 AM to 01:06 PM
01:46 PM to 04:46 PM

If you turn on the TV before 05:21 AM you will interrupt the download and if left on none of the others will occur.

Days 1,2 and 8 downloaded this AM. TV should be off 2 to 6 am both tomorrow and Sunday, repeating for 7 to 10 MA boit hdays. Anxious to see what hjappens on Suncay for daylight savings time. .

Just wanted to update everybody. I received a call from TVGOS today and she had me give her some information in the diagnostic menu. She indicated that they are aware of a problem that causes the listings to dump and it has to do with the errors in the packets and corrupted data. The way she explained it to me is the TV is passing corrupted data and once it reaches a certain point the data is so corrupted that it wipes out everything. She said their people are working on a fix to the problem but it isn't yet ready to be sent. Once the fix is available you won't need to get anything from Toshiba as it will come through the VBI channel just like the channel lineup and listings do. If she does find out when it will be sent she will contact the people that they have on file but she said it is possible it might already be sent out before she is made aware of it.

I told her that as of today I had the most days I ever had but she said my errors were pretty high already and suspects it will probably dump and reset again. She was most interested in the Section Reception - Slicing menu and specifically the:

Starts
Ends
TypeB
BCorr
BErrs
TypeC
CCorr
CErrs

I am attaching my current menu for anyone that wants to see them. Hope this helps any of you with your TVGOS problems and I will keep you informed if the guide continues to load or resets.

FYI: She did confirm the 180 minute downloads are for the listings. The 60 minute one provides the host information and channel data. The 30 minute ones are updates to the listings (i.e. program or time changes). You do only need to get one of the downloads for each of the DLID's. As long as your set is off from 12:41 AM EST to 5:21 AM EST you should be able to get the three different downloads. refer back to the Section VBI Data - VBIDL menu for the times of the different DLID's.

Also, for those of you who reported your problems to Toshiba and have faxed the information to TVGOS I did get a phone number for the person who called me. I wouldn't call them if you haven't already been contacted by them but in case you missed their call and the number you can PM me and I can give it to you. I just don't want her mad at me for giving everyone her number.

I also received an e-mail today from the manager of technical support at TVGOS who provided some additional information to supplement kdog044.

First for those in the NY metro area using Cablevision, there is still problem with the data transmission altogether. Nothing is going through. TVGOS is escalating the problem with Cablevision. This is not a comforting situation. I have my doubts about how responsive Cablevision will be on something like this.

The data corruption problem mentioned is related to ghosting of the signal and also possibly to area's where there is a co-channel situation for the PBS station I described in my post last week. A fix has been developed for this, however it needs to be tested before being rolled out and this he said typically takes multiple weeks. If this fix works it should solve both problems causing the data corruption. So, I guess the good news is that it looks like they are getting close to an answer on this problem. The bad news is that its still going to be a while even if this fix works.

Originally posted by Bill Shenefelt
Not sure
My downloads seem to happen mostly in the AM. TV is usually on by about 5:30 AM and on most of the day. It is off right now and I'll check it around 11 AM to see what came in. My LG downloads during the night and has always been correct time. The Tosh seems to do daytime downloads. The downloads on the Tosh have never been consistant. Last night, I recorded CBS from 9 till 11 pm Calling it 7:55 to 10 pm to get the time right for the difference from real time, and shut it off. There was no programming loaded at all. When I trurned it on about 3:30 AM, the guide channels were out of order, back to network sequence with more channels per network than I ever can receive, (not unusual to have happen) with about 12 hrs of downloads and for the first time the time right.

Bill,
It sounds like you have the same problem as I do with the channel lineup resetting. This only seems to happen with the Symbio connected. Did you report this to Toshiba also? When I did they said this was a new problem that they hadn't heard of yet and were going to look into it. That was Thursday 3/24 that I called them. I called back this past Thursday to check on that and they said they were still testing. I let them know that it seems to be resetting the channel list about every 3 days. I modified the channel list again yesterday morning and it is still holding my changes as of today. We'll see if it's still resetting every 3 days.

The good thing is I do have ALL 8 DAYS of listings right now.

Bill, do you also have the problem where the guide sometimes takes atleast 30 seconds before it displays? This also seems to be Symbio related.


Jeff

Originally posted by kdog044
I told her that as of today I had the most days I ever had but she said my errors were pretty high already and suspects it will probably dump and reset again. She was most interested in the Section Reception - Slicing menu and specifically the:

Starts
Ends
TypeB
BCorr
BErrs
TypeC
CCorr
CErrs

I am attaching my current menu for anyone that wants to see them. Hope this helps any of you with your TVGOS problems and I will keep you informed if the guide continues to load or resets.


Here's my reception-slicing menu with 8 days of listings loaded.

Ok, knock on wood no reset yet. As of today I have SAT, SUN, WED, THU, FRI, SAT so by Monday I should have all eight days unless I get a reset. Here is the Section Reception - Slicing menu from today.

Well I left it off from 10 pm till 6:35 AM daylight time. It finally did reload the time correctly overnight. No listings but I am keeping it off till 11AM to see if they load. I had gotten a 1, 2 and 8 day listings load but no updates on Saturday and listings ran out late Sat night anyway. Now to see if I get an AM load today. If I at least can keep up a day or two in advance I can use the symbio. Even having the time right is a pleasant change!

Bill, I'm glad your time is now accurate. Mine updated the time correctly with DST and I also have 7 of the eight days. As of today, I have SUN,MON, WED, THU, FRI, SAT, SUN. If I have no other problems by tomorrow I should have all eight days as predicted. I have posted the Reception Slicing from today. The one thing I noticed that is different than the previous ones is before the Since Cold and HostChan numbers matched and now they are no longer the same. I hope that's not something to be concerned about but for now everything seems to be working.

Well, as of today no more resets and I now have all eight days of listings. I hope this keeps up.:D

For the first time since I've owned the television (3 weeks) I have all 8 days in the TVGOS. I'll check each morning and make sure that it stays this way.

Yesterday mine reached 8 days for the first time. I hooked the Symbio up, Edited the channel lineup, and last night it actually updated with out crashing. Get the Cable card working and all is well.

Well, I spoke too soon. I didn't get any updates this morning so I don't have next Tuesday's listings. The downloads took place so I'm puzzled by this. I will be out of town for the next few days so unless I have my wife check the guide I won't be able to report any updates until I return.

UPDATE: I checked the download schedule and for some reason the first scheduled download didn't complete. I left the TV off for the next one and it ran successfully and I now have next Tuesday's listings.:D

Also, don't forget any of you on DST that the time difference between GST and your time is now an hour less. For example, with EST what was a 5 hour difference is now only a 4 hour difference. The new download times until October are:

3:21 AM until 6:21 AM EST
8:01 AM until 11:01 AM EST
11:06 AM until 2:06 PM EST
2:46 PM until 5:46 PM EST

To insure you get the current days listings make sure your set is off for one of these scheduled times.

I think the time change is the thing that did me in. I had the unit off this last night till 6AM and again from 7 to 10:30 and got a rehit(scrambling the channel list once again as well as an incomplete listing set. At least it figured out that daylight savings time is in effect and I am getting the correct time . Funny thing though, since the TVGOS works so well on the LG LST3410A, how is it them, not toshiba that is "the problem"?? Were I TVGOS, I would be telling Toshiba to get their electronics straight since the system works well with LG electronics!!!

Originally posted by kdog044
Well, I spoke too soon. I didn't get any updates this morning so I don't have next Tuesday's listings. The downloads took place so I'm puzzled by this. I will be out of town for the next few days so unless I have my wife check the guide I won't be able to report any updates until I return.

UPDATE: I checked the download schedule and for some reason the first scheduled download didn't complete. I left the TV off for the next one and it ran successfully and I now have next Tuesday's listings.:D

Also, don't forget any of you on DST that the time difference between GST and your time is now an hour less. For example, with EST what was a 5 hour difference is now only a 4 hour difference. The new download times until October are:

3:21 AM until 6:21 AM EST
8:01 AM until 11:01 AM EST
11:06 AM until 2:06 PM EST
2:46 PM until 5:46 PM EST

To insure you get the current days listings make sure your set is off for one of these scheduled times.

I also didn't get next Tuesday's listings yet but that makes sense since I had the TV on this morning before the download would have finished. I never would have considered GMT didn't change with our Daylight Savings Time.

I currently have 7 days of program listings. Also the changes to the channel lineup in the guide I made 5 days ago are still staying in there now. I also haven't experienced the 30 second blank screen when pressing the guide.

I got a call from Cheryl at Gemstar/TVGOS today asking how my progress with the TVGOS was. It was good to hear that they are following up on these problems and now it appears they may have it fixed (only time will tell). She said to give her a call back if anything changes. Hopefully I won't have to. I also gave her some info on specific problems with my cable company's default channel lineup and she said she would look into that also. It's not a big deal to me though as long as the changes I make to the lineup stay in there.

Jeff

I reported previously that Toshiba called me and decided to replace my set because of the TV Guide problem. I have no idea why unless they saw something in the information they gathered from my set. I have never had an TV Guide data. Today my replacement set arrived. This one has a firmware version of 1.4.5 and a date of February 7, 2005. I went through the TV Guide set up again and will report back if I get any data this time. I still not get a screen asking me to choose my cable company. I wonder of this is because there is only one cable company in this area? The manual states that you MAY get asked to choose a carrier if there is more than one cable company in your area.

Originally posted by sharonf
I still not get a screen asking me to choose my cable company. I wonder of this is because there is only one cable company in this area? The manual states that you MAY get asked to choose a carrier if there is more than one cable company in your area. Sharon, that sounds correct. When I get the choices there are four for Comcast and a few for Wide Open West and they are the only two cable companies in my area.

I talked to Cheryl from Gemstar/TVGOS again tonight. She wanted more info on the channels that were incorrectly set in my cable company's default lineup. She said that there is a bug in the data causing that also. What I was surprised to hear was regarding the recent improvement in everybody's TVGOS behavior. She said they DID NOT CHANGE ANYTHING on their end and they are trying to figure out why all of a sudden the guides started working. Mine is still working. No channel list resets. No program listing dumps.

WOOPS! Spoke too soon. Next time I hit the Guide it took a little longer before it displayed then when it did the channel lineup was reset again. Guess I will be calling Cheryl tomorrow.


Jeff

Hooked up wife's LC-26D7U on Monday. TV said the guide would load overnight.

7:00 AM wife turns on TV and everything is available. Checked it out Tuesday night and the guide is great.

Here's an update to my status. As you may recall, I've had a 62HM94 since November with no data in the TGOS, and I've been dealing with both Toshiba and TGOS. Last week I called up Toshiba and really pressed them. They called me a day later saying that they would send a replacement TV. I tried to get them to upgrade me to the HMX model for all my troubles, but that didn't work.

The new TV arrived yesterday. This morning, still no data, the clock was not set yet, and the TV was not on PBS channel. LOL

I'll give it a few more days and see how it goes.

dsr

Jeff,

I returned from out of town last night and checked my guide. All the channels were there but all the listings were gone and the time was back to dashes again. I took a picture of the Section Reception - Slicing menu before I left and after I noticed the reset. I will post both of these so if it an issue with errors perhaps we can figure out the threshold before the data is corrupted. I will call Cheryl today to update her. FYI, this morning I have DAY1, DAY2, and DAY8 again.

Here was the menu the day I left when the guide was still fully populated.

Here is the menu last night after the guide was reset.

I've tried selecting both charter, charter digital from the company list and it will not dl the listings. I'll check my menus when I get home.

Originally posted by godsend1
I've tried selecting both charter, charter digital from the company list and it will not dl the listings. I'll check my menus when I get home. If you got the menu asking you to select the cable provider you should have the channel listings. The program listings will not download until you have made this selection and should occur at the next scheduled download. Refer to the times I posted in the previous threads. If you didn't get any channels listed after selecting the provider than something doesn't sound right.

Originally posted by dsr15
Here's an update to my status. As you may recall, I've had a 62HM94 since November with no data in the TGOS, and I've been dealing with both Toshiba and TGOS. Last week I called up Toshiba and really pressed them. They called me a day later saying that they would send a replacement TV. I tried to get them to upgrade me to the HMX model for all my troubles, but that didn't work.

The new TV arrived yesterday. This morning, still no data, the clock was not set yet, and the TV was not on PBS channel. LOL

I'll give it a few more days and see how it goes.

dsr
It sounds like you and I are in the same situation. Toshiba also replaced my set..at their suggestion. My new set arrived on Tuesday....and I still do not have any data....and have never gotten a screen to choose my cable company. I still don't think it's the set that's the problem.

DRR15:

What area of the country are you in and who is your cable provider?

Well heres the latest folks. I spoke again with the Manager of Technical Support at TVGOS yesterday. He indicated that they have developed a patch that they believe will fix the problem of the data corruption and dumping. However they still need to do a lot of testing and it will be rolled out gradually, only in certain regions first, to ensure that it works correctly. It Will probably take about two months before it can be completely rolled out. It will be automatically downloaded via a "service pack''. This will cause some of the numbers in the Section System - System Info Screen to change (second line, second six digit set) to reflect the updated software. As has been previously posted they have not done anything which would explain why some people's TVGOS is now working.

The other problem which affects those in the NY area using Cablevision (and possibler some other cable networks) is still an issue. Cablevision has changed the way it transmits its analog channels so that the embedded TVGOS data is eliminated. TVGOS data is only transmitted on the analog version of a PBS station "just above" the analog frequency for the station. Cablevision is now transmitting using ATC (which is a digital signal) vs NTSC (analog) and down-converts the analog channels. I'm not completely sure how this all works by the net effect is that the data above the analog signal is eliminated. Hence there is no one on Cablevision in the NY metro, that has the current versoin of TVGOS, who is getting downloads. Interestingly, the only TV's using the "new" version of TVGOS are Toshiba and LG. (Apparently Sharp also based upon a prior post, but he said that this must be new) and he is aware of about 2 dozen cases they are working on in the NY area related to this. The only good news is that Time-Warner in the New York are also recently did the same thing and TVGOS was able to convince them to use an "inserter" which allowed them the accept the data in the ATC transmission. However there is no contractual obligation for any cable company to do this, and TW apparently only did it due to consumer complaints. So TVGOS is trying to convince Cablevision to do the same thing. So we probably won't know for a while how successful this will be and it may depend on how many complaints that Cablevision gets on it.

Originally posted by sharonf
DSR15:

What area of the country are you in and who is your cable provider?

I am in Littleton, Colorado. It's a suburb of Denver. I have Comcast cable coming in directly to the QAM tuner (no cable box). There's no reason that this shouldn't work.

The software version date on my old set was Oct, the new one is November. I was hoping it would be something more recent than that...

I agree with you. I don't think that the hardware is the problem. I was hoping that the TV would have later software that would fix it, though. On the bright side, this resets the counter on my warranty.

I'll give it the weekend and then get back on the horn to my lovely CSR friends.

dsr

Well it took a few days, but the listings have started to load :). Let's see if they stay loaded.

My TVGOS lost it's listings for the second time in the last few days. Hopefully the TVGOS fix will be coming soon.

My tv was left on all night by mistake. This morning the time was blank and the channel lineup was reset again. Still had program listings though.


Jeff

Time is still correct, but it does not load listings now and the channel order has rescrambled several times. It is difficult to believe this problem is not yet fixed. My LG LST 3410A has perfect OTA TV guide performance and has all along worked just fine. The Symbio recorder is not too trustworthy either. Pain in the a** to operate. I only use it for recording while watching to jump thru commercials and it is not even very good at consistent jumps.

I have not received any more listings since the last reset. This is the first time this has happened and now the VBI channel is displaying 1:0-7 instead of 1:0-6. I will have to call Cheryl this morning and see if she has any ideas. It sounds like the fix maybe at least 2 weeks away from talking with her yesterday.

FYI, does anyone know what the TVGOS reset code is? I know Toshiba has me do it before but I can't remember the number sequence.

not sure what the code number is but you can get to a reset thru the menu that returns the set to initial conditions and then reinstall the tvg.

Originally posted by Bill Shenefelt
not sure what the code number is but you can get to a reset thru the menu that returns the set to initial conditions and then reinstall the tvg. Bill, I found out from Cheryl at TVGOS what it is. From the setup menu with change system settings highlighted (but don't press enter) you press "653214741".

I haven't tried another reset. My TVG finally figured out what time it is here in Pittsburgh and even though there are no listings loaded it seems to go "scramble" the station id s so they are back in "network" sequence. Pain, but at least I can do a timer recording on the Symbio. I'm hoping that once they get things fixed, my listings will start to load. I got tired of making my wife wait til I leave for work int he morning to check the load and find "no listing" then keep it off till 11 am only to again see "no listing" At least my LG LST 3410 A has a program guide and works correctly. I still cannot believe that it is all the problem of TVGOS and not Toshiba since the LG is flawless on TVGOS.

Originally posted by Bill Shenefelt
I haven't tried another reset. My TVG finally figured out what time it is here in Pittsburgh and even though there are no listings loaded it seems to go "scramble" the station id s so they are back in "network" sequence. Pain, but at least I can do a timer recording on the Symbio. I'm hoping that once they get things fixed, my listings will start to load. I got tired of making my wife wait til I leave for work int he morning to check the load and find "no listing" then keep it off till 11 am only to again see "no listing" At least my LG LST 3410 A has a program guide and works correctly. I still cannot believe that it is all the problem of TVGOS and not Toshiba since the LG is flawless on TVGOS. Bill, I know the feeling. Everyone in my house asks me if it's okay to turn on the set. You really only need one download so as long as your set is off from around 1:00 AM until around 7:00 AM EST you will get the necessary downloads if it is working. From talking with Cheryl at TVGOS the reason it seems to be mainly affecting our sets has to do with the fact that the Toshiba sets are one of the few that have the latest software from TVGOS. I think she mentioned a Liteon recorder as well. Apparently newer is not always better and the problem didn't crop up in the testing since it takes a while for these errors to corrupt the guide. Also, there are a few different problems. Certain areas aren't broadcasting the VBI information properly and I believe there is also an issue where there are analog and digital PBS channels and the VBI is being broadcast on the digital instead of analog.

Even though the problem is annoying Gemstar has been available to discuss and trouble-shoot. Cheryl gave me her direct number and whenever I call her she is really good at getting back to me that day or the next day at the latest. Unfortunately it may be a few weeks yet before they start sending out any updates but I told her to start with Michigan.:D

Originally posted by kdog044
Bill, I found out from Cheryl at TVGOS what it is. From the setup menu with change system settings highlighted (but don't press enter) you press "653214741".

What exactly does this reset? They have never had me do this.

I still seem to be doing okay on program listings but I cannot keep the channel lineup changes I make stay in there. This is a BIG problem for me since my cable provider's default lineup does not have their high definition channels set in the guide by default and I have to manually set them and move them to the top. VERY time consuming having to do this every few days.

Jeff

Originally posted by whjeffs
What exactly does this reset? They have never had me do this.

Jeff, It basically wipes out any channels or listings and any of the other information you would get from a download including the VBI schedules/download times. It's not something you would normally want to do, unless like me, the listings were no longer populating. Mine was working fairly well and the listings would slowly fill in over the six days until the corruption would cause a reset. The next day after a reset the process would start all over. The last time, after only two days, the guide reset and over the next three days I never got ANY listings. We're hoping the guide reset might help. It might be a day or two before I know if it helped or not. The only thing that has changed was my update to 1.45 but I'm pretty sure I got listings after that. I'll keep everyone posted.

My listings disappeared after 2 days. I then had an audio problem with the tv that required a reset, so now I'm waiting on everything to re-load.

Since the reset of the listings yesterday I have not received any new downloads. I did notice the VBI schedules times are now an hour earlier to coincide with DST so the original EST downloads I posted are now in affect. I will wait and see if anything changes tomorrow morning and if not I will be calling Cheryl back. The one new thing I noticed in the diagnostics is I've had 4 listed resets with the same 4050 code and I've never had that before. Also in the dump section where I used to have all zeros I now have the 4050 in about three different rows. This is the menu I am referring to but it is not the current one.

The other new thing is in the Section - System Statistics menu I used to only have an entry in the CR Lineup and the others (OTA, CB, and CC) were always 0x0. I now have an entry in the CC Lineup (cable card?) although the cable card has been unplugged. Perhaps this is why I haven't got any new listings. The OTA I assume stands for "Over The Air" and I'm guessing CR and CB stand for "cable ready" and "cable box" and would only have entries if you selected these options in the TVGOS setup.

As of this morning again I have no channel or program listings. I decided to do a complete TV reset as the diagnostics show the same error over and over again. I have attached the picture of the page.

I am also attaching the picture of the diagnostic menu which shows the entry for the CC Lineup in addition to the CR Lineup which I never had before.

Lastly, here is the screenshot of the System Reset - Dumps before I did the reset.

As of this morning, I now have a channel listing!!!!!!!!!!!
No program information, but this is a start. I was never asked for a cable provider, but there is only one provider in my area.

Until this morning, I have never seen ANYTHING from the TVGOS. I have had the TV (62HMX94) since early January, 2005.

Hopefully, program info will now begin as well.

Well the system reset seems to have fixed whatever the problem was. After the first scheduled download I got the option to pick the provider and I now have the listings. The next scheduled download is at 1:46 PM EST so I should get DAY1, DAY2, and DAY8 listings after this completes. I will update everyone at around 4:00 PM EST.

Originally posted by Arlin
As of this morning, I now have a channel listing!!!!!!!!!!!
No program information, but this is a start. I was never asked for a cable provider, but there is only one provider in my area.


Arlin, where are you located? What cable company?

tx,
dsr

More Good news!!!!

I went home for dinner, and the days 1,2,& 8 program listings had populated!!!!
After 3 months, suddenly the TVGOS appears to be working... now I hope that I don't have the reset issues....

dsr15:
I live in Sioux Center, IA. WAY in the northwestern part of Iowa. Cable provider is a local company by the name of Premier Communications.

Originally posted by kdog044
Well the system reset seems to have fixed whatever the problem was. After the first scheduled download I got the option to pick the provider and I now have the listings. The next scheduled download is at 1:46 PM EST so I should get DAY1, DAY2, and DAY8 listings after this completes. I will update everyone at around 4:00 PM EST. Well things are back to normal. I received DAY1, DAY2, and DAY8 listings on the next download. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

dsr15:

Do you have any listings yet on your replacement set? I still don't so I called Toshiba again yesterday. They took me through the whole collecting info thing again and are forwarding it to TVGOS again. One thing I noticed is that on the screen where it lists the host channel there is nothing listed for host channel. I don't remember what was there on the last set. I'm wondering what made them decide to replace the set for you and me? It must be something in the data they collected. I'm in Lake Havasu City, Arizona and have NPG Cable.

So far, listings are still downloading as they did before. The question is for how long before the dreaded reset? In speaking with Cheryl she indicated the screen shots I sent her were helpful to the engineers so hopefully we can get this issue resolved soon.

Will here in Pittwburgh, pa, the time is still correct but not a sing of getting any listings. I had them for the day 1,2 and 8 for one time only and nothing since then. Overnight it does load the station info but letting it off from 7 am till 11 am nets no additional info. Never been contacted by gemstar but did once give Toshiba info from a diagnostic screen last fall, nothng since then even after my replacement TV in Jan.

Originally posted by Bill Shenefelt
Will here in Pittwburgh, pa, the time is still correct but not a sing of getting any listings. I had them for the day 1,2 and 8 for one time only and nothing since then. Overnight it does load the station info but letting it off from 7 am till 11 am nets no additional info. Never been contacted by gemstar but did once give Toshiba info from a diagnostic screen last fall, nothng since then even after my replacement TV in Jan. Bill, you need to go into the diagnostic menu to get an idea of what is happening. If you go back a few pages you will see what the important menus are. The first thing you need to determine is if the VBI channel is correct. Then, you need to see if there is any information in the VBI download menu. I would be happy to assist you if you would like but I need to know what you are getting in the various menus. If you can't find the post that explains how to access the menu:

From the TV guide access the setup, and then highlight the "changes system settings" option but DO NOT PRESS ENTER. Type "753159852" and this will get you to the diagnostic menus. Using the arrow keys (up, down, left, right) you can navigate to the various screens. Feel free to PM me if you want more information on what to look for.

Bill, check your PM.;)

What exactly is the VBI channel? I took a look through the diagnostic screens again and there is still nothing listed for the host channel. Under VBI channel it says 1:0-34. Channel 34 is the channel that I often find the TV tuned to when I turn it on each day.

Originally posted by sharonf
What exactly is the VBI channel? I took a look through the diagnostic screens again and there is still nothing listed for the host channel. Under VBI channel it says 1:0-34. Channel 34 is the channel that I often find the TV tuned to when I turn it on each day. Usually the VBI channel is the local PBS channel which is where you would get the guide information. Is channel 34 your PBS station channel?

Originally posted by kdog044
Usually the VBI channel is the local PBS channel which is where you would get the guide information. Is channel 34 your PBS station channel?

No, our PBS channel is channel 8. I have suspected for a long time that the set is tuning to the wrong channel and mentioned that to Toshiba. What should be in the host station spot? Mine is empty.

Originally posted by sharonf
No, our PBS channel is channel 8. I have suspected for a long time that the set is tuning to the wrong channel and mentioned that to Toshiba. What should be in the host station spot? Mine is empty. Sharon, on my set the host channel and VBI channel are the same and it is the correct VBI channel. Have you been in contact with TVGOS? Toshiba should have faxed your information to them. I will e-mail Cheryl at TVGOS tomorrow and ask her about your problem and see if she doesn't mind that I PM you with her number. She has been helpful to me.

Sharon,

I e-mailed Cheryl at TVGOS and asked if it was okay that I gave you her number. I'll let you know when she responds. In the mean time perhaps you can check the diagnostic menu "Section Reset Info - Error Tracker". Last week I had a problem with not getting the listings or channels and I saw repeated errors in this screen. Also, in the Section - System Statistics screen under the Lineup options (OTA, CR, CB, CC) I had an entry under both CC and CR and there should only have been an entry under CR. All others should be 0x0. If you had a cable box when you set up the guide there would be a value under CB. Since you have direct cable connection like me it should have only an entry under CR (cable ready). The OTA would be used if you had an OTA antenna connection and CC would only have entry if you used a cable card. Let me know what you find in these two screens.

I ended up having to do a complete TV reset to correct the problem.

Sharonf,

Check your PM.;)

Thanks to kdog for putting me in touch with Cheryl. This was my first conversation with anyone from TV Guide. I just got off the phone with her. She went through the normal diagnostic screens with me as well as a couple that I don't remember seeing before and she at least seemed to have a handle on what the information meant. Previously I had only talked to Toshiba techs who really didn't know that the information they were taking meant. Cheryl told me that my set has a very high number of errors and that along with the blank spot where the Host channel number should be indicates that the fix they are working on should take care of the problem. She also said that my new set has the latest firmware. The upside is that they now know what the problem is. The downside is that the fix won't be ready for at least a month. When it is ready it will download to our sets automatically. Since the extent of the problem varies from customer to customer I was curious to know if what cable company you have and what area of the country you live in has anything to do with severity of the problem and she said that was correct.
One other thing: I mentioned in previous posts that I often find my TV tuned to channel 34 each day. I have nothing listed under host channel and under VBI channel it says 1:1-34. That is the A & E channel here. She said that the TV guide gathers some information from this channel although it does not transmit the TV Guide information to my set through channel 34. Because of the high number of errors the set just stops on this channel when it is going through the line up. If anyone else finds their set on a different channel each day this is why...and if I'm understanding Cheryl right it should be the A & E channel it is stopping on.
So....the waiting game goes on, but at least it sounds like there might be an end in sight.
Thanks again kdog!

Since this is the TV guide thread maybe somebody knows why, not all available channels show up in the guide. Who is responsible for providing the information to the local PBS station?

The reason I ask is the INHD channels don't show up along with a few others. Also when you select the sort by HDTV only my ABC programming is in the list even though my other OTA networks do broadcast HD.

Other than the missing channels (might be just not getting information to TVguide by local Stations) its worked great from day one. However my set is a HX94 series.

On the 94 series if you select to record HD/Digital it gives an error message that it can't record digitals. What does it do on the 95 series sets?

Originally posted by DrewM
Since this is the TV guide thread maybe somebody knows why, not all available channels show up in the guide. Who is responsible for providing the information to the local PBS station?

The reason I ask is the INHD channels don't show up along with a few others. Also when you select the sort by HDTV only my ABC programming is in the list even though my other OTA networks do broadcast HD.

Other than the missing channels (might be just not getting information to TVguide by local Stations) its worked great from day one. However my set is a HX94 series.

On the 94 series if you select to record HD/Digital it gives an error message that it can't record digitals. What does it do on the 95 series sets? Drew, how is your cable connected? I imagine that unless you're using a cable box or cable card the channels wouldn't show up as these are premium ecrypted digital channels. If you are using either of these devices and they are not showing up check the channel editor as sometimes tha channels are found and not turned on. BTW, there isn't any 95 series yet.