Channel Guide Completely Missing?!?!

I'm sorry this happened to you. You will need to call Replaytv support 254-299-2705. There is a good chance they can provide you with another zipcode you can input where the Time Warner channel guide is still being sent to Replaytvs. Inputting that zipcode into your recorders setup will get you up and running. Then Replaytv support can work on getting your TW guide back onto the server.

If you are technically inclined, you can set up WiRNS to provide your own channel guide information... There is a forum on PlanetReplay dedicated to WiRNS: http://www.planetreplay.com/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=32

WiRNS has come a long way in 3 years! You should definitely try it again!

Henry

Well,

If you do the easiest way to get your lineup back is probably to configure it to user SchedulesDirect - http://www.schedulesdirect.org (obviously, configuring WiRNS to use the Replay Servers for Guide Info won't help here ).

They offer a free 7 day trial membership, so hopefully that'll be long enough for you to get the Guide returned without having to pay for a subscription.. and if worse comes to worst and they never return the lineup on the Replay, you could just subscribe to SD and use that as your Guide source.

If you don't use SD, you'll have to set up your own Guide Scraper which is a lot more work, especially for a hopefully short period of time.

Just a thought...


--Walburga

Just to clarify:

Did you ever get the Cable-boxed Replays showing Guide info, by changing providers mentioned in your other thread? That is, is there still a Digital lineup listed on those Replays now?

If so, you can use a digital lineup on a non-cable-box Replay.. I've done that for years, mainly to make sure the channel #s between Replays matched for my Replay with and Replay without cable box..

Although, to be honest I don't remember having to doing anything 'special' to have the digital lineup appear on my non-cable-box Replay. I don't remember the lineups you see being tied to whether you chose having a cable-box or not. So I'm not sure why you would see it on the Cable-boxed Replays and not on the analog-only Replays, if that's what's happening..

--Walburga

I said that because I looked at the two threads that you posted of the problems you had back in 2007, and they looked like they could have been real problems with setting up WiRNS from that time period. Things have gotten a lot better since then, and I think that the current release should install quite well (it is newer operating system and 64 bit aware), and if you then have it update to the latest update, is should operate quite well...


Schedules Direct is definitely NOT the easiest way to set up WiRNS! First of all, it cost money for the subscriptions, and, second, its purpose is to provide schedule data when there is no other way to get it, like when you live outside the United States or if you want to create OTA lineups...

As posted here, WiRNS operates with DNNA guide data, just like DVArchive does. So, if you live in the United States, then you can use the normal ZIP code data and go merrily on your way!

Now, since Saudra's problem is getting schedule data for her ZIP code, first of all, she needs to pin down where the problem lies. She should start at http://www.zap2it.com and check what lineups it shows for her ZIP code and Time Warner Cable. If Zap2It has the same problems with her ZIP code and TWC as her RTV, which is very likely, then using Schedules Direct isn't going to help anything because it gets its schedule data from the same source as both of those, Tribune Media Services. So, what started this discussion of her using WiRNS was that once she found a ZIP code that worked with her RTV, the channel lineup was incorrect, so using WiRNS was suggested to adjust the channel lineup. In that case, getting schedule data for that other ZIP code from DNNA will be exactly the same as getting it from Schedules Direct, at least in content, but it will be free.

So, unless using Schedules Direct actually fixed the problem with using your ZIP code and selecting Time Warner Cable, then there is no advantage to subscribing to it over using the same DNNA data that you are already using and simply having WiRNS to adjust the channel lineup so it matches the lineup for her area...

That is short term. In the long term, if she goes to Zap2It and it has the same problem with her ZIP code and selecting TWC, then she can report the problem to TWC, TMS, Zap2It, and ReplayTV to see if she can't get the lineup relisted, as was suggested in this thread about problems with the Comcast lineup...

Henry

If you post your ZIP code, we can certainly find out if there's any advantage to using Schedules Direct, but it is highly unlikely. DNNA gets its schedule data from the same source as Schedules Direct, so whatever you see for lineups on your RTV is likely to be the same thing you'd see in Schedules Direct. As I posted last time, going to http://www.zap2it.com and entering your ZIP code should show you what providers and lineups Tribune Media Services is providing for your area, and that would be what Schedules Direct should show as well, and what your RTV shows. If they don't match what you have, then you can contact all the different places that I posted and was in that Comcast thread to see about getting it straightened out...

One more advantage to WiRNS since you mentioned it, with WiRNS you can "lock" your channel lineup once you've got it setup the way you like it. You cannot do that with Schedules Direct or any other way (except manually with scraper data). So, if you don't like your lineup changing all the time, you can tell WiRNS not to update the lineup and then it will just fetch the schedule information for the lineup that you already have setup. If you want to have access to some newly added channels, then you could have WiRNS update its lineup information, edit it as you like, and then lock it again...

Henry

OK, then using Schedules Direct won't help with this particular situation...

And, you are correct that because the lineup is marked "Digital", it only shows under Digital Cable Box and not under the RF cable input. The only way around this is to use a scraper because with that you specify the lineup type, so even though it is a digital lineup, you can specify it as an analog lineup and then it will show up where you want it to. I've been toying with the idea of allowing both using DNNA data or SchedulesDirect data to support the remapProvider.txt file so that you could customize the lineup type for any lineup. Currently, WiRNS only allows customizing the OTA lineup as that is the only one that the RTV does not support OTA on anything but the RF Antennae input and WiRNS allows you to customize that so you can use a DTA or whatever...

I sure hope you can get it worked out in the long run!

Henry

I don't know about WMC in particular, although the scraper can be used for all kinds of things, and I believe that there is some kind of MSN scraper as well. However, if you can get the channel lineup the way you like it in WiRNS, then it can serve things, like DVArchive, with that lineup. Doesn't help your situation much, but whatever can communicate with WiRNS will be taken care of...

I think there are some forums that you can check out about getting schedule data into WMC, so you might want to check them out...

Henry

Henry,

I never said SD was the easiest way to set up WiRNS - I simply said it was easier than setting up an XML scraper - which I still think is true.

Obviously, having it get Guide data from the Replay servers IS the easiest way to set it up, but that would obviously not help in her situation, so her only options [in the short term] would be a scraper, or SD. Correct?



Again, I mentioned them having a free 7 day trial, and that hopefully she could get the issue resolved during that time. Subscribing to SD would only be a last resort, if TW never cleared the issue up.



Which is exactly why I mentioned it as an option, because she currently has no other source (DNNA). Though, you're correct that they get the data from the Zap2It, which I forgot about..

The one thing that confuses me is I know I've used the same "digital" lineup on a Replay with a Cable box as one without, so if digital lineups aren't allowed on the RF input, how did I manage it..?

If she could use the digital lineup on her RF input, that would solve her issue.

--Walburga

After I reread your post, I was going to edit mine a bit, but then decided that the bulk of it was what was important and just figured that if you took offense to my particulars I would explain later. After I posted I realized that you posted that SD would be the easiest for her situation, but what you didn't think about is that SD gets their guide data from the same place as DNNA, so that doesn't do any good at all. There's certainly the possibility that using a scraper source could get a good lineup since maybe you could find one that uses a different source, like maybe MSN...

And, having the free trial doesn't help except if you want to check it out to see how you like it. If it was the solution, then it would cost money. So, it might make more sense to suggest something that works long term and doesn't cost anything. I would think that getting the lineup fixed would be the best long term solution...

Since the whole suggestion about using WiRNS came from the fact that she said that she tried a nearby ZIP code, but the lineup was incorrect, then the suggestion about WiRNS was to use the nearby ZIP code to create a correct lineup. So, in that case, again, you'd want to go with DNNA data to construct the corrected lineup. While that's a bit more complicated than using a correct lineup if it was available from SD, once you've gone to that much trouble, why not just use the free data and simply correct the lineup?

And, yes, you can use a digital cable box on the RF input, but only feeding channel 3 or 4. You can't select digital cable box and then use the internal RF tuner, which means that she can't record direct from the coax. Obviously, once you select cable box or satellite box, then you have disabled the internal tuner, except for it tuning constantly either channel 3 or channel 4...

Henry

There are basically two sources of US TV Guide Data.

Tribune Media Services ( used by zap2it, Replay, Tivo, Schedules Direct, etc)

Rovi (formerly known as Macrovision, Gemstar, TV Guide and I think a few other names!)

Since there are only two, I hope that explains why so many people use the same source data.

I can tell you that SD works pretty aggressively with Tribune to get issues resolved and improve data quality. Our RobertK handles lineup issues and he can be relentless. We're also not as good as some commercial companies at blowing customers/members off and giving misinformation.

Just so you know, Tribune always goes back to the source.... so when a Time Warner lineup shows a problem they go back to their TW contact to confirm it, no matter what evidence we give them. Sometimes those contacts can be quite slow, and even not know what's on their own systems!

Unfortunately, 11 days to resolve an issue isn't unusual, but we have seen a reduction over the years.

Anyway hope this helps..

Robert Eden
XMLTV / Schedules Direct
(and ReplayTV user since I think 1997!)

This is very sad! Now you won't finish getting WiRNS operating and you won't get to try the new lineup modifier feature that I added just for you! Oh, well, I guess you'll just have to be happy with having it back to working the same 'ol way!

Henry

LOL! Well, I was just teasing about you giving up on getting WiRNS working!

Once you get WiRNS working and DVA running on the same PC, you'll have to see if you still have a point in running DVA. There are certainly things that DVA does differently than WiRNS, but I think that WiRNS can do pretty much everything that DVA can. It depends on how you are using DVA, so you might have to adjust. Or, you can just keep running the both of them...

Henry

I mostly never run DVA except when I'm trying to watch Replay shows on the PC. Sometimes I can grap the URI from doing a "Play" with WiRNS (because by default it downloads to the PC before playing) and snaking that URI into VLC (either vanilla or RTV-ized version). But nearly always the show stops playing at some point, VLC showing Buffering ... when it is WiRNS-fed while DVA-served seldom has this prob. The network is all gigabit hard wired (a little overkill for the RTV, but the point being the networks not likely the problem) and this happens even when the RTV is not doing anything else.
Is there something I'm missing?
I'm starting to migrate to Hauppauge HD-PVR and eventually HD HomeRun Cable Card because the Replays just don't get along with FiOS's zillion channels. I use WiRNS to serve them and have cut the channels down by about half with a custom lineup but I still get regular fails on the guide updating and have to reboot / clear guide / restart WiRNS / NetConnect to get the guide working again. Will miss some of the things Replay does better than anyone (incl Tivo).