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WMC EPG Guide Ending? - Page 2

post #31 of 78
1/3/13 at 6:50am
FWIW, my EPG is filled until Monday, Jan. 14. I'm in the U.S. Doesn't the EPG update in 2 week intervals. Wouldn't that mean it updated on Dec. 31st, 3 days ago?
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post #32 of 78
1/3/13 at 8:23am
Mine seems to be out for 12 days consistantly. I haven't checked in 2 days but the last time I checked (Jan 1, 2013) it was good until Jan 10, I believe.
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post #33 of 78
1/3/13 at 11:17am

I have OTA only in the US and my guide data goes out to the 15th which is about 12 and a half days which for me is normal.  Guide data just updated this morning.  I'm wondering if OTA only people are unaffected, maybe because of PSIP?  I'm not sure if the EPG uses PSIP for guide data or not.

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post #34 of 78
1/3/13 at 11:26am
What is PSIP?

Read the EULA for the guide in WMC, it uses Zap2It for the guide data.

I'm on Charter Digital Cable and last I checked I was good for 11 days. I'm thinking that this is a problem only affecting the U.K. right now.
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post #35 of 78
1/3/13 at 11:33am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sammy2 View Post

What is PSIP?
Read the EULA for the guide in WMC, it uses Zap2It for the guide data.
I'm on Charter Digital Cable and last I checked I was good for 11 days. I'm thinking that this is a problem only affecting the U.K. right now.
If you count Hawaii as part of the UK...
I've seen the same Thing with a small OTA tuner. Most channels had no guide data as of 1/1, though some still do. I think those rely on in-band data.
Basically this seems to be more global.
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post #36 of 78
1/3/13 at 11:47am
Okay so I can google too:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Program_and_System_Information_Protocol
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post #37 of 78
1/3/13 at 11:48am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rico66 View Post

If you count Hawaii as part of the UK...
I've seen the same Thing with a small OTA tuner. Most channels had no guide data as of 1/1, though some still do. I think those rely on in-band data.
Basically this seems to be more global.

First time I've heard this issue being reported in the U.S. but you are in a whole different realm..
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post #38 of 78
1/3/13 at 1:27pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by bonscott87 View Post

I have OTA only in the US and my guide data goes out to the 15th which is about 12 and a half days which for me is normal.  Guide data just updated this morning.  I'm wondering if OTA only people are unaffected, maybe because of PSIP?  I'm not sure if the EPG uses PSIP for guide data or not.

WMC EPG guide does not use PSIP data. PSIP data is usually incomplete or just contains 2~3 days of information.
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post #39 of 78
1/3/13 at 4:47pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by netant View Post

WMC EPG guide does not use PSIP data. PSIP data is usually incomplete or just contains 2~3 days of information.
And 3-5 days is impressive. Most of the time it's only about 6-12 hours.
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post #40 of 78
1/3/13 at 7:45pm
Chicago had an issue with 1 station's guide data disappearing. But the station is kind of goofy. It broadcasts on a VHF and UHF channel and only one of them had data disappear. It was easy enough to just manually map the other listings to the one that disappeared. I think there were also reports of several low power stations also missing data in the area.

So something did happen at zap2it. It wasnt confined to just the UK, but the UK seems to bear the brunt of it.
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post #41 of 78
1/3/13 at 8:13pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by dicko2 View Post

Chicago had an issue with 1 station's guide data disappearing. But the station is kind of goofy. It broadcasts on a VHF and UHF channel and only one of them had data disappear. It was easy enough to just manually map the other listings to the one that disappeared.

 

We had something similar with WISH-TV (CBS). They broadcast at two frequencies and the guide was only reflected on the low power channel. Recently, the guide disappeared and was moved to the regular power channel. By undoing the mapping to the low power channel and you were good to go.

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post #42 of 78
1/3/13 at 8:17pm
My guide data stopped on 12/21/2012 but I am using the Mayan EPG wink.gif.

I hope your guides get straightened.
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post #43 of 78
1/3/13 at 11:26pm
The EPG issue seen US is different from UK. I just checked. The channels with guide showing as "Not Available" is being named with a "LD" suffix. Looking into more details in Listing. The channels are named "Low Power". I have no ideas why the major channels are being called "Low Power". For some of them, I can manually fix them by assigning source listing back to the channels' "DT" version. This mess is getting more and more similar to the digital cutover mess.
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post #44 of 78
1/4/13 at 2:08am
Quote:
Originally Posted by dicko2 View Post

Chicago had an issue with 1 station's guide data disappearing. But the station is kind of goofy. It broadcasts on a VHF and UHF channel and only one of them had data disappear. It was easy enough to just manually map the other listings to the one that disappeared. I think there were also reports of several low power stations also missing data in the area.
So something did happen at zap2it. It wasnt confined to just the UK, but the UK seems to bear the brunt of it.

I too had the ABC 7/44 issue. IIRC they are supposed to stop transmitting on VHF 7 sometime this month. Perhaps that accounts for the guide data issue.

My 23.3, 25.1 and 25.4 have no data. I’ve never watch these channels but I know they used to have data in their listings because I went through all the listings before I deleted a bunch of them. I checked Edit Listings and the proper listing is shown for each channel. And Zap2It does show data. Needless to say this makes me a little bit concerned.
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post #45 of 78
1/4/13 at 4:36am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike99 View Post

My 23.3, 25.1 and 25.4 have no data.

Those are the low power stations I was referring to. I cant receive them and they're not in my guide so it doesnt bother me.

Its like zap2it decided to do an end of year database cleanup and got a bit too over zealous.
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post #46 of 78
1/4/13 at 5:07am
My guide goes out to Jan 15, 2013 now. I am on digital cable so maybe this is a problem with OTA and Sat in the U.K.??
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post #47 of 78
1/4/13 at 5:29am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sammy2 View Post

My guide goes out to Jan 15, 2013 now. I am on digital cable so maybe this is a problem with OTA and Sat in the U.K.??

Indeed this affected OTA (Freeview) and SAT (Freesat) guide listings in the UK. Ireland hasn't had any guide data since 6th December apparently!

Anyway, following the lengthy complaint on MS Connect, Todd Rutherford from MS posted a message saying they'd found the problem with the UK guide listings, and it's now been restored (I can confirm my guide now shows 14 days of data again!). It still took them 3 weeks to fix this though, let alone acknowledge the problem. The issue with the Irish guide is slightly different, and they're working on that.

So, it would appear MS aren't canning the EPG. I guess, in some ways, we actually have Windows 8 to thank for that, even if MC is an option on that platform. As 8MC is identical to 7MC, it uses the same guide data, so MS will have to support the EPG for the foreseeable future (we hope!).
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post #48 of 78
1/4/13 at 6:07am
If you read the guide ToS you will see the MS doesn't guarantee it and may discontinue or charge for it at any time.
Edited by Sammy2 - 1/4/13 at 7:28am
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post #49 of 78
1/4/13 at 7:22am
The actual ToS is "you give us money and we do what the hell we want when we want".
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post #50 of 78
1/4/13 at 7:33am
Actually here's the EPG ToS and it specifically states the following:
Quote:
MICROSOFT RESERVES THE RIGHT TO MODIFY THE AGREEMENT GOVERNING THE EPG AT ANY TIME, IN ITS SOLE DISCRETION, BY PROVIDING YOU NOTICE OF MODIFICATIONS IN THE MANNER DETAILED BELOW. This includes any and all changes to subscription fees, service operation, and user rights and responsibilities. YOUR CONTINUED USE OF THE EPG FOLLOWING ANY SUCH NOTICE SHALL CONSTITUTE YOUR ACCEPTANCE OF THE MODIFIED AGREEMENT. IF ANY OF THE CHANGES MADE TO THIS AGREEMENT ARE UNACCEPTABLE TO YOU, YOU MUST IMMEDIATELY TERMINATE YOUR USE OF THE EPG BY FOLLOWING THE INSTRUCTIONS LISTED BELOW UNDER TERMINATION OF SERVICE.

...

Subscription Fees and Other Charges. The EPG is provided to you free of charge. As noted above with respect to changes to the terms of this Agreement, Microsoft reserves the right to change prices, or institute new charges for the EPG, at any time with thirty (30) days' notice to you. Furthermore, you are responsible for the costs of establishing an Internet connection to connect to the EPG. This includes fees paid to an Internet service provider, any long distance telephone toll charges associated with connecting to the Internet via such Internet service provider, and any equipment charges.
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post #51 of 78
1/4/13 at 8:09am
Quote:
Originally Posted by dicko2 View Post

Those are the low power stations I was referring to. I cant receive them and they're not in my guide so it doesnt bother me.
Its like zap2it decided to do an end of year database cleanup and got a bit too over zealous.

I've never watched them either but I do receive them.
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post #52 of 78
1/4/13 at 8:56am
There's always NextPVR. It, too, has an EPG that apparently works quite well for OTA situations.
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post #53 of 78
1/4/13 at 9:39am
There's that but those of us using CableCARD tuners have but one choice.
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post #54 of 78
1/4/13 at 10:24am
Quote:
Originally Posted by sneakerx View Post

There's always NextPVR. It, too, has an EPG that apparently works quite well for OTA situations.
NextPVR does not include an EPG. It does however directly support Schedules Direct and xmltv files.
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post #55 of 78
1/4/13 at 10:26am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sammy2 View Post

There's that but those of us using CableCARD tuners have but one choice.

Well you can use NextPVR if you don't have any copy once channels.
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post #56 of 78
1/4/13 at 10:28am
Quote:
Originally Posted by lockdown571 View Post

Well you can use NextPVR if you don't have any copy once channels.

Thanks for the correction but I have Copy Once channels so NextPVR wont work for me.
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post #57 of 78
1/4/13 at 10:47am
Thread Starter 
Someone on TGB contacted their TV card supplier and this was the response:

"Yes, over the past few days, we have received questions from many users, complaining that the Media Center EPG, no longer works. Having looked into this, it appears Microsoft has not renewed its EPG licence with the EPG provider. Therefore since the licence expired on 01/01/2013, they are not providing an EPG for European users. We do not know at this stage if they intend to renew the EPG or not. We will be looking at alternative solutions. The main issue now, is that MS disbanded the WMC team some considerable time ago. So, there is no point of contact at all for WMC issues, as there used to be. We were certainly not informed of this, and like many others, only found out through searching. It is very likely no one in MS has direct responsibility. So, in the meantime, please contact Microsoft, if they realise there is a very large number of customers affected, they may be more responsive.

Kind regards,

BlackGold Support"

Does not exactly fill you with hope about the longevity of WMC or, indeed, the EPG. rolleyes.gif As I now have EPG Collector working and I quite like the richer metadata it will stay as my source of EPG data with the added benefit of it always being there.

The MS listings returned late last night presumably after the person responsible for the EPG got back from holiday.
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post #58 of 78
1/4/13 at 11:02am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike99 View Post

I too had the ABC 7/44 issue. IIRC they are supposed to stop transmitting on VHF 7 sometime this month. Perhaps that accounts for the guide data issue.
My 23.3, 25.1 and 25.4 have no data. I’ve never watch these channels but I know they used to have data in their listings because I went through all the listings before I deleted a bunch of them. I checked Edit Listings and the proper listing is shown for each channel. And Zap2It does show data. Needless to say this makes me a little bit concerned.

I just started last week having an EPG issue with ABC channel 7 in the Chicago area. My father has the same issue. The EPG shows no program listings at all for channel 7. I assumed it would resolve itself after a week but no luck. If the blank channel 7 is selected in the guide, WMC will play whatever is being broadcast at the time, so that tells me ABC is still broadcasting on that channel - correct? But WMC will not display the guide for the channel.

I am not clear on how to fix this EPG issue. Anyone already encountered/fixed this issue? By the way, this is for over the air broadcast, I do not have cable/sat.
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post #59 of 78
1/4/13 at 11:22am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Heuer View Post

Someone on TGB contacted their TV card supplier and this was the response:
"Yes, over the past few days, we have received questions from many users, complaining that the Media Center EPG, no longer works. Having looked into this, it appears Microsoft has not renewed its EPG licence with the EPG provider. Therefore since the licence expired on 01/01/2013, they are not providing an EPG for European users. We do not know at this stage if they intend to renew the EPG or not. We will be looking at alternative solutions. The main issue now, is that MS disbanded the WMC team some considerable time ago. So, there is no point of contact at all for WMC issues, as there used to be. We were certainly not informed of this, and like many others, only found out through searching. It is very likely no one in MS has direct responsibility. So, in the meantime, please contact Microsoft, if they realise there is a very large number of customers affected, they may be more responsive.
Kind regards,
BlackGold Support"
Does not exactly fill you with hope about the longevity of WMC or, indeed, the EPG. rolleyes.gif As I now have EPG Collector working and I quite like the richer metadata it will stay as my source of EPG data with the added benefit of it always being there.
The MS listings returned late last night presumably after the person responsible for the EPG got back from holiday.

That seems to be a violation of the ToS wherein it says you get 30 days notice.
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post #60 of 78
1/4/13 at 1:02pm

Geez, that really sucks.  I would never imagine that SageTV's premium EPG would outlast WMC's EPG.  Since there's no official MS announcement, maybe MS is just shopping for a better EPG.  No matter what though, that lame to just stop providing data without any notice.

 

Of course, there are always free services (such as XML based); but definitely not as nice as the premium services which add addition data such as (channel logos, pilot episode, Series Finale, first run, cast, audio track, guest hosts, Specials, etc, etc).

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