TV Guide On Screen - post your info here! - Page 76

Wow, you did a lot better than I did in dealing with TWC. Okay, here's the weird thing. Monday night I set my box to zipcode 00000 and left it off overnight. Tuesday morning I set the zip back to my real Greensboro zip. By 2 PM I had listings for nearly every station for Tues/Wed. So it looks like the service may have been activated long enough for exactly one day of successful download!

On the other hand, I checked the 753... diagnostic screens last night and I am NOT showing a host channel. My hope is that this means WFMY has started sending their digital feed and my zipcode reset caused the box to resync to it. Previously, I had partial listings coming from WGHP (Fox) OTA. User FOXENG told me on the Greensboro forum that they have a box set up on the phone line just like your WUNC guy described, but they've never been told specifically what it's supposed to carry, just that it's a VBI device. When I had 0-8 (OTA 8) as a host, I was getting listings for WGN and VH1C, and no others. I noticed last night that my current listings are missing VH1C, so maybe that was a supplement to WUNC's feed.


I'm quoting this separately because it's old news to us, but I somewhat wonder if TWC in the Triad has been made aware of exactly what is going on. The TWC engineer I spoke with was aware of problems with TIVO boxes -- some TIVO boxes needed a converter to take the digital feed and convert it to analog VBI -- which would seemingly work for us if such a device could be made compatible, as I'm sure the Radio Shack gurus around here could make happen, and if TWC were sending the digital feed. So far, that's the big question. Well, I suppose there's also the question of whether or not WFMY is broadcasting the feed. I haven't been able to pick up WFMY digital OTA.

Will12, would you please forward that response to Terry Cross? I'm highly suspicious as to the quality of communication going his way.

So, question time:

For Will12 or any fellow Greensboro TVGOSers, Are you getting any listings today? Have you tried the 00000...overnight...realzip trick? Are you able to pick up WFMY digital OTA? If so, any listings? I'm not sure if WFMY would broadcast the feed on their -1, -2, or whatever, so if anybody is getting that feed, please note if all the - stations come through.

For anyone who is getting listings from a digital provider, do you have a host channel listed on the 753... diagnostic screen?


April 2, 2009
Yep, looks like yesterday was the last of my listings. Talk about timing!

evernight - No data today. I have forwarded the UNC-TV email to my last known email contact at TWC and asked them to send it to Terry - since Terry called me and I don't have his direct address. I'm heading out of town for a few days, so if I don't have any data when I get back, I will try the 00000 trick.

Yesterday I tried a new tack. Previously I'd attempted to pick up the VBI on my antenna, making the assumption that if WFMY were broadcasting the digital feed as rabbitears said they were, it would come through to me via Time Warner Cable. I'm no longer prepared to make that assumption, so last night I oriented my antenna to pick up WFMY-HD OTA. No listings today, but I don't know if that's conclusive, as I didn't perform any sort of reset on the box.

So here's what I'd like to know from people who have successfully received listings digitally.

1) Did you receive the feed OTA or via cable?

2) Did you have to do a reset of any of the many kinds that come up here? If so, what kind?

3) Do you have any listing for host channel on the 753159852 page?

Thanks in advance!

After years of enjoying my Sony 500gb HD DVR, I am tired of the TVGOS data games! This only started happening this year!!!

I'm going to use my media ctr PC to stream to my xbox next to my plasma.

Anyone want to buy my used sony w/ remote, manual and orig. box?

Starting Friday I've had (mostly) full listings, after partial listings Tuesday and Wednesday but nothing Thursday. I found a sweet spot for my OTA antennae where I can pick up CBS HD and several other digital channels, some of which are not on "Basic" TWC. I'm pretty sure that's how I'm getting the listings. They're also probably analog, and possibly from WGHP (Fox, channel 8) as that's the last host channel I saw. I'm happy for now, but who knows what's next?

Incidentally, I recommend anybody having problems to dig into the spiffspace forums. There's a procedure there to "force" the digital host channel, though there's still a preference for analog on the boxes that causes them to switch back, reportedly.

Let me know what your assking. I may be interested. a.b.christie@excite.com.
Alan

Alan, I have much to watch and delete on it before I can sell.... let's talk in a month

I saw in the Greenville SC forum that TVGOS is most likely dead in my area for good! What a joke!

Someone here suggested a class action lawsuit a month or so ago..... that still being considered?

I just thought I would mention that Sony just accounted their new models of HDTV's, including the new XBR9. While Sony continues to offer TV Guide On Screen, it is now "internet powered", which I assume means it gets its programming data thru its ethernet/internet port, instead of OTA.

That is certainly a change for the better, and makes we wonder why it took so long for TVGOS to make such a change.

BTW, does anyone know what the URL will be, for the data?

I believe I suggested it (though others may have too). If you're seriious that TVGOS is dead, that will leave me PISSED!

I'm having dinner w/ a lawyer friend next Tuesday. I'll have a chat with him to see what kind of lawyer is best to approach for this kind of an issue and what it takes to set up a class-action lawsuit.

IMHO, it isn't dead. It is just changing with the times. I mean, it wasn't TVGOS that caused the national change to digital TV.

If there is some sort of lawsuit, I would rather see its goal to be to get TVGOS to offer us "converters"; to not leave all us older customers behind.

There is currently the DTVpal, which "converts" ATSC (digital OTA) to NTSC-based TVGOS data. What we need is also something converts from QAM (digital cable) to NTSC-based TVGOS data, and something that converts internet (see my post above) to NTSC-based TVGOS data. If these converter devices existed, we should be OK for a long while.

Evernight:
1) My listings via TWC in Greensboro are back this morning (Friday) at least through Sunday morning - hopefully they are still loading and just haven't finished yet. I am receiving them from TWC via cable with no box to my analog Panasonic DVR and analog TV, just as they used to be before UNC-TV cut off the local feed.
2) I did reset my DVR, putting in the 00000 area code over Wednesday night, then the real area code over Thursday night.
3) I will wait until I'm sure I've got the full listings before checking for the host channel.

evernight; PM me (your PM's are turned off).

Update - as of Easter Sunday I now have a full 8 days of TVGOS listings. My host channel reads 00-9 (which is WFMY on TWC). Unbelievably happy! I have a sister-in-law in town who is not getting the listings yet, I had her set the area code to 00000 yesterday, and told her to set it to the correct code today, to see if she starts getting them on Monday.

work for sis in law?

Hi again. Just to confirm, you at not time have tried OTA? I'm somewhat dubious of the host channel listings. 9 is TWC's read on WFMY's analog station, so I wonder if that'll conk out on June 12. Must check my host again tonight.

videobruce, I PM'd.

No, I have not tried OTA. My discussion with the engineer at TWC left me hopeful that the listings will continue beyond June 12. Keeping my fingers crossed!

No, she is still missing listings. I sent her the instructions for a full reset (using the 653159147 code) today (Tuesday 4/14).

I've been following this thread for ages (read: since my listings stopped displaying).

I live in Western MA (Northampton) and my local PBS station is WGBY.

Is there difinitive write-up on the steps to go through to try to get things to work? I quote the above post since the term "full reset" doesn't mean much to me. Anyone have any pointers on what I can do/where I can go to go through the steps to try a "do over"?

BTW, I'm meeting my lawyer friend tonight and will discuss what it takes to do a class-action and post back.

I was referring to the reset procedure posted in several places in the avsforums, this worked for my DVR specifically, see post #30 here:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=941025

Since my cable system dropped the PBS station as the TVGOS host and added the local CBS station, I had to force my DVR to go search for the new host, and the full reset seems to be what did the trick. On my DVR, holding down the "up" and "down" channel buttons together for several seconds worked to reset it also. Depends on your equipment.

Can you send me the full reset instruction usiing 653....

Thanks Gregg

Go to setup, toggle down one line, enter 653159147, wait untill it resets, turn TV off for a day.

Will this affect
A) recordings?
B) schedule of upcoming recordings?
C) channel lineup?

thanks,
Kevin

Can anyone take a look in the channel line up, in the setup->change channel lineup screen, and see if the channel PLEXe is there? Its the Movieplex cable channel, and I do not have it in mine, even though its been updating the program listings correctly. Thanks in advance.

TVGOS has been out for 3 months after being out for another 2 in November with numerous calls to Toshiba Tech support, including incident report to Macrovision. In general Toshiba's support is good and they try to be helpful but no one thought to ask what station was listed for the only Analog ( read: TVGOS host) channel. Originally like many it was the local PBS station but now is CBS. I stumbled on this by pure frustration and when I called Toshiba late afternoon, 4/13 and also e-mailed Macrovision with the incident # and my Zipcode lo and behold I started to receive some data by the next afternoon,and the full grid by this morning Why Macrovision would have to be told about this when Comcast is probably their largest provider of TVGOS info for them is really incompetent. How could they not have been in contact with Comcast in the Philly area to coordinate changing the host channel for PBS to CBS? Even though anyone with TVGOS should be the same priority you would think a market as large as Philadelphia and it's suburbs would not fall through the tracks. Done my rant, glad I have my guide back

ClemsonKev;
Not existing recordings,
Probably, untill it fully updates and you re-setup the channel assignments,
See above.

I did this yesterday. There doesn't seem to be any visual indicator of a reset, is there? Or did I do it wrong?

The screen goes black, except for the preview window in the upper left corner and returns to whatever channel you were on.

Of the two supposed different resets (warm and cold), I don't see any difference between the two. I just did a system reset (653274147), which I don't like since it turns the TV off without a cool down cycle to fully get rid of the existing data.

Did your Mits revert back to TVGOS Setup square one as it used to after you did that TVGOS System Reset? I'm asking because I just did it (first time since the Mits software update) and it didn't allow me to go through TVGOS setup from scratch like it used to. In fact, my TVGOS input config is wrong and I'm trying to correct it.

Only after this reset (if I remember correctly).
It's still sitting at that 1st level upgrade.

Per my earlier post, I reached out to a lawyer friend about the idea of a class-action, and this is what he had to say:

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: ...
To: ama@...
Sent: Thursday, April 16, 2009 5:13:04 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
Subject: Re: class action

A lot of different thoughts on this. First, if you read all of the fine print in your manual, warranty, etc., I'm guessing that you'll find language to the effect that even though the TV supports the functionality, it is not within the manufacturer's control whether any third-party content providers support that functionality, and that they will not be liable if none do. Big companies (such as TV manufacturers) have hordes of lawyers who do nothing but sit around and try to anticipate and head off lawsuits like this one. I'd be pretty surprised if they didn't cover something like this. Now, such a statement would have limited, but some, value if this got to a courtroom.

But furthermore, even without such a provision, I wonder whether caselaw supports a claim like this. I mean, my set supports 1080p and is marketed on that fact, but there is little 1080p programming out there. They sold you functionality, not the service or content. If I sell you a screwdriver, I doubt I'd be at fault if you can't find a screw to use it on. And I doubt if I'd succeed in suing Sony because I can't get the latest movies for my betamax anymore. All that of course is just speculation -- this is veeery far from my areas of expertise.

As to the process question, I'm not really sure how you'd go about this. A handful of you would need to find lawyers who do specialize in false advertising, product liability, contracts, etc. etc. If those lawyers felt like the case had legs, they would file the suit on behalf of the handful of you that brought the case, and then take steps to make it a class action, and do the work to establish the larger class of harmed customers etc. etc. For a big case like this, you'd need a big, sophisticated firm, rather than some ambitious individual. Just start networking among city firms and see who you could have initial conversations with. Someone who does this for a living could likely tell you quickly whether it has merit. And since they probably get paid on a contingent basis, you can trust that opinion.

Keep in mind what you have to gain and lose here. Big class actions can be good for punishing large corporations when they do wrong, and very good for making the lawyers involved wealthy, but the members of the class -- the customers hurt in the first place -- often end up with little to show for their efforts. Would it be worth all of this effort if seven years from now you received a coupon for 5 percent off the purchase of a new television set? I can't imagine a scenario in which anyone could be compelled to provide the service that you miss.

My own hunch -- again, not worth a thing here -- is to drop it. I suspect there is not much of a case here, and even if there were, the potential gain is not worth the time and effort. But, no harm in talking to some lawyers about it.