TVGOS Not Updating

I don't have any problems with OTA reception of TVGOS data here in upstate South Carolina. Both my Panasonic DVD recorder and my two Sony HD DVRs have full program listings through next Sunday.

Problems with TVGOS are almost always local in nature, either at the local "host station" that piggybacks the data onto their broadcast TV signal, or at your cable company which might have inadvertently started to strip out the TVGOS data because of a change in system configuration.

Try asking in your local reception thread (West Palm Beach, from the looks of it) to see if anyone else in your area has been having problems.

I agree with jtbell. My TVGOS has an occasional glitch, but it usually corrects in a day.

One thing you can try is to reset the TVGOS. I've had to do this on occasion.

Good luck.

To find out what the host station is, enter the guide, then click over to the "Setup" menu, then down to highlight the first item without actually opening it. Enter the magic number 753159852. This takes you into the TVGOS debugging screens. Click right once, and you'll see a screen that includes an entry for "Host Chan". For me, it reads "0:0-29" which indicates that the host channel is 29, one of my local PBS stations.

I have a Panasonic DMR-EH75V, but I think the procedure is the same for any TVGOS unit.

Then if you start having problems again, you can call up the station and have them pass word to the engineers that something might be wrong.

Hi,

I have wide open west cable in the chicago land area and subscribe to basic cable. I do not have any cable boxes, just direct coax from the wall. I have been getting TVGOS with my Panasonic TV and also on a Panasonic DVD Recorder DMR-E85H for years just fine but for the last couple of weeks, I have not been getting anything ("No Listing") on all the channels on both the TV and the DVD recorder.

I was able to get into the TV's TVGOS setup with the magic 753159852 number and for the Host Channel, it shows NONE. In it's progress, it cannot even obtain the time (probably because the host channel is not specified).

Is any other wide open west subscribers in the Chicago land area experiencing this? I don't want to call their support since I know when I refer to TVGOS, I'm going to get confused silence followed by an offer to send someone out to my house to look at it because the problem is always on my end.

Thanks,

Kevin

It sure sounds like they've stopped broadcasting it on your cable system. Did you try resetting your TVGOS/Recorder? That's done by holding both the channel up and down buttons on the main unit for more than 10 seconds. Note the unit must be ON for this to work. Also note this reset will reset most of your defaults so you may want to note them before doing this.
If this doesn't work it sounds like the dreaded call is due

I get my updates now but there was a glitch last week, my recorder is also 6 seconds faster than the cable box but will eventually sync back to normal in a few days.

I do so love tech support.

The first level tech support first tells me I need a cable box to receive TVGOS. I tell her I've been using it for 5 years without one. I try to explain that this TVGOS signal is coming from a local TV station and they broadcast it for free and that I can pick it up with an antenna if I wanted to. She then tells me to call the local tv station. I then asked for her supervisor since I knew I was not going to get anywhere with her.

Her supervisor was more helpfull. She didn't know anything about TVGOS and at first thought I was talking about the TV Guide channel, which is not the same thing. I explained TVGOS to her and said the problem is either one of two things: 1 - the local station that broadcasts TVGOS is not doing it anymore or is having problems and 2 - WOW cable is filtering it out some how. She then talked to some network person who said he knew about TVGOS and what I was talking about and said they are not filitering it out. She said they will now investigate with the local station to see what is going on and will call me back on Monday.

Kevin1020:

I also live in Naperville and have WOW cable. I have the same problem with both a new TV and a DVR. I just tried resetting both units. Let's keep each other informed to see what works.
--> Richard.

Richard,

OK, but please call WOW and let them know. They seem to try harder if more people call and complain. You can say you know others have this problem and have called and even refer them to this thread.

I know it can be painfull, but we have to go through their tech support

Is your new TV a Sony which uses digital TVGOS?
If so it definitely sounds like the way TVGOS is inserted into your CBS channel. Do either of you know if TVGOS is available OTA in your area?
I'm not sure if your cable system would insert the TVGOS signal or if they'd just pass it on from their OTA signal. If the latter I would think a call to your local CBS station would be in order, or maybe your cable system will make the call for you.

Naperville is the Chicago market, so it *should* be there OTA.

I've got the same problem with my Pioneer DVR-531H-S here in Frederick, MD 21703. Usually I can hear the HDD reading/writing while the unit is off and the EPG is updating ... but now my 531 is showing the message EPG but the HDD is not reading/writing. I've reset a few times but nothing has worked. I looked for the Host Station as described above, but my info screen on the TVGOS doesn't list it. I assume since it's a holiday weekend whatever the host station is, they do not have anyone on site to fix the problem. I guess I'll hold tight until early next week and pray they fix the problem.

Anyone else having this problem in Frederick, MD with Comcast?

For what it's worth, I shot an email to CBS WBBM Chicago asking about any problems with TVGOS. I figure I'll wait until mid next week to see if I get a response from them or WOW. If not, I guess I have to call WOW tech support again (groan).

OK ... this is annoying. How do I found out what my Host Station is? I do not see this on my TVGOS info screen. Is there any other way to find this out? I'm in Frederick, MD 21703. Thank you all.

Post #5 above tells you how to see it. I was able to do this for my TV (2 years old), but it didn't work for my DVD recorder (5 or so years old). For my TV, it shows NONE for the host channel... which tells me I'm not getting any TVGOS signal.

Yes ... I tried that with my Pioneer DVR-531H, but it did not give me the Host. Is there any other way to get it?

I'm in Naperville also, on WOW cable (digital, with a cable box), have been without the TVGOS for a couple of weeks now. My DVR is a Panasonic, I think an E85H.

I haven't called WOW yet, but emailed from a support forum at a Macrovision site:

http__://www.macrovision.com/dtv/10061.htm

I got a canned reply that I'd receive a response within 24 hours, but it's been a week.

That site has a search by zip code and cable provider. According to that, I am not supposed to be having any problems.

Pioneer 53x/63x all use a local PBS station, and they seem to be stopping their TVGOS signal service early. My local PBS engineer says "they're having meetings about the analog TVGOS but don't have an answer yet." Probably won't.

Are you saying that the transistion to digital in FEB 2009 will be the end of TVGOS? I was not aware that the change to digital would affect the TVGOS. I get my signal through my local cable service, Comcast. I have extended basic service and no cable boxes ... just work off the TV tuner.

I purchased a new Philips HDD/DVDR from my local Sam's Club this past weekend. Nice unit, but the remote sucks, and no On-Screen Guide. It works like the old fashion VCRs. I'm going to miss not having TVGOS and I don't want to have to pay for TIVO service. Is there any other free services out there that will work with with the switch to digital service?

Thanks for the help and info!

Hi,

Please call WOW. They won't do anything unless multiple people call and complain.

Thanks,

The old ANALOG TVGOS is obviously ending in OTA antenna signals and most likely in cableco signals too, at least from PBS and the old Gemstar data stream they inserted in their broadcast signal.

Macrovision/Gemstar has a new digital transmission system that they chose CBS to broadcast in their signals and CBS is rolling that out. Many people report contacting their CBS station and they say the signal is already there... however, I *think* users need a digital-tunered device to receive it.

People have assumed that the new digital TVGOS will be included in the cableco signals like before, except now on a CBS host station's DIGITAL channel?

Not sure if other networks/stations will carry the TVGOS signal like they did the analog. Pioneer units were all designed to use PBS only as their host channel, but Panasonics used several alternatives making it more "crash-prooof." So, with the new digital TVGOS, the TV or DVDR still has to be designed to receive the new data stream, and that will be noted in the specs, I suppose?

The original analog TVGOS pilot signal system is being slowly phased out in many markets, often without notice in hopes that interest and queries will just fade away with the signal. Some over-the-air stations are dropping it by accident or by design as they rush into preparations for the ATSC switchover in February. Workarounds are slow in coming and GemStar is not offering any official future-proof solutions to those affected. Cable systems across the country are figuring out how they can position themselves to benefit $-wise from the February transition, the last thing they're concerned with is preservation or delivery of the TVGOS signal: it doesn't generate income for them. There are a lot of factors hitting at once here. One of the biggest problems is that the only consumers who care deeply about TVGOS are the ones who bought TVGOS-equipped DVD/HDD recorders. DVD/HDD units did not sell as expected, and most were dropped from the market in 2005-6 (Panasonic, which had the best version of TVGOS, held on in Canada until this past summer). Mfrs are notorious for shrugging off support of unprofitable, discontinued products: without Toshiba, Panasonic, Sony and Pioneer putting pressure on GemStar, individual consumers lose vital industry leverage.

The new digital TVGOS system is being rolled out primarily as a feature of new big-screen TV displays, since no new recorders with ability to make use of digital TVGOS are expected in the USA/Canada (it requires a hard drive to be really useful, but hard drive DVD recorders do not sell, Catch-22). All of the existing TVGOS recorders have analog tuners which can't receive or use the new digital pilot signal. As the old analog signal gets turned off, you experience listing failure in the recorder. This is the technical hurdle that needs to be solved: its surprising GemStar is not sponsoring an ATSC converter box with a TVGOS conversion feature for older recorders. Perhaps they will after February, once the host channel agreements stabilize completely and the entire OTA-dependent populace is forced to buy conversion boxes. I think its a reasonable hope they will sell such an accessory.

But those who use cable may have a harder time of it. Cable systems do all sorts of rotten signal processing and they are not terribly responsive to consumer complaints. Cable systems carrying off-air ATSC digital broadcasts may not necesarily retain the new piggybacked digital TVGOS signal. If they do, you might need to rent the dreaded decoder box to pass along the new TVGOS. Cable vendors have long loathed customers who opt for the cheapest, "boxless" service tier and they are moving now to push as many as possible into taking the decoder box. "Boxless" or ClearQAM service is becoming more corrupted by the day, depending on which cable system you're on and how much abuse they think they can get away with. The more people hit GemStar, host stations and cable companies with emails, phone calls and letters, the more chance that solutions will emerge. Keep bugging all the parties concerned until you get results: this isn't the time to sit quietly and wait it out. Numbers speak: let them know there is a significant, active market.

Yeah, people all over the forum are starting to complain like crazy that they're dropping the OTA analog signal early. The latest bunch are the Sony DVR owners. I'm still getting it on mine last time I checked, though.

Maybe I should enable the TVGOS in my EH-55 to check if it's still available here. I've been running in the TVGOS manual mode testing how that works. I miss the automatic titling that TVGOS gives me so I think I'll enable the full TVGOS and see what happens. I know the digital TVGOS is still working, I use that every day on my Sony LCD.
AFA the Pio DVDRs I would think they would operate the same as the Pannys. They just search for the TVGOS signal and really don't care what network/channel it comes from, it searches for the signal. Now if the station that's currently broadcasting the signal all the sudden stops I don't know if the DVDR is smart enough to start searching for another channel. If it wasn't then I would think a factory default reset of your unit would start the search over again. That or if there is some way in TVGOS to start the search over again.
In the Panasonic EH-55 you can either reset the whole unit or in TVGOS there's a option to do the search again. Either method will start the search process again and check every channel for the signal. Of course if the signal is not being broadcast in your area on a analog channel it won't find anything.

The WOW supervisor called me back and said she talked to the "executives" who told her that wide open west cable does not provide TVGOS so they cannot provide any solution or a reason as to why we are no longer getting it.

I disagreed with her and gave her the example of the local CBS station all of a sudden stops transmitting everything and I no longer get any programing from CBS. If this were to happen, I would call WOW and complain and I would expect WOW to contact the local CBS station and find out what is going on and when the problem would be resolved. This is no different than TVGOS not being transmitted. I exept WOW to contact the local station and find out what is going on. As I stated before, I did send WBBM Chicago an email asking about TVGOS but have not received a reply but I really don't think I should have to do this but instead WOW should do this for me since they are charging me big bucks every month for providing me with this great service.

She also stated that she is hearing of other people complaining so everyone, please keep calling until they can at least tell us what's going on. The supervisor's name I spoke to at WOW was Susan. Don't waste your time with the first level of support... just ask for "supervisor Susan who is aware of TVGOS problems".

I pointed her to this forum but she says she is not allowed to access it from her work which sounds like a crock to me since in the past, I have been on the phone with WOW technical people with HD issues and they looked at it while on the phone with me.

She stated that she will tell the "executives" that I did not except their response and get back to me later today. We will see.

I do have a side question... if the analog TVGOS is going away and is replaced with a digital TVGOS signal, won't my Panasonic TV with TVGOS support and a built in QAM/ATSC tuner be able to pick it up?

Thanks,

Should be able to since it has a TVGOS search/store/display system in its FW.

Thanks, that's what I thought. So that tells me I'm not getting ANY TVGOS signal (analog or digital) from any local station.

Maybe you can find the setup-type menu or command for your TV like there is in TVGOS-enabled DVDRs, where you enter the code number 753159852 at the appropriate menu spot.

In DVDRs, the "generic" procedure is (and this may provide a clue for your TV?):

1-Open TVG and, in top menu bar, select SETUP > "Change system settings"... highlight it only (DON'T press Enter).

2-Enter on keypad the #s 753159852 (an "X" "I" pattern) > Right arrow to 2nd grey screen > Find "Host Chan" in left column and see if there are #s at right, which may look like 1:0-10 in Pioneers or 0x9 in Panasonics and others. The last full # is your Host Channel. ("VBI Chan" is the channel you're tuned to now.)

3-If there is a Host Chan there, remember the # and press TVG button to exit. If NO Host Chan listed, go back to Step 1 but press the following #s on the keypad: 653159147, which resets the TVGOS system. I think you have to press TVG button to exit (it might exit for you?), then turn unit off, then on, and reset TVG settings. Don't accept zip code or other choices, rekey and toggle them as if new settings. Wait overnight to see if you get TVG and channel listings for your zip.