WMC changing EPG providers, check your schedule

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bradly1101

Diamond Member
May 5, 2013
4,689
294
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www.bradlygsmith.org
I can confirm that my guide is also missing the "original air date" for news broadcasts. I don't record any new programs so this will not affect me.

As a workaround for you, you might be able to record specific timeslots via the "add recording" function. Recorded TV > Add Recording > (either) Wish List or Keyword (or) Channel and Time.

Yes that's the temporary solution (using date and time) but it doesn't catch time changes/preemption, doesn't follow series buffer times, and adds the word (Manual) to every recording, making them hard to find. MS is supposedly working on it:

http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/viewtopic.php?p=92741&f=5#p92741
 

lupi

Lifer
Apr 8, 2001
32,539
260
126
well this is pretty screwed up, trying to get my media pc running 8 to update the guide and still haven't found a way.

decided to just check what my win7 pc showed and it swapped over to the new guide and has couple weeks of listings. WTF is it with it only not working for my 8 machine?
 

lupi

Lifer
Apr 8, 2001
32,539
260
126
I did, numerous times and it would keep giving me an unable to download guide data error.

finally saw some comments that a couple others had to run the mcupdate program a couple times in a row and then wmc would finally allow you to update again. rather tiresome.
 

lupi

Lifer
Apr 8, 2001
32,539
260
126
Not sure why my media pc tried to screw me, but have now gone and checked all the other pcs that had wmc installed and everyone auto updaated to the new guide except the one that mattered and cost me 2 hours troubleshooting.


Blah.


On the good news side, managed to snag a WD 2 bay nas for dirt cheap so I can now try using that for some addition program storage.
 

country2

Senior member
May 1, 2001
598
4
81
On mine I had to edit the hosts file with 2 new ip address for ms and delet the old release the renew the IP for the htpc.Then reboot it finally changed from zapit to the new one.

New IP are 65.55.186.113 data.tvdownload.microsoft.com
72.246.56.59 cdn.epg.tvdownload.microsoft.com
 

Ketchup

Elite Member
Sep 1, 2002
14,545
236
106
So I was over at the parent's house, and none of their channels have shows listed. This is an older Dell that's running Vista. I can still see broadcasts and manually recording, but no TV listings. When I tell it to update, it says it completed, but there are still no listings.

Does anyone have any ideas?
 

Aikouka

Lifer
Nov 27, 2001
30,383
912
126
So I was over at the parent's house, and none of their channels have shows listed. This is an older Dell that's running Vista. I can still see broadcasts and manually recording, but no TV listings. When I tell it to update, it says it completed, but there are still no listings.

Does anyone have any ideas?

The first thing you should do is retry running TV setup. If that fails, you should reinstall WMC (through the Windows Features option). I had to do the latter last night on one of my HTPCs. But once I did it, I could finish TV setup and get my EPG back.
 

Ketchup

Elite Member
Sep 1, 2002
14,545
236
106
The first thing you should do is retry running TV setup. If that fails, you should reinstall WMC (through the Windows Features option). I had to do the latter last night on one of my HTPCs. But once I did it, I could finish TV setup and get my EPG back.

Thanks, re-ran TV setup and it found the Cable carrier, searched the normal length of time, but still comes up with no data for each channel. Says it wants to update, says it completes successfully, but again no data. Unfortunately, there is no way to uninstall/re-install Media Center with Windows Vista. The next time I am over I may try upgrading the PC to 7 and see if that makes any difference.

This is a local cable company though, and they (my parents) are not using digital channels on Media Center. I guess I could ask the company for a digital adapter and try to get the digital channels, assuming that's the issue, but considering the current state of Microsoft and Media Center, that may not even be the problem.

It's just irritating because I just found this Dell and gave it to them a couple months ago, and it's already not doing what it was intended for. At least, if nothing else, they can still use it like a normal VCR.
 

country2

Senior member
May 1, 2001
598
4
81
Ketchup, is it showing as still using zap2it or Rovi? I was using vista also and had to manually edit the hosts file and ipconfig /flushdns then it started using Rovi but I also had to try different zip codes until I found one that works.

from green button forum posted by HDTV-WC-Fan

The problem is that WMC does not know where to find the data for the EPG. Around July 26, 2015 Windows change data providers from Zap2It to Rovi. Microsoft and Rovi were ill prepared for this changeover. To do the changeover WMC needs to change from the Zap2It to Rovi for its’ Guide. WMC should change data sources by running WMC Setup. Setup fails to change data sources for three reasons.

1) Setup cannot complete this task until it recognizes Rovi as the guide.
2) Rovi needs a valid zipcode, and this is important, that Rovi is providing data for
3) WMC needs to know where get to Rovi data

Let’s solve issue 2 first. Rovi’s zipcode data base has massive holes. To find a zipcode that will work for you. Go to MSN Website populated by Rovi data and find a working provider.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/tv-listings

In the search menu keep entering cities till the drop down menu produces a provider that will work for you. Most cities will not provide an OTA option. Since Setup will not accept cities you still need to find a zipcode within that city that will work. (I live in Atlanta and had to use a zipcode from 30 miles away 30601.) Enter that zipcode make certain that the website populates with data that is useful to you. Write it down, this will be zipcode that Setup needs.


Now let’s deal with issue 3. Helping WMC find the Rovi data source on the web.

close WMC
click start button
type CMD in search box
right click CMD and run as administrator
cd c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc
notepad hosts
Add the following 2 lines
65.55.186.113 data.tvdownload.microsoft.com
72.246.56.59 cdn.epg.tvdownload.microsoft.com
(if there are other lines in your file that are for data.tvdownload.microsoft.com or cdn.epg.tvdownload.microsoft.com comment them out by placing a # at the beginning of the line)
save the file and exit notepad
in your cmd window
ipconfig /flushdns

click start button
in search box type taskschd.msc
after task scheduler opens
In the left tree expand Task Scheduler Library, Microsoft, Windows
click on Media Center folder to highlight it
In the upper window of the center section scroll through the activities under the Name column.
right-click ObjectStoreRecoveryTask, and click Run
Let this run for a minute or two

Reboot and re-open WMC. You will receive a warning that WMC corrected a problem and will download the Guide EPG data again

Tasks > Settings > General > Windows Media Center Setup

Use the Advanced instead of the Express option.

Remember to use the zipcode from the MSN Rovi website!

What is this is doing: 1) hard coding the lookup for data.tvdownload.microsoft.com and cdn.epg.tvdownload.microsoft.com. As soon as you put entries like this in your hosts file the DNS that you are using no longer matters. This eliminates the need to change your DNS to google or open DNS. 2) ipconfig /flushdns removes any caches entries for the items listed in your hosts file. 3) the task scheduler run removes your epg guide while you have a valid zip code. This forces WMC to completely re download the epg from the ip address listed in your hosts file.
 

country2

Senior member
May 1, 2001
598
4
81
Also wanted to add I finally formatted and installed w7 64bit on the htpc and after many updats and reboots it started using rovi (did have to use a different zip code) it downloaded the guide on the initial install but after that would not...until I ran it as Administrator.
 

country2

Senior member
May 1, 2001
598
4
81
http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/viewtopic.php?f=96&t=9299

Noticed the last couple of weeks that all the college games say TBD so started looking for solutions and came across this. Will try shortly then see how next weeks look.

Same as what I posted.yes it does work but also 1st update during install worked but next update would not download had to run wmc as admin to get updates to download next time and after that all was good.
 

lupi

Lifer
Apr 8, 2001
32,539
260
126
Did the task scheduler reset finally last night. So far looks good, have actual teams listed for the games I've checked so far.


Only issue I had was I did it while some recordings were in progress and it broke those into 2 parts. Didn't lose content other than a half second or so during the transition, so do it while not recording.
 

joutlaw

Golden Member
Feb 18, 2008
1,108
2
81
Appears the guide is messed up again. I've also had poor accuracy and media art since the move to rovi. Looking at epg123 and Schedules Direct as an alternative.
 
Oct 16, 1999
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lupi

Lifer
Apr 8, 2001
32,539
260
126
I was screwed up around DST time, finally got new data about 36 hours before old data ran out.
 

joutlaw

Golden Member
Feb 18, 2008
1,108
2
81
Yep I went with the epg123 yesterday. I tried to backup my recorded series, but something didn't work right when I restored. I ended up manually adding all the series I could back which was a pain.

So far, the metadata and cover art is solid with Schedules Direct. I can definitely justify $25/year for it.