TV Guide not updated when cable company changed listings

I have Suddenlink cable digital (Milton WV). On Dec 15th, Suddenlink added new channels and change a couple of channels. The Windows Media Center has not updated the guide listing (the 5 new channels are missing), and even worse, the listings will not go past Dec 26th (this corresponds to the time frame it would have went out on around the time of the change).

I tried resetting up the tuners where you get to select the provider and redownload that way. I also have tried changing to another (wrong) listing, viewed the guide, changed back to Suddenlink Milton digital, and it redownloaded the same data, ending on Dec 26 (no data shown after that). The guide information in Windows Media Center says that the data is powered by Zap2it. I go to their website and select my provider and it shows the new channels and the data goes out way past Dec 26th.

Is there someone I can contact to get the listings updated that transfer into Windows Media Center?

Ray

raysheppe said:

Is there someone I can contact to get the listings updated that transfer into Windows Media Center?

Click to expand...

To advise Zap2it (i.e. Microsoft's Guide provider for WMC) of channel lineup changes in your local provider, you need to post "feedback" on this site.

You will need to have a Windows Live id (just register to get one, if you don't already have one).

You sign in on the above page and push the "provide feedback" link and then just follow the wizard and enter all the information that's relevant. They'll want the 8-digit numeric ID for your particular channel lineup as shown in WMC (which is related to your zip code and cable provider, which you entered when you configured and set up WMC), as well as the other relevant information about the missing or re-assigned channel numbers and station names.

It may take a few days or weeks for the results to appear, but in my case (with TWC/LA) every time I've notified them about channel lineups it has resulted eventually in the expected corrected Guide listings.


As far as your other reported problem, that WMC has seemingly stopped performing its twice-a-day check of the Guide to keep things current (and going out about 11 days at all times), that occurred to me once before. And I believe it may have been tied to channel lineup changes around the same time.

I think I ended up deleting all of my series recordings and all of my upcoming one-off recordings. Then I went back into WMC and re-did all the setup from A-to-Z, re-retrieving the new current channel lineup for my setup. Then I edited my channels, re-built my Favorite Channel lists, and re-created my series and one-off recordings.

Eventually things began to work normally again. I think the secret ingredient was first deleting all pre-set upcoming series/one-off scheduled recordings and then going through WMC setup from the very beginning. This is what rebuilt the channel list, and then that seems to be what re-triggered the normal twice-daily check with Zap2it for updated Guide data.

Or... I suppose it's actually possible that the updated Guide data per Zap2it was simply falling behind (not as it should and not that this is normal, but as was actually happening... through no fault of your WMC setup).

raysheppe said:

Is there someone I can contact to get the listings updated that transfer into Windows Media Center?

Click to expand...

Note that updated channel lineups is one of the automatic functions provided through the twice-daily check with Zap2it that WMC does. It's not just for automatic Guide data update, it's also for automatic channel lineup updates.

So while you can notify them yourself of channel lineup changes, the cable provider also notifies them (although they might lag a bit, which of course is annoying to use WMC users). Eventually you would have seen the channel lineup changes, even if you hadn't taken it upon yourself to notify Zap2it as I've described above.

But... when channel numbers change this presents a real problem for WMC when previously set series/one-off recordings are present for the affected channels. And that's why I believe it is critical for you to first delete all of your existing scheduled recordings (even for unaffected channels), and then redo the WMC TV setup from the very beginning (which includes setting up your zip code and provider, and retrieving current channel lineup). Then rebuild channel lists and Favorite Channels, and rebuild scheduled recordings.

I think this approach should work to kick-start your WMC back into normal operation.

I have FiOS Digital here in New York City. They recently added MSG-HD channel but the channel has not been added in the WMC guide. The channel is on zap2it.com for my cable provider. I've re-run the WMC setup to force it to rescan (multiple times actually) for channels but it still did not find the new MSG-HD channel. I read on another website that there is a current problem with Microsoft's guide updating mechanism with Zap2It. Apparently many people are having similar issues with the WMC guide not updating. Shame that Microsoft treats us like we are dopey kids. Why can't I manually add a channel? All I would need is to tell WMC to send the numeric signal to the cable box. I mean, let me worry about the rest, WMC. Just do what I tell you to do. There is no "add channels manually" option in my WMC setup, apparently because my TV provider is a digital provider. I don't know why that should matter since the cable box is doing the tuning. All WMC is doing is sending the signal to the box to change the channel. The cable box is sending the TV signal to my tuner card. Ughh.. more frustrating poorly designed dumbed-down junk from Microsoft.

Ray,

It might not be your cable provider at all, as it is happening to me as well. ("No data available" begining 7pm 12/26 on most, though not all of my channels.) And I can confirm it is not corrupt data at my end either, as this is happening on both of my PCs.

oxgt2e,

Could you please favor us with the link to the site referencing the the issue with Microsoft/Zap2It? I believe this is more likely the problem.

I agree. Add me to the list.

Despite what I had posted above previously (and it's all correct and true), I was checking my upcoming scheduled recordings just now and noticed that nothing was scheduled out beyond Sunday 12/26. That certainly seemed strange (and wrong).

So I checked my "About Guide Listings" (under Tasks -> Settings -> TV -> Guide -> About Guide Listings") and sure enough, my two Guide packages are not out there 11 days as they usually are.

My "digital terrestrial" listings (for OTA/ATSC here in LA) only goes out to 12/27. My "TWC/LA digital cable" listings only goes out to 12/26.

So this appears to be a global issue, with Zap2it not providing info to EVERYBODY, not just you or me (as other reports here seem to confirm).

I've seen this before. They go away for a holiday weekend and their data updates just stop for several days! And this is an upcoming holiday weekend.

So as we move toward the end of our last Guide update I know we all panic, but other than the inconvenience of not being able to see or schedule out beyond the next few days eventually Zap2it does come back on line and automatic updates resume normally. I'm sure they will correct this matter fairly promptly.

So, as long as this current problem doesn't extend beyond Sunday 12/26 I won't have a problem. All my recordings are pre-scheduled "series" so I'm confident everything will resume normally before too long.


Nevertheless, what I posted previously about that Microsoft/Zap2it update site for your local cable system channel lineup changes is accurate and correct.

As is my description correct of what I had to do the properly implement a channel lineup change, when it affected my previously set recordings. I had to delete them all, then redo WMC TV setup, and retrieve a fresh channel lineup, and then edit channels and Favorite Channels, and then recreate all my series recordings.

Sounds like the first step is to manually map your new digital channels in WMC.
Otherwise you won't receive the guide data for those channels.

Sardonicus said:

Sounds like the first step is to manually map your new digital channels in WMC.
Otherwise you won't receive the guide data for those channels.

Click to expand...

What are you trying to say? I don't understand.

Guide data is retrieved automatically based on (a) your zip code, and (b) your service provider. This includes the channel lineup appropriate for your zip code and service provider.

You can't manually assign or add channel numbers in WMC that I'm aware of. You can only edit out channels that you don't care to show up in channel lists or Favorite Channel choices. But you can't manually add channel numbers.

The channel numbers available for your zip code and provider are distributed by Zap2it automatically, and that's it. This update, along with Guide updates, are processed about every 12-hours by WMC's scheduler service (at around 3PM and 3AM).

At least I believe that is the true story.

dsperber said:

Sardonicus said:

Sounds like the first step is to manually map your new digital channels in WMC.
Otherwise you won't receive the guide data for those channels.

Click to expand...

What are you trying to say? I don't understand.

Guide data is retrieved automatically based on (a) your zip code, and (b) your service provider. This includes the channel lineup appropriate for your zip code and service provider.

You can't manually assign or add channel numbers in WMC that I'm aware of. You can only edit out channels that you don't care to show up in channel lists or Favorite Channel choices. But you can't manually add channel numbers.

The channel numbers available for your zip code and provider are distributed by Zap2it automatically, and that's it. This update, along with Guide updates, are processed about every 12-hours by WMC's scheduler service (at around 3PM and 3AM).

At least I believe that is the true story.

Click to expand...

If using an Hauppauge 2250 QAM tuner, WMC doesn't automatically map the digital channels. One has to manually map all my digital cable channels to get the EPG data for those channels. If a new channels gets added by the cable company, one has to manually map it to get the guide data for it.

Most digital QAM tuners require that you map the channels to get the EPG data. It's probably not the case if the tuner has a cable card. So I quess it depends upon the OP's setup.

Sardonicus said:

If using an Hauppauge 2250 QAM tuner, WMC doesn't automatically map the digital channels. One has to manually map all my digital cable channels to get the EPG data for those channels. If a new channels gets added by the cable company, one has to manually map it to get the guide data for it.

Most digital QAM tuners require that you map the channels to get the EPG data. It's probably not the case if the tuner has a cable card. So I quess it depends upon the OP's setup.

Click to expand...

I see.

I'm using a Ceton 4-tuner card, which does involve the use of an M-Card inserted into it. So it's all automatic, this channel lineup stuff.

Fortunately my own TWC/LA area is "former Comcast", meaning it was "former ATTBI", meaning it was "former Communicom", meaning it is Motorola infrastructure and has the bandwidth to support the more than 100 HD channels TWC/LA now provides without the use of SDV and tuning adapters to further complicate things. But the Ceton card can also work if SDV/TA hardware is involved.

Anyway, there is an M-Card in the system, the complete set of basic and premium channels is supported (both copy-freely and copy-once, but not copy-never pay-per-view nor OnDemand) and all channel lineup stuff is automatic via Zap2it to WMC. No manual user overrides are possible.

Thanks everyone for the help, and especially to dsperber for the link for posting to zap2it. When I got up this morning, I thought I would download the latest guide before posting and trying all the mentioned items. When it finished, Praise the Lord, my new channels were there and the guide is back to 11 days . So your guides should go past Dec 26/27 on the next guide update.

Thanks a bunch,

Ray

Illinger said:

oxgt2e,

Could you please favor us with the link to the site referencing the the issue with Microsoft/Zap2It? I believe this is more likely the problem.

Click to expand...

Here is the link - Windows Media TV Guide No Update Seems that some are reporting that a fix has been implemented and are confirming that it has solved the issue. However, I am in New York City and my WMC guide is still not updated even though the Zap2It.com listing is fully updated. I just updated my WMC guide here at 4:55 PM on December 23, 2011 and I am still missing channels even though they are listed on the associated Zap2It.com guide. Specifically, my WMC guide does not show MSG-HD channel 578 on FiOS Digital.

oxgt2e said:

However, I am in New York City and my WMC guide is still not updated even though the Zap2It.com listing is fully updated. I just updated my WMC guide here at 4:55 PM on December 23, 2011 and I am still missing channels even though they are listed on the associated Zap2It.com guide. Specifically, my WMC guide does not show MSG-HD channel 578 on FiOS Digital.

Click to expand...

You might give my previously described solution a try... namely deleting all of your currently scheduled upcoming recordings, including "series".

Then re-do the WMC TV setup, and re-get channel list for your zipcode/provider. Then edit channels, and create your Favorite Channel lists. Then re-create your scheduled recordings... picking up the new channel numbers.

The emptying of all future scheduled recordings worked for me when TWC/LA revised their channel lineup last year. Something about the residual scheduled recordings for the old channel numbers seems to have been what prevented WMC from doing what it should have been able to do by itself.