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Guide data sucks

8K views 91 replies 35 participants last post by  CodeButcher 
#1 ·
It is getting worse day by day. Just today:
Deadline WhiteHouse on MSNBC recorded from 2:30pm to 3:00pm while the actual show was 3pm to 5pm.
Nascar Arca race started recording 1 minute before the END of the broadcast, and then recorded 2 and a half hours of crap on NBCSN

It seems every day, the guide data is wrong and I either miss my shows or end up having to set up a 12 hour manual record for a channel to make sure I see what I want.

If I didnt have three lifetime accounts, I would just dump Tivo completely and go with YouTube TV. The Tivo is the only reason I stay with Xfinity. Now I am having to use their Xfinity stream app on my Roku to back up the Tivo.

Very very sad.
 
#2 ·
It is getting worse day by day...Very very sad.
agreed, wholeheartedly.

i spend way too much time babysitting my to do list, checking the x1 guide to see what's really going to be on, and scheduling manual recordings just in case we go another few days without an update. if i was paying for this service, i'd call and give tivo a piece of my mind! oh, wait...
 
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#3 ·
Problem is there are two "guides". One half, the current week, is real and gets the updates about daily. The last half is boilerplate and changes maybe every six months. Last Friday we stopped getting updates on TE3. So we have fallen into boilerplate territory. I hope it gets fixed today. Added to the issue is the TE4 data on a TE3 box as I have now. It's signature is that the guide data ends at 8pm (Eastern) and there is TBA until 12:30am a few hours later. During August I would get TE4 data every Friday and it would correct on Monday. This (or last) week it happened on Saturday and hasn't been corrected. Deadline Whitehouse was on that 90 minute schedule during the conventions. Now it is 2 hours and Chuck moved to 1pm. It doesn't help, but TE4 had the Black Panther update and no issues since it receives 3 guide updates every day.
 
#4 ·
Does anyone have the correct guide data on their Tivo for the hockey games tonight? Should be games starting at 7PM and 9:45PM EDT on NBCSN. All I see is generic programming, and that's what tvguide.com is listing also. My Verizon FiOS guide has it correct.
I also noticed that the College Football schedule on ESPN hasn't been updated for this weekend, as of yet, either.
 
#6 ·
That's what I've had to do for a while now. I'm just wondering if TE4 has the correct listings for the Hockey games.
Everything has required a manual recording lately. I've been sending in lineup issue reports for the last few days, but haven't seen any updates.
 
#9 ·
That's what I've had to do for a while now. I'm just wondering if TE4 has the correct listings for the Hockey games.
Everything has required a manual recording lately. I've been sending in lineup issue reports for the last few days, but haven't seen any updates.
In my case the Tour De France is no longer listed in the guide. Ok, not many people like it but it is the biggest and most important cycling event in the world.
How can each and every other guide be correct, yet ROVI data is wrong.

Xfinity guide is head and shoulders above TIVO.

One other issue I have with the TIVO guide is with my local PBS programming, and that ALWAYS has generic descriptions. It is impossible to set One Pass for these shows.

TIVO's response to me is that this is correct. TIVO guide is not supposed to have my local PBS station's programming correct. It is working as expected!!!

I used to love TIVO but they are driving my business away from them to Comcast. Never in a million years did I think that could ever be possible.
 
#7 ·
Bad guide data is the reason I haven't taken TiVo up on any promotion to get a new box (still using my Roamio Pro). Having it record what I tell it to record is the principle reason I own a TiVo. After missing episodes in a variety of "one passes" because of TiVo's bad guide data, I finally learned I had to verify in advance that my TiVo was actually going to record a new episode of a program that was in the middle of a new season. Several times I was able to tell it to record what TiVo was telling me was an episode from a previous season when, of course, it wasn't. (What channel has a new season of a show on and then substitutes an episode from an earlier season in the middle of the run? None.) And, of course, since I choose to save some of these recordings I have to remember in the long term that even though the guide data might say something is season 8, episode 5 it's actually season 10, episode 5.
 
#8 ·
Guide data has gotten horrendous. With the pandemic, so much broadcast TV is being updated daily, like sporting events and schedule changes in the wake of Chadwick Boseman's death (ABC aired Black Panther commercial-free Sunday and a tribute show, and then I stumbled on Paramount airing 42 and Draft Day back-to-back last night), and this is now the fifth day in a row we've gotten no new guide data except for Friday's 24-hour placeholder blocks, so we're getting none of those changes. It's beyond frustrating, and TiVo doesn't seem to care.
 
#23 ·
It's beyond frustrating, and TiVo doesn't seem to care.
When they merged with Rovi they absolutely stopped caring about the guide data, then they stopped caring about their retail DVR customers entirely.

The guide data is horrible and I'm sad we're stuck with it - that was the saving grace of other DIY DVR solutions, you could go with a Gracenote-based guide and not have too many issues. Now there's issues every freaking day, and the amount of 'No description' stuff is beyond belief.
 
#12 ·
Well, I see that I'm not the only one. I noticed that the guide data hadn't updated for a few days, so I ran a connection a little after noon to no avail. Nothing at all loaded. Lots of incorrect guide data, etc.

It's been bad for a while now, but it's getting worse. I hope that turns around. Do they just not give a crap anymore?
 
#16 ·
I'm not one to generally give them the benefit of the doubt, but I hadn't really noticed the guide issues until covid hit. I don't mean it in a sense that the people that work at the guide data company aren't at work, but the stations seem to keep changing their programming. Especially sports programming. In the NY/NJ area - YES network guide data is constantly incorrect or "to be announced" , and truth be told, hour by hour, if there is or isnt a yankees game could change. Basketball games and baseball games are being cancelled due to protest and nobody knows whats going to be shown instead. Even non-sports programming seems to be constantly changing. Throw in election programming and random shows being pulled off the air (i.e. LivePD) due to the times we live in and it may just be to a point where they have thrown in the towel until things settle down. What is odd, is that I have a bolt in one room and a roamio plus in another - if I do a call in at the same time on both, the guide data will be different . . the roamio will always have big gaps. Again, mostly on the sports channels, but odd its not on both. Im thinking they may not be putting out the guide data so much into the future since its changing so much.
 
#28 ·
On Sunday, when I checked during the "Black Panther" movie for the start time of the "Chadwick Boseman: A Tribute for a King" special that ABC was airing afterwards, our TiVo didn't show either program. I checked Channels DVR and their Gracenote data was 100% accurate, so I recorded it only on that one. Because stopping all activity to do a manual TiVo update was not within WAF parameters.
 
#31 ·
The morning scheduled update (~10:15 EDT) was empty again, but I forced a connection shortly after Noon EDT today and it finally loaded several days worth of guide data. I guess they finally located the hamsters and got them back on their wheels. I now have guide data up to 8pm EDT on Monday 9/13 (so still about a day behind where it should be, which has been typical lately).
 
#36 ·
Fortunately, I don't have some of those issues with TE4. What I do have is issues with what is new vs.repeats. My system tries to record many shows that aren't new. Also in the guide there are items marked "new" that aren't. I have to continually manage the to do list to get only the really news and add things it doesn't want to record.
 
#38 ·
Thanks for that link. Good to have that as a reference for when CS reps try to gaslight users into "troubleshooting" their equipment when the problem is at TiVo's end.
Try rebooting twice, then redo the setup, then reboot again, then wait 48 hours and then reboot again while plugged into a different outlet because the guide problem is probably from faulty wiring in your house.

Or "upgrade" to Hydra as someone suggested. That's the ticket.
 
#39 ·
Try rebooting twice, then redo the setup, then reboot again, then wait 48 hours and then reboot again while plugged into a different outlet because the guide problem is probably from faulty wiring in your house..
and whatever you do, don't plug a tivo into a ups, it not only creates guide problems and software issues, it blows the power supply. :rolleyes:
 
#43 ·
I checked my bdrm Tivo and, coincidentally, it is running a connection. It's up to 67% and started at 2:08, so I guess it's loading a bunch, as it doesn't usually take this long.

Still - will believe it when I see the end results on one/both of these machines.
 
#44 ·
TivoSupport twitter gave me the old Repeat Guided Set-up :( I reiterrated that the problem is with their guide data, and also submitted a line-up issue ( https://t.co/lYZZqX1R5b?amp=1 )

Not very hopeful. Maybe if/when enough people start complaining someone will wake up the hamsters...
Tivo support said the same thing to me , but they said they will look into it further , let's hope that's the case
 
#47 ·
Even though our Bolt guide is now 5pm 9/14, PACIFIC time -- it's still weird because it shows 4pm MSNBC, "Decision 2020" coverage of the conventions.

And, all day in Tivo Central it shows only "In My shows", no other shows from other sources.

edit: shows Decision 2020 for a lot of MSNBC, e.g. Monday 9/7 hours like that.
 
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