TiVo's Contract with GraceNote (TMS) ends May 14th

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It is difficult to spot-check and find problems with Rovi data, as the problems are sporadic.

I currently use WMC with Rovi data, and do still have issues that I believe are related to Rovi (as opposed to Microsoft's poor import of the Rovi data in to WMC).

An example of an issue that exists right now is with "Storage Wars" on A&E.
There are several episodes called "Barry Strikes Back" which are all different episodes (although they all have the same episode name).

Rovi sees these episodes as all the same episode, even though they are three separate distinct episodes (and actually sees them as the same as an episode that aired last season, so WMC will not record any of them, since it thinks it already recorded them):
4/5 9:00pm ET
4/5 9:30pm ET
4/12 9:30pm ET

It appears that Gracenote does not have the same problem with these episodes (you can see that they have different unique episodeIDs on zap2it: EP01341345-0216, EP01341345-0218, EP01341345-0230).

I'll admit that having several episodes in a series with the same episode name is unusual, but Gracenote appears to be able to handle it, Rovi cannot (at least not consistently).

This is not something you would notice by looking at the web sites that provide Rovi listings, such as tvguide.com or roviguide.com as the metadata that is used is not displayed on those sites.

I've also had problems with Rovi data where some episodes of a series are not associated with the series, so that they will not be recorded with a "season pass" (in TiVo jargon). Often this data is corrected before the episode airs, but sometimes it is not (although I'll admit that I have not seen this problem within the last month or so, at least for the shows I record).

 

It couldn't have as the stockholders haven't voted on it.

 

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Around 2009 Tivo had a contract to get some data from Rovi. I suspect that's the contract the poster is alluding to.

 

Since you speak Idiot, would you be willing to volunteer as a permanent translator here?

 

If Tivo's guide data becomes significantly degraded, would it jeopardize their MSO relationships?

 

I doubt MSOs care all that much. Most of them are quasi-monopolies with limited competition.

 

I know because TiVo has told me when I requested logo updates.

 

How do you request logo updates? Do they actually fix them?

 

I've been trying since they were first added. No change.

 

I actually put in a request for a couple of major channels (ESPN and ESPN2), and after about 3 months they finally got around to fixing them.

 

I put in a request on the lineup issues page. Is that what you did, tarheel?

 

It's not just the channel/network left side. The info block is been wrong before the logos were added. Like MSNBC, TBS, HD Net Movies.

I wonder if Rovi has it right. I see that zap2it, tvguide.com both have tonight's Motive on USA correct. My TiVo box thinks it is an older repeat from last year (it is in Canada). Maybe Rovi would be an improvement.

 

Yeah that's all I did.

 

The TiVo box "thinks it is an older repeat from last year" because it is since it was first aired in Canada. You really do not want a TiVo to use the new flag as supplied by either Gracenote or Rovi. If it did, only the initial showing would qualify and if there is a conflict that prevents recording of that initial showing, a subsequent showing would not be recorded. "Motive" is actually an example of this as the episode is repeated at 0100 on Saturday. Neither zap2it nor tvguide have that showing marked as new.

 

That must be your zipcode. I show it as "new" and "Premier" in zap2it and "new" in tvguide.com. I think I mentioned Canada.

Did Gracenote supply bad data to TiVo? Did zap2it fix the data? Nobody is talking.

 

For tvguide, since they didn't have an appropriate lineup, I used the national Eastern time zone listing. The first (10PM tonight) is marked as New. The 0100 tomorrow showing isn't.

For zap2it, I'm using the Atlanta Comcast digital lineup. The first showing is marked "Premiere" and "New". The second showing isn't.

 

The NEW flag is not used by WMC (and I assume TiVo). It is the OAD that determines if an episode is considered NEW. If the OAD is within 7 days of the airing date, then it is considered NEW.

For shows that first aired in another country, the OAD is the date it aired in that country, so would result in it being never considered as NEW in WMC (in your local country).

In WMC, you would use the "New & Rerun" setting to record these foreign series, this causes WMC to record every episode of the series that has not already been recorded in the past. I would assume there is a similar setting for the TiVo.

This is why the OAD (and not the NEW flag) is so important to have correct. Currently, Rovi seems to have trouble with getting this date correct for shows that are originally scheduled for a certain date and then changed to another date before airing (it retains the original scheduled date as the OAD). Gracenote does not have this problem.

Tonight's episode of "Motive" has an OAD of 3/8/2015, so it will not be considered a NEW episode even though it is marked with the NEW flag. Nothing was "fixed" in the zap2it data, it is the same data that your TiVo is using.