I want my EPG, say Windows Media Center users left in dire straits Users of Microsoft’s Media Center PCs report that their electronic program guides (EPGs) aren't downloading data, or are offering incorrect data, nobbling their ability to use their boxen as video recorders. In the Media Center feedback thread at Microsoft.com users report receiving no data, data for the wrong location, images …
W8.1 failed about a week or so ago for me. It falls back to getting the EPG from the OTA data, which makes it a bit hard to spot exactly, but the HD channels have had a blank EPG here for about 2-3 days, so I'm guessing the web-based EPG went off the air about the 1st-2nd September.
I do wish they'd stop dicking around with it.
GJC
Are you sure the UK stream is compromised? I've just triggered a guide update that has an expiry date of 17 Sept.
If you have 7 days then that's the standard over-the-air EPG data from Freeview. If you are getting the proper feed then you should have a fortnight's worth of data - plus a lot more metadata.
(I'm getting only the OTA EPG data too)
Is this a premature end of media centre? It's probably going to be the final nail in the coffin for me the only thing really keeping me using media centre was the TV guide.
I've started investigating alternatives, for Freeview, it's not too bad since you can get the EPG over the air. For Freeview HD channels you have to use the EPG data from the equivalent SD channel.
Yes even Media Portal is better then that crap that MicroSoft has since recently packed in. But, only just! Its still Billions of light years from Linux VDR in my honest opinion. But, I guess it depends upon your application(s). My primary application of course was, and more or less continues to be for live TV, and I find a simple SAT2IPTV converter + an Android / Google TV Box is more then enough to get the job done.
WMC is about as useful as a dog poo teapot. First it has like ZERO SUPPORT for any European TV Standardards *cough* DVB-C (Cable TV). Add to this the very obscure, and costly adaptors needed to get it working. Plus the fact that you can NOT just pull the aforementioned EPGs straight from the source. Makes Windows Media Center the laughing Stock compared to Linux alternatives such as MythTV, or Video Disc Recorder (i.e. VDR). Of course the one thing all these formats share is a very high running costs. When a small Android / Google TV Box with Kodi installed can pretty much do the same. Or if needs be a full on OpenELEC install with TVHeadend.
BeyondTV was the best of these DVRs for simplicity and ease of use. Unfortunately, it has been long discontinued by the developer. Have tried Media Portal but find the set up to be a headache and the operation not as user-friendly as BTV. MCE is a bit in-between. Easier to set up but not very user-friendly. I am looking forward to the upcoming release of Homerun DVR, and hoping it will be the best on all fronts. Unfortunately, it will be subscription based.
Here are two text files detailing how to fix the "No Data" program guide problem.
You need to do the "WMC (Windows Media Center) EPG (Electronic Program Guide) showing No Data Available" fix first.
Then the "Reset PlayReady".
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Is WMC’s(Windows Media Center) EPG(Electronic Progam Guide) showing No Data Available?
Are you using OTA (Over-The-Air) service?
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 to get 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.
Example: For (Dallas/Fort Worth) use ZipCode 75227
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
Type "cd c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc"
Type "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
Type "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 about three minutes
Reboot PC 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 > TV > TV Signal > Set Up TV Signal
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.
-------------------------
#2 "Reset PlayReady
If you need to reset PlayReady, you can do the below to speed up the process (no uninstall of the PlayReady software). This just resets the data to the default state (read: empty).
1. Close Media Center
2. Open CMD prompt as Admin (click on the start manu, type cmd, right click on the exe and select "Start as admin"
3. Type "net stop ehrecvr"
4. Type "cd %programdata%\Microsoft\PlayReady"
5. Type "del *.hds"
6. Type "rmdir /s Cache"
7. Type "cd %programdata%\Microsoft\ehome"
8. Type "del *.hds"
9. Type "rmdir /s Cache"
10. Type "net start ehrecvr"
11. Launch Media Center
12. Go to Tasks->Settings->TV->TV Signal->Update PlayReady
...all the alternatives have their fans. In the face of Win 10's lack of support, I tried 3 or 4 of them.
They all stink... IMHO of course. MCE is easy to set up, simple enough that my parents can use it, and almost totally bulletproof. I mostly only want to have a PVR and the 10-foot interface and official remote make this really easy. I could cope with any of the other options if they didn't look so amateurish and didn't have feature overspill. But of course they do.
I do understand that viewers of encrypted channels or European (even US) users find it harder to make work - but for those of us with Freeview (& HD) and Freesat tuners in the UK, it's like it was a system designed by Microsoft just for us in Blighty. And the daft buggers are slowly killing it off.
For 10 years it's been a wonderful, capable, reliable product - how many other MS apps can claim that?
(Yes, I'm a fan.)
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