Missing Guide Info

[Rich A]

Problem: EPG guide data has changed.

I noticed something like this last night. Pretty sure it is not related to NextPVR but rather has something to do with our Cable Provider (Comcast / Xfinity) Here's what happened.

Wife was using the Comcast Xfinity DVR to watch shows and browse channels last night at around 10:30 PM (USA CT local time) in the living room.

I was watching live TV on the HTPC in the home theater using my Nextpvr that was also recording three other shows.

On the Xfinity DVR she suddenly couldn't change channels .. also the "on demand" was no longer available. The EPG only had the current hour or so of channel listings shown with anything more than a few hours later was "no available data". Normally we have a couple weeks of EPG data and now there was only a few hours.

At that same time, while I was watching a live newscast channel on the HTPC I suddenly started to have severe audio sync problems and some video stuttering. Normally I can stream Netflix, and watch a live NPR channel while it's also recording three more channels with no issues. So the sudden stuttering and audio sync problems were a new problem not seen in a few years.

I then started troubleshooting my problems with the HTPC .. while my wife was telling me the Comcast remote and DVR was going bonkers !

I didn't want to interrupt the three current and a few pending recordings so I left everything as was ...

This morning all the audio sync and video stuttering problems automatically went away. I confirmed all recordings and live views etc. were okay. BUT I noticed that I now only had 7 days of EPG info on my NPVR system. I checked my Schedules Direct account and it was as normal which was at "least" 14 days of epg data info. I did a NPVR recording engine restart .. then a guide update etc. but it now only produced 7 days of guide data. I'm almost positive I used to have at least 14 days of guide info in the past. So something has changed.

As for the Comcast DVR .. this morning it is totally hosed. It is now only showing a few hours of available guide data. The remote control will NOT navigate the on screen epg at all. There is no longer any "On Demand" capability.

So .. at this point I'm about to do a hard "reset" or re-boot of the comcast DVR. It seems to me that Comcast (which I hate by the way) has done it again and has made yet another change that has screwed up our systems.

What is puzzling to me is Sub's remark about the length of days covered in the EPG guide as only being 7 ?? I'm pretty sure I've always had at least two weeks and remember once looking ahead almost 3 weeks in the past ? I am not using the regular NPVR TV Guide by the way and am using instead the TV Listing plug in. I've since checked and can not see any reference to any data regard to settings of the number of days to display in the EPG ..

I do not believe this is NextPVR related but rather to Comcast's screwing around with their system. I'll report back more later.

[sub]

OK, sub, thanks. May I suggest that the "no details" entries should extend to the number of days of the guide. <SchedulesDirectDays>14</SchedulesDirectDays>

Thanks again...

I'll bump up the number of days it fills. There was no perfect number of days though - lots of people don't use Schedules Direct. Lots of people have a mix of days of listings depending on the channels they use. etc.

[mvallevand]

Could you calculate it from the last date in the guide and pad each channel?

Martin

[sub]

Problem: EPG guide data has changed.

I noticed something like this last night. Pretty sure it is not related to NextPVR but rather has something to do with our Cable Provider (Comcast / Xfinity) Here's what happened.

Wife was using the Comcast Xfinity DVR to watch shows and browse channels last night at around 10:30 PM (USA CT local time) in the living room.

I was watching live TV on the HTPC in the home theater using my Nextpvr that was also recording three other shows.

On the Xfinity DVR she suddenly couldn't change channels .. also the "on demand" was no longer available. The EPG only had the current hour or so of channel listings shown with anything more than a few hours later was "no available data". Normally we have a couple weeks of EPG data and now there was only a few hours.

At that same time, while I was watching a live newscast channel on the HTPC I suddenly started to have severe audio sync problems and some video stuttering. Normally I can stream Netflix, and watch a live NPR channel while it's also recording three more channels with no issues. So the sudden stuttering and audio sync problems were a new problem not seen in a few years.

I then started troubleshooting my problems with the HTPC .. while my wife was telling me the Comcast remote and DVR was going bonkers !

I didn't want to interrupt the three current and a few pending recordings so I left everything as was ...

...snip...

As for the Comcast DVR .. this morning it is totally hosed. It is now only showing a few hours of available guide data. The remote control will NOT navigate the on screen epg at all. There is no longer any "On Demand" capability.

So .. at this point I'm about to do a hard "reset" or re-boot of the comcast DVR. It seems to me that Comcast (which I hate by the way) has done it again and has made yet another change that has screwed up our systems.

This will be nothing to do with NextPVR. When you're using a set top box, NextPVR is only using the single tuner used for live tv. Even then, it wouldn't be able to stop a user with the STB remote from changing channels. ie, this just sounds like your Comcast DVR doing something screwy.

This morning all the audio sync and video stuttering problems automatically went away. I confirmed all recordings and live views etc. were okay. BUT I noticed that I now only had 7 days of EPG info on my NPVR system. I checked my Schedules Direct account and it was as normal which was at "least" 14 days of epg data info. I did a NPVR recording engine restart .. then a guide update etc. but it now only produced 7 days of guide data. I'm almost positive I used to have at least 14 days of guide info in the past. So something has changed.

...snip...

What is puzzling to me is Sub's remark about the length of days covered in the EPG guide as only being 7 ?? I'm pretty sure I've always had at least two weeks and remember once looking ahead almost 3 weeks in the past ? I am not using the regular NPVR TV Guide by the way and am using instead the TV Listing plug in. I've since checked and can not see any reference to any data regard to settings of the number of days to display in the EPG ..

With Schedules Direct, the overnight EPG update does 14 days of listings. When you manually click the 'update epg' it only grabs 7. It does this to make the process quicker for a brand new user setting up tuners with schedules direct for the first time (otherwise it can be a long wait).

ie, just leave it doing the overnight EPG update and you should find it has a couple of weeks of listings.

My reply to jcole998 about 7 days was only related to the special "(no show details)" entries, which fill in the gaps. This doesn't related to how many days of real listings you have.

I do not believe this is NextPVR related but rather to Comcast's screwing around with their system. I'll report back more later.

Correct - nothing to do with NextPVR.

[sub]

Could you calculate it from the last date in the guide and pad each channel?

Martin

Yeah, I've thought I should do something like that, but no one has ever raised it in like the last 15 years, so I haven't worried about changing it.

[Rich A]

An update .. As Sub suggested my problem here was all related to my Cable provider (comcast). They were doing something that was screwing around with our cable feed for a an hour or so last night which was affecting my NextPVR live viewing and recordings. I also found that when I had installed the TV Listings plug in, I must have reverted to the original "Settings.xml" file which had a line <SchedulesDirectDays>7</SchedulesDirectDays> (which was it's original setting). Prior to that I had edited that to be 14 instead of 7. My Internet speed is extremely fast so I wasn't worried about the time involved doing the normal updates.

Haven't looked recently at the length of epg days so I never realized until today I never reset it to a higher number of days. I did so today, and now everything is back to normal. Now getting the full 2 weeks of guide data as well as 2 weeks of upcoming recordings etc.

As for the Comcast DVR .. yup it needed to reset with a hard reboot. Some day I will replace that Xfinity DVR with another small HTPC and wire up the aggravating Xfinity DVR to run in the background as a hopefully never to be used back up. <grin>

BTW, I also got a note last month from Comcast saying that "On Demand" capability for people using "Tivo" and similar devices will no longer work. I wonder how or if that is going to affect our Nextpvr ??

[sub]

BTW, I also got a note last month from Comcast saying that "On Demand" capability for people using "Tivo" and similar devices will no longer work. I wonder how or if that is going to affect our Nextpvr ??

I don't imagine that'll effect anything. ie, you're probably only use regular channel content in NextPVR, not On Demand.

On Demand is usually a special screen where you can browse movies or pay per view content, and opt to pay to watch something now. You wont be seeing or accessing that content in NextPVR currently.

[Rich A]

I don't imagine that'll effect anything. ie, you're probably only use regular channel content in NextPVR, not On Demand.

On Demand is usually a special screen where you can browse movies or pay per view content, and opt to pay to watch something now. You wont be seeing or accessing that content in NextPVR currently.

Good to know .. I was wondering about that. Thanks.