I wouldn't say a Buffalo ZIP works "perfectly"; I still don't get listings for most Canadian stations.

It is not the problem of the Zip Code, it is the problem of the Rogers stations which do not prvoide the programming information. Apparently, they do not want the EPG works on OTA equpment.

CRTC should mandate the stations to provide some basic program information instead of some silly thing like DTV Event 1545.

Hate to defend Rogers, but Global, SunTV, SRC, and CHCH also don't provide anything usable (at least for the last little while). Only CBC, CTV, TVO, and recently CTS do. The FCC mandated US broadcasters to supply a minimum of 12 hours. No such CRTC requirement. :mad:

AmowAgou, My comment was in regards to TVGOS, which does provide programming data on Canadian stations, including those owned by Rogers. What you're referring to is PSIP programming info, which is not--unfortunately--provided by many stations of various owners (as mentioned by El Gran Chico).

The CM7000Pal will populate TVGOS data first--if present. If no TVGOS for a particular station is present, it will populate PSIP programming data if available.

This box is a bit nicer to use in the Toronto area now that CITY, Omni1, and Omni2 have guide data. Once CBC and SRC PSIP guide data returns, that will only leave CHCH, Global, and Sun with no or dummy data. We can forget about Sun, but perhaps we could gently point out to CHCH and Global they are being lone wolves in this regard.

I hit another bug yesterday - I clicked "record" on the program I was watching (in progress) and it recorded everything on that channel for the next 12 hours, even though that channel had good guide data (should have stopped after about 45 minutes). The only unusual thing about the program was it was one of those shows that runs to 1 minute after the hour.

Are you getting a full week of guide data for CFTO like me?

Yes. I've confirmed via TSreader it's not coming from CFTO's PSIP data, so it must be TVGOS. Question is from where? WNED or CFTO?? :confused: It is a shame that this unit's interface to TVGOS is so poor. If the new ChannelMaster unit uses TVGOS, I sure hope it's much improved.

As an aside, if I look at TV Guide online (http://www.tvguide.com/Listings/ which I assume uses the same data source at TVGOS ?? ) for the US zip code I use, it is years out-of-date in places. Still shows WNGS as a WKBW subchannel, 2.2 shows as WGRZW for the old weather subchannel :o and doesn't carry data at all for CBC and TVO which I'd imagine are probably the 2 strongest Canadian stations in that zip code. :rolleyes:

I would suspect the data is coming from Buffalo's WNED (for CFTO), as that's where my ZIP is set to. Though given the "unpredictability" of the CM7000Pal, it's anybody's guess.

I've sent an email to ipgcustomersupport@rovicorp.com requesting the necessary channel additions for Buffalo (WBBZ), Toronto and Hamilton to the Buffalo host transmitter. I got an automated response indicating that all requests are typically processed within 5 days. Let's see what happens.

have had the unit for about a week now and for some reason the time setting keeps reverting to an hour behind, ie. turn on the unit at 8:00PM and it reads 7:00PM. Go into time zone, yes its set for EDT, change local time back to 8:00PM and its ok until the next evening when the problem repeats. Have I got a defective unit? Haven't contacted CM yet...was wondering if anyone had the same problem and had it resolved....

I haven't experienced this specific issue, but something similar.

Are you setting the time yourself? Or is the unit self detecting the time?

Several weeks ago, my unit was inexplicably reverting to GMT (+5 ahead of EDT). This occurred right after the digital conversion. It happened twice, and automatically corrected itself ("the device has found an error with time settings and resolved it" message appeared on screen). Haven't seen the issue since.

My suspicion is that the device probably searched for the current time from a station that was sending out incorrect settings; proper time but incorrect time zone--a likely scenario directly after a digital conversion. Though many stations (according to posts here) present incorrect time on occasion.

In other words, the device is okay, but a local station likely wasn't.

Unfortunately there are no means to determine from where the device is detecting time. There is a TVGOS host station in Ottawa (CHRO) which could be providing the device time.

There is something in the diagnostics screen to debug this, but it is really hard to interpret. If I can get my wife off from watching the shows she's recorded, I'll look at mine and see if I can give you some tips to identify what's wrong.

I'm sure Jase88 is correct. Some bad PSIP setting in the System Time Table may be causing this. If it's off by exactly 1 hour, I'd bet a station you receive has the DST flag set to 0 instead of 1.

BTW, this box is alot of fun :mad: at daylight saving time transitions if your stations are less than perfect.

In July 1969 the U.S. successfully put a man on the moon.

In September 2011 (42 years later) man is still trying to accurately set the time on his electronic devices. Too funny and too sad at the same time!

What is so complicated about these comparatively simple electronics? Is everything made in China and things get lost in translation? Do they not beta test these things before putting into production?

Same thing with mine except it was only off by about 5 minutes. Every time I tried to manually change it in the settings it wouldn't accept it. Tried to find where I set "obtain time automatically" but couldn't. Not until I did a full reset did the time become correct.

I'd like to hear more about the diagnostics screen debugging.

quote: "Unfortunately there are no means to determine from where the device is detecting time. There is a TVGOS host station in Ottawa (CHRO) which could be providing the device time."

so, if I delete CHRO from the list of stations that the CM receives that might solve the problem?

Quote: "Are you setting the time yourself? Or is the unit self detecting the time?"

When I did the initial setup I chose EDT and Daylight savings and got the correct local time. Only when I noticed the time anomaly the next day did I set the time manually

Mr Weather, how did you do a full reset? Is that simply holding the power button for 10 seconds (like other PVRs) or unplugging for a minute or two?...

What is so complicated about these comparatively simple electronics? Is everything made in China and things get lost in translation? Do they not beta test these things before putting into production?

I believe that in an effort to simplify things, they've over-complicated them.

This device looks to third parties (TV stations) for time synchronization. The vast majority of tuners receiving digital stations don't require accurate time broadcast from that station. Therefore, the stations themselves don't recognize this as a priority.

And as El Gran Chico pointed out, it can be as simple as forgetting to properly set a DST flag in a configuration menu at the station.

I checked with my contact at Channel Master, and he confirmed that there is no log file or diagnostics function to determine from where the time is being detected. Though he believes that the device looks for a TVGOS host, and attempts to gain time from that station first.

There is something in the diagnostics screen to debug this, but it is really hard to interpret. If I can get my wife off from watching the shows she's recorded, I'll look at mine and see if I can give you some tips to identify what's wrong.

I'm sure Jase88 is correct. Some bad PSIP setting in the System Time Table may be causing this. If it's off by exactly 1 hour, I'd bet a station you receive has the DST flag set to 0 instead of 1.

BTW, this box is alot of fun :mad: at daylight saving time transitions if your stations are less than perfect.
Update to post 471. It's on the main diagnostics screen if you page down. You'll see various timestamps, but I've found no way to tell which comes from where. I read somewhere it selects the median timestamp (not sure if this is true or just a hypothesis).

thanks Jase88. I ran a factory reset and selected 'no' for daylight savings and the correct time seems to be holding. Also when it rescanned for channels CHRO did not show up. So.... not sure if the factory reset and no Day light savings did it or if not having CHRO in the lineup is fixing the problem.

the other issue is with the standard guide. All titles are off by an hour. Presume I'll have to live with this problem? Anyway to fix it or is that, again, something that's inherent in the OTA signals?

Have you tried enabling DST? Or does the issue come back when DST is enabled?!