[Snowdog65]

"groundhog day" solution?

If you are having the "groundhog day" problem, where you have re-run setup and just have the guide run down again, it may be conflict the PNears hack, or it just may be MS detecting we are Canadian and trying to OTA-HD and screwing with us.

I have done the reinstall 6 times now.

But I think it is sort of working now.

You have to completely reset WMC:
How to reset Media Center - Windows 7 Help Forums


This will remove all hacks. Don't put any in. Now use your closest US ZIP code.

Do all the manual channel updating and mapping you need...

I did this and I do seem to be getting guide updates now.

BUT since I have no hacks, and a US zip code, I only get half my channels.

 

[corndog]

Snowdog65; What zip code are you using? I get errors for any Buffalo code I try.

 

[Snowdog65]

13662 - Massena

Which is closer to Ottawa where I am.

Did you do a full WMC reset, as per link above.

I have seen working zip fail, then work after resetting WMC.

 

[corndog]

I'll try that. And yes, I did the reset. I'm running out of options and will be switching to Tablo/AppleTV as soon as the new ATV hits the shelves. So frustrating to see a good product disappear but I'm thankful to all on the forum for their persistence.

 

[Lobo]

So one problem I'm seeing is that some of the shows with this updated guide don't have indicators for new or repeats. I have Modern Family and Big Bang Theory set to record new instances but I'm finding daily recordings of the repeats that appear on either the same channel or other channels. Anyone else experiencing this?

Lobo

 

[corndog]

You have a guide? <:0

 

[Snowdog65]

8th time, the charm?

I seem to be cured of the "ground hog day" issue, and I have guide info for all my OTA channels in Canada, and it seems to be updating. So I will share what worked, and did not work for me.

What I did for my final and 8th reset, actually it is the 8th time I worked on it. Some days I might have done a couple of unsuccessful trials. So really it is a lot more attempts since the cutover. It is more like 6 times I got it working enough to get the guide info once, before it ran out again, needing a repeat.

RESET:

Full reset to clean out everything:
How to reset Media Center - Windows 7 Help Forums
Or just go run MediaCenterRecoveryTask, if you done as often as I have you know where it is.

SETUP:

Redo TV setup.
Region USA This is a critical bit, do not use a hack to enable ATSC in with Canadian Postal code.
Zip Code - Something close to you, over the border.

Eventually it will come back finding OTA tuner or it may find nothing, that is still OK, select OTA manually if it doesn't find it.

Channel add/cleanup:

All the channels will likely be wrong. Delete all the channels that don't have numbers for the ones that you receive in your area.
For those with matching numbers. Check and delete if they aren't working.
I was left with one channel at this point.

Now go do a scan for channels.
This got me most of the rest of my channels, but I was missing two, I added them manually.
Delete ones you don't want.
Test all your channels.
Now I have my channels but no guide.

Canadian Guide Info:

Peter Nears hacks.
https://onedrive.live.com/?cid=3323ACF37BD7B107&id=3323ACF37BD7B107!236

Run CanGuide.bat (run as admin from command line). This will add Canadian Guide info to a US Zip.

Do NOT run EnableATSCandQAM.bat. It seems to cause the "Groundhog Day" issue for me (possibly others), but the CanGuide.bat still works with US Zip code.


Now I have guides info for my city, and I can map my channels. It's a bit of a pain because their are ~1200 entries in the channel list for mapping, so updates take a while.

This seems to end frustrating months, of continual re-installs, I've had since the cutover, hopefully it will help some of you as well.

 

[Jazon55]

Guide listing

I finally got this going after many re-installs(I lost count after 12!) I used Norton Ghost to make an initial image. I live in the Vancouver area and I get the correct guide listings..

I did run the EnableATSCandQAM.bat
setup the guide for Canada and enter Postal Code
Scan for channels - Channels will have the wrong frequency!
Add DTV Channels with the correct frequency and merge guide listing with the channel with the wrong frequency and unselect it.

and it works!

 

[Snowdog65]

But is you guide updating? I did that 6 or more times, and each time it "worked", but it would not update, so the guide would just run out and I had to do it again.

 

[Jazon55]

I've checked the guide. I believe it is updating. I currently have Guide data up to Oct 11 5:00pm. I will update it again tomorrow and see what happens..

 

[Snowdog65]

Which Windows version? I am on Win-7 x64.

 

[corndog]

Curious and frustrating. My resets are now getting more and more invasive. I had to do a system restore after one of them. Still no guide data. I have a month to wait for the new Apple TV. I officially surrender.

 

[Lobo]

Yeah I'm still getting updates but the lack of whether a show is first run or a repeat is playing havoc with my recordings.

Lobo

 

[Jazon55]

I am running Win-7 64 too. My guide is updating - I get guide data to Oct 12 - 5:00pm. I am using 3 Avermedia Duet dual atsc tuners. This setup gives me 6 tuners for 10 channels.

 

[Snowdog65]

Ok, glad it works for you. I was just hoping to narrow in on why some of use had issues with the EnableATSCandQAM script.

 

[lunear]

I gave up too. I watch TV series on Kodi with a plugin called Genesis. You can watch movies, TVs on line very conveniently.

 

[goodgenie4u]

I had a blind spot or a senior moment when I upgraded from Win7 to Win 10. I now miss badly the 8 years of fab quality OTA broadcast TV. I live in Toronto I get ABC<NBC< CBS< PBS< and a few Canadian channels. It's all we need. The regular living room TV in our condo gets about 5 channels. Now my wife hides the remote!

My 8 yr. old dual core, HP Media Centre, Win 7 (Hauppauge 1600 TV digital WinTvTuner ) did much better.However 3 months ago, I noticed that the Programme guide was not updating itself. Then came the misfortune, Win 10. No more OTA TV on my computer. My spouse's programme favourites, she watches on the main TV. I'm shut out of my favourites.

Since then I have installed XBMC /Kodi and I have local media that I can watch and some streaming. Unfortunately my 25 MB internet speed is limited by monthly download/upload limit of 125 GB. They want $30 /month more for unlimited. ($30 is the cost of adding basic channels of ISP DSL based TV and unlimited bandwidth).I cannot stream on Kodi 8 hrs/day as it were! In fact not even 4 hrs /day. So I need my OTA capability back.

I intend to re-install Windows 7 Home Premium or Pro. Just need specific instructions, as my skills and bandwidth in my head are limited.

(1) to get the TV programme guide back for WMC.
(2) With (1) above accomplished, is there some way to hook up into Kodi for live OTA TV (not recording

Thank you in advance if you can lay down the steps for me.

Dennis

 

[mark_aok]

I ran into the same issue a few months ago...one day I noticed the guide data was completely empty. The frustrating thing is that every time I think the issue is fixed sure enough 2 weeks later either all, or some channels are missing guide info.

My latest attempt was to reset Windows Media Center, i.e. using these steps I found online:
~~~
1. Please close WMC and open Task Scheduler (Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Task Scheduler
2. Expand Task Scheduler Library, the Microsoft, and click on Media Center
3. Right click on MediaCenterRecoveryTask and choose Run. You will not get any indication of anything happening.
4. Open WMC. It will tell you that a serious error occurred, and take you to the initial setup screen.
~~~

I then re ran the WMC setup using a nearby US postal code. Was pretty painful, I kept getting an error saying the Guide data could not be downloaded. After about a dozen attempts and various changes (dns flush, editing hosts file, etc.) eventually the guide updated.

I then ran into yet another issue where the guide data didn't include all channels, so I used pnear's scripts.

Everything seems OK now...but I'll check in two weeks...hopefully the guide updates!

The whole process has been pretty frustrating. I tried Kodi+NextPVR...generally this solution was pretty unstable but I'm still tweaking some settings, hopefully this solution can eventually replace WMC for us.

 

[lunear]

Thanks. I reset Media Center and use Peter Near's crack to get the guide and it partially works. I can get all guides for those major channels, but no guide for sub channels such as 7.2, 17.2, etc. I guess it might because the crack was written years ago, and there have been some new channels after it. BTW, i'm in Toronto. Anyone can contact Peter Near to update the crack?