[russdog]

Not sure if this is the right forum or not. (If not, please forgive.)

A few weeks ago, I went from HD-TIVO's to HR21's. All in all, I am well satisfied with the HR21's.
However, I am puzzled about the relative lack of program info.
Compared to the TIVO, when I look to see the details of a given program, a much higher percentage of them say "No information available."
It's not most programs, but it's a whole lot more than happened with TIVO.

It is not due to recent reboots. My HR21's have been stable and have been on non-stop all the time (except for that 1 mass-reboot).
Rather, it just seems that the source of program info is not as complete as TIVO.

Why is this so?
Do they get their info from different sources?
Are they updated less frequently? Or what?
Is there any reason to think it will get any better?

 

[Chevy-SS]

About a month ago, I switched from Tivo (standard def) R10 DVR to HR22-100 HD DVR, and upgraded my service package with D* to HD Plus. I dropped Tivo completely and I didn't miss it for even one second.

I swear I have about the same amount of program info as before, though the format is slightly different. Perhaps I am not looking as far out as you, I usually only look ahead a few days or a week. The amount of info for each particular show seems about the same as my Tivo was.

Not much help, but just thought I'd offer some feedback.......

-

 

[Grentz]

Should be the same amount of info. It is the same source and displayed the same way.

The only exception is the number of actors, etc. shown from the stream, but that is not related to "No Info Available"

 

[russdog]

Should be the same amount of info. It is the same source and displayed the same way.

The only exception is the number of actors, etc. shown from the stream, but that is not related to "No Info Available"

Perhaps it should be the same... but sometimes it's not.

Here's just one concrete example: I tell it to always grab Charlie Rose on PBS. With TIVO, I would see one of two things: either it would list scheduled guests a day or so in advance (not way in advance) or, if it did not list guests in advance, then the guest list would appear in the description of the recording after the show had been recorded. With the HR, there is never ever any info about the guests, either before or after recording.

I don't pretend to know why this happens, but I know for a fact that it does.
It changed from having guest-info to always saying "No info" precisely when I changed from TIVO to HR.

 

[David MacLeod]

did you run dish setup after swapping to the hr21?

 

[russdog]

did you run dish setup after swapping to the hr21?

Sure. Changing to the HR involved replacing the 3-LNB dish with a 5-LNB.

 

[David MacLeod]

I'm out of ideas.
I just looked at the Charlie Rose showing now on my area pbs and, while its short, there is a description.

maybe try it again to force a guide update?

 

[russdog]

I'm out of ideas.
I just looked at the Charlie Rose showing now on my area pbs and, while its short, there is a description.

Well, then, I can just get info from you. Who's he got scheduled on for Monday?
;-)

 

[David MacLeod]

just says global economic crisis tuesday is harvard 100th aniversary.
not sure if my local shows same ones or not. I don't watch it so I don't know.

 

[russdog]

just says global economic crisis tuesday is harvard 100th aniversary.

Thanks ;-)

Can you do me a quick favor? Obviously, we have different locals... can you look and see if you see show-info for it on channel 384?

 

[David MacLeod]

that one says no info available for 10-14 at 2300, this was next one listed there.

 

[russdog]

that one says no info available for 10-14 at 2300, this was next one listed there.

Thanks. That's exactly the kind of message I get all the time.

 

[David MacLeod]

I expect that means the national feed is never updating its programming for this show to the guide...darn, can't remember the company that does the guide right now.
other programs there list info.

 

[russdog]

I expect that means the national feed is never updating its programming for this show to the guide...darn, can't remember the company that does the guide right now.
other programs there list info.

Perhaps my local PBS is not updating it either.
If you think of the name of the outfit that handles it, please let me know.

It seems quite odd that the program info was there on my HD-TIVO, and then stopped being available the minute I switched to the HR.
It also seems odd that the info is there for your local PBS but not for mine, and that the discrepancy is show-specific (i.e., most program info for my PBS local is there).
I freely admit that I have zero knowledge about how this works.
Do we know if each and every local has to do this themselves, rather than just rely on what their network is doing?

The same thing happened re: which college football game the locals are showing: it used to show up (often on Sat morning or the night before) and now it's frequently "No information available". Again, the difference occurred at the same time I changed HD-DVR's from TIVO to HR. I realize the choice of football game is a local or regional matter. But that doesn't explain why the info's not there AFTER the thing is being recorded. Surely, the feed itself knows what its content is. For example, before the DVR switch, the recordings of Charlie Rose always had the program info *even if* it was not available ahead of time in the onscreen program guide, but now they never do.

 

[jodyguercio]

I expect that means the national feed is never updating its programming for this show to the guide...darn, can't remember the company that does the guide right now.
other programs there list info.

David I believe the companies name is Tribune Media Services.

 

[David MacLeod]

yes, all I could think of was Media Services, thanks.

 

[russdog]

David I believe the companies name is Tribune Media Services.

yes, all I could think of was Media Services, thanks.

Thanks guys...

In the meantime, the plot thickens.
I had forgotten about our SD-TIVO (it's in a room that I rarely use).
Its channel guide does provide Charlie Rose program info, while neither HR does.
Same channel, same dish, same set-up, same everything... except different D* boxes.
This tells me that it's not the same info-source.
Any ideas?

ps: I did a reboot on one HR to force it to reload program data. No diff.

 

[Steve]

IIRC from my Tivo Community Forum days, the DirecTV TiVo GUIDE data comes from TiVo. TiVo probably gets it from TMS as well, but I believe either the folks at TiVo "massage" it before it gets sent to DirecTV, or perhaps they have a deal with TMS for customized data preparation, and that's what is sent to DirecTV.

So AFAIK, there are at least two different GUIDE data streams being sent daily to DirecTV boxes... one for DirecTiVo's and another for DirecDVR's. That said, I don't have a clue why one has more program info than the other.

I'd report the Charlie Rose anomaly as an "issue" in the appropriate thread for your s/w. Since they are both DirecTV-supported boxes, the program info should be the same. E.g., maybe the data is there in the HR2x feed, but the token that identifies that field is missing or incorrect, so it's not being reported by the HR2x. If you give the engineers specific show examples to compare, they may be able to figure out what's wrong.

Just my .02. /steve

 

[Jhon69]

IIRC from my Tivo Community Forum days, the DirecTV TiVo GUIDE data comes from TiVo. TiVo probably gets it from TMS as well, but I believe either the folks at TiVo "massage" it before it gets sent to DirecTV, or perhaps they have a deal with TMS for customized data preparation, and that's what is sent to DirecTV.

So AFAIK, there are at least two different GUIDE data streams being sent daily to DirecTV boxes... one for DirecTiVo's and another for DirecDVR's. That said, I don't have a clue why one has more program info than the other.

I'd report the Charlie Rose anomaly as an "issue" in the appropriate thread for your s/w. Since they are both DirecTV-supported boxes, the program info should be the same. E.g., maybe the data is there in the HR2x feed, but the token that identifies that field is missing or incorrect, so it's not being reported by the HR2x. If you give the engineers specific show examples to compare, they may be able to figure out what's wrong.

Just my .02. /steve

It makes me wonder why Tivo just doesn't massage the guide a little more and put in a PIG and "First Aired Date" in my HR10-250? or why DirecTV can't put better graphics and DLB in the HRs and Rs?.

 

[Steve]

It makes me wonder why Tivo just doesn't massage the guide a little more and put in a PIG and "First Aired Date" in my HR10-250? or why DirecTV can't put better graphics and DLB in the HRs and Rs?.

IIRC, TiVo used to display the "first aired date" on the second page of show INFO. The TiVo's consider a show "new" if it is airing within 28 days of the original air date. Very sensible approach, IMHO. /steve