My TiVo Has Wrong Guide Data

This topic is for situations where your TiVo has missing, confusing or generally wrong Electronic Program Guide (EPG) data (that is, what you see when you use the Guide button, Search By Title, etc) but the wrong data is not explained by a guide data issue at OzTiVo 's mothership (for that situation, see S3OzTiVoHasWrongGuideData instead).

OzTiVo EPG versus official Hybrid TV EPG

The Electronic Programming Guide (EPG) information on the OzTiVo server uses different ID numbers for series and episodes, which means that Season Pass® and WishList ® entries created using the official Hybrid TV EPG will no longer obtain upcoming episodes (although some people find that recordings keep working for some hours after changing to OzTivo, if the To Do List is not recreated).

This means you will need to delete and re-create your Season Pass® and WishList ® entries when you change to OzTiVo EPG. OzTiVo recommend to Clear program information & To Do List (which clears all program information, cancels all (see comment below) Season Pass®, WishList ® entries and everything in the To Do List, and removes all Thumbs Up and Thumbs Down ratings on your TiVo) before you connect to the OzTiVo service, so you don't end up with a mixture of guide data from different EPG sources, which can be confusing and cause recording issues. The official Hybrid TV EPG data (which included 4 hour blocks of To Be Advised for everything after 8th November 2017) will expire on the 18th of November 2017. An alternative to Clear program information & To Do List is Clear and Delete Everything, if you also want to remove everything including recordings from the TiVo.

If you have not connected to OzTiVo service (to get guide data from OzTiVo) on this TiVo, then it is suggested to run the Clear program information & To Do List option via TiVo Central > Messages & Settings > Restart or Reset System onscreen menu after an upgrade to OzTiVo. [See below before running this option]

OzTiVo suggests before upgrading or running the Clear program information & To Do List option on your TiVo to make note of your Season Pass® and WishList ® entries by writing each entry down or using a digital camera to take photos of your TV screen (or if you can ssh or telnet into your TiVo then you can run list_sps.tcl on the TiVo to display Season Pass® entries and then perhaps copy the output to a PC using winscp or scp or similar). The day after the OzTiVo upgrade is performed, you will be able to recreate your Season Pass® and WishList ® recordings just like before. You must wait many (like 12-24) hours for the TiVo to 'index' (sort and organise) the new OzTiVo data before the Season Pass® and WishList ® features will operate correctly. The suggestion to wait a day after will ensure these features are ready for use.

• list_sps.tcl: Program to run on an OzTiVo to display Season Pass® entries

It is important not to get guide data (which happens during Connect to TiVo Service, including the automatic daily connects) from the OzTiVo server before doing CPI&TDL. This is because the OzTiVo server tracks when was the last time it successfully sent guide data to each TiVo Serial Number (TSN), and will not resend guide data generated before that time. So if you Connect to TiVo Service (on dial code 140), then CPI&TDL then Connect to TiVo Service (dial code 140) again then you won't get any guide data until the next morning when new guide data has been generated at OzTiVo.

How do I tell whether the wrong guide data is wrong at OzTiVo?

Sometimes it is clear the problem is on your TiVo. For example if you get inconsistent results looking at guide data (for example Record By Channel and Record By Time show different shows for the same time and channel). Some common problems here are:

1. Lots of To Be Advised programs, each lasting 4 hours. This was a common problem in early-mid November 2017. The To Be Advised placeholders come from guide data in the official TiVo Australia/NZ mothership for November 8 to November 18. If your TiVo has To Be Advised and also guide data from OzTiVo, then you see OzTiVo guide data in the browse by channel view, but To Be Advised if you select a channel and browse by time. However, when you select one of the To Be Advised items, you will often see the OzTiVo data for whatever is showing at the time that To Be Advised block starts. If you have this problem, the treatment is to Clear Program Information and To Do List.
2. Find Programs > Record By Time or Channel > Browse By Channel looks right, but Browse by Time and Search By Title are both empty. This has been seen when first loading guide data after Clear Program Information & To Do List and is believed to be caused by indexing on the TiVo taking a long time (like 6/12/24 hours), in which case it will fix itself in time (just wait).

If there is just the odd show here or there which has wrong guide information, that is likely to be a S3OzTiVoHasWrongGuideData issue instead.

Otherwise you can check the S3 TV guide data at https://hd.oztivo.net/tivo-bin/tvguide.pl to see the information in the OzTiVo guide database. The username and password is the same as for this TWiki (hd.ozitvo.net) but you may need to also access allowed for your username if you registered for TWiki after October 2017. There are a few people including DavidKeegel who can grant access for Australians; or if necessary you can ask on OzTiVo Forum http://forums.oztivo.net/forumdisplay.php?33-Australian-TiVoHD. If the S3 TV guide web interface shows a different thing to your TiVo, then you are looking at the right topic.

How do I fix it?

Firstly, check above for a few solutions to common problems. If your guide data are out of date, try Connect To TiVo Service Now. If that doesn't work, then check that your TiVo is using Dial Code 140.

FIXME: add more diagnosis and treatment here.

Should I re-run Guided Setup?

In general, no. At least, not just because of changing to OzTiVo, unless your time zone is wrong, for example if a TiVo has come from interstate.

If you do run Guided Setup (for example because your TiVo had a Clear and Delete Everything run on it or has a wrong time zone) then (for early-mid November) OzTiVo recommends using the postcode of the CBD of the capital city (GPO) in your state (2000, 3000, 4000, 5000, 6000, 7000), or 2000 for ACT, 0800 for NT; or just use NZ for New Zealand. Otherwise you may have issues with your TiVo's time zone being wrong, until OzTiVo supports more postcodes. Note, it is expected that OzTiVo will support lots of postcodes in late November, at which point you should use your normal postcode (where you live) whenever doing a Guided Setup. Also you might lose a Media Access Key (MAK) used for Multi Room Viewing and Home Networking Package (if you purchased this option from Hybrid when it was available) by doing Guided Setup against the OzTiVo mothership.

If you want to run Guided Setup, then go to TiVo Central > Messages & Settings > Restart or Reset System > Repeat Guided Setup and then follow the on-screen prompts. Note: A Guided Setup will not delete your Season Passes or recordings, however you will need access to the internet and a digital antenna as your TiVo will scan for channels and download the latest Electronic Program Guide information. For most people it is not necessary to re-run guided setup when changing to OzTiVo, unless your time is wrong due to your TiVo thinking it is on Australian Eastern Daylight Time when that is not your time zone. Some users are reporting that it may take two runs at Guided Setup before the TiVo is happy.

Back to: S3FAQ

-- DavidKeegel - 2017-11-10

Comments

I found that Clear program information & To Do List deleted the Season Pass items which were on the To Do list. Before CPI&TD I had 19 season passes and 3 of those were in To Do (but with no upcoming episodes). After CPI&TD, Season Pass Manager shows 16 season passes and the 3 items which had been in To Do have disappeared not just from To Do but also from Season Pass Manager.

-- David Keegel - 2017-11-07

I	Attachment	History	Action	Size	Date	Who	Comment
tcl	list_sps.tcl	r2 r1	manage	0.4 K	2017-11-06 - 11:13	MattCallow	Program to run on an OzTiVo to display Season Passes

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