Windows Media Center EPG Data issues - UPDATE 7/27

I've tried all of these "fixes" with absolutely not success.  Previously, my EPG was working perfectly until this changeover of listing providers.  Why fix something that wasn't broken???  I totally agree, why didn't Microsoft stay with what was working well, not some piece of **** listing provider with either no listings or inaccurate listings if you are fortunate to get anything at all.

Everytime I attempt to get the listing, the error in my event viewer always says "Error: PackageName is invalid".  I can't understand how a tech company such as Microsoft can't figure out a solution to fix these problems, I'm losing confidence very quickly with them.

Performing steps 1 and 3 seems to have fixed my problem of listing not updating.  Thanks!

A simpler fix is to return to what worked Zap2IT. Even though I get the guide, the guide is still pretty useless. Rovi does not keep track of all shows and whether a show is a repeat or not. It does with some but not with all. If you go to the Roviguide website you see the same garbage data. The problem is if you cannot tell WMC that something is a repeat b/c you get generic programming data versus specific episode data, then it will record everything because it does not know the show is old as dirt.

People are disgusted with Microsoft b/c Microsoft made the switch to Rovi when Zap2IT worked perfectly fine.

Hi everyone:

I want to give a quick update on where we are since my post earlier this month. My team continues to work on this issue, and we greatly appreciate the help and support of the community in reporting issues and sharing info.

Since my last update, we’ve been updating the data feeds and cleaning up issues you have been reporting via the Connect site. Thanks for the reports – as I mentioned earlier, we won’t be able to respond to each Connect report directly, but we are gathering and working through the issues as they come in. I've gotten some other reports via PM as well, and those get added to the list as well.

We’ve also been investigating the problem is not getting any new EPG data at all, which is still a problem for some of you. We’ve tried repro’ing the problem in our lab with limited success - in fact, during our initial testing before the rollout, we never saw this issue. As folks on this forum have pointed out, some people with multiple WMC installs will see this problem on one install but not another, which indicates it's a transient issue, very difficult to reproduce and root cause. We're focusing on recovery methods - steps you can take to help get EPG data flowing again.

There have been troubleshooting steps given in this and other forums that have had some success. We took a look at them, did our own verification, and the team is confident in endorsing them as recommended ways to help resolve the problem.

1. RECOMMENDED: Clearing the DNS cache.

This is a simple step and seems to be effective in some cases. To do this, open an elevated Command Prompt and enter ipconfig /flushdns. This removes old DNS entries from the cache and forces the machine to reacquire the proper IP’s for our download URL’s. 2. RECOMMENDED: Trying different ZIP codes.

This has been effective for some users, and also returns usable results. You can see if your ZIP code, city, or other nearby areas, are available at http://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/tv-listings - enter your ZIP code or city name to see the providers for that area. 3. PARTIALLY RECOMMENDED: Run the ObjectStoreRecoveryTask in Task Scheduler.

This step is a little more involved, and should be undertaken by advanced users only. This can clear older EPG data from your WMC installation, allowing a restarted WMC to pick up the new data feed. Effectiveness is unknown, which is why it’s only partially recommended – it won’t damage your install, but requires some experience to make it work.

For this method, follow these steps: 1. Close WMC 2. Open Task Scheduler, by opening Control Panel, System and Security, Administrative Tools, Schedule Tasks 3. In the left tree, expand Task Scheduler Library, Microsoft, Windows, Media Center 4. In the right pane, under name, right-click ObjectStoreRecoveryTask, and click Run (let it run for 2+ mins) 5. Close Task Scheduler 6. Restart WMC

We're working on some other, more involved methods, and I hope to have some more concrete recommendations from the team within the next week or so. Until then, please keep reporting issues at the Connect site (https://connect.microsoft.com/site1145), and thanks again for your help.

--Jon, MSFT

I got:

The system has encountered an unexpected error. We apologize for the inconvenience. The issue will be addressed as quickly as possible.

If this error continues, click the Help link at the top of the page to report the issue and include this error ID in your e-mail: 91853bfa-a872-4c2a-aa5b-58e67017dc00