Windows Media Center EPG Data issues - UPDATE 7/27

I was just wondering if this problem with the EPG for Window Media Center is why Windows 10 does not have Media Center.  As far as I am concerned that is one reason not to install Windows 10 if you want to watch and record TV on your computer.

Re: Hauppauge WinTV 7.  What version of Vista do you have?

I haven't tried installing it or any other EPG yet because I don't have the computer knowledge and programming expertise that many who post on these forums do have, so I am reluctant to try any of the experimental "fixes" (including installing any other EPG) which might make my situation worse.  Most of the postings on all sites concern other Windows versions, not mine.  Did you buy the

I have read online about Win7TV, NextPVR, and TitanTV  and so far, only TitanTV seems it might work on my Vista Home Premium 32-bit.  I'm afraid to download anything at this point but presently, I use TitanTV website to find schedule and program information, and then use WMC manual settings to record (terrible way to record, no series recording, etc. after using WMC w/Zap2it for 9 years with no problems until this change to Rovi!)

My computer, model HP Pavilion Media Center TV PC (32-bit) came with factory installed Hauppage WinTV-HVR1600 NTSC/ATSC Combo tuner but I don't know if WinTV 7 EPG is compatible with that tuner.  I have no installation disks with it, since the tuner and the Vista OS Media Center package was a factory installed edition.  I bought it in January, 2007 and installed all updates ever sent by MS including SP2.  I believe my 2006 edition with WMC factory installed has some different coding which is not allowing any of the "fixes" to work on this model.  I read online that this earliest Vista version with built-in WMC was an "experimental" version which MS decided to make available as a download option on the next edition of Vista and then on Windows 7.

When I started having the "No data available" on WMC because of Zap2it being switched to Rovi, I called Hauppage.  They told me they had received many complaints about the issue but that it was not Hauppage problem.  They did provide a driver update for using my tuner with WMC, which I installed but that didn't change anything (and which they didn't expect it to either since the EPG is through WMC). They said it had to be a problem with MS coding about where the programming is being pulled from. 

What Hauppauge didn't tell me or recommend is about trying to use WinTV 7 with the tuner I already have.  But after reading online ( http://www.hauppauge.com/site/support/support_hvr1600.html ) that may be because the driver-only update really only applies to WMC EPG.  What the website is NOT clear on is how or if the combined driver/download of WinTV 7 will work on those Vistas with built-in WMC.  As posted by many other Vista users, all of us who have the factory WMC cannot uninstall it because it does not appear on our list of installed programs and not on the Features page to "turn off or turn on". 

So, if we buy the required CD from the Hauppauge webstore for $9.95 (if you don't already have a tuner CD, and I don't because it was factory installed), does that mean it will actually install and somehow overwrite the EPG guide for WMC?  Have you or anyone else been able to use WinTV 7 on those early Vista 32-bit TV PCs? 

FYI, I have been reading all MS forums and other sites on this subject to see what fixes might be available and even posted on the MS Connect site (horrible format) as suggested by both Barb and John but so far, I have not found answers from MS nor posts from anyone who has been able to get a true switch from Zap2it to Rovi for WMC running on Vista HP 32-bit.

Come on, Microsoft...surely your public image and customer relations have suffered enough over this issue.   What if the answer here for us Vista users is just finding a way to uninstall WMC and then re-install?  If it's that simple, why can't Microsoft just tell us?  Better yet, call one of those programmers from 2006-2007 back out of retirement or joblessness and let them fix this?

I use Windows Media Center because of the program guide.  It will just record the new programs, not repeats.   I have tried to use NextPVR but the guide with that program is worse than WMC.

Until this issue is resolved you might try using Hauppage's WinTV7.

Jon,

Very long post but I'm trying to get all my questions into one forum and yours seems to be the most likely to find a solution so I copied my post (below) from another thread because I did not get any responses in that one.

Weeks ago, I found Barb's to connect.microsoft.com/site1145 and I posted to it but that is the worst "complaint form" I have ever seen - no instructions how to fill out, form keeps shifting or disappearing, not intuitive nor friendly and no explanation of what we are supposed to put in the "headend" blank and no definition of what a "headend" is, so I made a random guess (don't remember what I put in).

A week later I saw one user said try deleting certain data files in  C: \Program Data/Microsoft\eHome\EPG\prefs\ before trying a new Guide download.  I didn't delete any files but opened several. When I opened file prefs.xml in prefs directory I was surprised to find the word "headend" several times:  suppliername="Zap2it" and supplier info="powered by Zap2it" and showing which channels were downloaded. (This file is included in my previous thread, copied below).

NOTE: also in that file prefs.xml, I just noticed these two entries: regiontuningcode="" and hnt="HEADEND_NETWORK_TYPE_UNK"

Why one blank and the other unknown? 

I also discovered that every time I try to download the new Guide, that prefs.xml file gets updated (overwritten) as well as another file listing which channels are downloaded from Zap2it (many channels now are missing).  Latest attempt to download guide was early today around 2:30 am.

So, is it possible that MS has a glitch in programming for the WMC "guide lookup" which "calls" to Zap2it for the EPG instead of to Rovi?

Most of the fixes suggested on forums do not apply to my edition of Vista since it came "built in" as a package.  For instance, my Vista does not include Media Center in the "Programs and Features" list where you can turn off and turn on features.  I read another user's post with the same complaint.

As of today,  I still get Zap2it with "No Data Available", "Download Successful" (NOT!) and many missing channels every time I try the Guide download although Zap2it is changing the Start and End Date in "About Guide Listings" as if they are providing the guide to me.  Today it says it expires 8/28/2015 but there's no data.  I can only do manual recording by setting a start and stop time and there is no menu or guide to tell me what times or channels I have set to record.

Here is my post from a different thread:

What is WMC EPG file "prefs.xml"on Vista HP 32-bit/OTA?

SI

SilverwireTX asked on

Is the fix for missing EPG by Roki as simple as fixing a "call file" for the new source?  What does this file do?     ///C:/ProgramData/Microsoft/eHome/EPG/prefs/prefs.xml

(See the file copied below). 

I don't have enough programming knowledge to know if this is the problem or how to fix this file if it is, but surely someone at MS does!   Somebody at Microsoft needs to answer this question (and fix the missing EPG problem).

After spending more than one month trying to find a way to get Media Center EPG to download Rovi instead of Zap2it, maybe this is the reason why those of us running Vista HP 32 bit cannot get rid of Zap2it.  If this file controls the task of downloading the EPG from whatever source, then it is still set to calling Zap2it to get an updated guide.  I see in the file (below) that only Zap2it information is contained in the file so why can't Microsoft send out an update or other fix to direct the guide source to Roki instead?

FYI, I also tried using "Microsoft Fixit Center" which I downloaded a couple years ago (and used for other problems several times successfully) but it had no fix for the WMC EPG problem.

I thought briefly about just editing the enclosed file by replacing the name Zap2it with Roki in the file and then trying again to download/reload, etc., the Media Center Guide but I realized this file also contains other information such as "HEADEND" (with reference number for Zap2it, notRoki) and since I didn't want give myself a bigger problem, I am seeking help here online.

I can still watch TV on my PC but just don't have any EPG!  Currently, I'm still getting "No Data Available" (from Zap2it) but I can do "Manual Recording" of one show at a time but no series recording and it's very tricky to make sure I'm on the right channel before I manually input the time(s) to record.  That makes it very time consuming;  I have to find an online TV schedule such as TitanTV to look up days, times, and reviews and then set the Manual Recorder for every one-time recording.

My PC is HP Pavilion Media Center TV PC, running Vista Home Premium 32-bit, Hauppauge WinTV HVR-1600 NTSC/ATSC Combo video card with Over Air Antenna (OTA).  I download all updates, including the SP2 pack when it came out, and have had no real problems with Media Center until this disaster caused by the switch in EPG provider. I tried all methods available within Media Center Guide and suggestions from online forums to download new EPG but it always defaults to Zap2it.

I bought this PC in 2007 because it had the built-in Media Center capability and would allow me to watch TV while I did other computer work on the PC and paid quite a higher price to get that function (WMC being already loaded and as part of that current Vista version).  I recently read that a few months later (late 2007 or early 2008?) that Microsoft quit providing preloaded WMC and required new computer buyers to download it.  I don't know if this (different versions of Vista) has anything to do with why some users (predating or postdating the change) have different outcomes trying to download the new EPG by Roki.

Here's the file, copied from my computer Drive C:  - (Note: Please excuse the format of the file; when I copied it from the Word document, I didn't know how to keep the file format intact but that didn't change any of the file information.)

Thanks for any help you can give me and thousands of others with this same problem!

SilverTX

***********

<?xml version="1.0"?>

-<lineups xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" copyright="Copyright Microsoft Corp. All rights reserved." originalCreator="MCE 2.0" client_version="2.0" schema_version="1.1"> -<lineup sources="1949568286"> -<sources> -<s language="en" restricted="True" unmapped="False" schemaversion="1" id="0" currentversion="2908506714" regiontuningcode="US" hnt="HEADEND_NETWORK_TYPE_LOCAL_ANALOG_ANTENNA" supplierinfo="Powered by Zap2it" suppliername="Zap2it" supplierid="1" headendname="Digital Terrestrial Lineup" headend="B75001-"> <copyright>© 2015 Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Terms of Service: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=8430 </copyright> </s> -<s language="" restricted="False" unmapped="False" schemaversion="" id="1" currentversion="0" regiontuningcode="" hnt="HEADEND_NETWORK_TYPE_UNK" supplierinfo="" suppliername="" supplierid="" headendname="" headend=""> <copyright> </copyright> </s> </sources> <tuneRequests ct="0"/> <presets ct="0"/> -<channelRename> <cr defaultServiceId="234166670" newName="K31GL-D4" oldCallSign="K31GLD4" oldName="K31GL-D4"/> <cr defaultServiceId="234166667" newName="K31GL-D1" oldCallSign="K31GLD1" oldName="K31GL-D1"/> <cr defaultServiceId="ATSC-1191-19-1" newName="1191-DT" oldCallSign="1191-DT" oldName="1191-DT"/> <cr defaultServiceId="ATSC-1111-19-1" newName="1111-DT" oldCallSign="1111-DT" oldName="1111-DT"/> <cr defaultServiceId="ATSC-KTVTSTA-11-1" newName="KTVTDT (Special Temporary Authority)" oldCallSign="KTVTSTA-DT" oldName="KTVTDT (Special Temporary Authority)"/> <cr defaultServiceId="28455498" newName="KTVTDT (KTVT-DT)" oldCallSign="KTVTDT" oldName="KTVTDT (KTVT-DT)"/> </channelRename> </lineup> </lineups>