Windows Media Center Guide not Updating TV Listings from Zap2It past tuesday.21.07.15

Not exactly true. Windows Vista users need to apply the updates that will bring their WMC guide format in line with Win 7 and later versions. It is true that if the updates are not applied, Win Vista will not be able to use the current media guide format. Alas, since Win XP is no longer supported at all by MS, no such upgrade is available for these users.

PROBLEM SOLVED!!!!    THIS WORKS!!!     THIS WORKS!!!

DO THIS:

Is WMC’s(Windows Media Center) EPG(Electronic Progam Guide) showing “No Data Available”?

Are you using OTA(Over-The-Air) service?

The problem is that WMC does not know where to find the data for the EPG. Around July 26, 2015 Windows change data providers from Zap2It to Rovi. Microsoft and Rovi were ill prepared for this changeover. To do the changeover WMC needs to change from the Zap2It to Rovi for its’ Guide. WMC should change data sources by running WMC Setup. Setup fails to change data sources for three reasons.

1. Setup cannot complete this task until it recognizes Rovi as the guide.
2. Rovi needs a valid zipcode, and this is important, that Rovi is providing data for
3. WMC needs to know where get to Rovi data

Let’s solve issue 2 first. Rovi’s zipcode data base has massive holes. To find a zipcode that will work for you. Go to MSN Website populated by Rovi data and find a working provider.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/tv-listings

In the search menu keep entering cities till the drop down menu produces a provider that will work for you. Most cities will not provide an OTA option. Since Setup will not accept cities you still need to find a zipcode within that city that will work. (I live in Atlanta and had to use a zipcode from 30 miles away 30601.) Enter that zipcode make certain that the website populates with data that is useful to you. Write it down, this will be zipcode that Setup needs.

Now let’s deal with issue 3. Helping WMC find the Rovi data source on the web.

close WMC

click start button

type CMD in search box

right click CMD and run as administrator

cd c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc

notepad hosts

Add the following 2 lines

65.55.186.113 data.tvdownload.microsoft.com

72.246.56.59 cdn.epg.tvdownload.microsoft.com

(if there are other lines in your file that are for data.tvdownload.microsoft.com or cdn.epg.tvdownload.microsoft.com comment them out by placing a # at the beginning of the line)

save the file and exit notepad

in your cmd window

ipconfig /flushdns

click start button

in search box type taskschd.msc

after task scheduler opens

In the left tree expand Task Scheduler Library, Microsoft, Windows

click on Media Center folder to highlight it

In the upper window of the center section scroll through the activities under the Name column.

right-click ObjectStoreRecoveryTask, and click Run

Let this run for a minute or two

Reboot and re-open WMC. You will receive a warning that WMC corrected a problem and will download the Guide EPG data again

Tasks > Settings > General > Windows Media Center Setup

Use the Advanced instead of the Express option.

Remember to use the zipcode from the MSN Rovi website!

What is this is doing: 1) hard coding the lookup for data.tvdownload.microsoft.com and cdn.epg.tvdownload.microsoft.com. As soon as you put entries like this in your hosts file the DNS that you are using no longer matters. This eliminates the need to change your DNS to google or open DNS. 2) ipconfig /flushdns removes any caches entries for the items listed in your hosts file. 3) the task scheduler run removes your epg guide while you have a valid zip code. This forces WMC to completely re download the epg from the ip address listed in your hosts file.

Most of this text is from post #1224 and was originally posted by kdurbin82. Credit goes to him for the solution to WMC finding the data site. I did make syntax change to his text, /dnsflush would not work for me I had to use /flushdns. My real contribution to his post largely has to do with finding a working zipcode which is particularly important to OTA consumers.

What you see above is what worked for me after running more than forty fixes and setups. I finally reinstalled Window 7 OS and use the above steps now WMC seems to be working fine.

THIS FIX WAS FOUND HERE:

http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/search.php?keywords=kdurbin82&t=8903&sf=msgonly

Major APPLAUSE to kdurbin82 and hueyatl1 !!!

After several days of trying various fixes to get my guide back and nothing working, your fix worked for both my Windows 7 Pro and Windows 8.1 HDTV Windows Media Center systems!! (placing the IP addresses in the Windows host file and the rest)

kdurbin82 and hueyatl1, THANK YOU very, very, very, very, much!!!!!

My systems were both locked on to the Zap2it guide download and would not change to Rovi until I tried your fix.

Thanks again!

Thanks for your post. If you come across a fix for Win XP Media Center 2005, please post that as well.

Where does a Vista user get the updates that will "bring their WMC guide format in line with Win 7 and later versions?"  Vista Task Scheduler does not list ObjectStoreRecoveryTask, express or advanced options .