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

Anonymous

Overview: Windows Media Center (WMC) is provided TV Listings, via the WMC Guide, from Zap2It. If you go to the Zap2It TV Listings website*, there are approx 2 weeks of upcoming TV Listings. When the WMC Guide is Updated, & functions correctly, those same 2 weeks of TV Listings are downloaded to WMC. If we could use the Zap2It website to program the recording of TV programs, then we wouldn't need the WMC Guide to be downloaded.

It's very early sunday asof this posting; the WMC Guide hasn't actually Updated for ~9 days... there are only TV Listings through this tuesday, in ~3 days. The WMC Guide Update seems to run just fine, it's connecting with the site or source or whatever/wherever it gets the Guide from... but it say, "The Eps Listing Is Already Up To Date", even though, clearly, it is NOT 'up-to-date'. I'm now getting, 'You've only got 3 days of listings!, you need to update the Guide !' scare-messages every time I go to WMC, & I click to Update the Guide, but just as when I manually run it, just as when WMC automatically runs the Guide Update, it ain't actually Updating!

To be clear: I'm using Win7Pro64bit; all--ALL--updates, for all software, Windows & otherwise, are daily checked & constantly kept up-to-date; there have been no changes to the computer, & it runs like a dream; WMC works the same, the WMC Guide Update works exactly the same, the only exception being this, "The EPG Listings Package is already up to date" thing, when it hasn't actually Updated the WMC Guide.

So PLEASE don't post those standard, boilerplate replies about updating Windows &or clearing caches &or other such sophomoric hooey... The problem is almost certainly with the Microsoft/Windows/WMC/Zap2It interface.

You can go to the Zap2It website* yourself!, go there!, see for yourself!, the next 2 weeks of TV Listings are right there!...

... so, why aren't those TV-Listings--already & always present--being actually downloaded to WMC?, why isn't the WMC Guide being Updated?

... thank you!

[* http://zap2it.com/ | http://tvschedule.zap2it.com/tvlistings/ ]

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Anonymous

Hello hank1111,

You might check out this thread, especially the most recent replies, bottom of page 3 I think:

Windows Media Center Guide Not Updating

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows\_xp-pictures/windows-media-center-guide-not-updating/8721f207-a694-43ce-bf38-6105968af080

I am NO expert on any of this stuff, but if ya' twisted my arm, I'd suggest the same possibility to you as I did to RW:

"If you've still got your Windows OS CD maybe you could try removing & then reinstalling Windows Media Center entirely?... I'm sure there's a way to do this, but you'd want to get explicit instructions from someplace/someone who knows what they're about. Also, if it's possible to do a total removal/uninstall & reinstall, -vs- some sort of 'repair', I would do the full thing, as the mere 'repair' might leave old, outdated WMC Guide EPG files that might bring you right back to this same sorry state-of-affairs!"

... good luck hank!

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52 additional answers

Anonymous

2015-07-26T21:00:16+00:00

Ditto for me except it says zap2it license expires on 7/26/2015.
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Anonymous

2015-07-27T07:16:36+00:00

Many thanks, PA Bear! ...wow, lots of good info here!

If you have further updates, there are lots more people over in this thread than there are here:

Windows Media Center Guide Not Updating

... who would also sure appreciate any help you could give 'em!

... thanx again!

w
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Anonymous

2015-07-27T17:42:25+00:00

After about 20 tries with different area codes I used one about 40 miles from my own zip code and it still didn't work. But when I got on the computer this morning my Programming guide was up to date and working. Microsoft must have worked some magic during the night to solve my problem. I am not going to put in my proper zip code as this one has all my channels and as they say if it isn't broke don't fix it. Hope others are experiencing some success. Thanks to all who helped.
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Anonymous

2015-07-27T18:13:15+00:00

I went through w_ms's solution, and it worked. It was counterintuitive for me, because "Set Up TV Signal" wasn't sufficient. After that, it said it downloaded listings, it said "Rovi," but I got nothing. "Edit Channels" was merely a matter of unchecking channels I didn't need, which was a good thing to do anyway, but I can't see why it should have been necessary. Had I wanted all of those channels, the process would have resulted in no changes. Nevertheless, I went through it, and also went through the part where I checked signal strength so I could make sure I really had the correct channels. After that, I downloaded the guide again, and ended up with 13 days. That's the most I've seen in years. It might have been a matter of needing to try downloading things multiple times in the first place. So if it doesn't seem to work for some people, I'd suggest going though the process again or trying the download again.

A few quirks:

Some shows showed no upcoming episodes. I added them back in and the names were slightly different. It might have been coincidence and might have been something that the station renamed, as that has happened before. For example, "The 10 O'clock News" might have become "The 10 O'Clock news on KXXX" or something similar. So it's good to go through your list of "Series" to double check, and it might be necessary to do it again when the Fall season begins.

A non-quirk is that the rest of the channels were correct. A former problem was that the San Francisco local ABC affiliate used to have issues with a weak signal since the station is broadcast on multiple frequencies. I had to go through hoops matching and renaming things with Edit Channels/Listings/Sources but now it's correct on its own for the first time in years. However, it could have conceivably gone the other way. What's a non-issue for me, but technically gives me less control, is that the "wrong" channels no longer show up, so if those frequencies actually worked better for me, I wouldn't be seeing them. When I had the issue in the first place, it took a long web page to explain how to fix it, so I'm merely skimming the details here. Ironically, it was the primary frequencies for those channels that worked best for me in the first place, so MC never should have picked up on the alternate ones. I mention this because it's conceivable for somebody who never had the problem to end up with it if the new source has more information for their area than it did before, and doesn't pick the best frequencies when there are multiples with the same name.
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