Frustrated by numerous program guide issues

[pattykay]

And now the schedule for next week is screwed up (although perhaps this error only affects the Cleveland, Ohio market). WUAB's The Fifth Quarter show is listed as one-hour long, pushing Batwoman back to 8:30 PM, and Supergirl to 9:30 PM, as you can see in this picture:
View attachment 141930
However, WUAB is still advertising for these shows as being in their regular time-slots at 8 PM and 9 PM. So, I am assuming that this is yet another Rovi guide data screw-up, and not an actual change in the schedule for these shows next week.

It is now Sunday afternoon, and this issue has still not been fixed like it was on Tuesday afternoon shortly before the prime-time shows were scheduled to start. I realize that Tuesday's issue was national, while this issue seems to be local to my market, which makes it a much lower priority to fix, but I was still hoping that it would be fixed by now. It is a good thing that I am planning to watch these episodes live, instead of relying on timers to record them, or else I would really be ticked off.

 

[Howard Simmons]

It is now Sunday afternoon, and this issue has still not been fixed like it was on Tuesday afternoon shortly before the prime-time shows were scheduled to start. I realize that Tuesday's issue was national, while this issue seems to be local to my market, which makes it a much lower priority to fix, but I was still hoping that it would be fixed by now. It is a good thing that I am planning to watch these episodes live, instead of relying on timers to record them, or else I would really be ticked off.

You can adjust your timers accordingly if that comes up. I know it's a hassle.

 

[pattykay]

You can adjust your timers accordingly if that comes up. I know it's a hassle.

True, but without knowing for sure ahead of time which schedule was correct, I still would have had to record the extra half-hour, just to make sure I got everything. And then, after the event is recorded, there is no way to edit the recording, so that extra half-hour would still be taking up space on the hard drive indefinitely, as long as I wanted to keep the episode. Otherwise, I would have had to delete the entire recording to free up that space. I decided that it was not worth the trouble of recording the shows in the first place, then.

 

[Howard Simmons]

True, but without knowing for sure ahead of time which schedule was correct, I still would have had to record the extra half-hour, just to make sure I got everything. And then, after the event is recorded, there is no way to edit the recording, so that extra half-hour would still be taking up space on the hard drive indefinitely, as long as I wanted to keep the episode. Otherwise, I would have had to delete the entire recording to free up that space. I decided that it was not worth the trouble of recording the shows in the first place, then.

I presume you have a EHD?

 

[pattykay]

I presume you have a EHD?

Yes, on the Wally, which is the only way that it has DVR functionality. The internal drive in the Hopper Duo is kind of small compared to the internal drive of a regular Hopper. Either way, I don't want to waste the space unnecessarily.

 

[pattykay]

And now the schedule for next week is screwed up (although perhaps this error only affects the Cleveland, Ohio market). WUAB's The Fifth Quarter show is listed as one-hour long, pushing Batwoman back to 8:30 PM, and Supergirl to 9:30 PM, as you can see in this picture:
View attachment 141930
However, WUAB is still advertising for these shows as being in their regular time-slots at 8 PM and 9 PM. So, I am assuming that this is yet another Rovi guide data screw-up, and not an actual change in the schedule for these shows next week.

It happened again this week:

Rovi really needs to learn that The Fifth Quarter ends at 8:00 PM, so that CW programming starts on time. (At least this week, WUAB actually was showing The Fifth Quarter at 7:30 PM, unlike the previous time I reported this issue.) Fortunately, I do not care about The Christmas Caroler Challenge. However, if the listings continue to be screwed up for CW programming on Sunday night, then it will eventually affect programming that I do care about, just like it did last time.

 

[SandFarmer]

Hello Crodrules. We appreciate your comment but DISH does not control the programming information that is on each channel in your guide, this is the decision of the owners of the channel. Thank you for any comments and suggestions that help us continue to provide the best experience for you and other clients.

But they, DISH, could put standards and conditions on the consistency of the quality of the Guide content which is and has been seriously lacking for years. This past week I have had to create multiple new timers so that I can get single programs that use to record, most of the time, with one timer to get all it should. That is if they don't disappear before we can watch them.

Things were halfway decent until DISH stopped being concerned with the quality of the Guide. They don't understand that the Guide is connected to the Timers.

Sent from my SM-T380 using Tapatalk

 

[SandFarmer]

Just found all my timers are all screwed up through Friday. Why DISH?!

Sent from my SM-T380 using the SatelliteGuys app!

 

[pattykay]

Interestingly, in the Marvel's Spider-Man folder in my DVR, the title shown at the top of the Episodes list has already been changed to Marvel's Spider-Man: Maximum Venom (which is the title of the upcoming third season starting in the spring, not the title of the first two seasons that I already have recorded). I have to wonder if my timer for new episodes of Marvel's Spider-Man would still recognize this new title as being the same series, or if I would have to create a new timer to record the new season. I have to hope that the new title showing up in my DVR folder is a good sign, but given the state of Dish's guide information, who knows what will happen?

 

[charlesrshell]

But they, DISH, could put standards and conditions on the consistency of the quality of the Guide content which is and has been seriously lacking for years. This past week I have had to create multiple new timers so that I can get single programs that use to record, most of the time, with one timer to get all it should. That is if they don't disappear before we can watch them.

Things were halfway decent until DISH stopped being concerned with the quality of the Guide. They don't understand that the Guide is connected to the Timers.

Sent from my SM-T380 using Tapatalk

Timer issues is why I check my timers daily, sometimes several times a day. Timers being skipped has been more than normal lately.

 

[dennispap]

I usually check my scheduled recordings everyday ( even though we shouldn't have to) but yesterday i didn't and of course one of my shows didn't record. It shows scheduled for next Monday so it isn't a timer issue. Evidently the guide didn't show it as new, or had some different variation of the name. Always something.....

 

[charlesrshell]

I usually check my scheduled recordings everyday ( even though we shouldn't have to) but yesterday i didn't and of course one of my shows didn't record. It shows scheduled for next Monday so it isn't a timer issue. Evidently the guide didn't show it as new, or had some different variation of the name. Always something.....

Yep, I think you are correct. But, bottom line is it turns in to a timer issue if you don't get the results you want, a recorded program. This is what I do to help make sure we don't miss a program. I use a Like TitanTV favorites list for all our favorite programs. Every Saturday morning I print seven days of schedules starting with the upcoming Monday thru Sunday. I go thru and circle all programs that should be scheduled in my Hopper 3. I bump it against last week's printed schedules as a guide to help make sure I don't miss any programs. I then go into my H3 scheduled timers list for all the Monday thru Sunday's upcoming timers. I make sure the timers all look good, ready to fire. Then every morning I check the day's H3 scheduled timers list. Lately I have been seeing a timer is not there ready to fire off. So when I look at the program in the guide it shows not scheduled or no timer is there at all. So I either click on the Record This in the drop down menu or set up a one time schedule. I know this sounds like a lot to do but I have become quit fast at it and it keeps my Commander happy. For example, yesterday when I did my daily check the Y&R program wasn't scheduled to record for some reason. The timer was good when I did my weekly check last Saturday. So I re-scheduled the program. If Y&R had not recorded my wife would have had my a--. I have been doing this procedure for many years now. It has saved my life many times!

 

[BostonMA]

It's been a while, but I got tired of making the same rants.

Do other providers have the same issue of so many problems with their program guide?

List of recent issues:

- Quite a number of name changes/rearranges affecting recordings.

- Numerous date issues
CBS Evening News date format constantly changes even affecting M-F recording
Hallmark some old mystery programs entered as new

- Many incorrect entries, incorrect programs/descriptions/dates

 

[pattykay]

...
Do other providers have the same issue of so many problems with their program guide?
...

Yes, since the other providers use the same source (Tivo, formerly Rovi) for their guide data. In fact, another poster confirmed earlier in this thread that an issue that I reported here was also showing up on Tivo DVR's.

Other providers can even introduce software problems of their own that can make matters even worse. I remember when Directv was rolling out their updated interface a couple of years ago, they had an issue where timers set on the local channels were actually firing on the distant network channel numbers. This was obviously a major problem, since the vast majority of subscribers did not receive (or even qualified to receive) those distant channels, resulting in missed recordings. At least that is one particular issue that Dish subscribers should not have to worry about.

 

[Howard Simmons]

It's been a while, but I got tired of making the same rants.

Do other providers have the same issue of so many problems with their program guide?

List of recent issues:

- Quite a number of name changes/rearranges affecting recordings.

- Numerous date issues
CBS Evening News date format constantly changes even affecting M-F recording
Hallmark some old mystery programs entered as new

- Many incorrect entries, incorrect programs/descriptions/dates

The only thing would be get an outside source on your computer for your tv listings.

 

[JSheridan]

The only thing would be get an outside source on your computer for your tv listings.

Like TitanTV.com.

 

[Howard Simmons]

Like TitanTV.com.

The only draw back with Titan TV (which I use) is they don't update if there's a change in the schedule. I think they go on a weekly basis. I've been burned a couple of times because of last minute changes. But other than that it's an excellent tv listings guide.

 

[pattykay]

The only draw back with Titan TV (which I use) is they don't update if there's a change in the schedule. I think they go on a weekly basis. I've been burned a couple of times because of last minute changes. But other than that it's an excellent tv listings guide.

My how spoiled we have gotten. When I was growing up, we had the weekly TV Guide magazine, which was obviously only updated once per week, and was likely already slightly outdated by the time it reached the stores. Even then, I still liked TV Guide because at least it was more up-to-date than the monthly guides available from the providers at the time, such as Dish Entertainment Magazine.

 

[Howard Simmons]

My how spoiled we have gotten. When I was growing up, we had the weekly TV Guide magazine, which was obviously only updated once per week, and was likely already slightly outdated by the time it reached the stores. Even then, I still liked TV Guide because at least it was more up-to-date than the monthly guides available from the providers at the time, such as Dish Entertainment Magazine.

When I was growing up my parents had a satellite system with the big antennas because we lived out on a farm. We used to get Satellite weely(I think that's what they called it) and it was thick as a catalog. I miss the old small tv guides they used to publish.

 

[wormil]

Back then we relied on the TV Guide people were forced to plan ahead. Now it's push it out and we'll fix it later.