tired of babysitting the DVR!

[Jim S.]

Does anyone have an address we can complain to about the lack of accurate airdates in the guide? I'm getting tired of deleting reruns with no episode number or original air date (Get Out on HDNet is a good example of this), but now I'm really upset. I was going to watch last night's episode of Primeval from BBC America, and I discovered that I don't have it! I looked at next saturday to see if they're re-running it then. Luckily they are, but I see the problem: the original air date is listed as 05-09-07! No wonder it didn't get recorded. The new episode following it has the correct air date of 09-21-08, but when I went ahead to look at the re-run of that one two hours later out of curiosity, all of a sudden it's listed as 05-11-08.

This is getting ridiculous! Having to remember when all the programs I watch are on in order to check whether there are new episodes, and whether they're being recorded if so, defeats the purpose of having the DVR, not to mention that sometimes I just don't have time to check.

 

[skierrob]

If I remember correctly, Dish Network does not provide the guide data for the PVR's. TV Guide does. So, the same "bad info" isn't just on Dish Network DVR's, but is on everything that is associated with TV Guide. Dish just acquires the data from them.

 

[tastim]

Yeah... they're totally f%ing up my World Series of Poker 2008 recordings too... half of them are baseball games or races.

 

[lakebum431]

Yeah... they're totally f%ing up my World Series of Poker 2008 recordings too... half of them are baseball games or races.

Hmm, both my 622 and my 722 have picked up all and only the new WSP events perfectly...

 

[tastim]

Hmm, both my 622 and my 722 have picked up all and only the new WSP events perfectly...

Must be a regional thing... same thing happened last year.

 

[osu1991]

If I remember correctly, Dish Network does not provide the guide data for the PVR's. TV Guide does. So, the same "bad info" isn't just on Dish Network DVR's, but is on everything that is associated with TV Guide. Dish just acquires the data from them.

It is not TV Guide it is Tribune Media that dish gets the guide info from. TV Guide just has a deal to put their logo on the guide screen. I wish they would use Tv Guides listings as they are much more accurate on my Sony HDDVR that uses TV Guide on screen listings, than the Tribune listings that Dish uses.

 

[voripteth]

Good show descriptions is one of the things I miss most from my TiVo.

 

[Teran]

If I remember correctly, Dish Network does not provide the guide data for the PVR's. TV Guide does. So, the same "bad info" isn't just on Dish Network DVR's, but is on everything that is associated with TV Guide. Dish just acquires the data from them.

I acquire my service from Dish, not their vendor. If their vendor isn't providing satisfactory service it is Dish's problem.

 

[jlhugh]

sons of anarchy is a good example too. except they screw with the episode number on this one and i get the same one twice. it will show episode 3 and record that one. then in the middle of the night it will show the same episode but have episode 6 instead of 3 and it gets recorded again. i guess more is better than nada.

 

[navychop]

Even worse for "Beyond Tomorrow." No info on them whatsoever, so even selecting "new" gets every episode. I get 4 or 5 copies of each episode. Better than none, I guess.

I suppose you can get a warm feeling that you're right, by saying it's Dish's problem. But that won't fix the problem. I suppose several of us could write to Tribune and complain, copy to Dish.

Not sure of the correct address to write, but from their web site, I get this:

TMS Corporate Headquarters:
435 N. Michigan Avenue, Suite 1500
Chicago, IL 60611 USA
800.245.6536 or 312.222.4444
Fax 312.222.2581

 

[mloebl]

Even worse for "Beyond Tomorrow." No info on them whatsoever, so even selecting "new" gets every episode. I get 4 or 5 copies of each episode. Better than none, I guess.

This drives me NUTS too. Once a week I go thru and undo all the Beyond Tomorrow episodes so I don't get numerous copies.

I also almost missed Primeval, but caught it just in time and was able to set it for the later showing. The episode numbering is odd too as this week is ep 6, next week is ep 8, but checking the descriptions of both shows that the order is correct.

-Mike

 

[AdamGott]

Good show descriptions is one of the things I miss most from my TiVo.

The other think I miss is being able to see the show's category in the description. It would be a nice feature to add when you are looking for things in their crappy search menu.

 

[AdamGott]

This drives me NUTS too. Once a week I go thru and undo all the Beyond Tomorrow episodes so I don't get numerous copies.

I also almost missed Primeval, but caught it just in time and was able to set it for the later showing. The episode numbering is odd too as this week is ep 6, next week is ep 8, but checking the descriptions of both shows that the order is correct.

-Mike

There are some workarounds that you can do but they still suck over getting good guide info.

For cable shows that repeat endlessly throughout the day I just set up timers to record during certain hours of the day, e.g. Lifetime airs a block of ROSEANNE shows at least twice a day that are repeats so I take my (actually it isn't MY timer) ROSEANNE timer and set it for a block of time from 3AM to 6AM and it only records that set. This method sucks for shows that frequently change schedules and I originally started using it back when we have a ridiculously low timer limit but it still works for stuff like you guys are describing.

 

[slocoma]

I don't understand why my DVR records shows that DO have original air dates. I set it to record only "new" shows and it still picks up repeats some times.

 

[DishSubLA]

Does anyone have an address we can complain to about the lack of accurate airdates in the guide? I'm getting tired of deleting reruns with no episode number or original air date (Get Out on HDNet is a good example of this), but now I'm really upset. I was going to watch last night's episode of Primeval from BBC America, and I discovered that I don't have it! I looked at next saturday to see if they're re-running it then. Luckily they are, but I see the problem: the original air date is listed as 05-09-07! No wonder it didn't get recorded. The new episode following it has the correct air date of 09-21-08, but when I went ahead to look at the re-run of that one two hours later out of curiosity, all of a sudden it's listed as 05-11-08.

This is getting ridiculous! Having to remember when all the programs I watch are on in order to check whether there are new episodes, and whether they're being recorded if so, defeats the purpose of having the DVR, not to mention that sometimes I just don't have time to check.

BBC America is particularly a pain when it comes to the original air date because sometimes the original air date is when it premiered in the UK not the US premier. I have seen this many times. But, as you've noticed, sometimes they catch the problem and enter the US premier date as the original air date for subsequent episodes. BBC America and Tribune really ought to work much harder to fix this. After the show premiers on BBC America, often, subsequent repeats weeks later then have the original UK premier date. Go figure!

Yes, I fell your pain. It was explained on the last REAL Tech Forum that if they don't have an original air date data, they default the DVR to record rather than skip, believing that it's better not to take a chance on missing a recording. But, as you've said, it sometimes still doesn't record when it should.

This has only been a problem for the last several months. Before that, it worked pretty well.

 

[Jim5506]

Tribune Media distributes the programming data to Dish Direct and TiVo and most of the Cable co's also.

Errors are the fault of the networks not passing along correct guide data to Tribune or Tribune's fault for not updating the data. None of the distributors does the guide themselves - too much cost for little reward on the upside.

 

[RockinHARD26]

I'm tired of baby sitting my favorite channel menu every day. Love when dish decides to change channels without notice. Have to check the lock channels menu as well as, my favorites menu's.

 

[Tyralak]

I noticed this yesterday when I finally got around to watching a couple of Eureka episodes I had DVRed. They had a "Previously on Eureka" thing I don't remember at the front of the show, and when I looked at the site, lo and behold I missed 3 episodes!

 

[kstuart]

I hate to say "I told you so"... no I don't.

Some years back, everyone was desperate for "Name Based Recording" and I said "you are still going to have to check the DVR every day, because the Guide Listings are often not correct".

The root problem is that the Channels have no motivation to help you DVR the show and skip the commercials that provide their income.

 

[Weezknight]

I noticed this yesterday when I finally got around to watching a couple of Eureka episodes I had DVRed. They had a "Previously on Eureka" thing I don't remember at the front of the show, and when I looked at the site, lo and behold I missed 3 episodes!

Strange that it happened to you. I've had my 625 setup for "New Episodes" of Eureka and it hasn't missed one yet. Are certain receivers programmed to use the guide data differently?