Just how bad is the EPG at the moment?
 

I've somehow managed to hold off buying TiVO, even though I've wanted one pretty much since the UK S1 launch over ten years ago. A slightly financial squeeze when they were launched led to me not putting the cash down. Now to look at CF and the official support forums it would seem that the EPG is in a bad way at the moment. Can people who actually have a TiVO quantify how many EPG errors have led to missed recording in the last month? As I've said before, after an unrealiable Media Center experience in 2010, MrsTD (techy as she is) will not tolerate any non-recording of America's Next Top Vapid Cow, or How freaking fat am I? or Dear god I'm 9 and pregnant. So if I get a TiVO and have problems, it's going to be a lonely old time for me... :/

Re: Just how bad is the EPG at the moment?
 

the guide isn't as bad as most ppl make out it one or 2 errors a day if that it depend on what channels u watch and the channel makers changing the schedule it not vm fault that it happen it the ppl who do the guide info that is supplied to vm. i had tivo since march and not a problem epg shouldn't stop u from buying a tivo.

Re: Just how bad is the EPG at the moment?
 

Yes I agree with this as well, The only problem what my partner had with the epg was when newsnight ran over due to the phone hacking? It delayed "The Tudors" for a hour.

Re: Just how bad is the EPG at the moment?
 

The vocal minority on the official forum have been very vocal and have drowned out the many positive things about TiVo. I have to say I've had 1 EPG fault and that was a late change, I record a lot of stuff and hardly watch anything "live", apart from news programmes.

I've still got a V+HD box in the bedroom and it's so basic compared to TiVo :D

Re: Just how bad is the EPG at the moment?
 

Well l am not one of the vocal minority as l have been very impressed with the tivo and the EPG has been excellent so far, as far as l am concerned now all l want is more channels and apps.

Re: Just how bad is the EPG at the moment?
 

couldn't agree more.

Re: Just how bad is the EPG at the moment?
 

I have had a few problems

The silliest one occured a few days ago when "a town called eureka" lost all information on the HD channel about the programmes compared with the SD channel.

I think there have been one or two others where the same has happened. I do not see why they should happen:(

One instance of F1 running late due to rain so it was switched to BBC 2 at extremely short notice :D

Otherwise the advantages much outweigh these minor problems.

Re: Just how bad is the EPG at the moment?
 

In the many months I have has my TiVo I have had only 1 or 2 issues with the EPG data being incorrect. I certainly would not go back to the V+.

Re: Just how bad is the EPG at the moment?
 

l will second that.

Re: Just how bad is the EPG at the moment?
 

So long as you don't take the claims of State of the Art to literally can't see you regretting it.

Re: Just how bad is the EPG at the moment?
 

Its core functionality for any PVR. That's why so many people are annoyed about it, and paying £3 extra per month for it while VM say "can you fill in this form and do Tribune's job for them? Thanks."

What good are Wishlists and Suggestions when their often based on inaccurate data and therefore record the wrong programme, or even miss episodes of programmes?

Where are the signs that this issue is being resolved, or the data is getting more accurate? This weekend's episode of Doctor Who still isn't scheduled to record from a series-link because TiVo thinks its an episode of an older series - the second time that issue has popped up with that particular programme. What's the point in us filling out EPG feedback forms if the same mistakes are being made again and again?

Would I go back to V+ HD? No. Are the number of EPG errors on TiVo acceptable? No. I hate to quote Sky, but "Believe in Better".

Re: Just how bad is the EPG at the moment?
 

If it's shows that are always on at the same time on the same channel, it's fine.
If they move about due to being live, or following other live programs, you'll get issues.

I get missed recordings pretty often, but that's generally because I'm recording off the sports channels where schedule changes are common.

Re: Just how bad is the EPG at the moment?
 

Falling Skies is on at the same time every week on FX, that's had issues. Ditto Celebrity Big Brother (no, I don't watch that, honest! ;)), ditto Warehouse 13, ditto Football First.

The lack of a Dynamic EPG is almost a smokescreen for the real issue here - poor quality data being fed to TiVos.

Threads are hopping up over at DS as well about this. VM seriously need to get this fixed because a PVR with so many EPG errors is almost useless, regardless of how many tuners it has or what apps its got.

Get the basics right first, then focus on the fancy stuff, especially when the fancy stuff relies on accurate data.

Re: Just how bad is the EPG at the moment?
 

Agreed, the EPG data is just not good enough.

Re: Just how bad is the EPG at the moment?
 

Still no possibility of a dynamic EPG on TiVo to make up these changes in programming?
Or are there technical challenges that surround such idea?

Re: Just how bad is the EPG at the moment?
 

I hear there's a major update to TiVo coming in October. Hopefully this will address the majority of issues

Re: Just how bad is the EPG at the moment?
 

Thats good news and l hope the update entails quite a few added options for us as well.

Re: Just how bad is the EPG at the moment?
 

I have seen TIVO not record several things it should because of the EPG, also seen about 7 or 8 occasions when the EPG data was incorrect ie. wrong episode. I have also seen a few instances of series i have recorded where a couple of the episodes only have the "Generic" data for the series, rather than have the episode specific details.

All of these problems have still not convinced me that getting TIVO was a bad idea, but I do think it is a bigger problem than anyone actually believes. The problems that I have highlighted have happened on the channels that I watch, but that only accounts for about 25% of the channels we get, so if these same problems occur on the other 75%, then as a whole, it is totally unacceptable.

Re: Just how bad is the EPG at the moment?
 

It is incomprehensible why HD and SD channels should have different information for the same show after all only the channel type changes:confused:

What do we pay £3 a month for?

I notice that when the epg download was cocked totally up they did manage eventually to reload with a correct version.

The advantages still out weigh the problems for me though its starting to look the only benefits are the 1TB disc and suggestions and the 3 tuners.

VM please get your act together.

Re: Just how bad is the EPG at the moment?
 

We have to remember we are still in the infancy of the tivo on Virgin and as such we have to remember that there will be some issues and bugs that given time will l suspect be sorted out and then everyone will be happy.

Re: Just how bad is the EPG at the moment?
 

Ignoring the obvious that people will then find something else to complain about, why were so many screens still in SD at the launch? I wouldnt mind the SD if the picture was still shown.

Still come October everything will then be perfect, but I suppose it does make you forget that most channels are contain mostly rubbish;)

Re: Just how bad is the EPG at the moment?
 

Yes I believe they have only scratched the surface. :D

Re: Just how bad is the EPG at the moment?
 

A wonderfully apt comment master.:D

Re: Just how bad is the EPG at the moment?
 

Its nothing whatsoever to do with bugs. Its incorrect data from Tribune.

You could write a masterpiece of a computer programme - but if its relying on accurate data to work properly, and that data is not accurate, guess what? You're screwed and so is your computer programme.

So, you tell TiVO to record new episodes only. Good feature. Good programming. But that's relying on the data being accurate. In the case of Lost Girl, every episode has been tagged as new and upcoming episodes have no metadata (or that was the case earlier this week). Until that's changed, its going to record every episode and because there's no metadata, TiVo's "don't record within 28 days" rule will be ignored because it doesn't know what episode of Lost Girl its going to record.

That October code-drop won't solve a thing as far as the EPG issues are concerned. Sure, it may fix bugs and add features, but guess what? Those bug fixes and new features will rely on the EPG data being accurate (regardless of a Dynamic EPG or not).

Re: Just how bad is the EPG at the moment?
 

The EPG is fine but as mentioned the metadata on some series has been abysmal. I have just cleared out my Falling Skies folder as it had 13 episodes that have been recorded but only 9 have been broadcast. It had the episode called Grace recorded five times four times as Grace and once as just Falling skies.

Episode two does not have a season or episode number assigned to it and episode 3 is marked as episode 2. At least it didn't miss an episode.

Another one I had a issue was match of the Day on Saturday, I set this remotely which means both of of my boxes record it. But on the Saturday just gone the main box didn't record it but was recording nothing else at the time and the one in the bedroom did. At least it records MOTD2 automatically as I keep forgetting to set the series link for it.

And the new South Park data was abysmal I was getting about 20 episodes a week recorded. It is a bit worrying that the metadata is so bad on new series.

Having said all that I still love my Tivo and find it far better then the V+. The Falling Skies falls on a busy Tuesday night where I have Eureka, Smallville and Falling Skies all at the same time. Which is fine on nights where we are not watching TV but when we do i have been cancelling the Falling skies recording and it has worked fine recording another showing latter in the week.

Re: Just how bad is the EPG at the moment?
 

@ zantarous you`ve missed an episode or deleted 1 to many as ep9 and 10 were aired last night

Re: Just how bad is the EPG at the moment?
 

I wonder if other providers that use Tribune suffer the same issues in terms of wrong data.
According to, http://news.cnet.com/TiVo-expands-Tr...3-5174057.html

Re: Just how bad is the EPG at the moment?
 

"TiVo will continue to receive show times and description information for its North American and the U.K. markets, but it will also have access to enhanced listings data that enable more frequent show time updates."

Does that mean we might get a more dynamic epg?

Re: Just how bad is the EPG at the moment?
 

Actually must have skimmed past that part.
So it sounds like it is possible then.

Re: Just how bad is the EPG at the moment?
 

I think I must have been recording something else when the ep 10 was on as it set to record on Fri night.

Edit:

Might also not have had a free tuner as all three 9 pm recordings had 5 mins of padding each at the end.

Re: Just how bad is the EPG at the moment?
 

I'd say in terms of bandwidth, yes. If VM can find the bandwidth for Free Wi-Fi, then why not frequent metadata updates for TiVo?

Of course, that then depends on Tribune in the States being told about schedule changes and them updating the data and that being fed back to VM's TiVos (and then your TiVo perhaps reindexing that data).

Re: Just how bad is the EPG at the moment?
 

Good feedback from VM:
http://community.virginmedia.com/t5/...ta/td-p/697855