# Get Programming and Channel Ducks in a Row



## [email protected] (Jan 8, 2008)

TiVo needs to work more closely with the Tribune Media Services to eliminate surprises for the customer and perhaps even enhance the program information they provide. Perhaps TiVo and TMS can construct a Service Level Agreement (SLA) that will result in more proactive and responsive service.

For example, there have been a couple of channel moves that Comcast has made this summer in Houston. Neither of them was reflected in the channel lineup until a week or so after Comcast made the changes. Sound familiar? Both times I (and who knows how many others) put in change requests. So apparently TMS is not really looking at what the cable companies are doing, just reacting to problems once TiVo customers start complaining.

Another example. Comcast tweaks the names they use for the digital broadcast channels of the major network affiliates in Houston. E.g. "KHOUDT" becomes "KHOU-HD" and "KPRCDT" becomes "KPRC-HD", etc. 

So what happens? the old channels are dropped and then added again using new channel names. But there is no program information for the new channel names. And all season passes are tied to the old names. How can this happen? How can the channels be dropped and added again when when the only thing TiVo needs is to update is the channel names? Can't the drop/adds be changes be backed out?

I would hope that a closer cooperation with TMS, or at least a better channel change QA process would prevent this kind of debacle.


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## Ambival (Sep 5, 2007)

I agree. I've been seeing the same thing. All of my local channels disappeared today, and a pay international channel that simply changed numbers several days ago has yet to be reflected online (even though TiVO has the new channel in place, the old channel still receives all of the updates)

Please do something quickly.


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## lrhorer (Aug 31, 2003)

Both Tribune and Tivo are at the mercy of what the local CATV system sends them, and there are thousands of local CATV systems across the country. The only practical solution is to do just what they do now: rely upon subscribers to report when the local CATV company screws up.


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## Watter (Apr 11, 2004)

Comcast (or even just Comcast Houston) is hardly a small local market. I'm facing the same issue and missing a number of recordings because of no programming data after the channel change (all local networks). Frankly, I don't give a whit about what information Comcast gives them. I'm paying Tivo for programming data, something I get for free with any other service, so they have a responsibility to get this right. It's been three days now with no programming data for any of my local HD channels. I'm sure hundreds of others like myself have complained. Just buy a frikkin newspaper and put the data in manually if you have to, Tivo. Do something; anything.


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## WayneCarter (Mar 16, 2003)

Watter said:


> Comcast (or even just Comcast Houston) is hardly a small local market. I'm facing the same issue and missing a number of recordings because of no programming data after the channel change (all local networks). Frankly, I don't give a whit about what information Comcast gives them. I'm paying Tivo for programming data, something I get for free with any other service, so they have a responsibility to get this right. It's been three days now with no programming data for any of my local HD channels. I'm sure hundreds of others like myself have complained. Just buy a frikkin newspaper and put the data in manually if you have to, Tivo. Do something; anything.


Have you submitted the changes to TiVo? I've never had to do it, but it seems others have had good results.


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## [email protected] (Jan 8, 2008)

Maybe TiVo could add some capabilities to the menu system to allow us to fix things for ourselves instead of waiting for them?

1. option to block daily calls for a period up to a week.
2. option to allow call signs to be edited or re-arranged
3. option to back out the last channel changes -- or reset to a 'restore point" 

Also, I hope that additional controls have been put into place to decrease the likelihood that someone trying to tidy up call signs will not cause programming data loss again. 

Maybe channel and programming info could be stored in an RDBMS that will use things like transaction journaling, triggers, and referential integrity to ensure that channel changes can be backed out and call signs can be changed transparently. 

It would sure make the possibility of a combining multiple TiVos on a home LAN into a single virtual TiVo a more realistic possibility. Once you have the data in an RDBMS, distributing the database becomes a possibility.


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## lrhorer (Aug 31, 2003)

Watter said:


> Comcast (or even just Comcast Houston) is hardly a small local market.


Small or large is not the issue, and yes, it's just Comcast Houston, and maybe not even that. Many municipalities have multiple lineups, despite being in the same city and owned by the same MSO.



Watter said:


> Frankly, I don't give a whit about what information Comcast gives them.


That's easy to say, but the fact is if the Houston employees give Tribune incorrect information, then your guide information will be wrong, period, no matter what you care about or don't.



Watter said:


> I'm paying Tivo for programming data, something I get for free with any other service


Bull pookey! *It is **NOT** free.* You pay Comcast every month for them to pay the employees who put together the channel line-ups. The fact it isn't billed separately is beside the point. You still pay them, and if they aren't doing their jobs, then you're paying them for nothing.



Watter said:


> so they have a responsibility to get this right. It's been three days now with no programming data for any of my local HD channels. I'm sure hundreds of others like myself have complained. Just buy a frikkin newspaper and put the data in manually if you have to, Tivo. Do something; anything.


Things are always easy when one has no idea of what needs to be done. A newspaper won't do a bit of good. Comcast has to supply the channel IDs for each and every unique channel lineup in every zip code. In some cases, it isn't even physically possible, because sometimes the chanel IDs will be different in one part of a zip code than in another part, and resolving the discrepancy isn't always a simple matter. I'm not saying that's what's happened in this case, but no matter what, the channel map must come from Comcast. It cannot under any circumstances or by any means possible come from anywhere else. You have a right to complain to Tivo, of course, but you should be complaining just as loudly to the local managers of Comcast Houston. The Comcast Houston personnel are the only ones on Earth who can fix the problem.

The scheduling information, now, comes from the individual broadcasters and the national networks, if applicable, but from what you are saying the problem is the lineup, not the schedule, and that is 100% Comcast's responsibility.


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## lrhorer (Aug 31, 2003)

[email protected] said:


> Maybe TiVo could add some capabilities to the menu system to allow us to fix things for ourselves instead of waiting for them?
> 
> 1. option to block daily calls for a period up to a week.


You could do that by closing the ports in your firewall, or just unplug the Ethernet cable or phone line. It wouldn't help, though, except in the case where no physical re-mapping of the channel IDs has taken place, but fictitious re-mapping info was sent out. That, and you would have to knoiw about the error beforehand.



[email protected] said:


> 2. option to allow call signs to be edited or re-arranged


Ditto, I think. I'm not quite certain in this case, however. I'm not sure if Tivo maps its schedule to the call-signs, but I don't believe it does. Still, it wouldn't help unless you had the channel IDs. It might help in moving your Season Passes.



[email protected] said:


> 3. option to back out the last channel changes -- or reset to a 'restore point"


See #1.



[email protected] said:


> Also, I hope that additional controls have been put into place to decrease the likelihood that someone trying to tidy up call signs will not cause programming data loss again.


Again, talk to Comcast, although in this case perhaps both Comcast corporate and Comcast Houston. As far as Tribune and Tivo go, however, if the local programing folks at Comcast issue a channel lineup change or fail to do so, Tribune and TiVo still must pass it on, and in fact have no way of knowing it was incorrect. They also have no way of knowing if an engineer at the headend issues an incorrect mapping for one or more channels, placing the wrong content in the wrong place.



[email protected] said:


> Maybe channel and programming info could be stored in an RDBMS that will use things like transaction journaling, triggers, and referential integrity to ensure that channel changes can be backed out and call signs can be changed transparently.


Transaction journaling wouldn't be difficult, but again it would only help if a fictitious channel move or deletion were sent out. It wouldn't help with physical misalignments or missed updates at all.



[email protected] said:


> It would sure make the possibility of a combining multiple TiVos on a home LAN into a single virtual TiVo a more realistic possibility.


Not at all. That is to say cooperative scheduling or even a hive mind do not require an RDBMS, although in actuality I am of the impression it and the actual schedule already are in an RDBMS.



[email protected] said:


> Once you have the data in an RDBMS, distributing the database becomes a possibility.


It's perfectly possible even without it. All that is required is for the TiVos to process and implement any scheduling request locally if possible, and if not submit the request to every other TiVo on the net in turn to see if they can record the program without conflict. If the remote TiVo responds it can, then pass the task to it and make note of it in the local database. It's Copy Protection that drives a stake in the chest of a hive mind / cooperative scheduling, not the lack of a relational database whether such lack is the case or not.


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