# Only 7 days of guide data



## JoeG (Jul 3, 2004)

Until a few weeks ago, my Series 1 always got 12 days of guide data (plus 2 days of past data). Now it gets only 7. Has anyone else experienced the same change, or have an explanation?


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## CuriousMark (Jan 13, 2005)

I am seeing something similar on a Humax DRT-800 which is a series 2. I am using it with DirecTV, are you also on satellite?

EDIT - This is a stand-alone standard definition single tuner TiVo getting its signal from a DirecTV satellite receiver box (similar to a cable box, but satellite).


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## JoeG (Jul 3, 2004)

My Tivo is a Philips HDR312 Series 1 stand-alone, not a DirectTV unit.


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## bryan4980 (Dec 2, 2011)

I have a premier and I am seeing the same. I get cable from comcast.


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## CuriousMark (Jan 13, 2005)

JoeG said:


> My Tivo is a Philips HDR312 Series 1 stand-alone, not a DirectTV unit.


I edited my post to be more clear. I understand that we are not discussing DirecTV DVRs with TiVo service. Guide data is dependent on the signal source and if cable, the location. If we are to attempt to find a common cause, that is information that we need to share.


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## CuriousMark (Jan 13, 2005)

bryan4980 said:


> I have a premier and I am seeing the same. I get cable from comcast.


Ok, we can rule out satellite based guide data and rule out that it is strictly limited to SD boxes. So now we are narrowed to the TiVo Service or their guide data provider Tribune Media Services.


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## taronga (Nov 16, 2006)

My S2DT was doing the same last week. It was set up for analog cable + Dish Network. I redid guided setup, removing satellite, and I get the full 13ish days again. 

Incidentally, I never had Dish. It was a bit of a hack in order to record OTA through a converter box, but it was more trouble than it was worth.


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## nmiller855 (Sep 26, 2000)

Have y'all tried unplugging it & waiting a couple of minutes before plugging it back in? That usually works for me. It will take a few hours to refill the guide.


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## JoeG (Jul 3, 2004)

Mine is configured for "cable and satellite" so that I can receive both Comcast cable (s-video) and local OTA from my OTA receiver (coaxial). The Tivo thinks the satellite is "Sky Angel USA National", which was a random pick on my part. It has been configured that way for almost a year.


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## medley32 (Jan 15, 2002)

Only have 7 myself. Thought it was an issue with my box, but sounds like it could be a network wide problem. Just noticed the issue today when I got the "only 7 days of guide data" warning. Turns out I had made a successful daily call yesterday. So not sure what's going on. Are all series one stand alones having this problem?


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## JoeG (Jul 3, 2004)

I received a reply from Tivo customer service:



> 3/17/2012 09:10 AM
> Thank you for contacting Tivo Customer Support. We're here to help! We definitely apologize for the troubles you've had with downloading enough program information on your Tivo box. I'm sure these error messages have been frustrating for you. Lineups for DirecTV and Dish Network have been reduced from two weeks to 8-9 days of Program Guide Data. This was done to resolve Series 1 and Series 2 boxes using these lineups from experiencing loading errors during the connection. We had to make this change so the boxes can continue to successfully connect to the service. Due to the size of DirecTV and Dish lineups, if left at two weeks, it may have prevented the box from loading any Program Guide Data, and we were already seeing this happening on some boxes.
> 
> However, we've had many reports of customers receiving this warning message after the change and are actively working to correct this constant reminder that you have less program information. I have added your boxes to the list of affected unit. Rest assured we will have this fixed for you soon. Please let us know if there is anything else we can do for you. Thank you for choosing Tivo and have a great day!


The fact that I am configured for Cable And Satellite so that I can have a second input active for my OTA box is probably why this is affecting me. I will send them another question asking if there is an alternative since I am not really using satellite.


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

JoeG said:


> I received a reply from Tivo customer service:
> 
> The fact that I am configured for Cable And Satellite so that I can have a second input active for my OTA box is probably why this is affecting me. I will send them another question asking if there is an alternative since I am not really using satellite.


If TiVo had any sense they'd arrange to have a forum here where only they could post (it would be read-only for the rest of us), and they'd use it to post stuff like that in a timely manner so people coming here looking for answers would trip over it first thing.


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## DreamRycher (Mar 18, 2012)

I have a Series 2 RS-TX20 connected to DirecTV and started getting the same message last week.

Man, I wish I had found this out sooner. I spent most of the day yesterday running through guided setup and Clear Program Information & To Do List with no success. Now I have to rebuild my Season Passes!!!


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## atmuscarella (Oct 11, 2005)

I can confirm that some Series 2 boxes had issues loading all the guide data for Dishnetwork as I have one. My Humax Series 2 isn't used anymore but I plug it in every few months to keep it on my account as it is the only TiVo I paid full price for lifetime and I believe the only TiVo that would qualify me for a MSD in the future. Anyway the unit was used for OTA and a dish STP and when I do plug it it fails loading the guide data pretty much 100% of the time I have it plugged in. It does partial loads and I would see a few days of guide data with error messages. I really don't care and just pulled the plug again after a few days but if I were actually trying to use it I would certainly prefer 7-9 days of guide data to how my Series 2 is working.


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## Chester_Lampwick (Jul 19, 2004)

Yeah I'm having this issue with my DRT800 and my Canadian satellite lineup (Shaw Direct). Maybe I'll just ignore these messages.


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## ronsch (Sep 7, 2001)

JoeG said:


> I received a reply from Tivo customer service:
> 
> Quote:
> 3/17/2012 09:10 AM
> ...


Joe - First, thanks for contacting Customer Service for the rest of us! 

Second - That reply from TiVo makes a lot of sense. Remember I had mentioned I had been having lots of trouble getting my HDR312 to make a successfull call in the other thread? It was constantly failing with Error Loading Series messages. I do have a combination of DirecTV and basic cable on that TiVo. Since the guide data reduction I don't think I've had a single failed call.

My Series 2 that still has a full complement of guide data is Basic Cable only.


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## bryan4980 (Dec 2, 2011)

This is the response I got:

*Thank you for contacting TiVo Customer Support. I would be glad to help you with your inquiries. I do apologize that you are not receiving all of your guide information. What I would recommend is repeating the Guided Setup on your TiVo boxes. That will reconfigure your lineup and download a fresh installation of guide information. If that does not resolve your issue, please contact us back, so we can further troubleshoot your issue. If you have any more questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us back. I would like to thank you for being a TiVo customer and have a great day!

Here is a link on how to repeat the Guided Setup:
Answer Title: How do I repeat Guided Setup?*

I figured yeah right that isn't going to work but tried it any, and it actually did work. I am getting today plus 13 days of guide data.


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## JoeG (Jul 3, 2004)

bryan4980 said:


> I figured yeah right that isn't going to work but tried it any, and it actually did work. I am getting today plus 13 days of guide data.


Bryan4980, did you select Cable And Satellite or just Cable? If it is just Cable, it won't have the problem. I'm curious to see if you did Cable And Satellite and got it to start giving full guide data again after repeating Guided Setup. My current situation is that, because I am configured for Cable And Satellite, the guide data is reduced to 7 days for both the satellite lineup and the cable lineup.


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## JoeG (Jul 3, 2004)

taronga said:


> My S2DT was doing the same last week. It was set up for analog cable + Dish Network. I redid guided setup, removing satellite, and I get the full 13ish days again.
> 
> Incidentally, I never had Dish. It was a bit of a hack in order to record OTA through a converter box, but it was more trouble than it was worth.


BTW, this is how Tivo customer support reacts when you tell them you are using Cable And Satellite to activate the second input:



> Regrettably, you have your Tivo box configured in an unsupported manner and we cannot provide assistance in using your Tivo box this way. If you don't have satellite, you should not select satellite as your provider. We recommend repeating the Guided Setup and configuring your box for cable.


Not very friendly. It isn't even a hack.


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

JoeG said:


> BTW, this is how Tivo customer support reacts when you tell them you are using Cable And Satellite to activate the second input:
> 
> Not very friendly. It isn't even a hack.


I told them several years ago they should create a fake satellite company that only has one or two channels, zero and one, to make it easy to activate the line ins without having to rewrite the OS.

Naturally they ignored me.


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## bryan4980 (Dec 2, 2011)

JoeG said:


> Bryan4980, did you select Cable And Satellite or just Cable? If it is just Cable, it won't have the problem. I'm curious to see if you did Cable And Satellite and got it to start giving full guide data again after repeating Guided Setup. My current situation is that, because I am configured for Cable And Satellite, the guide data is reduced to 7 days for both the satellite lineup and the cable lineup.


I selected just cable, I get cable from Comcast. Before I was getting about 9 days worth of data.


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## myxpykalix (Mar 2, 2001)

I went thru 2-3 phone calls and emails from Tivo and did all the things you all have done Restart, Repeat guided Setup, ect only to finally pin down a tier 2 technician who told me that the satellite providers are no longer providing 2 weeks of program info. He told me i should get 2 weeks of cable info if i only had cable and not also direct tv.

He also told me that Tivo itself does not assemble he program data itself but buys it from a 3rd party. I have been paying for 2 units for over 12 years now (I know i should have bought a couple lifetimes back then) which provided me with 2 weeks of programming so I asked, now that it is down to one week I am getting half of what i was getting before are you going to cut my bill in half?
You can guess the answer to that one.

I'm going to go check on cost of comcast with equivilent programming and reluctantly going to DUMP Tivo and DirectTV. I waited for several years for the directtv tivo only to realize to have it, it would cost an additional 17.00 so they are just pricing themselves out of the market, no wonder tivo has lost more then 1 million subscribers...make it 1 million and 1


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## ggieseke (May 30, 2008)

myxpykalix said:


> I went thru 2-3 phone calls and emails from Tivo and did all the things you all have done Restart, Repeat guided Setup, ect only to finally pin down a tier 2 technician who told me that the satellite providers are no longer providing 2 weeks of program info. He told me i should get 2 weeks of cable info if i only had cable and not also direct tv.
> 
> He also told me that Tivo itself does not assemble he program data itself but buys it from a 3rd party. I have been paying for 2 units for over 12 years now (I know i should have bought a couple lifetimes back then) which provided me with 2 weeks of programming so I asked, now that it is down to one week I am getting half of what i was getting before are you going to cut my bill in half?
> You can guess the answer to that one.


It's true that they buy the data from a 3rd party, which is Tribune Media Services (the same company that runs the zap2it website). The rest of it is ignorance or outright lies.

TiVo made the decision to limit the guide data, not TMS or the satellite companies. I'm on DirecTV and my TiVos only have 7 days of data, but zap2it still has 14 days.


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## magnus (Nov 12, 2004)

JoeG said:


> I received a reply from Tivo customer service:
> 
> The fact that I am configured for Cable And Satellite so that I can have a second input active for my OTA box is probably why this is affecting me. I will send them another question asking if there is an alternative since I am not really using satellite.


It looks like they have decided to do something about the S03 error (not very many folks) and have caused another one to show for everyone.


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## myxpykalix (Mar 2, 2001)

ggieseke said:


> It's true that they buy the data from a 3rd party, which is Tribune Media Services (the same company that runs the zap2it website). *The rest of it is ignorance or outright lies.*
> 
> I'm not interested in getting into a "pissing contest" with you ggieseke but i am repeating what I was told and what difference does it make whether they are only provided one week of programming, or Tivo decides to only provide one week of programming, the net result is we are getting *HALF* of what we have been paying for.
> 
> ...


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## ggieseke (May 30, 2008)

myxpykalix,

That comment was directed at TiVo, not you. Their customer support tech should NOT have told you that. The answer that JoeG received from CS is polite, accurate, and a good example of how all of their techs should be trained.

I have also posted my disappointment in the answer you were given in the private "All-Stars" forum at TiVo. It probably won't do any good, but at least they read my post.

BTW, the 7-day issue is affecting all four of my TiVos. I don't like it either but as long as they're transparent about what they're doing, why they did it, and what they're doing to fix it I can live with it for now.


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## tivohaydon (Mar 24, 2001)

ggieseke said:


> BTW, the 7-day issue is affecting all four of my TiVos. I don't like it either but as long as they're transparent about what they're doing, why they did it, and what they're doing to fix it I can live with it for now.


What are they doing to fix the 7 days of guide data? I didn't read anything?

It's a shame they've cut back on the guide data. Shortening the window to schedule shows is a bummer. I know I've missed programs because I had to remember to program them when inside the two week window. This makes it much more likely that people will miss programming.

Recording programming is TiVo's core feature. A core feature is being compromised.

If they need more space on a reserved area I'd suggest they toss some of the advertising overboard.


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## csites (Mar 25, 2012)

JoeG said:


> I received a reply from Tivo customer service:
> 
> The fact that I am configured for Cable And Satellite so that I can have a second input active for my OTA box is probably why this is affecting me. I will send them another question asking if there is an alternative since I am not really using satellite.


JoeG, I also configured Satellite (Dish) solely to be able to use the 2nd input. And so I have the limited guide data problem on my Series2 too. Please let me know if you find a solution.

I don't have Dish, but I use the Dish guide data because Dish carries the channel (CCTV4) that I receive via free OTA satellite.

My primary connection is free OTA antenna. Both primary and secondary are being limited to around 7 days, despite successful daily connections.


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

tivohaydon said:


> What are they doing to fix the 7 days of guide data? I didn't read anything?
> 
> It's a shame they've cut back on the guide data. Shortening the window to schedule shows is a bummer. I know I've missed programs because I had to remember to program them when inside the two week window. This makes it much more likely that people will miss programming.
> 
> ...


I think part of the proiblem may be the considerable increase in the number of channels since the early units were designed, which has them struggling with a much larger database than was expected.


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## ggieseke (May 30, 2008)

This announcement is now on TiVo's site.

http://forums.tivo.com/pe/index.jsp

TiVo Series2 boxes connected to satellite are currently only receiving 7 days-worth of Program Guide Data after connecting to the TiVo service. A solution has been devised and will roll-out to Series2 boxes by Wednesday, April 11. Thank you for your patience.


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## reggers (Jul 27, 2002)

OK - So a fix for Series 2 boxes will be available by April 11. 

What about Series 1 boxes? I've got a couple of Series 1 boxes that have the same problem!!


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## ggieseke (May 30, 2008)

reggers said:


> OK - So a fix for Series 2 boxes will be available by April 11.
> 
> What about Series 1 boxes? I've got a couple of Series 1 boxes that have the same problem!!


Good question. If the "fix" is on their server end it should apply to Series 1s too. I guess we have to wait & see.


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## berniep (Aug 2, 2003)

My series 2 box hooked to a direct tv reciever was getting loading errors a while back and now although it doesn't get the loading errors anymore it still pops up the guide data message once in a while. So it seems that the explanation they gave was legit. Like someone else said at least they are being up front about it. I just hope that the fix has my guide data back out to 2 weeks again and not just removing the warning.


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## CuriousMark (Jan 13, 2005)

My guess is that we will get more, but perhaps not back to the full two weeks. The way TiVo handles satellites is different than cable, they don't handle different line-ups, instead they get every single sat channel and let the user select them in the channel list. With all the channels sat has added and the fact that most HD channels also have an SD duplicate, the number got huge.

If and when the sat companies eliminate the SD channels and the SD sat receivers, the number will go back down, but that won't happen any time soon.

I also don't see TiVo updating S2 software to handle satellite users like cable users with smaller channel line-ups that match the purchased package and receiver type.

So my guess is they push the number of days back up a bit for the DVRs that can handle it. That way we won't get the running out error.


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## Weapon X (Nov 15, 2005)

Well it is past the 4/11 date of this supposed fix but am still only getting around 1 week with a successful connection each night.


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## Weapon X (Nov 15, 2005)

Just got off the phone with customer support and they actually "rolled out" nothing on 4/11. What ever they did, they are considering it a "permanent fix" though and nothing else will be done. They are not taking responsibility but blaming the satellite providers and "they can do nothing about it". 
What you get now it what you will be getting from now on.
I was told this exact info both over the phone and through live chat.

Fine customer service I say.


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## ronsch (Sep 7, 2001)

My Series 1 just completed a call this evening (30 days with no failed calls!) and there is a full 8 days of data. Probably the best we'll see. 95% of my stuff on this TiVo is season passes so the more limited data isn't an issue for me. I can always check my DirecTiVo for data going farther out or else look on Zap2it.


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## desjrs (Jul 21, 2005)

Tivo obviously doesn't mean what they say, or they don't know what they are
doing....Too bad.... Time to look for other alternatives?


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