# Guide Info poor



## OTAR (Sep 13, 2015)

New to TIVO. Just picked up the Lifetime Roamio OTA.

I noticed the TIVO guide will often show "to be announced" or some generic description of little to no value for several channels, but I can tune those same channels with my TV and see the program or movie name and descriptions which are very helpful.

Any thoughts/experiences?


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## tarheelblue32 (Jan 13, 2014)

Could you be more specific as to which channels you are experiencing this on?


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## ramiss (Jan 30, 2014)

I've never seen that before..

Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk


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## OTAR (Sep 13, 2015)

I'm not sure what you want. They are OTA channels. One is METV. Another is Westerns4U. Another is BOUNCETV.


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## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

OTAR said:


> New to TIVO. Just picked up the Lifetime Roamio OTA.
> 
> I noticed the TIVO guide will often show "to be announced" or some generic description of little to no value for several channels, but I can tune those same channels with my TV and see the program or movie name and descriptions which are very helpful.
> 
> Any thoughts/experiences?


How long has your TiVo been active?

One thing to try is forcing a connection to the TiVo mothership. To manually initiate a connection to the TiVo service, take the following path through the UI:
TiVo Central
=> Settings & Messages
=> Settings
=> Network
=> Connect to the TiVo service now​


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## OTAR (Sep 13, 2015)

It's been live since Wednesday. It took 2 updates and keeps trying to push Programming in which I will never be interested, so I'm pretty sure it's contacting TIVO. Many Channels have information, but the information is generic.

Example: METV, MASH

TIVO: unrequited love, danger, infection at 4077th

TV: A wounded enemy soldier stabs another patient with a scalpel, causing a lethal infection.

As you can see, the info from TIVO is practically worthless, whereas the TV information is quite informative.


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## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

What's your zip code?


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## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

OTAR said:


> I'm not sure what you want. They are OTA channels. One is METV. Another is Westerns4U. Another is BOUNCETV.


Are these all coming from the same broadcast station, as subchannels?


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## OTAR (Sep 13, 2015)

93722

Different RF and Numeric Channels. 33-6, 4-8, etc.


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## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

How do your TiVo listings compare to what's available on Zap2it.com?
Local Broadcast (93722)​


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## OTAR (Sep 13, 2015)

TIVO will say "to be announced" on many of these channels.

In fact, this exact List is on channel 4-1 and is Identified as TV Scout Guide.


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## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

OTAR said:


> In fact, this exact List is on channel 4-1 and is Identified as TV Scout Guide.


My brain can't figure out what this means.


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## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

OTAR said:


> TIVO will say "to be announced" on many of these channels.


Really sounds like you guide data is incomplete.

Have you tried the manual connection mentioned above? And maybe a reboot?

What does your TiVo report as its last successful connection and guide data window? (under System Information)

TiVo Central
=> Settings & Messages
=> Account & System Info
=> System Information
Program Information To: ???
Last Successful: ???
Last Attempt: ???
Last Status: ???
Next Scheduled: ???​


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## OTAR (Sep 13, 2015)

The Zap2it List is the program on Channel 4-1, but it is called the TV Scout Guide on the Screen. Just follow your Link and look at 4-1.

Even though the Programs are listed in the Zap2it List, TIVO may show "to be announced" instead of the program name.


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## OTAR (Sep 13, 2015)

See attachments. Notice 4-7 & 4-8.


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## L David Matheny (Jan 29, 2011)

OTAR said:


> Many Channels have information, but the information is generic.
> 
> Example: METV, MASH
> 
> ...


I've noticed that too, and I'm not sure when it started. I record (and sometimes watch) Charlie Rose. As the air date approached, there used to be specific info about who he was interviewing. Now the listing is updated with the correct "First aired" date, but the description always seems to be generic. Somebody just isn't bothering to give us the detailed info anymore. The TV would be using PSIP data.


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## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

Similar issues: "to be announced"

(Nevermind, the top entries appear to be CableCARD related.)


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## OTAR (Sep 13, 2015)

Thanks for the link, but I don't think these are quite the same. Mine is OTA and I have NOT manually added any channels.

"To be announced" is not as bad as the generic information, but both are less than ideal. I'd rather have no information than to waste time reading usless information.

I suspect the "souce" of program information which TIVO is using is less than complete and that missing information is automatically replaced with "to be announced".


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## ThAbtO (Apr 6, 2000)

Generally, a new Tivo will connect several times during the Guided setup. Then, it gets a software update (no guide data) on the 4th (approx) connection. The first connections only give limited guide data, perhaps a week, and perhaps on only major stations. The 5th connection will get more guide data. Also, The Tivo does some background processes which can take a few days.

You should do several Tivo connections under Settings/ Network.


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## dlfl (Jul 6, 2006)

OTAR said:


> 93722
> 
> Different RF and Numeric Channels. 33-6, 4-8, etc.


In the zap2it listings under 93722 there are many choices for source. Have you selected "Broadcast (Antenna)" ?

EDIT: Nevermind, I can tell you have. As I understand it Zap2It (or Tribune Media Services, or GraceNotes) provides guide data used by TiVo. Looks to me like they are doing a poor job for your OTA lineup.

There is a link on TiVo.com to report guide data problems. You should report your issues there.


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

Speaking of a bad guide information, can anyone set a 1P for the 9/23 two hour season premiere of L&O:SVU on NBC? When I try, I only see the repeats on USA and CW. Could it have bad data? It's been that way for three days. Is it only me?


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## davefred99 (Oct 31, 2004)

I live in a rural area that gets its OTA channels from a low power repeater service called Honey Lake TV. They pick up the local networks plus some sub channels and rebroadcast them on 3UHF digital channels. When I do a regular scan for channels all I get are a few High Power Original channels which are very distant and too weak to use. So I have to re-scan manually to find My actual rebroadcast locals which I receive very good. I get 14 channels but all of them say the same "to be announced" in the guide data.

I called support and they told me the issue is that since they are low power re-broadcasts that they are not listed currently in any guide data information. They escalated my situation to the department that handles the guide data information and said they would try to add them as a new provider but it might take several weeks to do. I suggested that it really was just a matter of remapping the information listed on the original channels to fill the guide information on the channels I do get but they said it was more complicated than that on there end.

I hope that they can figure something out because without the guide data Tivo is almost useless as a DVR for OTA if you are trying to cut the cord. I wish/hope in the future they would just come up with a network streaming service much like SlingTV but including the Network Locals.


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## HDRyder9 (Aug 2, 2007)

One of my favorite channels Smithsonian HD has no guide data on my Romio DVR. Zap2It has guide data but not Tivo. I've contacted Tivo but they haven't resolved it.

There are many other channels with no guide data as well but I really only care about Smithsonian HD.


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## Chuck_IV (Jan 1, 2002)

HDRyder9 said:


> One of my favorite channels Smithsonian HD has no guide data on my Romio DVR. Zap2It has guide data but not Tivo. I've contacted Tivo but they haven't resolved it.
> 
> There are many other channels with no guide data as well but I really only care about Smithsonian HD.


I just looked at Smithsonian in my guide on my Roamio Plus and it is 100% populated with guide data, all the way to the end of the guide (9/25).


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## OTAR (Sep 13, 2015)

Just watching a show.

TV Tuner and Zap2it show "My Mom's New Boyfriend" with Meg Ryan and Antonio Banderas, but TIVO shows it to be some Racing Movie with John Candy.


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## HarperVision (May 14, 2007)

This sounds a lot like the same issue we saw lately with NFL preseason football games on NFL Network. It just had the very basic of information saying "NFL Football" but not listing the teams playing except sometimes when you clicked into it for more details.

It seems like there's some sort of disconnect between what Zap2It shows and what tivo gets and sends down to our boxes.


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## tivonaute (May 6, 2015)

I opened a separate thread in the Suggestions subforum:http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=531844

The idea is to use the EPG from the broadcast if there is no data from the internet database. Not sure if anybody from TiVo is visiting these forums though.


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