FYI: I have done all steps I can do. No suggestions necessary. My LG C1 OTA guide is accurate.Tablo has no resolution
I know there have been other posting about guide data but wanted to start my own due to the circumstances. My guide data here in Palm Springs, CA has always been off since day 1. I just thought it was the way it was. Recently syndication programming started showing up on guide that has always been a FM audio only channel. Sure enough I went to watch a comedy show and got just the FM audio broadcast.
I found out how to open a ticket and worked with Tablo for a few weeks and the end result was we can’t help you. The guide data provider can’t correct the faulty program guide.
Copy of support response:
Thanks for the video. After an extensive back and forth with our guide service provider, this is where we stand.
5-5 appears to be a radio station broadcasting on an OTA TV station. Since this does not fall within the OTA specification, our guide service provider cannot provide the correct guide data.
The remaining channels are low powered stations, which are unfortunately are also not supported by our guide service provider.
Despite our best efforts, if our guide service provider is unable to make these changes, there is not much we can do.
Today I wake up and the guide data is even worse than it was. This makes being able to schedule recording impossible since the guide is showing programming that is not what is on the air.
At this point I have to decide what to do. Why pay for a service that is basically worthless to me. I’ll research to see what I can receive without a subscription as well as other options available for recording OTA.
Depending on the guide data other options use (I don’t know what Plex or Silicon Dust for example use as their source for guide data) you may run into the exact same issue. Seems like you are just in a tough OTA situation as far as OTA DVRs.
Post title is a bit misleading, the guide data is perfectly fine for most of us, just unfortunately not in your specific situation.
Palm Springs area has a sizable population but some of the infrastructure is outdated. I don’t want to think how long before getting Next Gen. What guide data source does Tablo use? I’ll find out what LG uses since their guide is accurate. Thank you
I have two LG TV’s - and both use an internet connection to get the guide data on them. There is one station that is wrong in my area (Tablo reports it correctly). Not sure where they are getting the data from, but with an internet outage, no guide data is displayed.
I’m in the NYC metro area, which should not be a fringe case, but the guide is so often wrong, I had stopped using it for several months. Last night I set tablo to record Quantum Leap, guide said it was on NBC channels 4-1 and 4-3. Tablo chose 4-3. It recorded the news.
Do we have no recourse? No way to push for better guide data? Has anyone tried working with Gracenote, with pleas or threats?
Are you aware that in the last 3 years since you have posted that many people have had guide issues and they submitted tickets so that Tablo could communicate with Gracenote to get them resolved? I was simply asking if you had used the documented process to submit your guide issues to Tablo to see if they can get resolved.
I agree with Nilex. In order to get the incorrect guide data corrected, you should submit a help ticket with as much specific detail as possible about the guide errors you are experiencing. It could be Gracenote’s fault or could be the fault of the station not sending guide data correctly to Gracenote. The station might not even know that they’re sending bad data. If you get one round of things fixed and find other things, don’t hesitate to create another help ticket. By doing this, you are helping Tablo to improve that data for all of us.
As bad as Gracenote might seem to you, there is a guide data company MUCH WORSE and that’s Rovi. Rovi bought out TiVo and forced TiVo to move from Gracenote guide data to Rovi guide data and it was an absolute cluster@%$& for a while afterwards. Lots and lots of TiVo customers filing lots of guide data error tickets to get that somewhat stabilized. Even then, it’s not the most accurate guide data still.
As to the posts on the forums, it’s better to submit a direct request. Tablo support seem to offer reasonably good support. They are headquartered in Canada and are effective communicators in English and French. I think TiVo support was moved to a different country on the other side of the world. That’s why I have no problem at all paying $5 a month for the guide data because it subsidizes good support in addition to the guide data.
See my original post. It was posted only after I had gone through the ticket process and was told there was nothing that could be done. Seems to be a combination of circumstances that prevents this and I’m assuming anyone else in the Palm Springs, CA market area.
Right. The support response you posted seemed to be for a specific channel…
The rest of your OP seemed to indicate you were having other guide issues in addition to that specific one. That may just been the way I read the OP, so I apologize if I misunderstood that one.
If the problem is indeed isolated to that one channel, I don’t know that you are going to find any other option that will have correct guide data either if the root problem is the broadcaster isn’t following the OTA specification. Given the information you have provided it seems more like a broadcaster issue than a Tablo issue.
5-5 was used since it was easiest to identify obvious issue. I posted final results of ticket and there were several channels with incorrect data. Mainly broadcasting different shows than what was listed on guide. This part of ticket response was in reference to that:
“The remaining channels are low powered stations, which are unfortunately are also not supported by our guide service provider.
Despite our best efforts, if our guide service provider is unable to make these changes, there is not much we can do.”
Based on that additional information, seems like this is an unfortunate situation specific to your location and channels/stations vs a problem with Tablo or Gracenote in general. Sucks nonetheless, I won’t disagree.
Other than me paying for a service that is not deliverable… I’m not quite sure how you can defend Gracenote not supporting low power stations. I need to find out what is preventing Gracenot from supporting low power stations. If it’s a limitation on them then yes, it’s a Gracenote issue.
Fair point. My main point was this doesn’t appear to be a Tablo issue, but if you find out Gracenote isn’t supporting something they really should be then that’s unfortunate as well.
From a customer perspective, a Gracenote issue is a Tablo issue.
Customer buys a Tablo, which uses Gracenote service to provide guide data.
Customer doesn’t care, nor should care, that the guide data service is provided by Gracenote, or some poor guy quickly typing guide data for each customer on-demand in some back room.
Okay, I would care about that guy, but you get my point?
I’ve read how Gracenote (Nielsen) is in the metadata business which to me shows they’re still relevant. Does Gracenote get paid by content providers to be able to use their guide data? Is Tablo a customer of Gracenote in a way? Palm Springs must not be the only market with low power stations where this could be an issue. What would it take to pressure Gracenote to find a solution to this? Those are the things that go through my mind as a customer of Tablo.