Support & Missing guide data

General Discussion
1

Please read this before you respond - I’m specifically asking for people’s experiences dealing with support, I am NOT asking for suggestions on troubleshooting.

Both on here, and on reddit, i have read multiple posts regarding users having specific channels that have no guide information.

Users when submitting this to support get a response of

Please go through the following process to recommit your channels to your guide:

  • Head to Settings > Guide > Channel Lineup
  • Uncheck the problem channels
  • Click Add to Guide.
  • Enter “Channel Lineup” once more
  • Re-scan
  • Ensure that all the channels you want are checked
  • Click “Save and continue”

After this does not fix the problem and users post about it online the forum/reddit TabloTV account responds that:

Sending a screenshot or photo of the channels IN the guide but without data should get them what they need.

You can also specifically ask them to open a ticket with Gracenote (our guide provider) on your behalf.

Doing that gets a response, completely ignoring the issue

I request you to please power cycle the Tablo and then try removing the channel and adding it back and let me know how it goes.

Explaining that step was already completed, did not help, and that this exact same guide information issue has happened on two Gen 4 devices, proving that the issue has nothing to do with removing/scanning/adding channels.

Gets completely ignored by support.

Reaching out via reddit, this response

send me your ticket number or DM me your email address I can have our head of support review your tickets and work to get things resolved for you.

Which sounds great until the customer service manager wants remote access to the Tablo (something not mentioned by official Tablo account, nor any other post)

I will need access to your Tablo to collect additional channel information, once I have this through a remote session I can send the information directly to our guide data provider to further investigate the channels.

To setup your Tablo for remote access:

Press the reset button 3 times rapidly (3 times within 1 second).

If done correctly, you’ll notice your LED will begin blinking twice in a row, with a small pause (heartbeat mode).

The trick to remote access mode is to watch the blue status LED of the Tablo for ~1 minute after you try this. If the blue LED goes solid, it didn’t work and you need to try again. The most common reason for this not working is if you did not click the reset button 3 time quickly enough. This needs to be very fast.

During this time, the Tablo will work entirely normally. The session will last until one of us reboots the Tablo.

Let me know when you’ve done this, and we’ll log in and take a look.

Asking what information they need that requires remote access to my device, and why it is so complicated for someone at Tablo or Gracenote to look at the master database and verify that the program listings for these channels is missing.

Sparked this response from the manager

We must have remote access in order to fulfil your request, there is no other option.

Please let us know when this is done

After responding that it was unacceptable to ignore my questions.

We need specific data our provider requires to investigate the broadcast information. I do not have any other specifics to share with you.

If you wish to troubleshoot with our team we need remote access, if you are not able to give us remote access we will be closing out this ticket.

Other users that have pursued getting missing guide information corrected:

  • Was your experience similar?

  • Did you need to grant remote access to your device?

  • Did they ever fix your issue?

1 Like
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Pretty similar. I think that I waste my time by giving them too much information, which seems to get lost because I’ve received very similar instructions to what I just told them I’ve tried.

I think so? I was told to put both my 2-tuners (4th gens) into remote access mode, and after 12 hours one was still blinking away. I finally reset it because there’s no reason they shouldn’t have been able to look at it by then – I had both emailed them and posted in the forum that this it was ready, and when replying to my “how long is it going to blink” they basically said until they had a chance to look at it. The first one, I think only blinked for a few minutes, which is why I was concerned about the second.

No. I was having missing guide data (greyed out) at that time, and it seemed like everything was blamed on my end. IDK how many times I tried to explain that there is no guide on this channel regardless of Tablo connection, but because it’s a nation-wide channel, it shouldn’t be hard to pull the EPG from somewhere.

I started having some major issues with the second Tablo after about 3 weeks of this email conversation (nearly every recording splitting, fails for no reason on both OTA and FAST) and told them that trying to fix the guide while the Tablo wasn’t working was the least of my worries. I did not pursue this guide issue.

I have since been trying to get them to fix some of the FAST stations not giving proper information, obviously given the same basic steps I’d done numerous times (delete, rescan, add, reboot, reinstall…). This is not fixed, but somehow, after a very lengthy email explaining what was working and what wasn’t, including what shows were on instead of the guide, I got a reply back saying, “We are glad to hear that your issue is resolved. Our team is working simultaneously on the developments required.” I quickly replied to not close the ticket, and also mentioned something in my post regarding this.

I know that they’re likely overwhelmed with those being gifted Tablos, and it’s highly unlikely that any new support they’ve hired know how to use a Tablo or how common some of these problems are, but it is very frustrating.

All told, none of my guide issues have been fixed. With this latest OTA update and channel rearranging, I’m afraid to even ask about the new ones! I don’t want to return my Tablo, but if I can’t rely on it and can’t manually schedule a program to get around incorrect EPG data, it’s pretty useless.

1 Like
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Wow, at least you got that far. This was the last response I received from Tablo Support referring to how screwed up our guide is now. Why did I purchase the lifetime guide subscription when clearly that money was floundered into who knows what…

Tablo Support: I have reached out to our guide data service provider for an update on the matter. Unfortunately they have indicated that they are unable to make the requested changes at the moment.

What the hay, tell them to fix it or yank back my lifetime subscription money. As of a couple of days ago, our local Reno, NV ABC station 26.2 is totally screwed up. All of the national programming was removed from the guide data, but the local news stuff is still there. So many of the entries say Paid Programming. Bull Puckey. I don’t get why Tablo blew me off when I said they need to fix it. I feel very reluctant to open another support ticket as they just don’t seem to give a darn. Very unhappy with my Tablo these days.

[EDITED] I would also like to add that the guide provider fixed channels that didn’t need fixing and won’t correct their mistake. Also as of today I have missing guide data on 1 channel and 6 incorrectly assigned channels. I am really surprised Tablo Management hasn’t taken a better approach at rectifying this issue. I left my thoughts on this subject in the last survey they put out. Probably put in file 13. LOL

3 Likes
4

Similar experience. Even veteran users who know the issue is with the guide provider are asked to go through the uncheck/rescan process, etc. It’s frustrating, but I don’t see it changing.

5

New Tablo 4th Gen user here. I’m having the same exact issue as mentioned here. I sent a request for help and they opened a ticket but I have a feeling I will be jumping through the same hoops. Might just go ahead and return it. I’ll at least wait for their response but I imagine they send out the same instructions for the first time request on this issue. Another problem is the thing tends to bounce you out back to the menu for no reason. Oh well…

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For anyone interested

Tablo gets its guide data from Gracenote (owned by Neilson). While i still haven’t found a way to report issues directly. I did find that Zap2It.com also uses Gracenote guide data.

If the information is missing on Zap2it.com then no amount of removing, scanning, adding, rebooting, hokey pokey will solve the issue.

Titantv.com is a competitor guide data provider, and in my case they do have the missing guide data.

It doesn’t solve the issue, in fact it just proves how unhelpful support is; but it does provide proof of my own sanity.

2 Likes
7

While the legacy used gracenotes are you sure the gen 4 does.

Go to the NBC Tonight show for january 9th. Legacy has actor Daniel Kaluuya. Gen 4 has Actor Kevin Hart.

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If it matters, Plex says Kevin Hart too, but yes, legacy says Daniel.

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The almighty titantv says something even more different (but I don’t use titantv that much anymore).

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And who might NBC say is on.

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Go, go legacy ftw!! Very interesting.

Edit: Would be funny if it’s Kevin Hart though… at which point, I have zero to say.

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As far as I know it is still Gracenote based on chat with a Tablo representative and this reddit comment

Sorry you’re having trouble getting the support you need.

Sending a screenshot or photo of the channels IN the guide but without data should get them what they need.

You can also specifically ask them to open a ticket with Gracenote (our guide provider) on your behalf.

Edit: I missed that you said Jan 9th…(odd choice to compare)

For the Tonight Show Jan 9, my Gen4 says: Josh Hutcherson, Ariana Madix.

Comparing to other sources:
Tivo - “To be Announced”
TitanTV - Generic description without guests’ names
Zap2it - Josh Hutcherson & Ariana Madix
YouTubeTV - Daniel Kaluuya, Josh Hutcherson, Ariana Madix
NBC.com - Daniel Kaluuya, Josh Hutcherson, Ariana Madix

Zippy - no idea why yours says Kevin Hart :man_shrugging:

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Pretty strange since hdhomerun which also uses grace notes has Daniel Kaluuya.

So do you think that the gen 4 uses grace notes.

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Similar. Why won’t Grave man ote just plug in what we tell them
Or maybe require so m as y of the same complaints… I us ER TitanTV tomake my own schedule
But e HH at does Tablo do? No manual recordings on 4th gen.

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Because you would have to supply all the meta data needed to build the guide in a way that supports all the features. And you don’t have that.

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When I used to build DVRs and leverage TitanTV (because it’s built to be leveragable), I used to effectively schedule things with meta, but the scheduling itself was much like old school VCR (fixed way).

If I ever get back into this, maybe I will try to do things “smarter”. Not sure.

Going way back to 2010, for those that are interested: https://endlessnow.com/ten/Video/pvr.ogv

(yes, that’s Ogg Vorbis (no audio though), let the Firefox users rejoice)

Edit: Uploaded something you can see in yt

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I’m not suggesting that Gracenote or Tablo just “take our word for it”.

What I do suggest is that Gracenote & Tablo have a simple to use form, to submit "I receive this channel, but the guide is blank"

THEN, as they are the for profit companies that rely on the guide data being accurate.
THEY do basic research like, visiting the station’s website, reading it’s wikipedia page, check their competitors websites - thus confirming the channel EXISTS, but is not in their database.
THEN contact the station, or the mega-corp that owns the station to figure out who dropped the ball, and fix it.

As a former TiVo user of more than a decade, it was never this difficult to report an issue, give them time to research, and the issue be resolved.

2 Likes
17

I don’t think grace notes sells guide data to consumers but to corporate accounts. And once Rovi bought Tivo didn’t Tivo start using the in-house(Rovi) guide. And if so doesn’t that make it easier to fix.

I don’t think grace notes has the time to check 1,700 stations every week. If they would you would be paying a lot more for a guide service.

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I will respond this one last time, but ask that going forward on this post about Experience with Support we stick to the topic.

I don’t think grace notes sells guide data to consumers but to corporate accounts

Correct - never claimed differently

once Rovi bought Tivo didn’t Tivo start using the in-house(Rovi) guide.

Sure. Doesn’t change the fact they previously used Tribune, and had a simple way to submit requests for errors to be addressed.

Tribune bought Gracenote in 2013, then sold it off to Nielson in 2016.

Rovi bought Tivo in 2016

doesn’t that make it easier to fix

If i go by Tivo forums, no. Theyre having worse experiences with Rovi than they had with Tribune

I don’t think grace notes has the time to check 1,700 stations every week

I have no idea where you’ve come up with that number. Honestly at this point it seems like you just want to nitpick/argue for the sake of nitpicking/arguing.

I simply gave an example of how another company (Tivo), accepted and processed guide data issues from their provider (Tribune at the time) and how Tablo and Gracenote should follow the example.

Regardless, all of these comments about the Tonight Show etc. while guide related are not on topic. The topic is experience with Tablo Support.

This forum/website barely works for having one discussion per post, let alone multiple side conversations. So, I kindly ask that we stay on topic on this post.

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I could care less about your opinion of support. That is all subjective.

I care about missing or incorrect guide data. And of course everyone has an idea of where the guide data comes from. And that is also often incorrect.

And yes I also had Tivo and my models were a lot older then 10 years.

20

I have a couple of channels with no guide info. The following is what Tablo advised.

Our guide data provider doesn’t have access to these channels in your area, and we unfortunately do not have an ETA on when or if they will be added. We are actively working with our guide data provider to attempt to resolve this issue, but do not have more insight to offer at this time.