IPG Inconsistencies

[57]

I have a 9865 (NB3) running Navigatr firmware and I also utilize AnyPlace Web "Manage PVR", as well as RAPTV on my iPad. The Rogers IPG has never been very good, but most of the time it records most of my scheduled recordings. Since January 2016 (post Navigatr?) the IPG has become increasingly less reliable.  Here's a list of recent issues.

1. Before the change to DST the IPG was "incorrect" by one hour for all the scheduled recordings after the time change, as well as the programmes shown in the guide the following week. This is very confusing for people. It's also unnecessary since SARA firmware doesn't do this (I also have 8300HD PVRs.)

2. After the change to DST, programmes that were recorded on the PVR prior to the time change showed as being recorded at times different from when they were actually recorded.  Not only that, but the "recording time" would be different depending on which way you accessed the information. On the PVR itself it would be off by 1 hour. On AnyPlace it would be off by 5 hours. On RAPTV it would be off by 4 hours.

3. This week the daily recordings don't seem to be scheduling properly.  Only 1-2 days instead of 4-5. (And yes, I am aware that sometimes the guide "catches up" with these sorts of issues, but this week it hasn't and recordings have been missed because of it)

4.  I have a scheduled series recording for "Edwardian Farm" on TVO 2AM Tuesday.  The Navigatr IPG shows the programme as "Wartime Farm" with the description for an Edwardian Farm episode.  On AnyPlace or RAPTV it shows as "Edwardian Farm".  If I hadn't noticed, I would have missed recording it on my PVR due to a totally incorrect title on the 9865 IPG.

5. The PVR/AnyPlace/RAPTV uses "name based recording". The problem is that the names of the programmes are constantly changing.  This means that series recordings are missed even if one letter of the name of the programme changes. This has been going on for roughly 11 years now.  As an example, Mercer Report may become The Mercer Report.   "The Fifth Estate" has been listed about 3-4 different ways during the past 2 months!  Rogers, get your IPG provider to give us consistent programme titles. Or write proper firmware that would circumvent these issues. TiVo knows how to...

6. Many of the programmes have "generic" information in the programme description instead of what's actually airing.  For example instead of stating who the guest is on "Mansbridge One on One" it simply states that "Peter interviews Canadians"  There are similar examples for almost all interview programming and late night programming.  I do understand that this information is not always available, but it usually is and the IPG provider is missing information that's available in many places on the web.

7. Currently on Smithsonian Channel (540).  It shows TBA for the entire week.  This happens often on this and other channels..

8. For the Formula One race this weekend, there were several pre and post-race programmes. When I set these to record they showed properly on the 9865, however, on AnyPlace/RAPTV they showed totally incorrectly - as NCAA basketball or SportsCentre.  How weird is that?

9. The "new" tag that is supposed to indicate new programming is often not correct. It's often missing from new programming or it's shown as new when a programme is a repeat. (and yes I am aware that "new" is relative to that particular channel)

10. The user experience is totally different depending on which device, firmware, software, computer, browser you're using.  We should be able to see the same thing whether we're looking at the IPG or recordings at the PVR, from our computer, with our tablet, etc. However, the experience is totally different with different information showing. For example on the PVR, a programme description may show the year of production, while AnyPlace doesn't show it, or vice versa. Or the programme title/description could be competely different.  It's almost impossible for an average user to comprehend all these differences when someone like me with 14 years of heavy Rogers IPG experience and extensive experience on forums, has difficulty.

The above is but a short list of IPG problems. There are many more that I've recorded over the years, but I thought this would suffice to give Rogers some feedback regarding their IPG, which has become increasingly unreliable.  You're driving away your customers with these sorts of problems, without even mentioning Navigatr.

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[User14]

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@yyz64 wrote:

User14 ,

That's the problem I was having. No weather.no ROD   no Call Display and on channel 975 it said not authorized.Do you have any of those?See molly222 for having the same problems.

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It is difficult to figure out what goes under "interactive program guide (IPG)" issues and what are "Navigatr" software issues and NB3 factory software issues.

I figured button D  on  button D off (rather than exit) would be a good IPG improvement recommendation. The fact that I don't get the weather with button D should have probably gone under the "Navigatr"  issue.  

[User14]

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@57 wrote:

4.  I have a scheduled series recording for "Edwardian Farm" on TVO 2AM Tuesday.  The Navigatr IPG shows the programme as "Wartime Farm" with the description for an Edwardian Farm episode.  On AnyPlace or RAPTV it shows as "Edwardian Farm".  If I hadn't noticed, I would have missed recording it on my PVR due to a totally incorrect title on the 9865 IPG.

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 We recorded a TVO program titled and recorded as "Canada Over the Edge" about the Haida Guaii but it turned out to be a program called  "The Great Canadian Tax Dodge"  about Canadian companies using off shore accounts to reduce their taxes. Interesting, but not the program we thought we had taped.

I believe this is related to IPG Item 4. above.  The IPG sometimes does not reflect the stations actual programming and the recording you wanted is missed.

It could simply be a TVO problem, but just another glitch in the life of a Rogers client.  

[yyz64]

Another good on/off feature would be with the LIST button.Again if you just say wanted to see what you had recorded it would be nice to push LIST to access it and press it again to exit.These are simple but user friendly functionality. It wouldn'thave taken much in the way of "testing" to make this a better user experience.Which I guess as customers we are,just with the ability to also pay for the privilege.

[57]

I'm currently in a time-zone that's 6 hours ahead of Toronto.  When I try to use my iPad to look at the IPG, the IPG incorrectly reports the day - for example - Monday instead of Sunday, etc.

Since I also have my laptop, where I didn't bother changing the time, I'm using AnyPlace/Web on it instead, since the IPG makes sense on it.

Since I couldn't be sure that setting the recordings using the iPad would correct properly in RAPTV, I'm using my Laptop as mentioned above.  I have no idea why the IPG is "off" since it shouldn't really care where I am in the world - it should simply show the correct day as it is in Toronto.  Why the time of my iPad throws it off is beyond me.

I don't recall this happening in my previous travels. This is something new, perhaps again related to Navigatr, or bad RAPTV/AnyPlace programming.

[57]

As reported in the post above, RAPTV on my iPad is returning incorrect information for the day in the IPG - it reports say Wednesday instead of Tuesday in the Guide.  This appears to be because my time-zone is "off" by 6 hours, but that shouldn't matter since the programme should return data based on Toronto time, irrespective of where I am in the world.

I just logged into Toronto Hydro's PowerLens website and it does the same thing.  It provides me all the graphical date for my hourly use, but it does so for the incorrect day - shows Friday's data as Saturday.  Interestingly, it reports the daily use properly, only the hourly use is incorrect.

Also, when I log in using my computer the PowerLens data/Rogers Guide is correct.  Must be a similar programming error on the iPad interface for Rogers and Toronto Hydro.

[TheArcher]

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@57 wrote:

As reported in the post above, RAPTV on my iPad is returning incorrect information for the day in the IPG - it reports say Wednesday instead of Tuesday in the Guide.  This appears to be because my time-zone is "off" by 6 hours, but that shouldn't matter since the programme should return data based on Toronto time, irrespective of where I am in the world.

I just logged into Toronto Hydro's PowerLens website and it does the same thing.  It provides me all the graphical date for my hourly use, but it does so for the incorrect day - shows Friday's data as Saturday.  Interestingly, it reports the daily use properly, only the hourly use is incorrect.

Also, when I log in using my computer the PowerLens data/Rogers Guide is correct.  Must be a similar programming error on the iPad interface for Rogers and Toronto Hydro.

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I just returned from a country which is 5 hours ahead of Canada.

When I tried to access the Rogers IPG on my ipad Home Edition app. the channels were all listed along the side but all the programming information was blank. When I changed the ipad settings for Date and Time to Toronto and Language and Region back to Canada, all the programming information was restored to the app.

[kso]

If the mods are reading this. I noticed that Monday at 10pm's Lifetime's series "UnReal" doesn't have the right episode description. It has a description of some other show, so the cover art isn't showing up right either.

Oddly the repeat of the episode on A&E, a different network DOES have the right episode description so it's getting the right cover art.

[57]

Checked AnyPlace on my iPad and on my Computer/Browser. Currently all scheduled recordings show as "manual recording" for Saturday July 9th and Sunday, July 10th. This makes it very difficult to check recordings.

[OLDYELLR]

I see the same thing here. Normally the RAPTV web app has been the easiest and most reliable way to schedule recordings, but this morning when I tried scheduling the British Grand Prix Qualifying and Race, its search only came up with the Practice. The PVR search was no better, only finding the Practice on 407. I finally had to go to 407 in the IPG and found Qualifying on Saturday on 407, then the Race on Sunday on 498. After scheduling them on the PVR, they only appear as manual recordings on RAPTV.

I usually get these "manual recordings" when I schedule a show 7 days out and the Guide only shows 6 days out, but I see a lot of the on RAPTV not even that far out.

[57]

The proper titles are showing again today.  No more "manual recordings". If someone here fixed it, thanks.

[OLDYELLR]

Last Friday I scheduled the first 6 stages of the Tour de France using the RAPTV web app. Stage 6 came up as "Manual Recording" on my SA8300HD PVR because its IPG only sees 6 days ahead. Looking at scheduled recordings on the RAPTV web app now, the others have their titles but stage 6 is "Manual Recording" while Stage 7 has its title because I scheduled more stages later. It also seems the RAPTV guide "sees" scheduled series recordings on my PVR 10 days ahead but calls then manual recordings.

[57]

1. There is no programme information for HiFi (538) beyond today.  Saturday onwards is blank.

2. I've had a series recording set up for Grand Designs for quite a while. This past week it has stopped recording (Ch. 514 at 3PM daily).  I deleted the series recording and tried to set up a new one. Despite there being 5-6 such programmes per week (Sunday is often a repeat), when I set up the series it only found the first day and not the other airings.  I have therefore resorted to setting up single recordings for each of the next few days - a pain. I may try setting up a series again next week because I have encountered a similar issue before - a few months back.  There seems to be no pattern/reason.

[57]

Daily Planet is starting a new season this week (daily 7PM, Discovery 574) and I'm trying to set up a series recording. (Series - Timeslot - Any Day).  It is not taking and only schedules one recording.  I've tried using the AnyPlace App on my iPad, as well as directly on the PVR. No go.

Perhaps it'll self-correct by Monday, but perhaps not.

[OLDYELLR]

I have no trouble setting either New or Timeslot recordings of Daily Planet on my SA8300HD. Must be a Navigare "feature".

[57]

The issue with Daily Planet series recording corrected itself overnight.  Just another one of those Navigatr things.

[User14]

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@57 wrote:

The issue with Daily Planet series recording corrected itself overnight.  Just another one of those Navigatr things.

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You are not alone in your frustration. Because of the Interactive Program Guide (IPG) problems,  we tend to record the program before and the program after just to make sure we don't not miss our favourite shows. I am not sure what the solution is to the faulty IPG!

We can add time to the programs but it takes too many clicks each time for all our recordings.  

Perhaps I should make a suggestion to gdkitty to add a default to the UPDATED NextBox Navigatr - December 2015/January 2016 list of issues. 

Instead of adding 1hr for each program, the addition of1 hr per program should be a default feature of the Navigatr recording options.  That way we always get an extra hour for the unannouced extensions due to sports, specials or the very frequent PBS pledge drives.  We missed the end of the last program of Phryne Fisher, Season Two due to "the pledge". The errors in the IPG are a constant pain for many stations! 

There has to be a more efficient and effective solution.

[57]

@User14: 

That is already possible under Settings - Default Recording.

[57]

When viewing the IPG for February, or when you press the "B" button in the guide, the guide currently shows "Undefined", instead of "February".

(This is with Navigatr on my NB3s.  My 8300HD running SARA and AnyPlace seem to know what month comes next...)

[molly222]

I noticed that too @57...my guess is that Rogers can't spell "February"

[57]

C'mon Rogers. It's February, not Undefined.  See post 39 of this thread.

Navigatr shows Undefined at the top of the guide!

[mpfc75]

My PVR doesn't know this is the month of February!

The Navigatr Guide doesn't know this is February!  I get "Sunday undefined 5th" for today, "Monday undefined 6th" for tomorrow, etc. for all of the channels I have checked.  I've noticed this since January when I was scrolling through the week.