Guide data unavailable - AGAIN!!!

[ZetaVu]

Ok, this is the fourth time in the last two months that the Snapstream downloads have screwed up and left PRIME TIME network guide data as unavailable. What the Fuck? Is it just me or is this something that's happening to everyone? Usually it's Sunday night, now its Monday night, starting 7pm Monday the networks are unavailable, what gives?

Edit, I can fix it with a forced guide update, but still, that's a little too close for comfort... I've missed recordings because the guide updates weren't in time. Do I have to baby sit all jobs now? Can we get an aleert for unavailable data? Can we get the logs to say something?

[Nick Burns]

Not seeing an issue here:
Guide Data Updated: Saturday, October 24, 2009 at 1:52:21 PM
Start: Friday, October 23, 2009 at 10:00:00 AM
End: Friday, November 06, 2009 at 3:50:00 PM

[79DieselRabbit]

I did loose guide data as well and as a result, some recordings were missed.


[2009/10/25 11:47:29] Guide Update started.
[2009/10/25 11:47:34] Guide Updater Service: Initializing for incremental update...
[2009/10/25 11:47:34] Guide Updater Service: Downloading incremental data from SnapStream.Net...
[2009/10/25 11:47:48] Guide Updater Service: Download complete. Decompressing data...
[2009/10/25 11:47:58] Guide Updater Service: Setting base channel lineups...
[2009/10/25 11:48:02] Guide Updater Service: Processing data complete. Loading incremental data...
[2009/10/25 11:50:05] Guide Updater Service: Data load into database tables failed.
[2009/10/25 11:50:05] Guide Updater Service: If you see repeated data update failures, please visit SnapStream support at: http://www.snapstream.com/Support/Support.asp


A full update seems to have fixed the guide data missing, we'll see if I get another chance to record the shows that were missed.

[Rich A]

I've only had a problem with guide data just a few times in the last 6 years - believe it or not. BUT when ever I DID have any kind of guide data issue I received a warning from my server about the download failure.

So if you guys are having guide data update issues and are NOT getting a warning message about the failure, then that is weird.

Have you looked at the logs? Is there any info there about the failed download?

It almost sounds like the BTV server isn't "trying" to download the guide.

I think to narrow this down further, you need to determine if the guide update is actually happening and failing, or if for some reason the guide updates aren't even being started. If it's the latter, then IMHO it points more to (but not conclusively) a BTV software problem. I believe the majority of BTV users aren't having a problem.
I

[ZetaVu]

Well, for the past so many years I really could not think of guide data failures other than the server going down (or some goofy betas). Last couple of months I'm seeing this issue with guide data unavailable. Only way I notice it is I check upcoming recordings sometimes and notice that shows which should be recording are not, then I go to the guide and big blocks of prime time have unavailable. I do not get any warnings (I would be satisfies if I did get warnings, then I at least know to set one off). I'll check my logs for the last few days and see if the word failed comes up. It could be a failed guide download, it could be data missing from the source until the last minute. Fox and baseball have already messed up one of my House's (In fact, House should be on tonight since the Yankees won).

Maybe it's my area, maybe its guide updates, but like I said, used to be reliable, now getting spotty.

Would be a great problem to fix up if we ever get another beta.

[SnakeDoctor]

I'm curious about something...

I thought the guide was updated automatically every day with data for the next 14 (+/-) days. Is that correct?

If that is correct, then why would missing a guide update every now and then be a problem? It seems to me it would only be a problem if you didn't get any guide updates for 14 (+/-) days in a row. What am I missing?

[ZetaVu]

I think it is either a corrupt data in an incremental update (aka, I think with incremental updates, only new info is added) so when bad data was downloaded, none of the incremental updates replaced it. I assume when you force an update this becomes a full update, all old data is overwritten.

Or the guide update does not have all the data, it is unavailable until the day before or something.

These are just thoughts, someone at SS would need to chime in.

[Rich A]

I've been thinking about this for an hour or so. And I DO remember a situation I had with guide updates about two or more weeks ago. (getting old and sometimes I forget recent events. heh heh)

Anyway, one of the things I do from time to time is browse the guide data several days in advance. Mostly to search for some new program I'm interested in recording.

What happened to me is that I found I only had about two days of guide data left. Normally it should always be at least 13 days.

Like you there were no indications of errors. And had I not been browsing the guide I would have not noticed it until it was too late. As I recall the first or second time I tried to force an update it wouldn't work. And later the next day upon trying a 3rd or 4th time it worked and I once again had the full two weeks of data. To my knowledge it hasn't happened again.

Just to let you know you aren't exactly alone although it might be happening to you more often. OR (and here is where SS should chime in) it's happening a lot and is correcting itself in just enough time so as to not be noticeable.

[Rich A]

An update. Just for kicks, when I got home today I checked my my guide information scrolling until I ran out of data. To my surprise I only had 9 days of guide information. So I can only guess that the last 4 or 5 incremental updates did not happen.

I think I'll "not" force a full update just yet. I'll wait a couple days and see if it catches up.

[lsilvest]

I was gone for a few days last week and when I came back the Guide Data error was showing for every day I was gone, but each time it was run successfully a few hours later. I remembered I had just added a new lineup in setup just before I left and going to snapstream.net and just updating the lineups did fix the problem.

Just today, I had to reinstall Windows, thus reinstalling BTV. When BTV ran for the first time, I got an error message that Snapstream had noticed my system time was wrong (according to them) and set the Guide accordingly. BTV actually changed my system time to coincide with their concept of what my time should be (they were wrong) and the Guide data was an hour early. Closing BTV and changing the system time did no good as it did the same the next time I started BTV again. The Web admin showed the same.

I rebooted and then ran setup again. BTV again changed the system time, but this time the guide data was an hour later than my system and BTV had set the time ahead instead of back as it had previously? I changed the system clock again with BTV running and this time it changed it's own time to match my system and the guide data is now correct. I won't try shutting it down and restarting until I get tonight's shows recorded.

Anyone ever run into this quirk? I didn't come up with anything similar in search or the knowledge base.

[Bigbird999]

When you reinstalled XP you lost the daylight savings fix??

BB

[lsilvest]

Originally Posted by Bigbird999

When you reinstalled XP you lost the daylight savings fix??

BB

No. XP was fine, it was BTV that was screwed up. The first time it reset my time from 3 PM to 2 PM (I'm on MDT, so BTV was using PDT). The 2nd time BTV reset my system from 3 to 4 which would have been CDT. Their error wasn't even consistent.

[Nick Burns]

Just be aware that Microsoft issues the DST fixes once or twice a year (it's not a one time patch which I had previously thought). The latest one is for August, though it was issued on 7/21/2009.

[Kilrsat]

Contact tech support. That's the only way to get the investigation into what is going on for you started.



Beyond TV also cannot change your system clock or timezone. There's no code in it to do it. The warning is correct, your system time does not match the server time, but that is all. 99.9% chance you are missing a DST patch.

[richt]

Originally Posted by Kilrsat

Contact tech support. That's the only way to get the investigation into what is going on for you started.

If only that worked. I submitted a ticket over 2 weeks ago to fix a guide listing problem that still hasn't been fixed.