Guide data (in)accuracy?

[CheshireCat]

It seems to me that the official guide data is not as accurate as would be liked; particularly for the shorter listings. WHile you can extend by 10mins and cover most things it messes up if you want to record two programs following each other. Most of my experience is with recording programs for the small children, which tend to be short, frequently repeated, and episodic.

My analysis of it would be -

TV1, TV6, TV7 - Very accurate, broadcasts start within 1min of scheduled time. Lots of detail on episode data. Thumbs up for TVNZ.

TV2 - seems to be broadcast about 4-5min later than scheduled. I need to have an extra 4min or 'extend' enabled for recordings to be sure of catching the end, and then it messes up following recordings.

TV3 - seems to be broadcast about 3-4 minutes earlier than scheduled, which is even more problematic as you can't easily start recordings early. Also, several programs appear to be missing the episode data so we end up recording duplicates - particularly since TV3+1 causes the program to be recorded again 1hr later if the episode data is not there.

CTV8 - Missing episodic data completely, as it is probably not being provided by CTV at all.

Prime, MaoriTV - Missing entirely, of course.

I havent bothered with Parliament TV and the radio channels yet.

[CheshireCat]

This last week, TV2 and TV3 (and TV3+1 of course) seem to have greatly improved their scheduling. From the various things I've recorded, they are now at a more acceptable +/-1min deviation from schedule. I wonder if TiVo is part of the reason? Anyway, well done TV2 and TV3 and hope this continues to be as accurate.

[MrGadget]

Aside from this, it must be noted that the guide data provided via the Tivo is not with out it's flaws, and Tivo seem unwilling to be involved in assisting with a fix, and their written responses are hard to make much sense of. When I queried why suggenly 24 on Friday evening (a new series) became a repeat as far as the guide data was concerned, I received this reply;

if there is interruption with your internet during epg update it will show the program but any change
it wont take effect until the program update

you can either update it manually or they system can update it automatically every 24 to 48 hrs
also we have no control over the broadcasting if they want to broadcast a repeat tivo just pick it up and show it

we have no control over EPG data we pass it on from the broadcaster, we not allow to edit it or make changes

Regards,

TiVo Support

NB copied and pasted - capitalisation as it was sent...

An attempt to tell me my internet had an issue and that's the reason (nope - try again). Also they may provide the EPG to me but seem to take no responsibility or offer any assistance to repair accuracy (check how many programs Michael Weatherly stars in - NCIS is correct, NCIS LA is not, nor in the other that slips my mind.)

Alas the support from the commercial offering pails next to the community support I have been used to (ironic huh?) - but then I guess that's what happens when the support is outsouced and we don't pay a subscription...

Anyone else had any dealings with Tivo?

[CheshireCat]

I'm not impressed by the grammar and spelling of this email. It sounds as if it was written by an Asian person (because of the grammar structure) with only moderate English skills -- TiVo shouldbe aware that this is the face of the company, and if an operator does not have sufficient language skills, emails should be checked before delivery.

The gist seems to be 'we dont modify the EPG data, it is simply as supplied by the broadcaster' which would be fair enough -- any errors in the EPG as provided to TiVo will necessarily be passed on to the customer and not really the fault of TiVo per se -- but it would have been more helpful to provide some method of feeding back to the broadcaster notifications of errors in the EPG.

I think TiVo customer Service could certainly be improved on... they seem willing but not necessarily so competent or helpful. And don't get me started on the completely false misinformation put out by the Telecom sales staff in the shops ('no, it wont work at all unless you change to Telecom as your ISP')

[CheshireCat]

On a related note, I've also noticed that TV3 is particularly bad about episodic info, resulting in programs being recorded from both TV3 AND TV3+1 because the TiVo is unable to de-dupe. This is even worse for children's programs which repeat during the day and you end up with 4 copies of the same program.

[MrGadget]

Yes, almost certainly the response is coming from an offshore site... and it's not Australia. Of the four emails I've received, three were of a very similar nature to this, the last had good presentation (caps, punctuation) and 'okay' grammer... The followup (when I asked what on earth they were talking about) was;

In regard to first question there was interruption with your Internet so the quid didn't update automatically
correctly so you needed to for the connection manual to do this you need to go to messaging and settings then settings then network then
connect to Tivo services


second question we have not control over EPG Data it set by the provider which is TVNZ so you might need to raise this issue with them
but we will pass your comment in to them .

Regards,

TiVo Support

Actually, the guide data I was specifically talking about was TV3 & C4... neither of which are run by TVNZ... And this reads as though they are telling me I *did* have an Internet issue that caused this... (nope) and again it's not overly well written... you may get the jist of what they are saying, but it's a very poor look for a large company.

I too had the misleading and incorrect information quoted to me in the shops... don't know if this has improved... may stop by next time and play the ignorant customer and see how they go :-)

If I had an opportunity to send a message to Tivo in NZ based on experiences so far it would be this;

• If you want to provide web based support, get someone who can write in English.
• I don't want to try all the basics when I have a fault - listen to me when I tell you I have already - I'm smart - treat me that way
• You are the provider of the Tivo service to me (the customer) - either take on the task of passing feedback to TVNZ/TV3 etc about guide data or give me some direct method of doing so.

[urabnnewb]

The guide data has had a few mistakes this past week. Shows that air every weeknight (ie Friends and My Wife and Kids (don't judge me, it's just for when there is nothing worth watching on)), some were mistakenly listed with the same episode title as the night before causing the season passes to skip them thinking the episodes were already recorded.

Grrrr.