Very Little EPG Data (Totally Lost)

[kcjack]

I just recently started looking at my brodcast data and realize I have virtually no data. On some major networks I get data here and there, but it is sparse and few between.

I live in the US and thought from what I read, that the data would just be available when I setup the tuners since I did not live outside US. What don't I understand. I thought the data was provided by SageTV. Does some of it come from OTA?

If so, I have a crappy little indoor antenna that is up now and needs updating so I can pull all local channels. Is that part of the issue? Thanks in advance for any advice.

[Opus4]

There is currently only a limit on EPG data for OTA-only channels (mentioned in this FAQ. Otherwise, you just need to make sure you've got the channel <-> station mappings correct in Channel Setup.

Due to your mention of sparse EPG data, it sounds like you are getting your EPG data from the broadcast stream, so the first thing you should check are the channel mappings. If the station ID shown in Channel Setup is < 10000, then it isn't mapped to a Zap2it-provided station.

- Andy

[vikingisson]

Then what do the recent notices in my Sage messages regarding EPG mean? It says that "antenna" has been removed. We've always had EPG issues with OTA but this new message suggests something more (or less depending on your point of view).

There are very few OTA only stations and we've always had to do backflips to remap them which never lasts very long before it has to be done again. I don't get it, the data is all there but obviously there is no contract to provide that information to us. The ID is correct and that ID shows the correct data at the backend provider, we just don't get it in Sage until a painful remapping.

Does this new rule mean that I can't even get a proper channel listing to start with?

There is little else a tuner is useful for. Analog only basic cable tv perhaps but that is a shrinking market. OTA I'd argue is a growing market since the digital switchover.

[vikingisson]

ok wait, I read the sticky. I didn't notice it before because those are usually from the last century and don't apply any longer. This brings us back to more like it was done in v6, you pick cable, postal code, and there's your OTA lineup. Swell, that's better. Just for kicks I did the change since I'll likely change tuner anyway soon. Being on the border I'm used to getting OTA lineups that I can actually receive but all I'm seeing are Canadian channels. Had to do a full scan to get the border stations. Now I assume I'll have to do a remap but let's see what happens.
I'll be happy if I can easily change the ID if required without having to enable a cable lineup that I don't actually have. I'd prefer a directly entered ID that I'll lookup.

[kcjack]

With the new release I now have all the data needed for the OTA shows. Thought I was crazy, but the new system using the cable data works great.

[vikingisson]

I agree, the new method is better. Ironically it is more like v6 where you ignore the antenna choice and go with cable/sat plus postal code. People get confused by that but it is the way I was used to in v6. Being in Canada I could never use the antenna option anyway. Postal code makes more sense, now we just need that to mean something when near the border.

Now, what I'd like to see is a way to remap ad hoc instead of trying to find a channel with an ID >1000 in a scroll list. Just let me type one in that I can lookup manually from zap2it. I'm scrolling around painfully trying to find one with a number that I already know. The other problem is that OTA only users have to fake a cable lineup just to get that list. A slowly growing trend is "cutting the cord" which I did years ago so an easier way to remap channels and support us poor OTA users is a good direction to go.