A little update - the Buffalo guide now includes OMNI.2, Citytv and SunTV.

Also I've been having difficulty getting my Sony DHG-HDD500 to reliably receive the digital guide from WNED-DT (after forcing it to use it). It works, sometimes, but not usually.

For a while it was fine. But for the past month or so, it's usually 90% empty. Sometimes there will be scattered complete days. Sometimes there will be a few hours of complete listings. Sometimes there will be a block of a dozen channels with listings. Occasonally it will be completely empty except for a couple hours for one channel.

The strange part is I have *excellent* reception of WNED-DT. It's always clear and reliable without pixellation. My fuzzy reception of analog WNED results in a perfect guide, but of course that's shutting off in less than two weeks.

I think your explanation is why I have this problem. I think it has troubles binding the station in the device directory to the row in the TVGOS data set, and had no mechanism to manually do it.

Do you know if TVGOS has a primary key for their data (eg. call sign?). I am wondering if changing the entries in the channel directory on the DTVpal (eg. change Omni1 to CFMT-DT) might work??

I've spent some time researching this issue. I am pretty much sure that Daniel is 100% correct. On my DTVpal DVR, there is no facility to enable channels so the only ones I get are the channels that are enabled by default. For OTA from WNED-DT, that means only 2-1, 4-1, 7-1, 17-1, 17-2, 17-3, 23-1, 26-1, 29-1, and 49-1 are available.

I've asked Macrovision about enabling more channels by default. I'll see what they say.

Daniel or anyone else who gets TVGoS from WNED-DT Buffalo - have they started sending data for 2-2 Universal Sports, 2-3 RetroTV, and the 4 WPXJ channels?

I'm also curious about 26-2. I think 26-1 is there but maybe not 26-2??

I just bought and installed a CECB (Artec, sold by FTA dealers) this evening for a friend and eventhough that converter box does not get the TVGOS info it does creates an EPG using the PSIP info and 2.2 Univ Sports and 2.3 RTN are sending the program data at least for 12 hours ahead as it appeared to me. I noticed the box does not have a non-volatil RAM to hold that info after you power down but is better than my SAMSUNG LCD with no EPG at all. I can not comment on ION channels since together with FOX still can not get them.

No, the last time I checked (which is tonight) none of the new channels had been added. I think the total number of channels in the guide is at 426, and it's been that way for a month or two now.

There's listings available for the main Ion channel, but none of the subchannels.

Also one of the 26-* channels has listings, but I'm not really sure which one they map up with. I'm guessing 26-1 at this point.

Thanks Daniel. It seems like TVGOS lags everything else. Even the TV Guide website shows 51.2, 51.3, 51.4 now, but still has glaring ommisions.

Contrast that with zap2it which is totally updated (if you use a Buffalo Area zipcode) with all Buffalo and Toronto area stations. Titantv is a close 2nd place. It also has Buffalo stations totally updated and only is missing Omni2 and SunTV.

I'm seriously thinking of dumping my tvgos device and go the HTPC route if the situation doesn't change soon.

I would imagine that if you or someone contacts them about it , then their programm info would eventually get added to the TVGOS service. right?

I've tried. Oh, I've tried! They seem to have a "don't acknowledge email" policy. I can't find a phone number to call either to talk to a real person. I'm not even taking an attitude of complaining - more like "I'm here to help you fix your data problems - wrong channels, missing channels, etc."

What I find strange is that the consumer electronics makers pay Macrovision for their service, yet don't seem concerned at all when that service isn't delivered to THEIR client - the user.

I suspect TVGOS is in a death spiral. They don't adequately support their product, which gives no incentive to people to buy TVGOS devices, which means that CE markers will stop paying Macrovision for the service.

TVGOS has never wanted to deal with end users - their policy is "all support goes through the manufacturer". I'm actually rather amazed that policy works and that anyone still uses them - but then again a lot of bigger companies have stopped.

A few years ago when I first got into OTA, I noted how poor TVGOS coverage was of Canadian channels, and (at that time) emailed someone who did have a public email. At their request I created a spreadsheet with everything they had, along with everything missing both OTA and on cable... and nothing ever happened. Channels that I know they had in their system back then, still haven't been added today. In fact if anything their coverage has gotten worse.

The service is delivered for the rest of the TV stations in this market, it is just that it is not working for the new digital ION signal , not for now at least. the fact ION has the info on their PSIP stream at least indicates that it exists , it is just a matter of putting the pieces together. It has happened before that a company beleives they are providing a service yet no one has told them it is not working yet. Insist on contacting them , they will eventually fix it.

This is their website http://ionbuffalo.com/ but not much info there. A search of the FCC database at [Link: fjallfoss.fcc.gov] renders this West Palm Beach, FL phone number (561) 682-4206 as the contact number for their Digital TV Station WXPJ.

I just noticed they were looking for a Station Engineer last January, maybe I should apply myself and then if sucessfull , fix the TVGOS guide, lol.

I actually thought the TVGOS service would die with the introduction of Digital but I am happy to notice that I was wrongly thinking and it has survived the transition. Not only that , previous TV manufacturers like SONY and recently SAMSUNG are also adding this useful feature to their TV sets so I think the feature is as healthy as it was before.

Yes - my 4-year old Sony DHG-HDD500, which was never promised to work with digital TVGOS transmissions, in fact works fine. With the original firmware it would "sometimes" work, but tended to stop working after a while... but Sony actually released corrected firmware earlier this year and it now seems rock solid.