IceTV Forum

IceTV Guide for IceTV enabled PVRs => Plex => Topic started by: Peter_H on January 15, 2021, 05:36:04 AM

Title: Action Required: DVR Guide Change
Post by: Peter_H on January 15, 2021, 05:36:04 AM
Plex sent me an email recently advising (only found in last night) advising that "in order to ensure your DVR continues to function after the end of next week (January 15) you'll need to delete your current DVR configuration, create a new one, and reschedule your recordings."  The full text of that email is copied below. 
I'm hoping that this doesn't apply to IceTV users in Australia since we're not using the Plex EPG in the first place?  Can someone confirm?
That would be a LOT of work if I had to do this, as I have lots of shows with "no upcoming airings" all ready for when the show (or movie) next screens, so I want to avoid doing this if at all possible.
Thanks,
Peter

Email from plex:
Action Required: DVR Guide Change
As mentioned in the email we sent you last month, we're making some necessary changes to the way your Plex DVR fetches program guide data. As a result, in order to ensure your DVR continues to function after the end of next week (January 15) you'll need to delete your current DVR configuration, create a new one, and reschedule your recordings.

We know this is a massive inconvenience, but hear us out. Many users all over the world have consistently been reporting issues with the data from our previous program guide provider, leading to frustrating missed or incorrect recordings, or other less-than-ideal experiences like gaps in the program guide. We worked hard to address these, but at the end of the day we concluded that switching to a different provider, Gracenote, was the best long-term solution. As a result, you should have a much more reliable and consistent experience, both in finding what's on and recording your preferred programs, as well as correct sequencing of series.

Unfortunately, it wasn't technically possible to migrate your lineup settings and recording schedule to use the new source of guide data. As a result, you'll need to start over with a new DVR configuration. Again, we apologize for the extra work on your end, but we are confident that it will make for a much richer, dependable and easier TV experience for all.

For more info and instructions on how to get up and running, check out our forum post.

Thanks for being a part of the Plex community. Happy watching,
Your friends at Plex
Title: Re: Action Required: DVR Guide Change
Post by: MD on January 15, 2021, 08:22:15 AM
Hi Peter,

I suspect that was a generic email sent to Plex users worldwide where all except Australia (as best I know) used the TiVo guide aggregation services that I infer has has had problems. TiVo did not have an Australian EPG feed so this new Gracenote one removes the problem of paying Plex for the DVR services and having no "free" EPG so having to either scrape an unreliable one or pay a third party, IceTV, for a decent feed.  It would be "interesting" for you to keep an eye on the Plex forums wrt the "free" Australian Gracenote feed to see how many accuracy issues it has.

You can leave things as they are and simply keep using our IceTV feed.

IceTV would say that our EPG data is better than Gracenote for DVR usage as we do our very best to update late changes and so forth to maximise the accuracy of recordings. As best I know Gracenote, who supply EPG metadata worldwide, only update the EPG once early in the day when the next new seventh day is updated, probably because other countries don't suffer the games our commercial networks play shuffling shows around all the time (and constantly starting late which is impossible to predict). The one area we can't compete on are the provision of graphics for every show due to copyright restrictions but we'd argue reliable recording is more important than pretty pictures.  Of course we have to employ our own staff to aggregate, clean up and curate every region in Australia so we have to charge for our feed, but a cost of less than one coffee a month seems a small price to pay for accurate recordings.

Please note we ask that users also do a guide update at about 5:30pm to pick up late changes.

Plus, of course, we give online support in a timely fashion:)