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Over the last few months I've had problems with series recordings in Windows Media Centre due to the title of TV shows changing. For example "V" changed to "V (*New*)". Why?

This is happening because you are not getting the data from IceTV. You need to check in the Edit Sources settings for each channel that Inband data is turned off, and that the source for each channel is set to the IceTV data. It's most likely that one or more of your channels is actually getting it's data from the broadcast stream, rather than IceTV. Even if IceTV is set as the source, if you have inband data enabled for a channel, it will overwrite the IceTV data with that broadcast by the TV station. This data is notoriously variable in terms of series recordings in exactly the way you have described.

Guide loaded via loadmxf seems to be "sticky" in that subsequent guide loads containing updates do not always overwrite the existing entries resulting in old data appearing in the EPG. This issue is obvious for some of the current affair style programs where the topic of the program may not be know until shortly before the show goes to air, typically users will see that the generic description is still visible even though the website and other compatible devices show the latest data.

Nearly got bitten by this with the series "Kidnap and Ransom". Part 2 of this series that aired last Friday night on ABC1 was initially incorrectly listed in the IceTV guide as being "Part 3", which it later corrected. This got picked up by my series recording and stuck. Hence when it came to scheduling this coming Friday's episode, the real Part 3, my Media Center thought it had already recorded it and didn't schedule it. Luckily I noticed it and manually set the final episode to record.

Until IceTV have a solution for this 'sticky' guide data that can't be overwritten, I suggest they introduce some sort of alert system that people can subscribe to that informs people of changes made to the guide when mistakes are corrected or data is updated. Otherwise IceTV is effectively useless for Window 7 Media Center users who want reliable recording of series.

Strange that no other Windows 7 users had this problem.

Update worked fine for me. I didn't have to manually delete anything. I'm running Win 7 32-bit. If you're doing the same, then perhaps it points to a problem specific to your system.

Is anyone able to give an update on this issue? Even a small one?

This is the single most annoying issue with the scheduling at this point in time. For me it renders IceTV as an unusable source for guide data. At the moment I have ABC set to use the inband broadcast data 'cause the episode descriptions for some shows (Four Corners for eg.) wouldn't update. The other week I missed an episode of The Event 'cause IceTV originally published the wrong time and the subsequent update was not picked up by the Media Center.

Not sure when my subscription is up for renewal, but there's no more money going IceTV's way until there's some movement on this.

(once more for effect)...ARE WE THERE YET?

We are actively trying to find a solution to this issue and will release an updated Interactive client once we have a solution.

Are we there yet?

We are actively trying to find a solution to this issue and will release an updated Interactive client once we have a solution.

Are we there yet???

Pretty sure grid view EPG has a patent which is why Ice uses list view

Do you have any sources for this? I don't understand how you could patent (or copyright) a table view of data. That's like saying someone has a patent on pie charts, and anyone displaying any data as a pie chart is infringing on that patent. I understand that the data could be under copyright. But the way it is displayed on a web site - I don't know how this could be enforced. Gridded views of data exist in many applications - most project management tools, for a start. This isn't patented. So what's different about a TV guide?

I'll second that. I really hate the list view that IceTV presents. I grid view has been asked for many times in these forums. I don't know why IceTV doesn't have it as an option.

Are there any updates yet on this issue? Since 7mate and GEM have been launched I have no Ice TV EPG data on those channels on my Win 7 Media Centre. I'm a little reluctant to do a full recover on Media Centre given the amount of scheduled data I would loose. Is there a better fix?

Have you enabled these channels in your IceTV profile? And have you scanned for additional channels in the Media Center and assigned the correct listings to those channels?

So you claim that TV stations publish incorrect times to IceTV then update the start times over the air, sometimes days before then airing, and you have no way to cope with that?

The TV stations don't publish anything to IceTV. IceTV uses a variety of predictive methods to infer what's on when. By law IceTV is not allowed to directly use any information that is copyrighted to the TV stations. Do a google search for "IceTV Channel Nine legal case" for the background on why.

I have also noticed another instance of the MC guide not matching what is on Interactive - the WIN news at 6pm.

I believe that many of the guide inaccuracies are caused by a bug in Win 7 Media Center, rather than IceTV. The problem is that guide data loaded using loadxmf.exe is "sticky" in that if an entry exists for a particular time slot in the data base, it doesn't get overwritten with the next load, even if it's different data. The result is that once an entry has been made, Win 7 isn't changing it when the IceTV data is updated with new info.

I've noticed this with Four Corners on the ABC, where IceTV initially has a generic description that is replaced later in the week with specific info on the episode about to go to air. On my Media Center I only ever see the generic info, even though the guide gets updated with new info. If I look at the raw information that is downloaded from IceTV for today for instance, the description for Four Corners shows the specific info about tonights episode (about prescription drug abuse), but my Media Center guide just show a generic description of Four Corners. So Win 7 is not updating any information that is currently in the guide.

The upshot of this is that if IceTV put an entry in the guide for a particular timeslot and then change it because it's an error or they find out the schedule is different than originally published, Windows 7 Media Center guide still shows the original erroneous data, not the updated entry.

I've corresponded with IceTV support staff about the issue and they are looking into the issue, but I suspect that this is something that is going to have to be fixed by Microsoft (don't hold your breath).

Sometimes Win7 gets itself in a tizz and thinks a listing is assigned but doesn't actually list it in the guide.

From the guide, go to ABC and scroll left to highlight the channel name, click info and select Edit Channel from the menu. The select Edit Listings. Click on "Don't show listing for this channel" and then save everything and click back out to the guide. Repeat the procedure and you should now have ABC1_iceTV in the listings to assign.

I actually read on another forum that it may be a Windows 7 problem not ABC. Can anyone else confirm this?

I run a Win7 HTPC with Hauppauge tuners and my ABC channels are still showing the usual LCNs - 2, 22, 23 and now 24. So if it's a Windows issue, it's system specific. I'd be more inclined to believe that it's a problem at the broadcast end that is affecting certain transmission areas. It's probably been caused by the changes being made to accommodate the new news channel.

WAF points tanking, Series record on WMC does not understand when a show is called   '  MASTERCHEF FINALE '  instead of ' 'MASTERCHEF'   Is it a windows thing,  the way I set up series record,  or did Ice secretly conspire to freak out all us Masterchef tragics?

You are definitely receiving the inband guide data for 10 and not the IceTV feed. You'll need to go into the channel settings for 10 and Edit Listings (I'm assuming you're running Win7) to check that you have the Ice feed connected to it.

Channel 10 did the same thing with the titles last season. One good reason not to rely on the broadcast guide data for series recordings.