I have two HDHomeRun Connect tuners set up as Plex DVRs to pick up my local OTA channels in Tri-Cities, TN. Everything has been working pretty well for over two years. However, in the past couple of weeks I’m having issues with the EPG for just two of the channels - 5.1 WCYB-DT (NBC) and 5.2 WCYB-LD2 (CW).
If I do a manual “Refresh Guide” for the DVR, then I get a full two weeks of EPG data for all channels. However, if I come back the next day to check the EPG again then I find that, although the other channels are fine, on channels 5.1 and 5.2 I only have EPG data up to midnight that day. Weirdly, if I don’t do anything else, each day that I come back to check it still has EPG data for 5.1 and 5.2 up to midnight of that day. After that it just says “unknown airing”. A manual “Refresh Guide” fixes the problem again for a few hours, but it returns again like a bad penny!
In the early days of DVR there used to be advice that you should delete and recreate the DVRs if you had problems with EPG updates. I did that, but it didn’t make any difference.
I don’t know if this is a problem with my setup, or with the data coming from the EPG provider. Any help will be gratefully received!
EDIT: I have attached a screenshot of the current Guide view. It’s even worse now - listings for channels 5.1 and 5.2 stop at 8pm whilst the remaining three OTA channels have two full weeks of listings.
EDIT 2: As primetime approaches, the guide for 5.1 and 5.2 has now updated to show info up to 8am tomorrow morning instead of 8pm tonight. Which is good since it is not missing the recordings of any primetime shows. However, I don’t understand how it is updating, but only enough to get the next few hours of guide data for two channels, but two weeks’ worth for the other three.
You’re not the only one. I have the EXACT same problem happening with channel 8.1 (CW) in Indianapolis - manual refresh of the guide and everything looks fine for the full 2 weeks out, come back the next day to check on it and channel 8.1 will show Unknown Airing starting at some seemingly random start time (usually 8pm) that day.
I have deleted the DVR completely and rebuilt it – no change - then fully uninstalled / reinstalled Plex (twice) and had no effect on the problem.
If it’s a guide issue, it’s only with Plex’s guide / service. I use Schedules Direct / EPG123 with Windows Media Center on a different PC and the guide is fine there.
My money is on an actual Plex bug related to how Plex is parsing/displaying guide data.
I think you’re probably right about it being a Plex bug of some sort in parsing the data - if a full manual refresh fixes things then you’ve got to assume that the guide data that the EPG provider is supplying must be okay. There must be some difference in how the auto refresh and the manual one work that’s causing this.
I don’t know if it’s relevant/related, but I also just noticed something weird that happens even on the channels that don’t have the problem. As I scroll to the future in the guide, I notice that the future-most program shows as Unknown Airing if its finish time is beyond the end of the displayed guide. When I scroll a little further it magically changes to the correct listing and the next program shows as Unknown Airing. You can see what I mean for channels 11.1, 11.2, and 39.1 in the screenshot below.
I have a similar issue. Today up until midnight is fine. Most, if not all, of the channels after midnight today are showing “Unknown Airing”. I tried refreshing the guide information multiple time, restarted the nas, restarted the HDHomerun Extend. Nothing has worked. I’m on version 1.13.9.5456 for Synology.
Try switching to the discover view of the guide instead of the Grid. The problem is with data in the EPG that is not allowing the Grid to display properly as I understand. Here is a single screenshot showing my upcoming recordings are still scheduled, my Grid says empty, the Discover view of the Grid shows data, and if I search from the Grid view it shows 19 upcoming episodes in the Guide for The Big Bang Theory. If I look out in the future for recordings I see scheduled recordings out until 11/24, today is the 10th so 14 days of guide data.
@johnm_ColaSC I think my issue might be different then what you explained. It doesn’t seem like Plex is parsing the guide data completely, it appears to crash half way through. Also, if I search for a show that is supposed to be on PBS on Monday I get nothing. I even tried to search the show using the “Shows” option. I can’t use the “Channels” option since I get “Unknown Airing” for most channels tomorrow (Sunday) and then I get “The Guide is empty” for every day after that. Refreshing the guide data does nothing.
