While we at Plex often like to engage in passionate soliloquy or humorous narrative in our major announcements, today will be different, let’s just cut to the chase.
Beginning today Plex will return to providing program guide data from our previous partner, Gracenote, for users in the following countries; Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Bermuda, Brazil, British Virgin Islands, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Denmark, Ecuador, Finland, France, Germany, Honduras, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Panama, Peru, Puerto Rico, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, Uruguay, and USA.
Later this month we will be adding support for; Belgium, Hungary, India, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Russia, and South Africa. If you are in one of these countries DO NOT attempt to upgrade until we announce support, you will lose your guide entirely.
While our migration is not yet complete, we feel that even in its current state it is superior to the experience using today’s guide data, specifically in the most critical areas of accurate program scheduling and proper sequencing of series.
How to begin using Gracenote guide data today
First, let’s get a few important points out of the way.
- While you’re free to switch from TiVo-provided data to Gracenote at your leisure, be aware that the Tivo EPG will run out at the end of this year (2020).
- Once you decide to switch from TiVo to Gracenote there is no going back.
- Make note of your series recordings as you will have to delete and recreate these in the Gracenote environment. We understand that this is less than ideal, but it’s the best way to guarantee that your recordings will function properly post-migration.
- A current limitation of the scheduler is that if a show does not appear in the current ~14 days of guide data it’s impossible to set a recording. We will be looking to resolve this issue in the coming year.
- If you are in Australia, Hungary, India, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Russia, South Africa, Switzerland, or Uruguay you will need to be running Plex Media Server version 1.21.0.3711 or newer.
- To migrate your DVR from TiVo to a Gracenote-based EPG, you will need to delete your DVR and recreate it. Assuming that you’re aware of the disclaimers mentioned above, it’s as simple as that. Once you’re up and running we’d encourage you to report any lineup issues or inaccuracies at the pinned thread found here.
Outstanding Issues
There are a few issues with guide data in the UK, namely inconsistencies with NEW flags and lineup changes recently made by Freeview that have not yet been propagated by Gracenote. We’ll also be working on some additional scheduling functionality like “record by team” which is still pending. We’re working on getting these fixed as soon as possible, and will continue to collaborate directly with Gracenote to ensure prime guide data quality.
