What brought me over to Plex from MythTV was the built in convenient EPG… The best source free au xmltv data I had found when running MythTV was the Shepherd project.
I’m currently trying to see if I can generate a docker image that is easy to keep up to date etc
Not happy Plex!
Dear Plex Live TV user -
We wanted to let you know about a change to the Plex service that will affect how you use Live TV and the electronic program guide (EPG).
By the end of June this year, Plex will be making a change to its metadata provider for our Live TV EPG that impacts certain areas, including Australia. In order to continue to receive EPG data for your Live TV needs, you’ll need to make an adjustment to your Plex DVR setup to switch to using an XMLTV source of guide data.
Note that such XMLTV guide data must be provided by a third party (not provided by Plex), and is required in order for you to continue to enjoy Live TV on Plex.
In order to make your transition as smooth as possible, Plex has negotiated an extended 3-month preview of IceTV , one of the leading XMLTV providers in Australia. Feel free to try them out!
We have a support article , which details how to set up an XMLTV source for your DVR within the Plex settings.
To be clear, this change will not be final until June 30, 2019 (though new DVR setups have already had Australia removed as a supported country). We’re very sorry for the inconvenience and hope you continue to enjoy all the cool benefits of Plex.
Best -
The Plex Team
Quote was from a staff member whom we had no reason to distrust.
assure definition
verb
1.
tell someone something positively to dispel any doubts.
2.
make (something) certain to happen.
When I go to setup a new DVR, Australia is no longer on the list. Looks like it’s gone as per the email I received today.
I have just received an email advising the Australia EPG is going away and Australia will no longer be a supported country.
Gee thanks…
“By the end of June this year, Plex will be making a change to its metadata provider for our Live TV EPG that impacts certain areas, including Australia. In order to continue to receive EPG data for your Live TV needs, you’ll need to make an adjustment to your Plex DVR setup to switch to using an XMLTV source of guide data.”
I’m in Australia and received the email as well. I have a Plex Pass and not happy about the guide data being removed.
I have just setup XML guide data from http://au.freepg.tv/ and loaded. Not as pretty as the previous Plex provided EPG as it doesn’t have the channel logos on the guide and for my Melbourne EPG does not have the data for 7food (channel 74). It seems to work OK, but not ideal.
I am not willing to pay ICE TV $3 per month for guide data that should be for free with Plex.
I’ve looked into http://au.freepg.tv/ as well. Unfortunately they are missing channels in ACT. They say on their FAQ to report any such problems to them but they don’t have any means to do this (web form, email, twitter DM, etc). Wah!
The data is from OzTivo so I think you need to report it in their forums (https://forums.oztivo.net/forum.php), though I don’t know how helpful it would be.
They (FreEPG) say that if it is a channel list issue then it has to go them as they bundle the channels together from OzTiVo…
"If you think there’s some incorrect channels in the feed - or the programmes start times have been incorrectly timeshifted please let us know (as that’s the bit we take care of). Similarly, any problems accessing the feeds on this site (like http/download issues) might be our fault too so please let us know what’s up. "
Yeah, this sucks.
At the very least, why can’t there be an option to use the OTA EPG data?
I am exactly in the same position as you, Lifetime Plex Pass owner for the same reasons. To make matter worse, I am not eligible for the free 3 months subscriptions as I was a subscriber to this service in the days on Win7 and Windows Media center .
Totally blindsided by Plex on their unilateral decision to remove the free EPG. Over to you PLex - Not Happy AND 
really P, Off 
@Josh.Hagger I believe from what I’ve read on other threads and if memory serves me correctly mentioned by @sa2000, that Plex is going to get this feature as an option to allow OTA DTT EPG data. I’m in the UK, and currently Grapefruit Onconnect system sucks big time, there’s channels transmitted and they’re not in the EPG data, and to make things worse, the kids channels are now missing, I’ve submitted the missing channels that many times I’m beginning to lose my mind.
I’m a lifetime pass member also, and expect to be treated better than what we have been already after shelling out money that we could’ve used for something else!
Dave
Completely unacceptable, particularly in light of the comments from the rep here. A real slap in the face to paying customers. Priorities seem so out of whack at the moment…
This is BS, paid for a product with certain functionality, now need to subscribe to another service to maintain that functionality. Not sure if about consumer rights in this space, ombudsman perhaps?
renders dvr useless without a proper guide, and i’m not paying for somthing that is provided “over the air”. Why can’t they just capture the guide that comes across with the signal?
I agree DVR feature is useless without EPG. Might as well just use the HDHomeRun app for TV instead of via Plex, which is what i’ll be doing. Also supports DVR function via NAS.
Went out and specially bought a HDHomeRun network tuner to ensure compatibility as a Lifetime Plex subcscriber to use the DVR functionality.
These days what are tyou actually getting that you can’t get from the “FREE” version??? TiDAL also a service never used due to paying for another ongoing subscription cost. Either bundle it all up into a package Plex for all users and then factor into your cost. Or don’t bother. I’m not going to pay for a Plex subscription and then another subscription ontop of that for music or EPG data… Get it together! And now AU is no longer a supported country for DVR… Dissappointing to say the least.
So looks like these streaming app providers have us over a barrel with the lack of free guide data in Australia and having the DVR as a paid feature. Looked at Emby last month due to unreliable Plex guide data, but still have to pay to get DVR service and have to provide your own guide data in Australia as well.
Apathy had me paying Plex monthly, but not prepared to pay for a DVR feature without guide data, so looks like I’ll have to crank up my old Webgrab+ / ArgusTV system that I replaced with the Plex DVR and cancel the Plex subscription. Not using any of the other Plex “Premium” features. I originally went with Plex premium before the DVR Service became available for the family profile features, but other family members are not using it, so no point continuing with it.
Was having issues with webgrab guide reliability, one of the reasons I stopped using it. Maybe can just take out the icetv XMLTV subscription, hopefully will work with ArgusTV, and overall cost cheaper than Plex subscription. Plex / Emby just become players at that point without getting locked into a paid DVR feature.
BTW, I seem to remember that ArgusTV can populate the guide from the OTA data.
Hi All. I understand @DaveBinM provided some assurance back in early April that Australia EPG was not being removed. Between then and now, things had changed with our providers and he was acting on the best and most accurate information he had at the time. Please, don’t fault him for trying to provide information to folks as early as possible!
That said, it’s clear our community wants more background information on the EPG situation than what was emailed. With us only recently learning that Australia wouldn’t be supported by our new metadata provider, we had limited time to explore options and share the news with users. Nevertheless, we think the right thing to do is to give you more info and background on the situation, and we’ve provided more information in this pinned post.
Ota epg data for live TV would be a step in the right direction.
