Got some good results from a guy called Leo Park at Elgato (you may have by now too). Two replies by close of play yesterday (Friday – bearing mind eight hour time difference): one to explain the problem and the other to say that (they hoped) it had been solved. Friendly too – nice to have real human beings at the other end.

I’ve pasted the relevant passages below.

Regards

Anthony

The first:
“We have been in contact with TVTV regarding this issue, and they are currently experiencing local service outages due to some server changes they’re currently performing. We’ve spent quite a bit of time helping TVTV in this matter, and expect their EPG service to be working as normal within 24 hours.

Please send us your TVTV account name so that we can follow up with TVTV if your service does not return in the next few days.”

And the second:
“Our engineers tell me that the service should be up and working again.

Please try to update your TVTV Program Guide again, in EyeTV. The Guide Preferences are one way to achieve this.

If your guide still doesn’t appear, then then you can also erase the EyeTVEPG.db, database from the EyeTV Applications Support folder, in Library/Application Support/EyeTV and setup the guide again. An easy way to do that would be to Auto Tune again, and then update the guide from the Guide Preferences.”

I got a response from eyetv, who confirmed that quite a lot of people are having the problem, and it’s definitly tvtv’s problem.

Their other “helpful” suggestion, apart from using remote scheduling was to try manually scheduling programs, as this should still work. Which is all well and good, except I don’t know when there are programs on which I’d like to watch!

Whilst the email didn’t say this directly, the impression I got was that they were having trouble getting tvtv to address the problem as well! Maybe this will encourage them to go with a different solution in future releases of eyetv?

Just submitted a support ticket to Elgato – here it is:

Chaps

My programme guide from tvtv (UK) refuses to update either automatically or manually – I suspect this has been the case since I installed EyeTV for the first time 10 days ago. I also believe (having looked at recent comments elsewhere on the internet) that I am no alone in this.

As you know, this means that I have no easy means of scheduling recordings (more on that below).

For the record, I have tried every remedy suggested in the FAQs and troubleshooting database up to and including a complete uninstall (including all of the library/pref files) and starting from scratch.

Interestingly, when EyeTv was re-installed the tv-guide was forced to download new files (not just check for them) and the progress of this was shown in the indicator in the bottom right of the window. Subsequent tvtv updates just show the indicator looking for files. This would suggest that they exist on my hard disk but that EyeTV cannot see or display them.

As for my unsatisfactory workaround, I am using the tvtv web remote scheduling but this does not work properly either. Despite processing the job list as instructed (which, apparently, is supposed to send the schedules to my EyeTV automatically – ie ‘push’) I still have to get EyeTV to check with tvtv before it picks up the information.

Thanks for your help

Came across your blog while looking for this exact problem which, naturally, I have.

Shame about tvtv – I’ve not gone down the official support route yet (unlike you) but I cannot see how it can be anything other that tvtv’s problem. Everything I have tried gives me back the same information (ie little/no channel data after a day or two – plus the main terrestrial channels disappear completely after the current day).

Not much help, I’m afraid, other than to say I have reached the same impasse as you.

Hope you get a response.

Anthony

ps A clumsy workaround, bizarrely and ironically, is to schedule remote recording commands from tvtv’s website listings (which ARE complete).

Adrian Plass is hilarious…I still haven’t really worked out his theology, but his caricature of charismatic Christianity in the sacred diary of Adrian Plass etc. is brilliant. My mum has banned my dad from reading him in bed, because he makes the bed shake from laughing so much!!