TVNZ program data suffering from a 12 hour offset?

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finethen

17 posts

Geek
+1 received by user: 5

#324671 10-May-2026 22:24

Anyone else seeing this? AM instead of PM? Have tried refreshing the program data but no go.

steveyWN

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#3489651 10-May-2026 22:49

Yep..... same here. Not only TVNZ channels though, for me it's all channels

tonygeekzone

47 posts

Geek
+1 received by user: 20

#3489658 11-May-2026 06:28

Yep same, but even before that some channels were out of wack as well could @fe31nz give some insight I wonder.

Spong

1029 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 343

Trusted

#3489938 11-May-2026 17:12

Thanks for the notification. I've passed this on to Stephen if he doesn't get notifications from Geekzone. Hopefully a fix will be coming.

Tivo upgrades to operate with the new OzTivo EPG, support and service. Over 400 performed here so far. See: www.hillcrest.net.nz

Geepers

5 posts

Wannabe Geek
+1 received by user: 1

#3490314 12-May-2026 22:06

It's all fixed now so thanks for your help.

finethen

17 posts

Geek
+1 received by user: 5

#3490315 12-May-2026 22:11

Thank you! Marital Equilibrium restored!

Spong

1029 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 343

Trusted

#3490505 13-May-2026 12:19

Stephen (our EPG guru) advises that this happened due to a bad update package from Debian. It all happened at a bad time with him having to deal with issues at home and working crazy hours to fix it. Once hopefully fixed, his test Tivo died, so I'll be sending him a replacement so that the EPG can continue! There maybe some problems and missing info until he receives it.

Tivo upgrades to operate with the new OzTivo EPG, support and service. Over 400 performed here so far. See: www.hillcrest.net.nz

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Geepers

5 posts

Wannabe Geek
+1 received by user: 1

#3490591 13-May-2026 15:20

I don't know where the EPG comes from but I had a question. Quite often the programme description is for the previous week or episode. I'm sure getting the guide onto our TiVos is complicated but is this something that could be looked at?

fe31nz

1310 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 438

#3490678 13-May-2026 23:22

Geepers:

I don't know where the EPG comes from but I had a question. Quite often the programme description is for the previous week or episode. I'm sure getting the guide onto our TiVos is complicated but is this something that could be looked at?

The EPG data comes from data collected from the MHEG5 data in the Freeview HD DVB-T transmissions by my MythTV box's tuners. There is another backup set of EPG data downloaded from here:

https://nzxmltv.github.io/xmltv/guide-v2.xml

I run a virtual machine called "tivoepg" on one of my PCs that collects the EPG data from those two sources and processes it for the TiVos. The data in TiVo format is passed across to my TiVo box where the "bf" program is used to encrypt the data with the NZ TiVo encryption, and the encrypted files are copied back to the tivoepg VM and they are then uploaded to the TiVo EPG server (hd.oztivo.net) where the NZ TiVo's download it from.

The description data is as provided by the EPG provider (eg TVNZ) - there is nothing that I know of in the EPG processing done for the TiVos that changes the description data. I have noticed at times that the descriptions provided do not match the broadcast programme, and if there are subtitles they may match the broadcast programme or the description. The ones I have noticed have had the description of the previous week's episode or occasionally the next week's episode. Problems like that need to be reported to the original provider of the EPG data, who usually does not have a means of reporting such problems. You could try the Freeview "Contact Us" page:

https://freeviewnz.tv/support/contact-forms/contact-us/

But first, please post an example so I can check and see if I see the same problem in the source EPG data and in the EPG data my TV displays.

Of course, that will need to wait until the replacement TiVo arrives to do the encryption of the EPG data and get the TiVo EPG data uploading properly again.

tonygeekzone

47 posts

Geek
+1 received by user: 20

#3490684 14-May-2026 06:50

Fantastic work, thanks for everything your doing to keep TiVo running!

finethen

17 posts

Geek
+1 received by user: 5

#3490800 14-May-2026 10:23

Geepers:

I don't know where the EPG comes from but I had a question. Quite often the programme description is for the previous week or episode. I'm sure getting the guide onto our TiVos is complicated but is this something that could be looked at?

Seems laziness on the part of the broadcaster, Coronation Street, recorded for my partner, is one program that they can't or couldn't be arsed changing, so she just alters the recording options to include duplicates.

I mention this to include the fact that she is technophobic and yet, because the TiVo interface is so well thought out and accessable, she is able to alter the settings on her TiVo, yet cannot on her other devices. She has a severe TiVo dependency!

So thank you fe31nz for keeping it going!

fe31nz

1310 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 438

#3491312 15-May-2026 22:32

The replacement TiVo arrived as expected and installed without any problems. So I was able to manually run the last section of the Friday EPG update processing again, where it takes the processed EPG data, converts it to encrypted daily "bundle" files and uploads them. All of that worked, so now there is EPG again from about midday on Saturday. Sorry, I have no way to get the EPG generation to create a bundle file for the gap between now and midday tomorrow. I am expecting that the normal EPG update tomorrow morning will work as usual and everything will be back to normal after that.

I have tried Guided Setup and that is working again also.

@finethen:

I had a look at the Coronation Street EPG on my MythTV box and as you said, TVNZ is not bothering to change the descriptions for each episode. However, they are changing the dd_progid data for each episode. This is an example of the XMLTV version of that bit of the EPG data:

<episode-num system="dd_progid">10764426</episode-num>

Having a different dd_progid on each episode means that MythTV recognises them as different episodes. But I do not believe that TiVos have an equivalent field in their EPG data, so they are not getting this important information. Most Freeview programmes on the major channels now have this sort of ID data. I am not sure if some of the minor channels do it yet (eg Parliament) as I have not checked them.

I can have a look at what fields go into the TiVo data and see if there is anything equivalent, but I suspect there is not. If not, then I could probably add the dd_progid values as text in the description field, which would then differentiate the episodes. The obvious places to put it would be at the start or the end of the description field. There is a maximum size for descriptions in MythTV and likely also in TiVos, so adding it at the start might result in some description text at the end being truncated. Adding it at the end might mean that the added dd_progid value gets truncated and in those rare cases would not then work.

So is this something I should do? Is there a preference for having the dd_progid at the beginning of the description (where seeing it may be annoying), or at the end?

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finethen

17 posts

Geek
+1 received by user: 5

#3491315 15-May-2026 22:53

fe31nz:

So is this something I should do? Is there a preference for having the dd_progid at the beginning of the description (where seeing it may be annoying), or at the end?

You do enough already... if you changed it I would have to re-train her!

slang

8 posts

Wannabe Geek
+1 received by user: 2

#3491319 16-May-2026 00:23

Awesome mate, thanks. Confirmed that guided setup working well.

Just need to sort out hardware!

Take care.

Geepers

5 posts

Wannabe Geek
+1 received by user: 1

#3494171 20-May-2026 19:28

Sorry I haven't replied sooner but thank you fe31nz for describing the process. I'm pleased I don't have to do it!

I will try to report if the description doesn't match the programme over the next few weeks.

Thanks for all your efforts and time.