OTA Tuners with guide question

[mwdxer1]

For years, I have tried to get "any" tuner that gives me a good guide on all OTA channels, without a lot of luck. From the companies, I get all sorts of excuses, the guide info isn't available, you use translators, so you cannot get guide info on them, and so on. According to the Portland OR stations have supply all the OTA guides, they all offer at least several days of the guides. The Dish OTA guide is mostly useless, with wrong info or none at all for most of the channels. The Tablo gave me most of the channels, except METV, METV+, TDB, and a few others. They claim they cannot get anymore from their supplier, who ever that might be. Then I have the Fire ReCast, I get most of the guides (better than Tablo), but again none for METV or METV+, then I have an Ematic OTA tuner that gives me the guide for all of our channels, but it gives little details, and it only goes out 10-12 hours. Is there any good OTA tuner that I can download the OTA guide, via the station, or whatever? Is there an OTA stand alone tuner that would have an OTA guide that goes out for several days, a week, or??? There has to be some issue, as the stations all tell me they supply plenty of guide info. Where a lot of that goes, I have no clue. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Triride44]

Most OTA program guide that go more than 24 hrs are paid. But you can setup a free online guide at Zap2it, from grace notes.

SlingTV has a tunner (Air TV 2) that will add local OTA channel to thier program guide.

 

[Mister B]

I feel your pain and I live in a larger city that does not depend on translators. I have tried Tivo, Tablo, Dish's USB attachment and the early converter boxes. There is not only the issue of correct guide information but also the problem of which actual RF frequency a station uses. TiVo is particularly bad with this and Tablo claims there is no ABC affiliate in El Paso.
Then there is the problem of which time zone I am in. All of Texas except the 2 western most counties are in Central Time. We are Mountain Time. In many cases I have just resorted to doing the conversion in my head and recording the show after the one I actually want.
It seems to be harder than rocket science and I don't see any improvement on the horizon. If fact with the continued shifting of RF frequencies due to ATSC 3.0 it most likely will get worse. This is the main factor in my recent return to DirecTV. They do at least get the major networks information correct and I mostly watch the national channels anyways.
Good Luck.

 

[mwdxer1]

Thanks for the replies. I bought Tablo after contacting them to ask about their OTA guide. I was told in most cases they can get me all of the channel guides...Well...I guess I am an exception as I am missing several. Even on good faith I bought their guide for a year and added an HDD. Don't get me wrong, I do like the Tablo, but again I get the same excuses that they cannot do anything more. The Fire Recast has a better guide. It took them a while, but they did get me guides for everything except METV & METV+ and their 2 week guide is free. The Ematic has the best guide covering all of our stations going out only 10-12 hours unfortunately.
But even though I have been willing to pay for a guide like on the Tablo, I still cannot get all of my channel guides, even though they are released by the stations.
Sure, I get all of the regular main network guides, but I especially wanted The Weigel channel guides. They have 5 out of 7 on the Tablo and Re-cast, but the others aren't available. If they have the other five, why not the rest?
Is the Air TV's guide any better than Dish? They must get the same info. I have the Vip 211k with the OTA tuner and it is royally messed up.
Yes, I can get a decent online guide, but setting up the DVR functions without a guide is not always easy.
It looks like there are no OTA stand alone tuners that offer a good guide. I figure some company must make one.

 

[brice52]

Thanks for the replies. I bought Tablo after contacting them to ask about their OTA guide. I was told in most cases they can get me all of the channel guides...Well...I guess I am an exception as I am missing several. Even on good faith I bought their guide for a year and added an HDD. Don't get me wrong, I do like the Tablo, but again I get the same excuses that they cannot do anything more. The Fire Recast has a better guide. It took them a while, but they did get me guides for everything except METV & METV+ and their 2 week guide is free. The Ematic has the best guide covering all of our stations going out only 10-12 hours unfortunately.
But even though I have been willing to pay for a guide like on the Tablo, I still cannot get all of my channel guides, even though they are released by the stations.
Sure, I get all of the regular main network guides, but I especially wanted The Weigel channel guides. They have 5 out of 7 on the Tablo and Re-cast, but the others aren't available. If they have the other five, why not the rest?
Is the Air TV's guide any better than Dish? They must get the same info. I have the Vip 211k with the OTA tuner and it is royally messed up.
Yes, I can get a decent online guide, but setting up the DVR functions without a guide is not always easy.
It looks like there are no OTA stand alone tuners that offer a good guide. I figure some company must make one.

I have hdhomerun tuners and channels DVR and 14 day guide and correct for Wlmington NC DMA and Greenville NC DMA

 

[Mister B]

I pulled out my old Zenith converter box which depends on PSIP data much like the Emetic. I can not say that our Texas stations are doing as good of a job as over there in Oregon. One sub-channel has been Quest for a couple of years but they are still sending out guide information for some Spanish network. The ABC affiliate also carries ION and it has always been three hours off. A couple of minor networks that I have no interest in just show "no information". Our local stations no longer respond to emails, paper letters or return phone calls. I believe the only reason they keep an OTA signal on the air is to collect retransmission fees.
TheKrell's icon as a response is right on target.

 

[TheKrell]

TheKrell's icon as a response is right on target.

<-- this one?

 

[mwdxer1]

I have hdhomerun tuners and channels DVR and 14 day guide and correct for Wlmington NC DMA and Greenville NC DMA

Do you know who supplies the guide?

 

[mwdxer1]

I pulled out my old Zenith converter box which depends on PSIP data much like the Emetic. I can not say that our Texas stations are doing as good of a job as over there in Oregon. One sub-channel has been Quest for a couple of years but they are still sending out guide information for some Spanish network. The ABC affiliate also carries ION and it has always been three hours off. A couple of minor networks that I have no interest in just show "no information". Our local stations no longer respond to emails, paper letters or return phone calls. I believe the only reason they keep an OTA signal on the air is to collect retransmission fees.
TheKrell's icon as a response is right on target.

Being a local station, I would stop in for a visit and ask them why they don't offer a correct guide. The Portland stations claim to have the accurate guides and as far as I can tell with the tuners that get their guide, they are quite accurate.

 

[mwdxer1]

Being a local station, I would stop in for a visit and ask them why they don't offer a correct guide. The Portland stations claim to have the accurate guides and as far as I can tell with the tuners that get their guide, they are quite accurate.

How far out does the guide on your Zenith go? The Ematic goes out 10-12 hours.

 

[Triride44]

HDHomerun and ChannelsDVR is the best I have ever used.

Replaced my TiVo and Channel Master DVR+, wished I had done it sooner. The Program guide for ChannelsDVR is $8/mo or $80/yr. Supplied by Grace Notes.

 

[brice52]

Do you know who supplies the guide?

I do not really know. Channels DVR does it automatic daily

 

[Bruce]

I have the Tablo in the Orlando area and have no issues with the guide, METV included (2.2 here)I have gone 5 days in the future, still have info.

 

[mwdxer1]

I have the Tablo in the Orlando area and have no issues with the guide, METV included (2.2 here)I have gone 5 days in the future, still have info.

Tablo blames the missing guide info on Class A & Translator info. Why some carriers have better coverage and others don't, who knows? I find it interesting that the Fire Re-cast with the free OTA guide for two weeks has better coverage than Tablo here. I paid for a year with Tablo's guide. At the end of the year, about 11 months, I will see the results then. I am kind of stuck, as I picked up a reconditioned Tablo for $70 and then paid the $50 for the guide for a year, thinking they would cover the local channels with a complete guide.

 

[primestar31]

Do you know who supplies the guide?

Channels gets their guide data from zap2it/gracenote. I'm not sure who does so for Silicon Dust, if you are using their $35/yr DVR guide data service

 

[Mister B]

<-- this one?

Yes, the whole mess is a sad situation.

 

[Mister B]

How far out does the guide on your Zenith go? The Ematic goes out 10-12 hours.

Some channels 6 hours and other 12.

 

[Mister B]

Being a local station, I would stop in for a visit and ask them why they don't offer a correct guide. The Portland stations claim to have the accurate guides and as far as I can tell with the tuners that get their guide, they are quite accurate.

I am not getting around very well right now and being that this was just and experiment for the purposes of this forum that would not be a high priority.

 

[mwdxer1]

Some channels 6 hours and other 12.

That is much like the Ematic. Generally 10-12 hours.

 

[Triride44]

Have you tried changing the zip code (in your setup)? From your location to a surrounding one that has the signal from the stations direct and not using a translator.