Today’s question comes from Vanessa who asks, “Where does Tablo get its TV guide data information from? There’s a new channel in our area that doesn’t have any listings and I’ve been wondering why and if something can be done to fix it.”
One of the great things about using a Tablo DVR versus just a TV antenna alone is that Tablo provides guide data listings showing what’s airing on the television channels available in your area. This is a free service that is included in the purchase of your 4th generation Tablo device and does not require a subscription.
The guide data Tablo uses is collected from local broadcasters and aggregated and enhanced by a company called Gracenote.
We use this data because it is designed for commercial products and is generally more accurate and complete than the guide data embedded in over-the-air broadcast streams (called PSIP or Program and System Information Protocol). Gracenote’s guide data is also enhanced with metadata like episode and series details, genre and more which enable many of Tablo’s recording and browsing features.
Every morning, your Tablo will connect to the internet and download the Gracenote guide data it requires from Tablo HQ servers to maintain a full 14 days of programming information, as well as any schedule changes.
When a new channel starts broadcasting, it can take several days or weeks for Gracenote to begin collecting and aggregating programming data which will subsequently cause delays in it being available on your Tablo device.
Channels without available TV guide data will display the message “Programming Not Available” in your Tablo app’s live TV grid guide. You can still watch affected channels live by selecting the channel ID from the far left of the live TV grid, but it is not currently possible to record content from those channels.
In some cases, Gracenote may opt not to collect and provide programming data for a channel at all, especially if those channels are independent or low power. Broadcasters may also choose not to provide data to Gracenote.
As Gracenote no longer honors requests to add data, we have already completed some work to automatically fill in channels with data from the same network where possible. We are also looking at additional methods and sources we could potentially employ to further address cases of missing data.
Have a question about watching TV that you’d like answered? Send us a note and you may see your question on the Tablo blog and in an upcoming issue of our newsletter, Stay Tuned!