Panasonic DVR, loss of TV Guide on-screen program listings

My TV Guide On Screen (TVGOS) has not worked since June of 2009 it is almost November 2009 I have called Panasonic, Rovi, Comcast. Each points their finger at the other, and nothing gets fixed. If you have the same problems PLEASE contact Michale Finney of ABC news.com 7 on your side. If he hears from enough people He will get the transmissions fixed. copy and paste the URL below to reach him.
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/feature?section=news/7_on_your_side&id=5814629

In our case, Time Warner has dropped the channel TV Guide, it used to be channel 99, but it's not even offered any longer, so it would appear that unless this TV guide info/source is fed to the DMR - DVD by some other method, rather than having to have that specific tv channel, I think we are S. O. L.

I am a cable technician with time warner and have been for almost five years...first off the digital converter box is for ONLY ANTENNA SIGNAL.which you have already found out unfortunately most cable companies are still and will be working on updating this stuff for a while. All cable card customers now have to have a convertor box we offer for free to pull this info and most of their hd channels. I dont know for sure if this will help you but you should call your cable provider and ask if they off this....Hope I was some help and Good Luck!!!

A LOT of people are having this problem (for example see http://www.dtvusaforum.com/electronic-program-guide-tvgos-guide-plus-gold/) and nothing is getting fixed. From what people are saying, contacting Panasonic and/or the cable company is a waste of time. (sorry to all of you who wasted your time -- we DO appreciate your sacrifice, though). And it seems like the tv stations that are supposed to be transmitting the TVGOS signals couldn't care less about this problem. Bottom line -- nobody cares about the little guy (that's you and me).

But maybe the owner of TVGOS themselves would care about this problem . Rovi (formerly called Macrovision) is the company that owns TV Guide On Screen. Since Rovi has a contract with whomever transmits the TVGOS information, this is really a case of someone violating the contract. This is a business matter between two companies, one of whom is paying the other. The only thing I'm not sure about is who is paying whom in this whole TVGOS scenario. I assume that Rovi is paying the TV networks to transmit their signal. Is Panasonic paying for a license that allows their DVRs to translate TVGOS signals? And since there are also advertisements on the side of the TVGOS screen, if you're not seeing the advertisements then the advertisers are losing their money. Either way someone is paying someone else to do essentially nothing, and I think the payer(s) would be interested that the payee(s) isn't holding up their end of the bargain. Unfortunately, wasted corporate money will probably get more attention than unhappy people who have already shelled out the money for their DVR's.

Ways to contact Rovi (formerly called Macrovision), the owner of TVGuideOnScreen:
http://www.rovicorp.com/support/9391_9458.htm
http://www.rovicorp.com/company/contact_us.htm?link_id=topnav.

There's also a web site specifically for TVGOS -- presumably the site is also run by Rovi, but it can't hurt to send duplicate complaint messages:http://www.tvguideonscreen.com/services/CustomerForm.aspx

Here's a list of the stations that are contracted to transmit TVGOS listings in major cities-- hopefully it's accurate, since it was just updated last week. http://www.rabbitears.info/market.php?request=tvgos

When I contacted these companies this is how I started it (feel free to copy and use this):"I would like to report a widespread problem with TVGuide OnScreen (TVGOS) signal transmissions. Whoever has the contract to transmit TVGOS information is not fulfilling the terms of the contract. Please notify the corporate staff and/or legal department about this matter. PLEASE forward this message to a supervisor if you are not sure how to handle this message. Please DO NOT reply with a canned pre-written answer that does not really address the situation described below."

I'm thinking of sending this once EVERY DAY to all of these people. Might as well have some fun being annoying.... Good luck.