45. Guide - How does guide data work?
There are cases where it may appear that the guide data for channels is gone after some time. Guide Data behavior depends on:
- Whether you have a single or dual tuner ZapperBox
- Whether you have 14-day guide data or are using the 12-hour over-the-air guide data
If you have a single tuner ZapperBox, after the first-time setup, the channel scan has been performed and you will have over-the-air (OTA) guide data fully populated for all channels. However, if you leave the box on and stay on a single channel, the next day, it may appear that you have no guide data except for the channel you’re watching and perhaps a few other channels if they are on the same RF band.
Since there is only one tuner and it’s tuned to one RF band, the ZapperBox cannot change channels to the other RF bands to update the guide data for all channels. If this happens, the 12-hour guide data will “run out” and you’ll not see any more guide data for the channels that have not been tuned to in a while.
When you tune to those other channels, ZapperBox will have access to guide data for those channels and will populate the guide. So, if you changed channels, then went to the guide, you would see the guide data show up.
If you put the box on standby by pressing the red Power button on the ZapperBox remote, the tuner is free to scan for guide data in the background unless it is recording a show. So, it will refresh the guide data about every 10 minutes. When you turn the ZapperBox on the next morning, it will have guide data fully populated because of the background channel scan.
Dual tuners behave the same way. However, they have a spare tuner if it is not being used to record a show in the background. ZapperBox will use the spare tuner to do a background scan and keep the guide data up to date. “Running out of guide data” is far less frequent on dual tuner boxes, even if you do not put them in standby.
If you subscribe to 14-day guide data, you will never encounter this issue. That’s because the 14-day guide data downloads over the internet once a day. Leaving the ZapperBox on a single channel for days does not affect the guide data, in this case, because 14 days of guide data is being updated daily instead of relying on the OTA (over-the-air) guide data from the tuner.
See FAQ #6 for a much more brief explanation of this concept.
