As of my last reboot at 13/02/2006 12:30, I am not receiving DTT EPG data for Channel 4 for today. Non Channel 4 EPG data is not affected.

I am Crystal Palace.

My Set Top Box is a Topfield TF5800PVR running Firmware 5.12.25 (December 2005 release).

I have been rebooting my box many times over the past 2 days. I have also this morning re-scanned all channels.

The EPG problems started around about yesterday.

I can't be bothered to contact C4's viewer enquiries office given that they take 4 weeks to acknowledge emails and no-one seems to listen at C4 anyway. They appear not to care.

No it isn't, since the message is aimed at Channel 4, not a bunch of spotty geeks goofing off.

And every day the EPG continues not to work, Channel 4 may find people want to continue to log the issue with Channel 4 here so their C4 Engineers can do something about it.

You never know: C4 might find it is in their commercial and self-interest to ensure their customers can access their programmes and schedules.

Digital Spy really is better for this kind of query, not everyone has Sky here.
We've had no problems here and got the main update a couple of weeks ago.

It was called Channel 4 Teletext or Oracle.

Page 120 or Page 401.

And the now and next came up in seconds to tell you what was on, with coloured buttons for each channels.

As of 00:40 14/02/2006, the Channel 4 EPG, DTT, Crystal Palace is back in sync correctly.

I have 7 days data in my buffer, and so far all seems in order.

I half expect the system to breakdown next Saturday or Sunday night, and so I'll comment on the next failure here if it occurs.

As with all Channel 4 screw-ups, I note that no-one from Channel 4 wants to admit to any problems existing. We'll make this a one way conversation then. I'll report the faults. You can pretend they don't exist.

Speaking as professional software engineer and service provider, the way I run my business is:-

Every software error gets reported.
Every software error report gets investigated properly.

And when we have a software fault, we then direct resources at fixing the problems until the problems go away. We do not rest, until the software does what is in our clients' interests.

and overtime, the number of error reports drop off, and the quality of software improves.

How can Software Engineers and Systems Managers resolve these kinds of problems without some form of rational and quantative analysis of what is going on in the field?

My understanding of the current situation is that C4's management know that this problem exists BUT C4's engineering department in the basement DO NOT actively monitor nor test whether the EPG is actually functioning at the point of reception on a daily basis.

Note that C4 senior management don't actually watch television much, and if they do, they tend to use Sky Plus unlike plebs like me with DTT.

If they did test their systems at say 10:00 every morning, 7 days a week, you would think someone would spot the problem, and reboot or resynchronise what ever system has failed.

For the Channel 4 EPG to fail twice in 3 weeks (I am talking about this Sunday and Sunday 2 weeks beforehand AFAIR) is, let us say, "unlucky".

Actually, it has failed on previous times too, but no-one has kept a log or made notes, so we can't quantify it.

*IF* this failure occurs again, it tells you there is an operational weakness and there is a problem or process that needs fixing.

This is GCSE grade Systems Management and hardly rocket science.

A proper engineering and management structure should ensure systems work 99.9% of the time regardless of shift patterns or whether people are away on holiday. When a critical system fails like this, as they do, there should be a basic technical diagnostic roadmap to resolve it.