My Windows Vista computer has a digital TV tuner enabling me to watch TV using Media Center. However, whenever I attempt to setup and download the EPG (Electronic Program Guide) the download fails. This is followed by a prompt asking whether you would like to use the guide and whether you agree to the Terms and Conditions. It then asks for the postcode but when I click “Next” a message appears saying “TV Program Guide listings are not available for your country or region”. How can I fix the EPG as the usefulness of the TV tuner card is limited without this functionality. The computer is running Windows Vista Home Premium.

This appears to be a fairly common problem which has been widely discussed by users on the internet. There are several reasons this problem could be occurring, and thus several potential fixes for the issue, so we will work through these sequentially in order to narrow down the problem. First, you should make sure that all the latest updates have been installed for Windows Vista. To do this, visit Windows Update (windowsupdate.microsoft.com) and download all the updates for Windows as these should also include critical updates for the Media Center components which are encountering the problems with the EPG. In particular, you should ensure that Windows Vista Service Pack 1 has been installed on the computer as this will resolve a known issue with the EPG, which was fixed with Microsoft hot fix support.microsoft.com/kb/935685. However, this hot fix has been integrated into Windows Vista Service Pack 1 so installing the Service Pack will also install this hot fix. At the time of writing the latest version of Windows Vista is Service Pack 2 so I would strongly suggest that you update Windows Vista to the Service Pack 2 level as this will comprise all the fixes in Service Pack 1 (including the EPG hot fix) plus any other fixes released after Service Pack 1. Be aware, once you have installed Service Pack 2 you should run Windows Update again as there may be additional updates available which were only released after Service Pack 2.

After the updates have been applied to the computer, check whether the EPG problem has been resolved. Most likely, the problem will still remain and require further corrective action. The only solution which I have found to resolve this issue is to use a third-party service to obtain the EPG information. The service which has become the most successful is Free*EPG. What you will need to do is configure the Windows Media Center EPG to point to the Free*EPG service and you should be able to download the EPG without any issue. Fortunately there are good instructions on the internet about how to undertake this procedure. Be aware that I have never completed this procedure myself, as I am not running Windows Vista with a TV tuner card, so I am unable to verify these instructions or how well the Free*EPG service will work. However, from the feedback on the forums about this service, specifically in relation to the problem which you are experiencing, it should resolve the issue. If you are unsure I would recommend reading the epgstream.net forum (forum.epgstream.net) and the Australian Media Center Community forum (www.xpmediacentre.com.au) for more background information.

Assuming that you wish to continue, you need to first visit the forum thread at forum.epgstream.net/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=80 . This threads details some changes which you need to make in Windows so that the Free*EPG service can be used. You can ignore steps one and two, as this involves installing the hot fix which has already been deployed to your computer through installing Windows Vista Service Pack 1 or Service Pack 2. However, you still need to implement step three. By default, you may install Free*EPG and configure Windows Media Center to use this EPG service (in other words, telling Windows Media Center to use the Free*EPG servers to download the EPG). However, on subsequent attempts to use the EPG, Windows Media Center will overwrite the EPG server with different addresses and you will encounter the same problem as before. The procedure outlined in step three will import a registry setting that will stop Windows Media Center from overwriting that registry key, instead keeping the Free*EPG servers configured. Implementing the registry modification is the simple process of downloading the file under step three. The file is in a ZIP archive which you will need to expand to extract the .REG file (Windows Vista has the ability to open ZIP files by simply double-clicking on the file). Once you can see the .REG file then double-click on the file to import into the Windows Registry.

Once the registry modifications have been made you can then proceed to install Free*EPG. There are comprehensive instructions for installing Free*EPG available at forum.epgstream.net/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=122 . Once the installation process has completed, go back into Windows Media Center and proceed through the usual EPG setup procedure. However, this time you should not receive error messages and the EPG should download correctly.