Guide?

[lester]

Perhaps supporting a North American ATSC Guide App? would be nice, but I guess this PVR does so much already. Just picked up an ATI 9700 HD card to hook to the tv and the picture is awesome even on SD stuff. Will try the new version of GBPVR, did find my winfast App cd and have been tolerating it since, but will try new version of GBPVR as it is an easy try.

[sub]

Do you mean the ATSC guide data transmitted with channels? I've looked into this in the past and determined its not worth it. The majority of US ATSC channels only carry 6 hours of listings, which is next to useless in a PVR application. Sorry.

You're better off using the Schedules Direct, or one of the various xmltv generators, since they give you several days of listings,

[whurlston]

It already supports Schedules Direct which is a North American guide service. It also supports XMLTv files so any North American scraper that produces them can be used.

[Deusxmachina]

Do you mean the ATSC guide data transmitted with channels? I've looked into this in the past and determined its not worth it. The majority of US ATSC channels only carry 6 hours of listings, which is next to useless in a PVR application. Sorry.

I just picked up a DishNetwork DTVPal digital-to-analog converter box with a potential 7-day EPG, (for the U.S.' upcoming full switch to digital OTA), and most channels near me go out to 48 hours on the EPG, with a couple channels being 12 hours. I was told by a TV engineer that 12 hours EPG is the minimum required by law, not that everyone follows the law.

But, anyway, yeah, still only two steps above worthless. Lester, you can also use Windows Media Center Edition's built-in EPG with GBPVR.

[sub]

I just picked up a DishNetwork DTVPal digital-to-analog converter box with a potential 7-day EPG, (for the U.S.' upcoming full switch to digital OTA), and most channels near me go out to 48 hours on the EPG, with a couple channels being 12 hours. I was told by a TV engineer that 12 hours EPG is the minimum required by law, not that everyone follows the law.

I thought it was six hours that was mandatory in the spec, but either way its not enough to be useful. I think a PVR needs a good few days of listings otherwise people are going to complain about missing recordings (PC off at time of the yesterdays EPG update etc). Also, the same info is not mandatory on QAM, where it seems virtually no operators supply any listings, so not really worth the hassle if it only helps the small subset of OTA ATSC users that actually receive a few days of listings.

[Deusxmachina]

Also, the same info is not mandatory on QAM, where it seems virtually no operators supply any listings,

That's exactly what I ran into trying to use the local digital cable guide for my OTA. Cable companies are only required to carry the first subchannel, but fortunately my local one carries them all. The problem is I have yet to see an online guide that gives info for all of those channels via cable. The cable company doesn't even list all the channels they have on their own website guide.

With luck, Microsoft will finally fix the MCE OTA EPG by February when the OTA analog gets shut off, but I'm not holding my breath.

There's also the option of buying SageTV or BeyondTV and using the EPG from those, and they'd pay for themselves in three or four years vs. Schedules Direct. I have doubts how long BeyondTV will be around, though. And what I still have to look up with Sage when I get around to it is why some of its users use scrapers or Schedules Direct anyway instead of Sage's built-in EPG. To me, the EPG would be the main selling point.

[sub]

Also, the same info is not mandatory on QAM, where it seems virtually no operators supply any listings,

That's exactly what I ran into trying to use the local digital cable guide for my OTA. Cable companies are only required to carry the first subchannel, but fortunately my local one carries them all. The problem is I have yet to see an online guide that gives info for all of those channels via cable. The cable company doesn't even list all the channels they have on their own website guide.

Thats not really the same thing. What I'm talking about is the EPG information that is carried in the show listing data broadcast with the channel. What you're talking about is the list of channels and listing being supplied by SchedulesDirect, which comes from an entirely different source.

What I was saying is that it isnt mandatory for cable operators to transmit the EPG information, so most dont.

There's also the option of buying SageTV or BeyondTV and using the EPG from those, and they'd pay for themselves in three or four years vs. Schedules Direct.

I'm fairly sure SageTV also gets their listings from the TMS service, which is exactly where Schedules Direct get their data, so it should give you the same listings.