Schedules Direct Announces Initial Pricing

[crossnet]

Quit whining.

Don't you think its worth $15.00 to keep the project going. Think of what sub's time is worth and the contribution he has made for all of us. Its a very small price to pay.

em

[dark_half]

Quit whining.

Don't you think its worth $15.00 to keep the project going. Think of what sub's time is worth and the contribution he has made for all of us. Its a very small price to pay.

em

Agree with you completely. Worst case is it costs me $15 foe 3 months and I do not think that is going to make to many peoples wallet empty.

[Jim_]

Gone are the free EPG days... See this stuff can be like a Pre-IPO Company, where they can closeout go bankrupt take all our money since not enough invested into this pre-paid idea. If they go under there goes 1 out money two no EPG data for anyone of us..

Taking into account the people working on this I don’t think there’s a chance in hell of that happening.
I’d almost bet that Data Direct met them half way and committed to providing the service for the first 3-months, regardless of the subscribers and revenue received.

IMO, the worst case would be if there aren’t enough subscribers to keep the service alive after the initial 3-month test.

[pcostanza]

tipster, why not put up a poll here asking who would pay for the service (if that's ok with sub) based on the facts we now know......$15/ 3 months with the likelyhood that it will run between $20-30$ year. I think a poll might give us an idea who'd be interested. There's over 15,000 members but I'd guess only about 500 or so are somewhat active.

[Fatman_do]

You might have kids here who don't have the money.. Adults will always have the money. I feel that $15 is a lot for each 3 months.. This is something you got to think about about.. How much of a price do you want to put on using GBPVR and getting EPG up so you can record or only use GBPVR to playback without recording.. Those are the choice pay now or don't pay?

Everyone not going to agree on this $15 for the 3 months deal...

I really don't understand what you are trying to say here? Some of it is hard to follow because the way it is written.

$5 a month for EPG data is all that is the point here. It doesn't matter what pvr software you use or what you use the software for (Your example of playback without recording would have nothing to do with a pay EPG service would it?). None of the costs are related to GBPVR in any way.

Those wishing to not go that route can find alternate methods and try them.

I don't understand the point of complaining about price of a startup service when there are other options that may work for free, but with some "hassle" to keep up and working properly.

Really guys, if you are interested in a potentially stable low-cost EPG, this seems like a good idea. Most other parts of the world don't even have something like this as an option.

[bdgbill]

You might have kids here who don't have the money.. Adults will always have the money. I feel that $15 is a lot for each 3 months.. This is something you got to think about about.. How much of a price do you want to put on using GBPVR and getting EPG up so you can record or only use GBPVR to playback without recording.. Those are the choice pay now or don't pay?

Everyone not going to agree on this $15 for the 3 months deal...

Geez, I don't think we have any penniless orphaned urchins building GBPVR rigs here do we? Everyone here found the cash for a capture card, a fat hard drive and some cables at the minimum.

I really think that if Zap2it had never existed and we had been using scrapers all this time that everyone would jump at the chance to pay $60.00 per year for a rock solid epg source.

I don't think the scrapers would have been viable long term either. All these guides need to do is switch to a java or flash solution and thats the end of the scrapers for good.

[zehd]

I'm starting to believe that the creation of the last bunch of scrapers is actually going to hurt us all in one way or another.

I'm starting to believe that we (the developers) may need to decide to halt development of the scrapers and grabbers. The whining is unbearable....

I didn't want to pay. But I didn't want to be without. As a Canadian, with very few choices, I was very, very worried about not having an EPG for September.

But it only took a little while to be won over with the concept of a cheap pay EPG, and if there were no free, (illegitimate, or at least gray area) EPGs available, it would help drive the PVR enthusiast toward a common goal - thereby causing the prices to lower...

Being involved with other developers, I won't unilaterally decide to withdraw my contributions. However it may be for the greater good if the alternatives were not offered.

My apologies for being (what I think may be thought of as) controversial.

I thought I would voice my thoughts....

[bdgbill]

I'm starting to believe that the creation of the last bunch of scrapers is actually going to hurt us all in one way or another.

I'm starting to believe that we (the developers) may need to decide to halt development of the scrapers and grabbers. The whining is unbearable....

I didn't want to pay. But I didn't want to be without. As a Canadian, with very few choices, I was very, very worried about not having an EPG for September.

But it only took a little while to be won over with the concept of a cheap pay EPG, and if there were no free, (illegitimate, or at least gray area) EPGs available, it would help drive the PVR enthusiast toward a common goal - thereby causing the prices to lower...

Being involved with other developers, I won't unilaterally decide to withdraw my contributions. However it may be for the greater good if the alternatives were not offered.

My apologies for being (what I think may be thought of as) controversial.

I thought I would voice my thoughts....

It probably will not be neccesarry to pull your plug-in. You will just have to decide if you want to update it when the website it pulls data from makes any changes.

I appreciate the work of everyone who jumped into action and started work on scraper plug-ins as soon as the Zap2It announced they were shutting down. I'm sure I would have ended up using one of these while I pulled together the cash for a cable co PVR.

[daveo132000]

In October 2006 I built a HTPC after much research. GBPVR under Windows XP was my chosen solution because of the positive reviews and excellent user support in this forum. (Thanks Sub!) Who needs MCE I thought?

I live in Canada, so effective September, my EPG data will be gone, and I don't plan on buying Vista just to allow an EPG scaper to run (currently from what I understand, this is the only option for us hapless Canuks with regular Rogers cable).

$5 US a month is nothing. (Actually this will end up being about $5.42 Cdn with the exchange). I spend a couple of bucks a day at Tim Hortons buying a drink.

Probably more importantly, my wife is now a convert to the PVR! I shudder to think of the grief I'll get if she cant click on 'Recordings', see the show title folder, and then click the show with a short synopsis before playing. I can't imagine going back to the VCR to tape shows (I don't think it's been turned on in 5 months), and without an EPG, I'll simply have a digital VCR running Windows XP.

So, sign me up! If the fee drops below $5 after the first 3 months, bonus. Marital harmony is worth more than that!


PS. Sub - In a previous post, you indicated you knew the number of subscribers to zap2it broken down by their software app. Would you be able to post some stats as to number of users by type?

[HtV]

Interesting.. Someone should take a Poll to see how many are going to pay for EPG and those who won't be. I won't be setting up the Poll let someone else be the researcher. Whatever price I am sure people will pay up..

What's up tipstir? Had too many polls for dinner?

Serious: as Fatman_do said: in our part of the world thare is no paid epg service, I really would like one (however $60 is quite a lot I think), I always fear the moment that the epg-site pulls the plug or makes changes so that the scrapers wouldn't work anymore.
I really hope for you guys that it'll work out and get cheaper after a few moths.