Program Guide - Same as Shaw?

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volvik

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Over a year ago I gave up my Directv access, which also included Tivo, and took a Shaw sub with an HD PVR. There have been ups and downs however the biggest change has been the program guide. Shaw's pales in comparison to Tivo.

Does Bell use the same programming guide as Shaw? Ability to view only 4 days in advance? If you loose the guide it takes several hours for the data to dl again.

Thanks in advance...
 
4 Days..... I wish.....

36 - 40 hours if you are lucky.

Don't think I have ever seen 4 days....
 
2 and a half is how long you should be able to see, i think?
Why is dishnetwork capable of doing a 7 day EPG?
I thought bell and dish used the same hardware?
so as a bell customer, i should have the ability for a 7 day EPG too, shouldnt I?
 
Bell guide is 44 hours.
While DN h/w and s/w is capable and does deliver 7 day EPG and even FTA boxes (some) go 7 days as well, Bev crippled their s/w and falls seriously short of Shaws 7-14 day EPG.

The one upside the Bev EPG delivery is you can get the full guide loaded in a matter of minutes on some models.

The fundamental difference is Bev sends EPG on a dedicated transponder and the box must tune to that, thus you get that channel only for a few minutes if at all.

Shaw and *C and others send the data either in a dedicated out of band channel that listens in the background constantly (Shaw) or delivered on each transponder (*C) so that guide is always available.
The slight downside is that it would be considered a trickle guide.

A new Hi Speed Extended EPG (2 minutes - 7 days) + is expected on later model *c receivers before years end.

Your Shaw guide is written by Gemstar/TVGuide aka Prevue in Canada.
Bev's IPG is written by Echostar Technologies and is shared with Dishnetwork and *C EPG is written in Canada by Shaw Engineering.
 
ARR, what advantages would there be to bell, to limit their guide to only 44 hours?
 
The only think I can think of is it uses valuable transponder space if you crank up the data rate or the CompressVu nickname also applies to the tiny IPG stream.

It may also be a factor with older units, 1000, 3500, 2700 that have limited memory, but how Dish dealt with that I can't say.

I mean, why didn't NBR/searchable guide appear with the initial shipments of 9200's? It was already in shipping DN code.

It might also be a limitation of the computer/database that uplinks the data.
God nows that Bev doesn't appear to have a computer systems capable of billing and managing their day to day operations worth a hoot.

Maybe these options cost extra or require some infrastructure upgrade and they think Canadians are stupid and not aware of what goes on in the world that they can get away with 2nd rate service, right down to IPG Guide data delivery.
 
Just as an FYI, here is some information regarding Rogers Ontario IPG. It is supplied by TV-Guide Canada and it has its issues (like the "HD" after some programmes, but it is 7 days on all STBs.

On the STBs, even though the programmes are listed for 7 days, about 2 days of "information" is supplied for upcoming programmes but if you go out more than that, when you request the programme information, you have to wait for it to download from the head end, which takes a couple of seconds for each request.

On the DVRs the entire information is recorded on the HDD and the full 7 days of programmes and information is available. The new (7th day) programme information downloads at midnight (if you're not recording two programmes at the time) and the download takes only about 5 minutes - ie, I can see all the programmes and their information 7 days out at about 12:05AM on my SA8300HD.

The fact that the information is stored on the HDD is much better than the Motorola because you can then do a reboot without having to view a bunch of TBA...
 
As always, great input 57. I'm waiting for Shaw to include the rest of the country in their extended IPG. I was under the impression the only market getting the 14 days was Calgary (go figure) while the rest of us get 4 or so.
 
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