Gizmodo Australia » epgs

Community TV EPG TO Feature On Freeview

Nick Broughall — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 04:00:00 +0000

Finally, the people at Freeview have made a wise decision. According to Sally Jackson at The Australian, they have voted unanimously to include the EPG for community television stations in their broadcast EPG. That is, once Community TV goes digital.At the moment, the community TV networks lack the funds to upgrade their equipment to digital. They’re hoping that will change this year, with their fingers crossed for some cash from the Government in the May budget to help the process.

But when they do go digital, Freeview will welcome their programming schedule into their EPG with open arms. Foxtel, on the other hand, won’t. Or at least, aren’t saying whether they will or not.

This doesn’t change our opinion that Freeview is a confusing clusterfuck. But at least this is a positive move, as opposed to things like preventing ad skipping and getting YouTube to pull down parody ads.

[The Australian via Lifehacker]

Foxtel’s iQ2 Now Lets You Record Up To 20 Minutes After A Show’s Finished

Nick Broughall — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 02:30:57 +0000

We’ve all been there – you’ve set the DVR to record your favourite program via the EPG. The next day you sit down to watch it and about 5 minutes from the end, right at the moment of climax, the recording ends, because the networks couldn’t care less about you and run their programs over time. Well, now the Foxtel iQ2 (but not the iQ) will let you extend the recording time up to 20 minutes after each program.The upgrade – which is rolling out over the next couple of months – will add the ability to add 20 minutes to recordings through the Planner menu. At the moment, you can add up to 10 minutes to the start and end of recordings by going through the settings menu, so this development makes it a whole lot easier to ensure you don’t miss anything.

Other improvements included in the free update coming to the iQ2 are the ability to listen to the current TV channel when you enter the EPG, distinction between free and paid content for their On Demand service, the iQ2 will automatically return to the last TV station and volume level after being rebooted and you can no extend the audio delay up to 200ms.

Even though some people argue that having firmware-upgradable hardware means that you get products released before they’re ready, I for one love it when my hardware suddenly gets new features, without me having to fork out for special equipment. I am a bit bummed that the window for the update is up to two months though…

[Foxtel]

Tip: If You Use IceTV / TiVo / Foxtel iQ’s Series Link To Record Programs On Ten HD, Adjust Them Now

Nick Broughall — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 03:30:34 +0000

IceTV has a very, very good point on their blog today about planning your scheduled recordings around this week’s introduction of the One HD sports channel. As in, ‘If you don’t change your scheduled recording before March 26, you’ll probably miss the next episode of House in HD’.IceTV details how to change it using their software on their site if you’re struggling with the concept. TiVo and Foxtel users are left to sort it out on their own.

One HD, Network 10’s 24 hour sports channel, officially kicks off on March 26. While it’s not particularly our cup of tea, at least it’s offering (mostly) original content.

[IceTV]

Freeview Australia: Yes, This Is A Confusing Clusterf%*k

Nick Broughall — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 00:22:08 +0000

If you want a lesson on how to confuse the hell out of customers about digital television, look no further than the lessons currently on offer from the upcoming Australian Freeview service. Not only are they promising 15 channels od digital programming when there currently isn’t 15 channels operating (and there’s no word on whether there will be), but as Ty Pendlebury over at CNet AU has discovered, the FreeView EPG won’t actually work with any current TVs or DVRs – to enjoy FreeView’s EPG, you’ll need to pony up a heap of fresh cash to get a product with the FreeView badge.That whole confusing conversation could lead you to ask, “What’s so special about FreeView’s EPG?” And the answer is “not even Freeview themselves know”. Apparently, they’re still working out the details…

It’s not all doom and gloom though – if you currently get the free EPG on your TV – you know, the one that takes half an hour to load two channels worth of info and is useless for all intents and purposes – you’ll still get it even after the Freeview EPG has been launched.

If you want my advice (and I know you do), it’s to completely ignore Freeview. Get yourself a TiVo (which has their own EPG), a Foxtel iQ (which has their own EPG) or a third party DVR running IceTV (which you have to pay a subscription for, but seriously, it’s so much better than the “free” alternative). Freeview is essentially a marketing campaign that has done nothing but confuse consumers about what their real options are.

[via CNet AU]

You May Need To Re-tune Your TV To Get SBS HD

Nick Broughall — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 06:18:16 +0000

Every so often my TV will tell me that it’s discovered new DTV stations, but when I scan, it finds nothing. As a result, I get the shits and curse Panasonic for having a TV that’s smart enough to tell me when it detects changes to the digital signal, then ignore the announcement. But Gus over at Lifehacker has pointed out that sometimes you need to rescan for channels, like when SBS upgraded its digital transmitters last week. The benefit of this upgrade is that you can now get 720p on SBS HD, plus a seven day EPG. And let’s face it – any upgrade to HD is worth a quick scan now, isn’t it?

[SBS via Lifehacker]

Foxtel Expands Its Online EPG To 14 Days

Nick Broughall — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 02:30:57 +0000

And the battle for PVR of choice in your living room rages on, growing more and more violent with each passing week. This time, Foxtel has sent a mortar in the shape of an enhanced online EPG into TiVo’s camp. Foxtel have expanded their online EPG to 14 days, meaning you can check out upcoming TV shows and movies up to two weeks in advance. Plus, they’ve added a whole raft of new advanced search functions to help iQ subscribers find more of the shows that they want to watch, and then send the order to record directly to their iQ remotely.

Unfortunately, the TV EPG is still restricted to 7 days in advance, but watching the way this war is really building up, surely it can’t be too long before we see 14 days become the norm for all EPGs…

[Foxtel]