Re: How will the US local area stations commerate the end of

On May 3, 1:24=A0am, G-squared <stratu...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:

> Who gives a hoot about those useless program guides anyway? Even if
> they were all perfect, it is SO clunky to get the EPG updated as to be
> useless. It takes the tuner minutes to go through all 18 carriers I
> get. The TV is running on a computer anyway so Yahoo TV listings are
> there in seconds and are more accurate besides

Stations don't have a choice, though. They need to comply, whether
users care or not.

As a viewer, I tend to agree with you. I have two older receivers that
make you wait while they gather the info from a few stations, before
drawing the matrix. Then, if you scroll down or to the rigth far
enough, another long wait until the received fetches the added
information. But this is entirely receiver-dependent. It doesn't have
to be done this way.

I have a new PVR/DVD recorder that takes a different approach. It only
shows the station you're tuned to, and basically devalues PSIP
entirely. It doesn't even provide the PSIP time.

I get the feeling there's a chicken and egg thing going on here. As
long as stations don't populate their EPGs well, e.g. including making
data available for a few days ahead of time, users will ignore the
EPG, and manufacturers won't spend time and money making it right.

Ideally, this EPG stuff COULD be a selling point for manufacturers,
just as the EPG is what made TiVo famous. Ideally, you'd see
manufacturers bragging about their great PSIP EPG in TV ads. Instead,
all you see in TV ads is the cable and DBS companies trying to lure in
more subscribers.

Bert