Viewing a Guide?

vitall · #1 (**permalink**) 10-09-2004, 03:02 AM

I currently have 3 sats. running on my reciever and i noticed that there is No TV guide! Does anyone Know if i can get a guide or not and if not what is a good way to know what is going to be on ( web wise )

thanks a million to who ever can help me

dwc · #2 (**permalink**) 10-09-2004, 05:23 AM

Try http://tvlistings2.zap2it.com

wejones · #3 (**permalink**) 10-09-2004, 08:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vitall

I currently have 3 sats. running on my reciever and i noticed that there is No TV guide! Does anyone Know if i can get a guide or not and if not what is a good way to know what is going to be on ( web wise )

thanks a million to who ever can help me

The guide function will only work if the channels you are tuned to are uplinking a guide, and since the great majority of channels on DVB are not meant to be viewed via home viewers, they have no reason to put up a guide. The best way to find schedules is to go to the Lyngsat site, ie
http://www.lyngsat.com/america.shtml, find the channel you are interested in, and often they have a link that will take you to the station's web page if you click on the station name.

vitall · #4 (**permalink**) 10-12-2004, 11:38 PM

So there is no way i can Make this "EPG" thing work like a normal TV guide huh! :x

vj9999 · #5 (**permalink**) 10-13-2004, 12:07 AM

What channels are you looking to receive the guide for? It is pretty much up to the provider to send guide data. Most of them don't do it.

Skelp · #6 (**permalink**) 10-13-2004, 03:20 PM

Actually all the providers do in fact have EPGs, they HAVE to in order to conform to set standards regarding radio and television broadcast rules. It's just a matter of the firmware being able to recognize the specific standard of the EPG the provider uses. There is a set standard for cable and TV transmissions of EPG or PSIP and another set for direct to home satellite broadcast standards for MPEG-2 with PSIP. While most providers adhere to these standards some do not, and this is what makes it difficult to provide an accurate EPG, or TV Guide, on the FTA systems.
However, I have put together a team of developers and we have been working on the firmware of the FTA systems in order to provide an EPG as well as other improvements in the firmware offered by the manufacturers, such as better picture quality, better comptibility with motors, fixing the bug that causes the clock to not function properly, the freezing that occurs on some channels, etc....

wejones · #7 (**permalink**) 10-14-2004, 10:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skelp

Actually all the providers do in fact have EPGs, they HAVE to in order to conform to set standards regarding radio and television broadcast rules. It's just a matter of the firmware being able to recognize the specific standard of the EPG the provider uses.

While the above MAY be the case for "broadcasting", most of what is up there FTA are not "broadcasts", and the people who put these things on satellite aren't "providers". There is no requirement for an EPG for transmissions that aren't broadcasts.

Skelp · #8 (**permalink**) 10-14-2004, 01:48 PM

Jones,.... just curious... do you happen to know what an SID is?

wejones · #9 (**permalink**) 10-14-2004, 04:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skelp

Jones,.... just curious... do you happen to know what an SID is?

I'm not sure with respect to this context, but perhaps service ID, source ID, and stream ID are a few I've seen.

vj9999 · #10 (**permalink**) 10-14-2004, 05:04 PM

I believe in context to lyngsat charts it stands for service identifier.

Skelp · #11 (**permalink**) 10-15-2004, 03:04 PM

Service ID it is. It makes up part of the EPG along with the Network ID and Event ID. These are elements that are required to be included in all tranmissions by the standards set forth by the ATSC for satellite transmission of television signals. There is a recognised standard format that most providers use for these descriptors but some providers, such as Dishnetwork, also encrypt them. Without these descriptors providers wouldn't know what events they are showing via their transmissions? It's these descriptors that make up the EPG and EEPGs. There's also the AEIT (Aggregate Event Information Tables), the EIT (Event Information Table), the MGT (Master Guide Table), the PMT (Program Map Table) and PSI (Program Specific Information) that are required and utilized for EPGs and EEPGs. There are also other tables used to form EPGs but too many to list here.
I'm not sure where you were going with your comments regarding "broadcasts" but what I do know is that any television program or event that is transmitted (or in other words broadcast) via satellite is required to follow set standards. Those standards include the requirement for the above mentioned information to be included in television satellite transmissions.

wejones · #12 (**permalink**) 10-15-2004, 03:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skelp

I'm not sure where you were going with your comments regarding "broadcasts" but what I do know is that any television program or event that is transmitted (or in other words broadcast) via satellite is required to follow set standards.

Where I was going re "broadcast" is that the FCC has a strict definition of the term "broadcast" . Basically, a broadcast is a transmission intended to be received by the public. This would include things like over the air radio and TV, and would include things like DTV and Dish network, but does not include such things as signals that are point to point, like from a remote site back to the network, or a private transmission from one network site to another. Most of what is up there on satellite is not the final product aimed at the public, and are not broadcasts as defined by the FCC, and the requirements are not the same.

Skelp · #13 (**permalink**) 10-15-2004, 03:50 PM

Ahhh ok... umm then what did it have to do with what I was talking about?

vj9999 · #14 (**permalink**) 10-15-2004, 04:30 PM

No offense Skelp, but in some of your posts you sound very sarcastic. Sorry if I only misread your posts, but that's the way they come across to me.

In my oopinion, it is hard to apply standards to a FTA world. Pay services sure because users want it and rely on it, but for everything else you can send out anything you want.

wejones · #15 (**permalink**) 10-15-2004, 04:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skelp

Ahhh ok... umm then what did it have to do with what I was talking about?

Only that I thought that this thread was asking why you can't get TV guide data from their FTA receivers, and the answer is that most of the transmissions people are watching are not broadcasts, and simply don't have that data because they are not broadcasts intended for the public, but instead private transmissions between different sites of a network, or between networks, etc.
There are a lot of people who come into this TVRO hobby thinking that all satellite is like DTV/Dish, where you have on screen programming guides, and that just isn't the case. They see that these receivers have the capability of displaying a guide, and think that their receiver is broken when they don't see a guide. Basically, if a transmission is a broadcast, and intended for the public, then the uplinker would probably include that data, but if it's not intended for the public, then there is no reason for them to include the info.

Skelp · #16 (**permalink**) 10-15-2004, 05:19 PM

VJ, no sarcasm intended. Just giving info.

Jones, whether the "broadcaster" includes the data in their downlink to the receiver or not doesn't mean the information isn't there. It is indeed there and can be accessed and used. Ya just need to know how to do it.
As I mentioned before some providers do encrypt the EPG data but as far as I know the only one doing that now is Dishnetwork and possibly StarChoice.
So the real asnwer to the person's question about why they can't get a guide is that no one has yet created software for the receivers to access/pull the guide data to the receivers. Which is one of the things my group is working on.

vitall · #17 (**permalink**) 10-17-2004, 01:03 AM

Thanks alot everyone.... im sure that your all trying to help but i seriously am having trouble undertsanding all this... so far i believe that what you were sayin is that your trying to get it to work or something, but im not sure, if there is away... like if i have to upload somthing on my reciever please let me know or just tell me if there isnt one. Although if there might be a way let me know about that and where i can monitor wheather or not it has been completed yet. Thanks Alot though guys!

vj9999 · #18 (**permalink**) 10-17-2004, 01:16 AM

What satellites/channels do you need the guide for?

vitall · #19 (**permalink**) 10-17-2004, 01:25 AM

I need them for Dishnetwork sat 119
also i need to know what to do like i jus got this reciever and i was lookin at sum stuff on the internet###PLEASE READ THE RULES. ILLEGAL DISCUSSION IS NOT ALLOWED. IF YOU WANT THESE FEATURES YOU NEED A DISH NETWORK RECIEVER AND A VALID SUBSCRIPTION#####This is soooo confusing... but i want to understand all of it.

vj9999 · #20 (**permalink**) 10-17-2004, 01:43 AM

Fortec is a FTA receiver. Free in Free to air doesn't mean that you can get encrypted channels for free.

Please read the rules befor posting. I edited you post and deleted some stuff.