Friday 6 October 2006

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Free TV guide and scheduler for UK EyeTV users

Prior to EyeTV 2.0 we were stuck with the default EPG (or electronic programming guide), tvtv, a premium subscription service. Now a subtle new feature allows you to switch to a totally free alternative known as DVB Guide.

The advantage with using an EPG rather than, say Radio Times online, is that you can schedule recordings with a mere two mouse clicks, plus the information is instantly accessible because it's retroactively downloaded to your computer. The alternative can be a real chore: find the show you want to record, click 'new recording', give it a name (and optional description), set the date, start and finish time, select the right channel and click OK.

Here's how to ditch tvtv:

1. Open up the 'EyeTV Programs' menu by poking the rectangular button in the upper right corner of the virtual remote control.

2. Select the 'Channels' panel and highlight all the ones you want to receive listings for via the EPG. You can hold down the shift key and click on the first and then last item to choose all of them, or hold down the option key and click individual items to highlight a non-contiguous range.

3. Click on one of the downward pointing arrows in the EPG column and change 'tvtv' to 'DVB' within the drop down menu.

4. Switch to the 'Program Guide' panel, right click and select 'Update DVB Guide'.
To schedule a recording you would either browse the listings for a show or type its name into the Spotlight style search box, select it with a left click and then push the 'Add Schedule' button.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks! Very useful!

mediaman said...

My EyeTV (2.3.3) only shows tvtv & None in the dropdown?

dreamkatcha said...

That's annoying. I think it might help if you visit your channels tab and go through the exhaustive scan auto-tune routine to see if EyeTV picks up the extra options.

The service I'm using is DVB-T PAL 1 in case that helps.

Let me know if that helps. If not I'll do some more research for you and see if I can find a solution.

Sam Rolt said...

mediaman's problem will be that he doesnt have a freeview, or DVB-T eyetv tuner, he will probably have a standard terrestrial tv tuner hence the lack of the 'DVB-T PAL 1' thing, as that is collected through DVB-T rather than the internet like tvtv

Anonymous said...

Hi. Great tip. The only problem I see is that not all the channels are listed. I only have ITV, CH4 and some random other. No BBC. Is this normal?

Anonymous said...

Me again! :-) Strike that last comment, I forgot to update DVB listings. Thanks again for this tip

Anonymous said...

Topman, saved me the £14.90 from tvtv.

Thanks, great help!

gwe gfgf said...

cheers mate, worked a trick ;)