Help with epg please

[Grommit59]

Only have current and next progs listed in EPG and only for a few channels. Any ideas how to sort this?

[Roadrunner]

It depends on the broadcaster not your spiderbox, so there is nothing you can do. Some channels give you extended EPG and some only the now and next. It's the same on any other box (unless you have providers dedicated boxor a box that can download the EPG data from the internet)

[Grommit59]

Thanks for reply. I have to assume then that Spiderbox, connected to internet via WiFi, is unable to download EPG info? Bit of a limitation that - to say the least! I could understand this with obscure channels but makes forward planning and scheduling of progs even on well known channels such as all BBC and ITV (now and next available only for very few of their channels) virtually impossible. Makes one wonder why Spiderbox includes facility to schedule recordings at all!

[Aldo]

@Grommit59

Which part of this " It depends on the broadcaster not your spiderbox ", did you not understand, and did you have to repeat yourself, as you had already posted your info in the following thread:

https://www.satpimps.co.uk/showthread.php?167638-Many-probs-with-Spiderbox

and further more if you are unhappy with your spiderbox 6000, then I'm sure that you could quite easily sell it. and the forum would not have put up with any more of your whinging.

[echelon]

its a budget box , also the epg you are looking at is bespoke and provided for a sly box (or a freesat box , again bespoke)

its not a public epg , you also have not paid a fortune for your box either

if you want a 24/7 epg that either downloads off the net or over the air then buy a vu box and set it up yourself , then you get what you pay for

the spiderbox is not sold as having a 24/7 epg on 28.2e so why expect something that isnt in the specification ? makes no sense to me , because if that was one of your requirements at purchase you would have made sure it could actually do as you wished

now and next is correct on most boxes, yours included , although if the free open epg system is implemented on the broadcaster channels then the spiderbox is geared up to accept it, but its a rare commodity , definitely not present on 28.2e

so as mentioned , its all down to the broadcaster and their epg , not the box , whereas you are blaming the box even though its not in the specification at the point of sale

if I want salt and vinegar on my fish and chips , I specify it before leaving the chip shop, not complain about the lack of it when I get home !

or id you go and pay for a days carp fishing on a carp lake , you cannot complain if the lake has no bream in it !

[Grommit59]

Thanks for nothing Aldo, yet another patronising and totally unhelpful VIP member. If you would care to check the chronology of my posts you would find that this thread was started in April, since I had had little useful help I included the same problem in the thread you quote above along with some others on 08/06/2014. I am well able to understand the posted reply stating that it depends on the broadcaster. Perhaps you could be helpful enough to inform me which broadcasters might provide more than current and next prog info for UK TV? I can't find any. That being the case, the facility to schedule recordings via EPG on the Spiderbox is, as I said, virtually unusable. You may call this a whinge, I call it a statement of fact.

And furthermore (one word not two) perhaps you could stop posting insulting and totally unhelpful replies to those of us newbies who, far from whinging, merely wish to learn what the Spiderbox can and cannot do from less arrogant members than you, and to give feedback which might help those good enough to devote their time to improving the device understand and address the difficulties faced by those of us new to it. I notice you don't seem to have the knowledge or perhaps the inclination to address the other problems quoted in my other thread, don't bother.

[Grommit59]

Thanks Echelon, a much more useful and instructive reply than that of Aldo. I'm not blaming the box, just trying to understand it and wondering if I was doing something wrong. After reading page 5 Paragraph "Guide" in the manual it seemed to indicate that forward scheduling was possible, it is because of this that I posted my original request for help. In view of the fact that extended guide info is rarely available I stand by my comment that the facility provided for forward scheduling via EPG is a virtually unusable function. This is a statement of fact, not a whinge. As it happens I find the box to be excellent, especially for the price, it does 90% of what I hoped it would do and does it very well. I have to say tho that I am somewhat disappointed with some of the replies to genuine questions I've posted on this forum. You, and certainly Aldo, will be happy to know that I shall not bother to use the forum again.

[Roadrunner]

If its any help to you, you can manually set the timer to record a program even if its not on the epg. Menu->System Settings->Advanced Timer-> OK-> OK and set which channel you want to record from and the time of start and finish. Its not as straight forward as choosing from the epg and pressing ok but at least you are able to set the timer to record something that is 'outside' the Now and Next. I personally use it (and prefer to use it) as I like using TV Magazines rather than the EPG. Also it allows you to set the recording to start several minutes before and finish several minutes after the scheduled time of a program (just in case it runs late or starts a minute or so earlier).

[Grommit59]

Thanks Roadrunner, that's what I've been doing. Nice to know there are a few people on this forum who can give advice to newbies without sarcasm or patronising! Thanks again.

PS I use TV24 on my phone for schedule info - an excellent free app

[echelon]

Thanks Echelon, a much more useful and instructive reply than that of Aldo. I'm not blaming the box, just trying to understand it and wondering if I was doing something wrong. After reading page 5 Paragraph "Guide" in the manual it seemed to indicate that forward scheduling was possible, it is because of this that I posted my original request for help. In view of the fact that extended guide info is rarely available I stand by my comment that the facility provided for forward scheduling via EPG is a virtually unusable function. This is a statement of fact, not a whinge. As it happens I find the box to be excellent, especially for the price, it does 90% of what I hoped it would do and does it very well. I have to say tho that I am somewhat disappointed with some of the replies to genuine questions I've posted on this forum. You, and certainly Aldo, will be happy to know that I shall not bother to use the forum again.

I am sure that is possible if the broadcaster you have chosen used the open epg system which is free for all broadcasters to use and so the box would then meet the spec it mentions in the book or on retailers websites, in fact I would say that most if not all 3rd party boxes would meet that criteria forward scheduling via EPG

although you have not actually mentioned it specifically , I would hazard a strong guess that the word sly (sic) would appear in any expanded explanation of what you are doing or trying to do (or possibly freesat) , and most likely the word astra 2 or the figures 28.2e as being the satellite your box is using, this is where yours, and thousands of other peoples problems , actually start from

the fact is that freesat and sly do not license their epg out to all and sundry, its bespoke and meant for their own licensed boxes only , so amstrad and samsung and thomson etc on sly , and humax or similar on freesat , which contain electronics and programming to find , decode and use the epg systems presented to them , as well as using the NOW and NEXT epg too

the spiderbox and all the other third party boxes are not licensed for this , never mind made to a certain price point as well , in the case of the spider 6000 a sub-£100 box and as its also not licensed for the 2 epg systems on 28.2e it cannot advertise or use the fact its compatible , if it was (which its not)

a vu or linux box gets around this using third party plugins like crossepg (there are or were others) and downloading from the epg transponder OR downloading from the net is how it is done or initiated. the spiderbox 7000 and 9000 used to have the facility of downloading from the net from a website for the epg of your choice but that failed years ago

this topic has been discussed dozens of times over the years on various forums which is why old hands get fed up seeing it raised yet again, this may account for negative comments , I myself thought the same ( "oh no , not that old chestnut again" ) when I read the thread , so you cannot blame people for negativity towards this particular topic

it is also why we would recommend buying a box that allows the 24/7 epg , which we did when heyho was messing with his spider 6000 late last year, telling him to buy a VU if he wanted more that the spider 6000 offers , we would say the same to anyone else too

so yes we "get it" , we understand what you want and why you want it, but what you bought was never advertised with it and it may never come to this box at all, it rarely if ever does

a few boxes that could manage it from that transponder were the blade 7000s , tm5402s and a drHD box I think (all similar boxes by the same manufacturer I believe) , the icecrypt 40000s has an epg download system but I never found it any good myself , possibly a few others may also manage this task too

but I bought a vu duo , others a solo or solo 2 or duo 2 or ultimo etc and they use the crossepg plugin and coolmans tv display to give an excellent epg system similar to sly , but no series record as such (you can tell it to record the same programme name whereas a slybox does a better job)

so what do people always ask for ? you may ask

a box like a slybox HD plus , internal hdd for recording onto , twin tuner (usually) and a 24/7 epg with series record and programme name recording and instant record , catchup tv etc

the VU range tend to fulfil most of those sly like requirements and are the box of choice for those wishing those extras and features

the spiderbox is a budget bespoke box and is more of a starter box for newbies , or second box for say a bedroom , which does a lot more for less than £100 than my old samsung 9500 viaci did for £400 over 12 years ago ! (or my tm1500 SD from 10 years ago)

so as I said earlier , you get what you pay for in this game , the spiderbox is not that box if you want a 24/7 epg for recording from sly , no matter which sly you require (or freesat from 28e either)

hope that explains it now I have woken up and can write a more detailed explanation

[echelon]

If its any help to you, you can manually set the timer to record a program even if its not on the epg. Menu->System Settings->Advanced Timer-> OK-> OK and set which channel you want to record from and the time of start and finish. Its not as straight forward as choosing from the epg and pressing ok but at least you are able to set the timer to record something that is 'outside' the Now and Next. I personally use it (and prefer to use it) as I like using TV Magazines rather than the EPG. Also it allows you to set the recording to start several minutes before and finish several minutes after the scheduled time of a program (just in case it runs late or starts a minute or so earlier).

agreed, its also that same methodology I used to employ when using a video recorder many years ago as there was no 24/7 epg on an@logue tv for this so the only way to forward record was to set the date and time and channel (or AV input) and recording speed and the vcr dumbly did the job , so if you had the wrong channel or input or date etc you got the wrong programme , also if the programme was delayed due to a world event (like the falklands) you got news coverage and not your actual programme you wanted , lol

my sony hxd 870 dvd freeview recorder allows me to series record and forward record up to 7 days using the digital freeview epg (again a bespoke epg system for terrestrial tv) and also allows me to record from an AV source , so I no longer use a vcr for this and I have epg recording too, but that is on freeview from winter hill transmitter and via my outdoor aerial

so the old belt and braces approach mentioned by roadrunner is always a method people can employ, crude but generally effective

and yes there are a few free apps for phones and tablets that can be used to check for this like tvguide etc , or even a 40p weekly magazine my wife still likes to buy and mark off what she wishes to watch or record, then sets timers for them

unfortunately , your first 2 posts in this thread fanned the flames due to not understanding the issues and its no wonder negative comments ensued (even though post #2 actually answered the original question), so I hope I have now clearly explained it all in laymans terms for all to ponder

[Grommit59]

Thanks again for your very detailed and informative replies Echelon. I very much appreciate the time and effort you have devoted to educating a newbie whose only previous experience was with a dedicated Humax Freesat receiver/PVR and the Eye TV box currently connected to one of my laptops, both of which allow scheduled recording from extended EPG guides. Believe it or not I am encouraged to experiment further (with a motorised dish) to find out what this impressively versatile little box can do.