EPG reshuffle on Virgin TV in 2012???

[andy_m]

Originally Posted by OLD BOY

Personally, I don't understand this obsession with channel numbers. We have an ability to select programmes from the EPG and we can set our favourite channels in whatever order we choose.

If you have a V+ box or a TIVO, you can record all your programmes for the week fairly easily and select your viewing from the recordings rather than rely on the programme schedulers and have to remember which channel numbers are which. An added benefit is that you can simply fast forward through the adverts.

Channel hoppers will hop away regardless of the channel numbers allocated.

Those who like to watch live sport have only a limited number of channels to choose from and can probably remember those channel numbers off by heart.

With these alternative means of selecting programmes to watch, the whole business of debating channel number allocation just leaves me cold. You soon get used to whatever channel numbers are allocated to your favourite channels even if you do nothing.

Correct. Having just spent the week with my in laws who have freeview, it was noticable how, even with far fewer channels and no recording ability, my father in law channel hopped by going to the EPG and selecting programmes based on the guide info rather than channel up and down or using channel numbers.

To further illustrate your point, when we got home yesterday, all our evening viewing was from My Shows or TV Choice.

If it suits Virgin Media to do it, and if more sense in the channel numbers helps some (dare I say it, older) customers then fine, but I don't think it will make much difference to the majority of end users.

[Helix]

Originally Posted by leaway2

I would just like the EPG to be able work past 1 day. I have to use my freeview 6 day EPG to check past 04:00 the next morning. This of course does not list all my Virgin channels.

Can't see them changing that, it used to be 3 days but they took it down to 1 because the boxes couldn't cope. All their investment is in Tivo now so they are not going to put any effort in extending the guide on older boxes as they want everyone on Tivo in a few years.

[Felim_Doyle]

Originally Posted by Jameseh

My ideal line up:

1 - Sky Sports 1 HD
2 - Sky Sports 2 HD
3 - Sky Sports 3 HD
4 - Sky Sports 4 HD
5 - Sky Sports F1 HD
6 - Sky Sports News HD
7 - ESPN HD
8 - ESPN Yanks HD

You need to broaden your horizons and get out more too!

Try taking part in sport rather than watching others do it. But start small; no F1 just yet!

---------- Post added at 10:37 ---------- Previous post was at 10:09 ----------

Originally Posted by andy_m

... my father in law channel hopped by going to the EPG ... (dare I say it, older) customers ...

My expectation would be that your father-in-law is "older customers" and that, like mine, he uses the EPG because he doesn't know the channel numbers yet. My Father-in-law knows BBC One and BBC News and needs the EPG for everything else, although I expect he'll learn a few favourites over time. It doesn't help that he has two EPGs (Freeview and Freesat) to contend with and two flavours of the Freeview EPG, one built-in to his Sony TV downstairs and one on a Goodmans set-rop-box upstairs. Obviously it's the same content but presented differently and with variations in the functionality of the keys on the remote.

Frustratingly my own father (UPC cable customer in Ireland) painstakingly scrolls up and down the channels even though he knows most of the numbers for his favourites. He frequently misses programmes, especially sporting events, because he hasn't mastered the guide yet. He has a sports package and most of it is listed in the weekend newspaper TV guide but he still misses events.

If I can get him using the EPG and sending text messages on his mobile in 2012, those will be the two miracles required to qualify me for sainthood.

---------- Post added at 11:22 ---------- Previous post was at 10:37 ----------

Originally Posted by OLD BOY

Personally, I don't understand this obsession with channel numbers. We have an ability to select programmes from the EPG and we can set our favourite channels in whatever order we choose.

Excellent! Show me how to do that on my Pace Di4000-N V Box please. Sorry, no V+, V HD or TiVo here yet.

On a computer, regardless of make, model or operating system, I make heavy use of keyboard short-cuts to copy/cut/paste, move by word/paragraph, access pull-down menus, navigate between tabs and windows etc. (I also make use of the mouse wheels). My older brother, who is very computer literate and has worked in IT for as long as I have, mostly navigates with the mouse which is painfully slow and cumbersome!

Similarly, when a programme finishes on Alibi I don't want to have to enter the EPG and scroll around just to go straight to Universal for the next one or stop by BBC News for the weather in between (130 > 601 > 162).

GUIs are overrated and Microsoft better not take away the ability to Alt-<letter> in Windows to access menus, although the have tried.

Originally Posted by OLD BOY

If you have a V+ box or a TIVO, you can record all your programmes for the week fairly easily and select your viewing from the recordings rather than rely on the programme schedulers and have to remember which channel numbers are which. An added benefit is that you can simply fast forward through the adverts.

I'm pretty sure that most people still want to watch TV in the evening more-or-less as scheduled (with the option of time-shift) and not record the week's programmes for viewing later. The sports fans certainly will want to have seen the match, race or whatever before someone tells them the result.

Originally Posted by OLD BOY

Channel hoppers will hop away regardless of the channel numbers allocated.

What's a "channel hopper"? Do you put one channel on at tea-time and watch it for the whole evening? Everybody changes channel and knowing the numbers of your most frequently viewed channels is the optimum way to do so short of having a remote with 'speed-dial' buttons.

Originally Posted by OLD BOY

Those who like to watch live sport have only a limited number of channels to choose from and can probably remember those channel numbers off by heart.

You're implying that, like Jameseh , these people have no other viewing preference and no other household members with alternative viewing preferences. Anyway, you just said they don't need/use channel numbers.

Originally Posted by OLD BOY

With these alternative means of selecting programmes to watch, the whole business of debating channel number allocation just leaves me cold. You soon get used to whatever channel numbers are allocated to your favourite channels even if you do nothing.

I'm not sure what this and the previous point mean as they seem to contradict your stance on channel numbers.

When I do get a TiVo, I'll expect to be able to access channels by number or hieroglyph with the current channel displayed prominently somewhere. The alternative to a front panel display is for all channels to have a DOG so you know what you're watching, even during the adverts, but DOGs can be intrusive and interfere with the on-screen content. Even the mute icon sometimes gets in the way when reading the news on the BBC's Red Button service.

[telegramsam]

I know it would be too much to ask but wouldn`t it be great if the channel numbers were the same regardless of which platform you use? Mind you trying to get sky and virgin to agree would be imposible I guess. I don`t simply rely on the EPG. When I watch Corrie at 7.30,Eastenders at 8.00,then back to Corrie at 8.30 I rely on remembering the channel numbers. Also,most of the time I watch programs in HD but now and then a re-run of a old program I want to watch is on and I watch in SD as I don`t want to watch it in 4:3,which is what you get on the HD channels. It would help if the SD version was near the HD one as far as I`m concern.