DirecTV EPG vs. Dish EPG

[Laverne]

(Since this pertains to both, I figured it best to put it here. :shrug: Also note, I'm not trying to start anything except a discussion. :D)

Yesterday I hat the opportunity to view D* briefly, and was trying to find something to watch. (We were in the waiting room of a car dealership.) I have no idea what model number the receiver was, but it was an RCA, kinda narrow and a little fat (tall), without much on the front at all. Not that that probably matters...

Anyway, I fould the whole EPG very distracting. I didn't care for the black with what seemed like a bunch of red, and advertisements? It seems like there were advertisements of some sort in the upper RH corner (where, BTW, the PIP is for E*'s EPG, but I tried not to let that throw me off ;)). The whole look of it just made my brain jumpy. I MUCH prefer E*'s EPG, with its nice soothing blue and light gray. It is very plain and not distracting from itself.

Maybe this has been discussed before. :shrug: My apologies if it has. Just wanted to share my comparison.

[Steve Mehs]

Over the years just about every major consumer electronics manufacture has made a set to box for D*. RCA, Sony, Samsung, Zenith, Philips, Panasonic, and probably others that I can’t remember along with DirecTVs own HNS and now DirecTV branded boxes. GUIs, both EPG and menu structure vary by manufacture and software and for Ultimate TV and DirecTiVo receivers it’s radically different. The only D* EPG I’ve used for any length of time is the DTiVo guide, which was slow to fill in up until s/w version 6.2. While the grid guide on the DTiVo gets some complaints about being on to of programming, I like it as it’s the only EPG I know of that let’s you go back in time, it’s a 14 day guide, 2 days back 12 days forward. With E* I’d used the EPG all the time, now with DirecTV, maybe twice a week. I prefer the doing a search then EPG surfing.

A friend of mine has an older D* box, I think it’s either an RCA or Hughes, that has the PIP EPG like Dish has on OpenTV boxes. Personally I found it distracting and with my 508s I had the full guide displayed.

[Laverne]

.... I like it as it’s the only EPG I know of that let’s you go back in time, it’s a 14 day guide, 2 days back 12 days forward...THAT would be cool, I'll have to say. When we had Mediacom, the EPG was 14 days, and we had a Search, which I don't currently have now on the 811 :(, but it's supposed to be coming.

I had no idea they varied by manufacturer. Interesting. Both my 311 and my 811 look the same (to me, haven't done an actual side-by-side comparison).

When we were looking at the D*, I told DH "I think I will go home and discuss this." He went: :rolleyes: :lol:

[Nick]

I'll wager he does that a lot. :lol: