# Is The New Virgin EPG Data Any Good?



## Automan (Oct 29, 2000)

I know the Virgin box has it's own forum now but thought us non Virgin Tivo owners would like to see the answers.

How is the new EPG?
How many days do you get in advance?
Is it accurate?
Is the series link data accurate not recording duplicates?
Is the first run data accurate?
Does it feature exact program start data or is padding still required?

Many thanks

Automan.


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## sjp (Oct 22, 2001)

How is the new EPG? variable

How many days do you get in advance? up to 14 days

Is it accurate? mostly

Is the series link data accurate not recording duplicates? so far for the most part

Is the first run data accurate? mostly

Does it feature exact program start data or is padding still required? i can't believe all these years on that there isn't Sky+ like soft padding.

not much help am I


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## cyril (Sep 5, 2001)

Soft padding might arrive with a software update. With 3 tuners it's not too necessary.
TiVo is smart enough to prompt you to add padding if it is a live sports event.


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## JudyB (Jan 25, 2006)

cyril said:


> Soft padding might arrive with a software update. With 3 tuners it's not too necessary.
> TiVo is smart enough to prompt you to add padding if it is a live sports event.


I'm curious to know why you think that 3 tuners means that you don't need soft padding? I realize that you will get far fewer clashes, but there must still be times when you do get them, so soft padding allows things to work better than hard padding in those cases.
Also, I assume that the EPG data still suffers from the BBC etc still "publishing" guide data which does not match their real schedule? (For me that is where the soft padding comes into its own since I don't have to worry about programmes starting 2 minutes earlier than advertised).


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## sjp (Oct 22, 2001)

needs soft padding to cover the bang on time / starts a minute early scheduling.

i've become somewhat spoilt with sky+ taking care of this, there has to be 2 or 3 shows a week where this is obvious.


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## Trinitron (Jan 20, 2003)

cyril said:


> Soft padding might arrive with a software update. With 3 tuners it's not too necessary.
> TiVo is smart enough to prompt you to add padding if it is a live sports event.


Do the broadcasters not update the EPG like they do on the Sky EPG? That's one of the few areas where Sky+ beats the old S1!


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## sjp (Oct 22, 2001)

Trinitron said:


> Do the broadcasters not update the EPG like they do on the Sky EPG? That's one of the few areas where Sky+ beats the old S1!


nope, daily downloads still and when I say daily i mean some random amount of time that bears no resemblance whatsoever to 24 hours


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## OzSat (Feb 15, 2001)

S1 seems to set its next update for 24-26 hours time - unless it fell in a peak phonecall cost period when it was delayed.

VM seems to set next call for anything from 6 to 30 hours time - I guess it knows why.


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## ericd121 (Dec 12, 2002)

ozsat said:


> S1 seems to set its next update for 24-26 hours time - unless it fell in a peak phonecall cost period when it was delayed.
> 
> VM seems to set next call for anything from 6 to 30 hours time - I guess it knows why.


That's curious, or rather, I'm curious.

I wonder if the Tivo software (on the Virgin Media box) can't cope with last minute updates?

Thinking about it, without soft padding, a last minute update might result in a programme not being recorded - at the last minute!


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## Trinitron (Jan 20, 2003)

ericd121 said:


> Thinking about it, without soft padding, a last minute update might result in a programme not being recorded - at the last minute!


That would only happen if something was brought forward by several minutes, which doesn't happen very often. I can't recall losing recordings through the Sky EPG, but I can think of several occasions when overrunning or something like 'extended news' has pushed the EPG back and Sky+ has picked up the change in time. The Sky software doesn't handle clashes well though - it will truncate the end of a recording instead of delaying the start of the next, and doesn't warn of this when setting recordings.


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## tonywalk (Sep 10, 2002)

ericd121 said:


> Thinking about it, without soft padding, a last minute update might result in a programme not being recorded - at the last minute!


One of the reasons I bought a second TiVo back in 200x was the Sky+ box kept missing recordings because of the broadcasters fiddling with the program start times when the programme started early or late. That and the mysterious "power failure" failed recordings. Fortunately Dixons/Currys were selling of the final TiVos for £99 so the Sky+ box stayed as a dumb box. The new EPG on the HD boxes seems more reliable though still misses more recordings than TiVo ever did.


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