TiVo Community Forums Archives - Channel Listings

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Channel Listings - Question
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Posted by: jborer

Am I right in thinking that Tivo are a partner of sorts with Sky with their sky+ box.

If this is the case then would it not be feasible for Tivo to use the same listing information as supplied by Sky via the dish, thus alleviating the need for the daily phone call.

I realise that this would probably require an extra data cable of some sort running from the sky box to the tivo but I would gladly pay an extra bit of money for this feature or hardware upgrade.

Probably just dreaming but I think it would be a neat idea.

Posted by: Richardr

Tivo haven't got anything to do with Sky+, but Sky are a marketing partner and a shareholder, in TIVO.

TIVO needs a lot more information in its EPG than is transmitted via the Sky EPG, and needs it in specific formats.

By using its own EPG information in the UK at the moment, TIVO is also truely cross platform.

Posted by: blokedownthepub

The Sky listings I would imagine are obtained from the Event Information Table, which is one of the DVB tables sent out as part of the transport stream on each transponder. If Tivo was to use this info we would then be limited to 7 days of EPG. Plus as Richardr says what about everyone else who does not have Sky?

Posted by: jborer

Out of curiousity (I don't know enough about how these things work), would it not be possible for the Tivo listings to get transmitted via the various platforms directly in the same way as the Cable/Satalite operators transmit their EPGs?

Posted by: blokedownthepub

The EIT is the DVB table which carries the info about programs. All Digital platforms carry this in each of their transport streams. There is no equivalent method in the analogue platforms tho.

For each of the digital platforms it would require a modification to the STB's to provide the EPG data out. Tivo would also need modding. In short a snowballs chance in hell.

Also ntl only provide three days epg info now.

Posted by: Richardr

quote:
would it not be possible for the Tivo listings to get transmitted via the various platforms directly in the same way as the Cable/Satalite operators transmit their EPGs

It would.

However, TIVO at the moment hasn't got access to the digital broadcast stream. All it has is the RGB (or composite) picture being fed from the digital receiver.

You would need a way to encode the EPG info in the picture being fed to TIVO. Not only that, it would need to switch to that transponder every night to download the information.

It would be possible if, in the way that SKY+ is, or I believe some of the combined satellite / TIVO boxes are in the US, TIVO was built into a satellite receiver, and had access to the broadcast stream, rather than a decoded picture.