AltEPG

Apologies if this has been dealt with.

In the TiVo EPG system that we are about to lose, almost every programme description has the year it was first broadcast. This info is not available on Sky, or even in Radio Times. For me, this has been one of the most important things. If I see an episode of How It's Made, for example, I need only to know its year to decide whether to watch it. Without that, I have to start watching, to see if it's a repeat of an episode I have already watched.

I don't know how the alternative EPG will source its data. Does it have to be compiled from scratch, or does it access EPG data that is already available. Whichever it is, will the year be included?

From the lack of response, it seems that I am the only user that really wants what I have now learnt is called the Original Aired Date (OAD). It is now obvious that the AltEPG does not have this data. So be it, for me the TiVo with access to the AltEPG then just has one attraction left, wishlists. But could someone please tell me where, apart from the current EPG, which I now know comes from Tribune, is the OAD data available?

ByTheCringe wrote:From the lack of response, it seems that I am the only user that really wants what I have now learnt is called the Original Aired Date (OAD). It is now obvious that the AltEPG does not have this data. So be it, for me the TiVo with access to the AltEPG then just has one attraction left, wishlists. But could someone please tell me where, apart from the current EPG, which I now know comes from Tribune, is the OAD data available?

tv.com is usually a good source of that information, but not always correct - imdb can be relevant too, but the interface is not as good since they changed it. But both would be manual lookups

Thanks tivomas. Can't see any dates in tv.com. The imdb site only has movies it seems.

I am with you on this - the originally aired date is very useful, especially in determining which series a program belongs to and in movies.
Sad to see it go...

Most episodes won't have a date, but could have a season number in the description, eg tonight Primeval should have "1/6, series 5"

From other threads, I can see that that would be helpful, but unfortunately, I don't think it will solve my problem. On Sky, I sometimes get "New." in front of the title. Or I can skip to the end and check the copyright date. There's usually more than one way to skin a cat, but just not so easily as the Tribune way.

I've noticed a few times that if the programme is being broadcast on a different channel, it will say 2011 when it is in fact 2009.
This happens with Ghosthunters and CBS Reality and SkyLivingit

That's often deliberate as people were finding FRO would not pick up "new" Simpsons on C4 because they had already been on Sky One. Whether you thought that was good or bad depended on your standpoint!

tivomas wrote:

ByTheCringe wrote:From the lack of response, it seems that I am the only user that really wants what I have now learnt is called the Original Aired Date (OAD). It is now obvious that the AltEPG does not have this data. So be it, for me the TiVo with access to the AltEPG then just has one attraction left, wishlists. But could someone please tell me where, apart from the current EPG, which I now know comes from Tribune, is the OAD data available?

tv.com is usually a good source of that information, but not always correct - imdb can be relevant too, but the interface is not as good since they changed it. But both would be manual lookups

The best site is tvdb.org. That has oad's & episode no.s

Martin

Thanks Martin, but I don't see how to get listings for all channels on that site.

ByTheCringe wrote:Thanks Martin, but I don't see how to get listings for all channels on that site.

Sorry, I didn't read/understand your post fully. TVDB.org doesn't have listings, it's a db maintained by users, mainly used for correct naming & scraping of archived tv.

Martin

Appreciate you trying.