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TV Guide Plus
Discontinued electronic program guide service From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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TV Guide On Screen, TV Guide Daily, TV Guide Plus+, TV Guide Plus+ Gold (in North America), Guide Plus+ (in Europe), or G-Guide (in Japan), were brand names for an interactive electronic program guide (EPG) system incorporated into a range of consumer electronics products, including televisions, DVD recorders, digital video recorders (DVR), and other digital television devices. The service provided on‑screen program listings that allowed viewers to navigate, sort, select, and schedule television programming for viewing and recording.
Although marketed under the TV Guide name, the on‑screen service was distinct from the long‑running TV Guide magazine. Gemstar acquired the magazine in 1999 to strengthen the brand association between its electronic listings products and the well‑known print publication,[1] but after Rovi purchased Gemstar in 2008, the magazine was sold separately to OpenGate Capital and has since operated independently.[2] The system itself was owned by Rovi Corporation, the successor to Gemstar-TV Guide International, which had been acquired by Macrovision (later renamed Rovi) in 2008.[3] In 2016, Rovi acquired digital video recorder manufacturer TiVo Inc. in a $1.1 billion deal and subsequently adopted the TiVo name.[4][5][6]
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History
The system was first introduced in the United States and Japan during the mid‑1990s, before expanding into European markets in the following decade.[7][8] By the early 2000s, it was available through broadcast and MVPD operators in Canada, France, Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Italy.[7]
In late 2012, Rovi announced that broadcast transmission of the service in North America would end in November of that year, with full discontinuation in April 2013.[9] The service was later withdrawn from Eurasian markets by the end of 2016.[10][11]
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Technical overview
A number of major consumer electronics manufacturers offered compatible devices including, Channel Master, JVC, Panasonic, Thomson (under the RCA, GE, and ProScan brands), Samsung, Sharp, Sony, LG, and Toshiba.[12] Because the system was advertiser supported, program listings were distributed free to viewers, regardless of whether they received signals via terrestrial, cable, or satellite.[13]
Gemstar also developed EPG software for personal computers, which was bundled with ATI Technologies analog NTSC tuner cards, including the TV Wonder and All-in-Wonder series.[12] With the transition to digital broadcasting, ATI partnered with TitanTV to provide listings for its ATSC tuner cards.[14]
The original analog implementation transmitted data through the vertical blanking interval (VBI) lines, usually 11-18, 20, and 22, of participating television stations, in a manner similar to closed captioning and teletext.[15] This took up to 24 hours to download on the initial setup, because the information was delivered at a much lower bitrate compared to digital downloads.[7]
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Digital television
Summarize
Perspective
The digital version of the service was first introduced in the mid‑2000s, beginning in the United States in 2006 alongside the rollout of the ATSC.[16] Other regions also moved from analog to digital TV, adopting systems such as DVB-T/T2 in Europe and ISDB in Japan. In markets where the service was supported, it offered a consistent interface across different brands of televisions and recorders. In the United States, the federally mandated digital transition on June 12, 2009, rendered some older receivers and recorders unable to access listings.[17]
At the same time, the Program and System Information Protocol (PSIP) became the standard method for U.S. broadcasters to transmit basic EPG data within ATSC signals. The Federal Communications Commission continues to require full power television stations, unlike MVPD providers, to supply PSIP information.[18] While implementation has varied and some stations provide incomplete listings, PSIP remains in use as the main program guide system for ATSC 1 broadcasts.[19]
Unlike PSIP, which offers only limited program details, the TV Guide system was licensed separately to manufacturers. Device makers paid royalties to Rovi to embed the software, which in turn provided a more comprehensive guide resembling the functionality of digital satellite and cable platforms, including multi‑day listings and DVR features.[20]
With the introduction of ATSC 3.0 (branded NextGen TV), PSIP continues to serve legacy ATSC broadcasts, while its functions are being supplemented by new signaling and EPG protocols such as the Service List Table (SLT).[21][22] In Europe and several other regions, the comparable digital terrestrial standard is DVB-T2, which uses the DVB Service Information (DVB‑SI) framework to deliver EPG data.[23]
See also
References
External links
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