EPG Discussion (UPC-branded STBs)

dunworth1

upc have launched their new epg today.

you might have to plug out the box for 30 seconds and plug it back in again to get it

Edit only in upc branded boxes

djimi

Is it any faster or more responsive than the current one? Does it do away with that ridiculous mini screen which seems to grind the whole thing to a halt?

dunworth1

the mini screen is gone.

seems slightly faster loading.

stutters when moving trough channel list

not much oof an improvement if you ask me.
tough it does look tidier

rebeve

An improvement me thinks

DepecheHead101

It's the drizzling ****s. I'm amazed at how it's made it from conceptual stages all the way to my living room, without a single employ of the ludicrous company not piping up to say 'you know, this may be a bad idea'.

It improves nothing save for a slightly faster load time, which is easily offset by the absoloutely frightening time it takes to actually scroll the thing, which you will be doing a lot, because the 'Entertainment' category no longer seems to exists.

It's just 'Movies', 'Sports', 'Kids' and 'Everything else lolz'.

But the scroll speed. Good lord. It gives me the creeps.

Can't wait to switch back to Sky.

Ranicand

Is there anyway to force a software update?

An Tarbh

yeah nothing new here and both boxes are UPC branded ones, rebooted both, plugged it out and everything but nothing.

coldfire1x

Tried switching off UPC box and switching on again after few minutes but havent got any updates yet.

I am in Dublin 8, Digital+ box.

DingDong

Ex-Chorus network is getting the update first with ex-ntl to follow soon after.

patrickmooney

Nope, UPC Media Box here, but it's some 3 years old. No update.

Ranicand

DingDong wrote: »

Ex-Chorus network is getting the update first with ex-ntl to follow soon after.

What do you think of the new guide?

DingDong

Haven't seen it in action yet Ranicand only screen shots. It should be pretty much like the attached jpg

angel01

DingDong wrote: »

Ex-Chorus network is getting the update first with ex-ntl to follow soon after.

When will ex-ntl people get it?

DingDong

angel01 wrote: »

When will ex-ntl people get it?

It depends if any problems arise in the chorus areas. At a guess a week.

MartMax

strange. unplugged two UPC branded STB (a PVR and another HD-PVR), put them back on and still with the old EPG. dublin city centre here.

Ranicand

MartMax wrote: »

strange. unplugged two UPC branded STB (a PVR and another HD-PVR), put them back on and still with the old EPG. dublin city centre here.

Did you not read the thread new guide in Ex Chrous areas first.

Dublin is Ex NTL.

They realese the guide in two stages so if there are problems only half the network is calling in crying.

Next week for us I think.

djimi

No need to be snappy Ranicand; Im sure a lot of newer UPC customers (myself included) have no idea if they are ex NTL or ex Chorus.

angel01

DingDong wrote: »

It depends if any problems arise in the chorus areas. At a guess a week.

Excellent, thank you

Ranicand

djimi wrote: »

No need to be snappy Ranicand; Im sure a lot of newer UPC customers (myself included) have no idea if they are ex NTL or ex Chorus.

Ok.:)

djimi

Very underwhelmed by the new EPG. The layout is a little better than the old one but man is it unresponsive. At best its as bad as the old one, and at times it seems to be worse, especially when using the page up/down buttons.

Any why not Entertainment category? Quite annoying to have to load all channels to find the ones which I use the most (I know I can use favorites but you know what I mean).

zilog_jones

As others have said, it's pretty unresponsive. Since it takes up the majority the picture the overlay feature isn't really of much benefit (there's three levels of transparency you can choose IIRC). At least the old issue of it throwing you out of the guide menu unless you wait an unknown length of time doesn't happen any more.

Yakuza

I have two Pace boxes, and am ex-NTL, so I presume I'll be waiting until Hell freezes over to get an update?

Myrddin

Is it only the PVR boxes that will get this? Or will the little mini old (ntl type) boxes get it too?

icdg

EnterNow wrote: »

Is it only the PVR boxes that will get this? Or will the little mini old (ntl type) boxes get it too?

To the best of my knowledge, it will be rolled out to all UPC branded boxes (not just PVRs). However, NTL and Chorus branded boxes use completely different software and I wouldn't expect UPC to be upgrading the software on these - the plan was to replace them all with UPC boxes at one stage but I'm not sure if this is still the case.

Myrddin

icdg wrote: »

To the best of my knowledge, it will be rolled out to all UPC branded boxes (not just PVRs). However, NTL and Chorus branded boxes use completely different software and I wouldn't expect UPC to be upgrading the software on these - the plan was to replace them all with UPC boxes at one stage but I'm not sure if this is still the case.

Well I only got a UPC install last week, one pvr & one standard box. The standard box was the little novel size box, which had a UPC sticker covering the old NTL logo. So this will remain on it's old epg (purple/pink screen)?

zilog_jones

Yeah that's an older STB. They seem to be still supplying new customers with the old Chorus Sagem boxes in Limerick too.

The UPC-branded ones have menus in the same colour scheme as the new guide (blue and purple). Besides the guide, all the other menus seem the same.

Ranicand

Now on the Dublin boxes ex NTL areas.

sdevine89

As others have said unresponsive, a step backwards!

Mimikyu

This post has been deleted.

coldfire1x

Still nothing new in Dublin - 8, ex NTL.

Bodan

I can confirm we have it here in Waterford on PVR boxes. It is a nice change visually, but it is still just as slow as the previous menu. They badly need to add an entertainment section in the search menu, along with news and documentaries. Having just movies, music,kids and sports channels is not enough.

I like the other showings new feature, at the top of the info bar. It is quite handy if you want to see when they are going to repeat the show again.

Alun

Bodan wrote: »

I like the other showings new feature, at the top of the info bar. It is quite handy if you want to see when they are going to repeat the show again.

Not new really .. you could always press the green button on the info screen on the old EPG and get the same information (if applicable).

paulm17781

Alun wrote: »

Not new really .. you could always press the green button on the info screen on the old EPG and get the same information (if applicable).

Really? I never knew that. Thanks.

Supercell

Now on my Cisco HD box here in Dublin. Still slow but I do find it much more intuitive to use than the older version.

angel01

I really like it so far!

Wavey

@Supercell.

I the Cisco box what UPC are issuing at the moment to HD subscribers?

I just upgraded today to HD but if the guide is as sluggish as the new guide on the PVR box then I will be heading back to Sky.

Thx

Wavey.

zilog_jones

Wavey wrote: »

I the Cisco box what UPC are issuing at the moment to HD subscribers?

There's just the one HD box so far AFAIK. The guide and menus are more or less identical, but it doesn't have the remote control brokenness that the Thomson STBs suffer from.

icdg

First reaction...the new guide is slow. With a capital S.

The problem is that every time you move the cursor for channel to channel, the whole guide is updated. This seems to require a good bit of processing power to redraw the screen every time you move the cursor. This is different to Sky where the cursor just moves and the screen isn't redrawn until you reach the last channel on the list whereby you move onto a new page of listings.

I'm also remained to be convinced of the benefit of keeping the channel live in the background. In fact what seems to happen is that the EPG loads and then the video reloads. The guide isn't overlayed on the picture like the mini-guide is, in fact it seems to happen in reverse. All this has to happen before you can use the EPG. Since you can see so little of the picture anyway, if getting rid of the video would improve the performance of the EPG I think it is the first change UPC should make.

In summary, it's too sluggish, although I do most of my browsing in the Now and Next mode (what used to be called Browse on NTL) so its not such an issue for me. I imagine it is a far bigger annoyance to PVR users who need the EPG to schedule recordings.

nocal

Thumbs down from me
- Slow,
- the video overlay feature might as well not be there (but at least it is good to be able to hear the program in the background) but the biggest annoyance is having to re-load the video when you exit the guide. This is not good for trying to make a quick exit if there is something you are trying to catch on the programme that you are watching.
- could do with more sections in the search option
- and could really doing with keeping the last setting on the search function when you re-enter.

coldfire1x

Got the upgrade in Dublin - 8. So far unimpressed. Kind of slow.

xTanyax

DingDong wrote: »

Haven't seen it in action yet Ranicand only screen shots. It should be pretty much like the attached jpg

Yep it's the same as posted above. Im not totally impressed tbh because i had no problems with the other epg. I suppose it will just take some getting used to for some people. im going to have to show my mum-n-law how to do it because she's all mixed up!:) anyway seems to be a tad faster!

patrickmooney

My tip. Use page up and down to bypass that scrolling when scanning the channels.

snowfinch

Bit frustrated with this as the new EPG came in on the main box (with dvr) in living room. However, when went to bed, the TV in that room with just a regular STB will not bring up any guide at all now. It tries to bring up the new EPG, goes blank (blue) and then back to the channel I was on before. No guide at all. Annoying. In D1 and both boxes are new this year.

djimi

xTanyax wrote: »

Yep it's the same as posted above. Im not totally impressed tbh because i had no problems with the other epg. I suppose it will just take some getting used to for some people. im going to have to show my mum-n-law how to do it because she's all mixed up!:) anyway seems to be a tad faster!

Its not. Try pressing channel down a couple of times and see how long it takes it to catch up with itself.

I never thought Id hear myself say this but Id prefer the old EPG back...

vinsuala

Ah! Hate the new guide! The most annoying thing (besides no entertainment section) is that it takes so long to scroll through the menu, not to mention the confusion of the screen moving rather than the cursor. This is a step backwards in my view.

The Cannibal

Back to Sky I go. Was happier with them anyway, but this has pushed me back.

Myrddin

The Cannibal wrote: »

Back to Sky I go. Was happier with them anyway, but this has pushed me back.

I found the Sky+ epg (non hd) an absoloute pain to use. The lag was unbelievable, sometimes it would lag so badly, if I could remember how to get the channel I wanted I'd go ahead & press the combinations. Then the box would just wake up, all my inputs were processed (after inputting them) and it would go through the menus and select the channel sometimes 4/5 full seconds later.

dunworth1

EnterNow wrote: »

I found the Sky+ epg (non hd) an absoloute pain to use. The lag was unbelievable, sometimes it would lag so badly, if I could remember how to get the channel I wanted I'd go ahead & press the combinations. Then the box would just wake up, all my inputs were processed (after inputting them) and it would go through the menus and select the channel sometimes 4/5 full seconds later.

and not to mention the waiting time for info about a program some time i could have went a made a cup of tea and come back and still be waiting

djimi

For its faults (of which there arent many tbf) the Sky EPG is still lightyears ahead of either EPG Ive had with UPC so far.

Zapp Brannigan

Got the new EPG today... it's a bit sh*t isn't it?

TheRedDevil10

MOD EDIT: Post Deleted.