# FTA - electronic program guide



## Telionis (Apr 16, 2008)

Hey guys,

I was looking into the various FTA systems, and all of the receivers advertise an electronic program guide feature... how is this possible? Do the various satelites out there broadcast program info like Dish Network and DirecTV, does it expect you to connect through the internet, or is it just full of garbage? 

I've looked everywhere with no mention of the program guide, aside from the fact that all the receivers have it. 

- thanks,

Alex


----------



## FTA Michael (Jul 21, 2002)

Satellites broadcast what the program originators want them to broadcast. In Europe, where FTA is an accepted form of TV viewing, most broadcasters include EPG info. Here in the US, where we viewers are typically eavesdropping, most broadcasters don't bother with it.


----------



## Telionis (Apr 16, 2008)

FTA Michael said:


> Satellites broadcast what the program originators want them to broadcast. In Europe, where FTA is an accepted form of TV viewing, most broadcasters include EPG info. Here in the US, where we viewers are typically eavesdropping, most broadcasters don't bother with it.


Hmm, so there is no way short of using the internet or channel surfing to see what is on the various different FTA ABC's or Fox's on say Galaxy 10R??? I wonder if you could program a home dvr like myth tv to download the data somehow...


----------



## concord704 (Feb 19, 2006)

Telionis said:


> Hmm, so there is no way short of using the internet or channel surfing to see what is on the various different FTA ABC's or Fox's on say Galaxy 10R??? I wonder if you could program a home dvr like myth tv to download the data somehow...


MythTv is now using (SD) Schedule Direct (http://www.schedulesdirect.org/) as ZapToIt no longer provides lineups. You can have up to 4 lineups (i.e. D*, E*, local cable and OTA) based on zip code. Therefore you cannot have stations from all over different zip codes (i.e. G10R) in the listing. SD is looking into a way to accomplish this, but I think it won't happen anytime soon.

I know others use TitanTv to setup the listings for viewing online by adding locals from different locations (i.e. from G10R) and removing extra channels that are not on the sat....


----------



## Chandu (Oct 3, 2005)

Not quite the same thing, but I use some ATSC OTA receivers with EPG support, and bunch of OTA stations are required to encode programming information as part of ATSC headers. I don't know if is mandatory as part of ATSC spec, or if FCC makes it mandatory on broadcasters to include this information. One way or another, it seems mandatory and the grid is always populated.

I wonder if the DVB-S2 (or the older DVB-S) specification makes it mandatory to include programming information in their headers. But even if the did, I suppose content providers could obfuscate it by encoding junk or maybe even whitespace.


----------



## FTA Michael (Jul 21, 2002)

I'm not sure what you mean when you say that Zap2It doesn't provide lineups. If you register for an account there, you can add stations as "Favorites" and build a grid that way. I had a lengthy blog entry on it a few weeks ago.

For your OTA ATSC EPG (that's a lot of initials!), again we're talking about programming that is designed to be viewed directly by end users, unlike most North American FTA channels. But it's free and it's great!


----------

