Philips HDRW720 and Guideplus problem

Thanks for posting your findings - I was wondering why I was only
getting two days for some channels but the rest were updating fine.

Bit of a cheek if you ask me - usual marketing lies to sell it as a 7
day epg and look how many channels we do. That said, I do like the
ease of use - even my wife can record stuff now.

A couple of problems I have with it that I'd be interested to know if
anyone else has suffered from:

1. When I set it up initially, I told it I had an NTL box and it
controls said box fine - thing is, all the channels it downloaded had
the SKY channel numbers (e.g. Sky one was down as 106 when on NTL it
is actually 140). I've manually edited the channels I record from so
no biggie, but just wondered if this was standard or I was just
unlucky.

2. On the Guideplus website it says you can choose to watch a channel
from the guide by highlighting it and clicking OK but that just takes
it back to the channel I was watching, the same as exiting the guide.

3. It also mentions a video-lock where you can either choose to lock
the tv picture in the guide to the channel you were watching, or
unlock it so it changes to the channel you have highlighted. I can
see the little lock icon, but on following the instructions there is
no 'Unlock' option - again is this just my box, or is it the same for
all 720s?

Oh - and could you let me have Gemstar's address if possible please?

Cheers.

Woffle,

With regards to:

3. It also mentions a video-lock where you can either choose to lock
the tv picture in the guide to the channel you were watching, or
unlock it so it changes to the channel you have highlighted. I can
see the little lock icon, but on following the instructions there is
no 'Unlock' option - again is this just my box, or is it the same for
all 720s?

My 720 does the same, however by chance I discovered that:

If you enter the Guideplus pages using the 'TIMER' button on the
remote, then use '<' to select the GRID screen, when you select
the different channels you now get the option to lock or unlock as
described on the Guideplus Website.

Maybe Philips might correct this in the next firmware release - we can
but hope!

Regards

Ian    

:D

Biz was right; bit the bullet and emailed Gemstar. Certain channels
only qualify for two days EPG on the basis of "market share". They
insist this still makes it a seven-day EPG. They already have market
share figures for ITV3 then. Here is the list, hitherto secret as far
as I can see. BTW can anyone out there see any need whatever to record
an advertising channel? A recording of Bid-up would seem particularly
useless.
Anyone who wants to get this changed can email jfc( at )infomedia.lu

UK
Channel Name        Number of Days
BBC 1        7
BBC 2        7
ITV        7
Channel 4        7
Five        7
SKY One        7
BBC Three        7
ITV 2        7
E4        7
UKTV Gold        7
Living TV        7
UKTV Style        2
UKTV Documentary        2
UKTV Drama        7
UKTV History        2
UKTV Food        2
UKTV Bright Ideas        2
FTN - full on entertainment        2
National Geographic Channel (UK)        2
Paramount - The Comedy Channel        2
SKY Sports 1        7
SKY Sports 2        7
SKY Sports 3        7
Eurosport UK        7
Sky Sports News        2
BBC 4        7
SKY MOVIES 1        7
SKY MOVIES 2        7
SKY MOVIES 3        7
SKY MOVIES 4        7
SKY MOVIES 5        7
SKY MOVIES 6        7
SKY MOVIES 7        7
SKY MOVIES 8        7
SKY MOVIES 9        7
Film Four        7
Cartoon Network        2
Nickelodeon (UK)        2
Nickelodeon Junior        2
CBBC        2
Cbeebies        2
Jetix (UK)        2
Cartoon Boomerang        2
Disney Channel        2
Discovery Kids (UK)        2
ABC 1        2
Discovery Channel (UK)        2
ITV 3        2
Granada Men & Motors        2
Hallmark        2
Trouble Channel        2
Animal Planet (UK)        2
Discovery Health (UK)        2
Bravo        2
Challenge TV        2
SKY News        2
BBC News 24        2
ITN News Channel        2
CNN International        2
Discovery Home & Leisure (UK)        2
The History Channel        2
Sci-Fi (UK)        2
Discovery Science        2
Discovery Travel & Adventure (UK)        2
Discovery Wings (UK)        2
Discovery Civilisation (UK)        2
Adventure 1        2
MTV UK & Ireland        2
MTV 2        2
MTV Base        2
MTV Dance        2
MTV Hits today        2
The Box        2
TMF        7
VH1 Classic        2
VH1 UK        2
SKY Cinema 1        7
SKY Cinema 2        7
Performance - The Arts Channel        2
The Biography Channel        2
TCM - Turner Classic Movies (UK)        7
S4C        7
RTE 1        2
RTE 2        2
QVC        2
Bid-Up TV        2
Bloomberg Television (UK)         2
CNBC Europe        2
SKY Travel        2
Travel Channel, The (UK)        2
Lunn Poly TV        2
TV Travel Shop        2
BBC Parliament        2
The Hits        7

What did Gemstar say when you wrote them?

I figured they would not be very interested and that it was really a
problem for Philips, who I continue to harrass.

If you are getting guide data for all channels except those you mentioned,
its almost a certainty that the data is not there for the box to retrieve.
Not Phillips problem.