Guide Plus
Encyclopedia
Guide Plus+ TV Guide On Screen and Guide Plus+ Gold (in Northern America
) or G-Guide (in Japan
) is an interactive electronic programme guide
(EPG) system that is used in consumer electronics products, such as television set
s, DVD recorder
s, personal video recorder
s, and other digital television
device
s. It offers interactive on-screen programme listings that enable viewers to navigate, sort, select, and schedule television programming for viewing and recording
. The differing names are only for marketing
purposes -- the entire system is owned by Rovi Corporation, the successor to Gemstar-TV Guide International
.
and Japan
in the mid-1990s, and is now being deploy
ed throughout Europe. It is available in Canada
, France
, Germany
, Spain
, the UK, Austria
, Switzerland
, the Netherlands
, Belgium
, and Italy
.
The updated programme listings are provided to users free-of-charge, regardless of whether they receive their television signal from an over-the-air (OTA) broadcast or via cable TV or Satellite TV. The service is supported by advertising
.
The original analog TV service uses the vertical blanking interval
(VBI) of host television station
s that datacast the service, similar to the way closed captioning
and teletext
are broadcast
. This can take 24 hours to download on initial setup because the information is sent at a low bitrate
.
in 2006, using the ATSC digital television standard. While this significantly improved the service, older systems are no longer able to download listings as of the digital television transition
which occurred on June 12, 2009.
The Program and System Information Protocol
(PSIP) within the ATSC standard allows for each station to send out its own EPG information, and in the U.S. the Federal Communications Commission
(FCC) requires stations to do so for OTA, but not cable, unless they are rebroadcasting an OTA station that provides the PSIP data. However, actual implementation is rather spotty, and usually very minimal; stations often don't have full descriptions or even correct information on the current show, much less the next three hours required of them, or the 16 days worth of guide information that can be transmitted. Additionally, ATSC tuner
s are not required to show the EPG, only the very limited information for the current show on the current channel.
While the TV Guide service also requires software in the TV or other device, and licensing fee
s or royalties
to be paid to Rovi, it also offers a more complete solution for broadcast television, more like digital satellite
or digital cable
.
Gemstar also produced EPG computer software bundled with analog NTSC TV tuner cards made by ATI Technologies
, particularly the TV Wonder and All-in-Wonder
lines. ATI switched to rival TitanTV for its digital ATSC cards, however.
Northern America
Northern America is the northernmost region of the Americas, and is part of the North American continent. It lies directly north of the region of Middle America; the land border between the two regions coincides with the border between the United States and Mexico...
) or G-Guide (in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
) is an interactive electronic programme guide
Electronic program guide
Electronic program guides and interactive program guides provide users of television, radio, and other media applications with continuously updated menus displaying broadcast programming or scheduling information for current and upcoming programming...
(EPG) system that is used in consumer electronics products, such as television set
Television set
A television set is a device that combines a tuner, display, and speakers for the purpose of viewing television. Television sets became a popular consumer product after the Second World War, using vacuum tubes and cathode ray tube displays...
s, DVD recorder
DVD recorder
A DVD recorder , is an optical disc recorder that uses Optical disc recording technologies to digitally record analog signal or digital signals onto blank writable DVD media...
s, personal video recorder
Digital video recorder
A digital video recorder , sometimes referred to by the merchandising term personal video recorder , is a consumer electronics device or application software that records video in a digital format to a disk drive, USB flash drive, SD memory card or other local or networked mass storage device...
s, and other digital television
Digital television
Digital television is the transmission of audio and video by digital signals, in contrast to the analog signals used by analog TV...
device
Display device
A display device is an output device for presentation of information in visual or tactile form...
s. It offers interactive on-screen programme listings that enable viewers to navigate, sort, select, and schedule television programming for viewing and recording
Video recorder
A video recorder may be any of several related devices:*Digital video recorder ; Personal video recorder *DVD recorder*Videocassette recorder *Video tape recorder...
. The differing names are only for marketing
Marketing
Marketing is the process used to determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments...
purposes -- the entire system is owned by Rovi Corporation, the successor to Gemstar-TV Guide International
Gemstar-TV Guide International
Gemstar-TV Guide International, Inc. was a media company that licensed interactive program guide technology to multichannel operators, such as cable and satellite television providers, and consumer electronics manufacturers, video recorder scheduling code under brands such as VCR Plus, published TV...
.
How it works
It launched in the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
in the mid-1990s, and is now being deploy
System deployment
The deployment of a mechanical device, electrical system, computer program, etc., is its assembly or transformation from a packaged form to an operational working state....
ed throughout Europe. It is available in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, the UK, Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
, and Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
.
The updated programme listings are provided to users free-of-charge, regardless of whether they receive their television signal from an over-the-air (OTA) broadcast or via cable TV or Satellite TV. The service is supported by advertising
Advertising
Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...
.
The original analog TV service uses the vertical blanking interval
Vertical blanking interval
The vertical blanking interval , also known as the vertical interval or VBLANK, is the time difference between the last line of one frame or field of a raster display, and the beginning of the first line of the next frame. It is present in analog television, VGA, DVI and other signals. During the...
(VBI) of host television station
Television station
A television station is a business, organisation or other such as an amateur television operator that transmits content over terrestrial television. A television transmission can be by analog television signals or, more recently, by digital television. Broadcast television systems standards are...
s that datacast the service, similar to the way closed captioning
Closed captioning
Closed captioning is the process of displaying text on a television, video screen or other visual display to provide additional or interpretive information to individuals who wish to access it...
and teletext
Teletext
Teletext is a television information retrieval service developed in the United Kingdom in the early 1970s. It offers a range of text-based information, typically including national, international and sporting news, weather and TV schedules...
are broadcast
Broadcasting
Broadcasting is the distribution of audio and video content to a dispersed audience via any audio visual medium. Receiving parties may include the general public or a relatively large subset of thereof...
. This can take 24 hours to download on initial setup because the information is sent at a low bitrate
Bitrate
In telecommunications and computing, bit rate is the number of bits that are conveyed or processed per unit of time....
.
Digital television
The digital service was launched in the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in 2006, using the ATSC digital television standard. While this significantly improved the service, older systems are no longer able to download listings as of the digital television transition
Digital television transition
The digital television transition is the process in which analog television broadcasting is converted to and replaced by digital television. This primarily involves both TV stations and over-the-air viewers; however it also involves content providers like TV networks, and cable television...
which occurred on June 12, 2009.
The Program and System Information Protocol
Program and System Information Protocol
The Program and System Information Protocol is the protocol used in the ATSC digital television system for carrying metadata about each channel in the broadcast MPEG transport stream of a TV station and for publishing information about television programs so that viewers can select what to watch...
(PSIP) within the ATSC standard allows for each station to send out its own EPG information, and in the U.S. the Federal Communications Commission
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
(FCC) requires stations to do so for OTA, but not cable, unless they are rebroadcasting an OTA station that provides the PSIP data. However, actual implementation is rather spotty, and usually very minimal; stations often don't have full descriptions or even correct information on the current show, much less the next three hours required of them, or the 16 days worth of guide information that can be transmitted. Additionally, ATSC tuner
ATSC tuner
An ATSC tuner, often called an ATSC receiver or HDTV tuner is a type of television tuner that allows reception of digital television television channels transmitted by television stations in North America, parts of Central America and South Korea that use ATSC standards...
s are not required to show the EPG, only the very limited information for the current show on the current channel.
While the TV Guide service also requires software in the TV or other device, and licensing fee
Fee
A fee is the price one pays as remuneration for services. Fees usually allow for overhead, wages, costs, and markup.Traditionally, professionals in Great Britain received a fee in contradistinction to a payment, salary, or wage, and would often use guineas rather than pounds as units of account...
s or royalties
Royalties
Royalties are usage-based payments made by one party to another for the right to ongoing use of an asset, sometimes an intellectual property...
to be paid to Rovi, it also offers a more complete solution for broadcast television, more like digital satellite
Direct broadcast satellite
Direct broadcast satellite is a term used to refer to satellite television broadcasts intended for home reception.A designation broader than DBS would be direct-to-home signals, or DTH. This has initially distinguished the transmissions directly intended for home viewers from cable television...
or digital cable
Digital cable
Digital cable is a generic term for any type of cable television distribution using digital video compression or distribution. The technology was originally developed by Motorola.-Background:...
.
Supported products
The following brands have compatible products:- JVCJVC, usually referred to as JVC, is a Japanese international consumer and professional electronics corporation based in Yokohama, Japan which was founded in 1927...
- Matsushita (PanasonicPanasonicPanasonic is an international brand name for Japanese electric products manufacturer Panasonic Corporation, which was formerly known as Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd...
) - MitsubishiMitsubishiThe Mitsubishi Group , Mitsubishi Group of Companies, or Mitsubishi Companies is a Japanese multinational conglomerate company that consists of a range of autonomous businesses which share the Mitsubishi brand, trademark and legacy...
- PhilipsPhilipsKoninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. , more commonly known as Philips, is a multinational Dutch electronics company....
- ThomsonThomson SATechnicolor SA , formerly Thomson SA and Thomson Multimedia, is a French international provider of solutions for the creation, management, post-production, delivery and access of video, for the Communication, Media and Entertainment industries. Technicolor’s headquarters are located in Issy les...
(RCARCARCA Corporation, founded as the Radio Corporation of America, was an American electronics company in existence from 1919 to 1986. The RCA trademark is currently owned by the French conglomerate Technicolor SA through RCA Trademark Management S.A., a company owned by Technicolor...
, GEGeneral ElectricGeneral Electric Company , or GE, is an American multinational conglomerate corporation incorporated in Schenectady, New York and headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, United States...
, and ProScanProScanProscan is one of the American brand divisions of Thomson Consumer Electronics, with products competing with higher-end electronics. The ProScan name is owned by RCA. The company created television and video products to compete with Sony's Trinitron XBR, Pioneer's Elite, and other electronics brand...
) - SamsungSamsungThe Samsung Group is a South Korean multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea...
- SharpSharp Corporationis a Japanese multinational corporation that designs and manufactures electronic products. Headquartered in Abeno-ku, Osaka, Japan, Sharp employs more than 55,580 people worldwide as of June 2011. The company was founded in September 1912 and takes its name from one of its founder's first...
- SonySony, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
- PioneerPioneer Corporationis a multinational corporation that specializes in digital entertainment products, based in Kawasaki, Kanagawa, Japan. The company was founded in 1938 in Tokyo as a radio and speaker repair shop...
- DaewooDaewooDaewoo or the Daewoo Group was a major South Korean chaebol . It was founded on 22 March 1967 as Daewoo Industrial and was dismantled by the Korean government in 1999...
- LG GroupLG GroupLG Corp. is the second-largest South Korean conglomerate company following Samsung, and it is headquartered in the LG Twin Towers in Yeouido-dong, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul. LG produces electronics, chemicals, and telecommunications products and operates subsidiaries like LG Electronics, LG Display,...
- ToshibaToshibais a multinational electronics and electrical equipment corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. It is a diversified manufacturer and marketer of electrical products, spanning information & communications equipment and systems, Internet-based solutions and services, electronic components and...
Gemstar also produced EPG computer software bundled with analog NTSC TV tuner cards made by ATI Technologies
ATI Technologies
ATI Technologies Inc. was a semiconductor technology corporation based in Markham, Ontario, Canada, that specialized in the development of graphics processing units and chipsets. Founded in 1985 as Array Technologies Inc., the company was listed publicly in 1993 and was acquired by Advanced Micro...
, particularly the TV Wonder and All-in-Wonder
All-in-Wonder
The All-in-Wonder was a combination graphics card/TV tuner card designed by ATI Technologies. It was introduced on November 11, 1996. ATI had previously used the Wonder trademark on other graphics cards, however, they were not full TV/graphics combo cards...
lines. ATI switched to rival TitanTV for its digital ATSC cards, however.