Some Freeview boxes get EPG, CRID = awesome

Posted Monday, June 28, 2010 at 7:42 pm by Jason Cartwright

From September, Freeview compatible set-top boxes will receive their very own electronic guide. After the announcement today, my first question was.. don’t they have an EPG already ? Essentially some do, but these can be paid solutions, so this free, continually updated, unified UI is a welcome addition.

The list of supported Freeview products getting the EPG is listed below.

Depending on the features of your specific Freeview box, your EPG will control a number of pretty standard DVR features. It seems some Free-view compatible products like TiVo will continue with their own EPG, but could really do with an increase in updates.

Today’s announcement included a gem, a new feature of Freeview. The Content Reference Indicator (CRID) system allows the DVR to actually know when the start and end of a program occurs, rather than relying on the antiquated date and time system. DVR owners will be all too familiar with the issue of shows going longer than expected then having your favourite show cut off. As a TiVo owner, I’m very happy to hear that TiVo will add support for this.

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