For anyone who currently gets the broadcast-based TV Guide On Screen through their DVR or television, you should be aware that Rovi Corporation (who took over the service from Macrovision, who had earlier taken it over from Gemstar who originated it) will discontinue the broadcast version throughout North America by mid-April 2013. Some markets have already had the service discontinued and its hardware "inserters" recalled from the broadcast stations which fed its signal into their own broadcast signal.
In some markets, users might have received a notification in the message section of the TVGOS screens provided by their hardware unit, but apparently this was not universal or universally received. There is a lot more discussion of this issue in several online forums and a few tech-oriented sites have posted news stories about it, but there hasn't been much publicity in regards to it -- Rovi doesn't even have such an announcement on their own website as of yet. More information for interested users can be found through the following links:
It's also unclear at the moment (to me, at any rate) whether this will also mean that the time-setting function which is used by most of the TVGOS-enabled hardware will also be discontinued -- if so, that will pretty much limit the device into total manual operation by individual users for both the time-setting and setting the particular recording specifications.
I have several units which utilize TVGOS -- 1) an analog-tuner Panasonic DMR-E85H which is now fed by a DISH DTVPal digital converter box and 2) a Channel Master CM-7000Pal DVR. I believe the DTVPal was actually manufactured by Channel Master who sold the same device under their own brand with slightly different external markings. Consequently, I have submitted the following support request with those same links above to Channel Master and will report back to this forum what information is provided in response.
"Reason for Tech Support Request: Rovi Corp. has announced they will discontinue the broadcast transmission of TV Guide On Screen information throughout North America and will completely cease everywhere by April 13, 2013. In some areas where users are still able to receive full program listing information via their units, an announcement has been presented in the on-screen message listings to this effect. I learned about this through the links provided below, but my question to Channelmaster in regards to this is simple: will the units I've noted above in use with my equipment cease functioning -- particularly with respect to the automatic time-setting reference -- when Rovi discontinues the TV Guide information via broadcast? I live in a rural area and receive only OTA broadcast television signals, and do not have Internet service or access within my house where the television, DVR and converter are located (though I do have wireless broadband service in an outbuilding where my office computers are located). If the equipment will still receive the coordinated time-setting reference information, then I may still utilize the equipment on a manual-recording basis but if the time-setting function(s) will also be discontinued, the Channel Master equipment functionality will be greatly marginalized."
Here's the response from Channel Master's Tier 1 Technical Support.
Thank you for your email. That is a very good question. When the Rovi TV Guide goes out the CM-7000pal will still receive the guide and time information via something called PSIP. However it will be limited and won't be the best it will still give you what you need to run the CM-7000pal. Thank you and have a great day.
Here's a second follow-up response to my query specifically about the DTVPal that's serving my DMR-E85H:
The guide information should still come in on the DTVpal converter box, however we do not know how much information or if it will come in complete. We don't have any control on the guide as it is a free guide. Sorry for the inconvenience.
