EPG and Recording TV Question

[waclark]

Greetings,

Reading on the forum here I saw a post that stated the EPG service was only "free" for a year. I assume this to mean that after the year is up you pay for the service much like Tivo. If this is not the case can someone clarify.

My second question is does the 605 have a scheduler built-in and can I use that to simply record from the video input. I was thinking that I could use my Tivo DVR to switch channels at a particular time and have the video recorded onto the Archos thereby eliminating the need for the EPG.

Thanks
TC

[Steamrunner]

It was me that you probably saw mentioning the EPG was only free for a year - I've been trying to get more info, but it's pretty hard to come by!

Basically, the DVR box says the EPG service is free for one year, and provided by TVTV. When you register your Archos, you'll also be told of the one year free offer, which you can sign up to whenever you want.

However, nowhere does it tell you what the cost will be after one year. The only price I can find is on the TVTV.co.uk website, where they offer a subs service for PC users for £1.25 a month. No mention of the Archos, though, and searching for "Archos" on the TVTV site yields nada.

So, possibly it'll be £1.25 after the first year; maybe they'll say "Aww heck, we won't bother charging at all"; maybe TVTV go bust and it's all pointless anyway!

Anyway, my personal opinion is that the EPG for the Archos (and recording TV directly) isn't really worth bothering with. It has one real, big, honking problem - if the device isn't in the dock, you're recording nothing. Nada. Zero. Zilch. Zip. So if you watch vids on your Archos on the way to/from work, you've lost all ability to record during the daytime. Staying at work late? Bang goes that 6pm TNG recording. Stuck in traffic on ther way home from church Sunday evening after craftily watching The Sopranos in the back pews? Bye bye Top Gear.

A much, much better idea is to use your Sky+, or stump up the £129 if you're a Sky user who doesn't have it yet (or get the V+ alternative if you can't get Sky); or hand over £70ish for a Freeview PVR if you don't need Sky. Then you can record whatever you want, when you want, and copy it up to the Archos overnight or sometime when it suits you.

Yes, it's even more money, but if you're bothered enough to buy the DVR dock then obviously putting TV on the device is important to you, so you might as well do it properly and spend that bit extra to save yourself a whole lot of hassle. You could even forgo the DVR dock, and just get the travel dock - put the cash you saved towads a proper PVR...

[monkeybrain]

It was me that you probably saw mentioning the EPG was only free for a year - I've been trying to get more info, but it's pretty hard to come by!

Basically, the DVR box says the EPG service is free for one year, and provided by TVTV. When you register your Archos, you'll also be told of the one year free offer, which you can sign up to whenever you want.

However, nowhere does it tell you what the cost will be after one year. The only price I can find is on the TVTV.co.uk website, where they offer a subs service for PC users for £1.25 a month. No mention of the Archos, though, and searching for "Archos" on the TVTV site yields nada.

So, possibly it'll be £1.25 after the first year; maybe they'll say "Aww heck, we won't bother charging at all"; maybe TVTV go bust and it's all pointless anyway!

Anyway, my personal opinion is that the EPG for the Archos (and recording TV directly) isn't really worth bothering with. It has one real, big, honking problem - if the device isn't in the dock, you're recording nothing. Nada. Zero. Zilch. Zip. So if you watch vids on your Archos on the way to/from work, you've lost all ability to record during the daytime. Staying at work late? Bang goes that 6pm TNG recording. Stuck in traffic on ther way home from church Sunday evening after craftily watching The Sopranos in the back pews? Bye bye Top Gear.

A much, much better idea is to use your Sky+, or stump up the £129 if you're a Sky user who doesn't have it yet (or get the V+ alternative if you can't get Sky); or hand over £70ish for a Freeview PVR if you don't need Sky. Then you can record whatever you want, when you want, and copy it up to the Archos overnight or sometime when it suits you.

Yes, it's even more money, but if you're bothered enough to buy the DVR dock then obviously putting TV on the device is important to you, so you might as well do it properly and spend that bit extra to save yourself a whole lot of hassle. You could even forgo the DVR dock, and just get the travel dock - put the cash you saved towads a proper PVR...

You make a very good point. If I sold my DVR and my returned my Freeview box to the shop and bought a Freeview box with a Hard disc recorder then I would pay less and have a better set up. Mmhhh.

[honeymonkey]

Greetings,

Reading on the forum here I saw a post that stated the EPG service was only "free" for a year. I assume this to mean that after the year is up you pay for the service much like Tivo. If this is not the case can someone clarify.

M
TC

I called Archos today to try to clarify this for the 605 FAQ as some people have asked me this. I tried to trip them up by asking them that I have conflicting information. One source says that Archos will supply the EPG data for one year free, and another source says 2 years free. Which is it?

The customer support came back and said She was not aware that Archos was ever going to charge for this service and that her Supervisor just confirmed it.
I then asked her who is supplying them with the Data as it is not coming from Archos. She replied TV Guide. I then asked will TVGuide be charging for this service after a year. She then replied that she didn't know, but Archos certainly will not be.

This leads me to believe that there may be some charge after this generation is EOL. I'm sure we will not have control over where the information comes from, so we will be stuck with the EPG suppier.

I'll try to find a contact within TVGuide to confirm this.

[Steamrunner]

I then asked her who is supplying them with the Data as it is not coming from Archos. She replied TV Guide.
...
I'll try to find a contact within TVGuide to confirm this.

So not TVTV after all, then? Or was she confusing the two?