Digital Cable Subscribers: What is your guide?

[nwgatwcfan]

I have TV Guide iGuide which allows whatever channel you're watching in the upper-righthand corner. Can't think of the software version right now.

That particular feature relies on your cable box hardware, and older STBs like the DCT 2000 and DCT 1000 (not including Pre-Quod) can't take advantage of it. The software version is probably A28; no one is really using anything older than that anymore.

Here in NW GA, ours is also the I-Guide. And Arix is right, it does depend on the box given to you. My Grandmother was given an old General Instruments DCT 2000 (yeah I know, Charter's cheap) and since it wasn't setup for what the system calls Scalable video, hers just displayed the menu in full screen. I have the DCT 2500 and the HD box in the other room and we are using Software Version A28.

For those that use the I-Guide, a little tip that you may already know about, but good if you didn't know. You can access the Diagnostics/Debugging information on your I-Guide by going to the Menu Screen, selecting the Setup, then selecting Cable Box Setup, then selecting Configuration, and then using the FAV CH key, you can view the I-Guide's Diagnostics menus. This will allow you to see some of the features that your particular box have available.

Thanks,
Steven

[AriX]

Yup it is the A28. Not sure if you know this or not that on the DCX series the firewire is broken.

Hmm, that's good to know! I'm going to do some research about that, because I was considering getting one of those and I use FireWire with MythTV for my DVR.

Steven, that is a pretty fun thing to look through - also, if your box has EBIF (Comcast calls it iTV), you can get EBIF info by going into any iTV app (including "caller ID", which is just an EBIF app), and quickly pressing menu three times in a row.

[nwgatwcfan]

Steven, that is a pretty fun thing to look through - also, if your box has EBIF (Comcast calls it iTV), you can get EBIF info by going into any iTV app (including "caller ID", which is just an EBIF app), and quickly pressing menu three times in a row.

Arix,

I know. It's very interesting to see it. I remember even in the yellow guide (hard to remember such a thing), but it also that these same diagnostics. On our HD box, you can even call-up various diagnostics to test.

But sadly, as bankrupt as Charter once was, and considering that we are the lowest of the low as far as customers they serve, even for Charter's standards, they didn't give us any Third-party apps on our boxes. Like Metallica said... Sad but true..... But if, and I mean If, I ever get their phone service... which judging by their reliability in our area which will mean when heck freezes over (polite company), I will remember that trick. <By the way, if you like the Weather Channel, our cable is so cheap, we are still using the XL package on our TWCH Analog and the HD channel's won't even stay in for even 20 minutes to give a local forecast. Just thought that I would throw that out there>

Thanks,
Steven

[AriX]

But sadly, as bankrupt as Charter once was, and considering that we are the lowest of the low as far as customers they serve, even for Charter's standards, they didn't give us any Third-party apps on our boxes. Like Metallica said... Sad but true..... But if, and I mean If, I ever get their phone service... which judging by their reliability in our area which will mean when heck freezes over (polite company), I will remember that trick. <By the way, if you like the Weather Channel, our cable is so cheap, we are still using the XL package on our TWCH Analog and the HD channel's won't even stay in for even 20 minutes to give a local forecast. Just thought that I would throw that out there>

Haha - don't worry, you're not missing too much. They're not really "third-party apps," since Comcast distributes all of them themselves and doesn't allow you to put your own on. If you own a cable television channel, you can negotiate with Comcast to distribute an app with your station's MPEG stream, but I don't think many people have their own channels.