Prevue Guide Forums

AriX wrote: ↑Sun Nov 17, 2019 3:28 amHere's another thing I found... if you send a "little f" command (so not mode "F", but mode "f", which has a different format and is probably best documented here), and you set the 7th argument to "S" rather than "G", it will use the "scroll mode" rather than the "grid mode", making it act more like the older EPG/pre-grid Prevue Guide. This is unlike the newer (9.0.4) software, which does have that option, but it doesn't work at all.

Here's a screenshot:
Screen Shot 2019-11-16 at 11.21.58 PM.png

It looks just like what we saw back in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeolMiEP1Yk

YESS!!! I've been wanting a version of the software with this intact!!

Also, how come the background image for CTRL data isn't being rendered?

nice, by the looks of it, we should have 6.x.x by 2028

PajamaDarkness wrote: ↑Mon Nov 18, 2019 10:08 am YESS!!! I've been wanting a version of the software with this intact!!

PajamaDarkness wrote: ↑Mon Nov 18, 2019 10:08 am Also, how come the background image for CTRL data isn't being rendered?

It's because I don't have a brush registered on the disk where I'm running the software. However, I do believe this style (no brush) was used on the channel, too. You can see an example ("HBO on Channel 18") at the beginning of this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27c8taqpA3k

hentaicrusader wrote: ↑Mon Nov 18, 2019 2:16 pm nice, by the looks of it, we should have 6.x.x by 2028

Haha I'll get right on it!

AriX wrote: ↑Mon Nov 18, 2019 2:51 am

nwgatwcfan wrote: ↑Sun Nov 17, 2019 9:07 am Arix,

Since you have some listings that built, is there a way that you could upload the curday that builds off of it?

I would like to see if there are any differences that may appear in curday from version 7 and version 9,

Sure thing!

Interesting finds, the DREV 3 does have a different setup when it comes to the listings.
From what I am seeing, the listings themselves no longer have a value for timeslot.
Each entry starts with the title of the program and for every half hour of the program, it adds a <NUL>1<NUL>0<NUL>0<NUL>0<NUL> after the listing. So for every channel, there will always be a total of 49 blocks with the <NUL>1<NUL>0<NUL>0<NUL>0<NUL> listed, the last one ends the channel listing.

<NUL>1<NUL>0<NUL>0<NUL>0<NUL> is the block that tells the software what type of program it is and the movie category, if applicable.

As I dive in further, I will report any additional findings. I do know this was before the TV Parental Guidelines (sorry TV-MA, TV-PG....) as the ESQ does not have any code listed to parse for this information.

And if you look at the ESQ file carefully, you may even see Prevue Weather from Panama City, Panama listed in the ESQ. I did see where there is a provision for the Prevue Weather banner in the ESQ file.

Thanks for uploading this curday. I think this is very interesting,

Discovered some new keyboard combinations:

1. SHIFT + 6 seems to lower the guide by a couple of listings (example)
2. SHIFT + 7 seems to move it back up a couple listings.

There is a limit you can reach before it starts all the way back at the top, which is when only the timeslots show up:

I've also noticed that, like when changing between full screen & 1/2 modes, visual glitched occur, especially in the top half. However, the timeslots seem to glitch when SHIFT + 7 is used.

This new discovery has caught my attention to the point where I have finally been able to return from my 6 year hiatus. I have been on here off and on as a guest over the years, but long story short real life happened and I hadn't found much time to dedicate to hobbies such as this. That is until the last few months.

I have done some experimenting of my own with this version of Prevue since finding out of your discovery just over a week ago (this is exciting... 1994-1996 was my favorite era of Prevue). I have some theories I wanted to share.

The channel information contained in both DREV 3 and DREV 5 are exactly identical, with the exception of only two characters omitted in DREV 3 just before the final channel source code. The listings, as I saw mentioned earlier, are completely different. But this is where my theory comes in...

Version 7 gave us a functioning "listing" mode as opposed to grid mode, unlike version 9. But I am thinking that this is because of the DREV versions and not because of the software (as the option exists in version 9... But does not work). Think of the difference in format. I think the listing mode works with DREV 3 because of how everything is in strict half hour blocks throughout the entire curday.dat file (and listings mode is all in strict half hour blocks as well). With DREV 5 adding the timeslot as a program attribute, it most likely broke this feature in version 9. Looking at ESQ via hex editor suggests that each version is backwards compatible with prior DREV versions but I have yet to test my DREV 3 listing in version 9 (and whether or not this makes list mode work in version 9).

My second theory is with the 1.3 version of ESQ. I am still trying to casually find a way to get it to boot, but I think some additional reasons for that not working is that we would need to completely overhaul our system disk and replace all the files in the C directory with kickstart 1.3 counterparts of the files contained within (i assume it is KS 2.04 files and trying to run that while booting from KS 1.3 probably isn't expected to work). We would also need to find a way to rewrite the entire UV script to accept KS 1.3 and to make sure that commands aren't being used that are only available in 2.x and later. Its worth a try, but at this point I believe that unless we get a hold of a system disk from before 1996 we are hard pressed to get that version to boot. (I am curious to find out how it boots because I am not sure if the blue grid ran on A1000 or not, but I believe the A2-black list did. There is a supposed youtube video with a black list EPG from as late as 1995... So *maybe* we could see a black list from it?)

Anyway, nice to be back. I hope I got some wheels turning.

Hey @20CenturyFan, nice to hear from you!

All of us in this forum need to do some kind of disassembly of this version of the ESQ software to guess what files it uses. This is because "TVGBANNR.UV" does not display in this software.

PrevueNetworks wrote: ↑Wed Feb 05, 2020 4:36 pm All of us in this forum need to do some kind of disassembly of this version of the ESQ software to guess what files it uses. This is because "TVGBANNR.UV" does not display in this software.

Yes. Since the .rel file comes from the Prevue Channel days (and I think most cable companies used that disk and they [Prevue/TVGC] did some graphic and files updates using the H download commands that's why the "TVGBANNER.UV" is somewhat using with the older disks I guess), I think the .UV files are different at this time, especially the "Snackwells" ads and the GIF-like Prevue Channel card.

Amazing! Can't wait to try and get this working!