Re: Since when did Pop still have scrolling listings?
Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2019 8:15 am
Circa 2010, I had a dream in which I somehow got our Amiga Prevue/TVGC 9.0.4 build running in UAE to access the modern TVGN feed. (How? I don't know...) Listings appeared, and it even displayed a low-quality version of the TV Guide Network logo at the beginning of the listings scroll. Too bad it was just a dream...AriX wrote: ↑Wed Nov 21, 2018 2:43 am Here's another full-screen Pop guide example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quN376aEI5Y&t=3s
A wacky thought experiment:
It strikes me just how similar the Pop/TV Guide Network grid's functionality is to the Amiga one, down to the channel names (apparently) being limited to 6 characters. And very similar formats being used to describe movies, like:
"Movie title" (rating symbol) (year of release) Comma-separated, list, of actors. One-sentence description. (running time)
It makes me seriously wonder - is it at all possible that the modern guide uses a similar data format to the classic guides?
I'm sure it took them some time to replace the Amiga-based machines with Windows NT-based ones, and we have docs indicating that EPG Jr. was run until at least 2005. That would suggest that both systems were running in parallel for several years. So perhaps they have some common ancestry?
For the record, the Satcom C4 satellite, which traditionally carried the 2400 baud Prevue/EPG data feed, was retired in 2007. The Pop channel is on the Galaxy 15 satellite. One must wonder if any data is available there? Is it possible that guide data is still distributed over satellite, or does it come over the Internet now? It would seem there is capacity on the transponder: https://www.lyngsat.com/Galaxy-15.html