Prevue Guide Forums

WOW that last one is very clear! Definitely on an Amiga.

you probably seen these before right? well i did these to show that how Sneak Prevue worked overtime. and that they had music i remember no one mentioned on youtube.

this is from an old video someone plastered before. i just used this to sync since the video i had got taped over by the vcr.
Prevue Guide 1993 Music (Dubbed with Sacramento,CA Music)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tc0Q86ek0DM

this one has Angels diner. this was when i found out that angels was located in Kissimee,FL just behind Walt Disney World.
1996 Sneak Prevue (Jones Intercable) but i meant to use Time Warner Cable because of the commercial. Jones was my cable where i lived in 96. Detroit had the same cable until they became charter.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DH8a9Lx-neI

and someone did one too like me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&featu ... GaeHaUpFgU

if only we did this project.

Here's a new one from Quebec, it has the Prevue logo from 1998 and was recorded on Wednesday April 10, 2002:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgtgV78B6BM

joseph_sobora wrote:Here's a new one from Quebec, it has the Prevue logo from 1998 and was recorded on Wednesday April 10, 2002:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgtgV78B6BM

It's surprising that the Prevue software was reprogrammed to be in French and I'm surprised that they kept the Prevue branding years after being rebranded TV Guide Channel everywhere else. At the end of the cycle, that red message says I think that they would replace or discontinue the Prevue service on April 30th.

joseph_sobora wrote:Here's a new one from Quebec, it has the Prevue logo from 1998 and was recorded on Wednesday April 10, 2002:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgtgV78B6BM

Fascinating. Thanks for posting this one! I knew the Prevue branding was used into the 2000s in Canada, but I thought this was only for TV Guide Interactive products. Interestingly, this guide is clearly not satellite-based, but LaserDisc-based. This is clear because (1) there is no "blinky" in the upper right-hand corner of the listings indicating satellite data (2) the variety of promos is very little and (3) each promo pauses for a second before switching to the next one, in order to give the LD player more time to seek.
And, as we know, Sneak Prevue's final LaserDisc ran until April 1st, 2002, and 3M/Imation's LaserDisc-pressing factory closed some time in April 2002. So I would say that this April 10th recording was probably less than a week before this guide was shut down for good and replaced with something newer. And if not - I would love to know how that worked. The person who recorded this probably knew it was going to be shut down, and wanted to capture it before the end.

Update:

Win95Setup wrote:It's surprising that the Prevue software was reprogrammed to be in French and I'm surprised that they kept the Prevue branding years after being rebranded TV Guide Channel everywhere else. At the end of the cycle, that red message says I think that they would replace or discontinue the Prevue service on April 30th.

I doubt it was reprogrammed to be French - it was probably capable of using different localizations in the first place. Good catch on the message at the end - I had just noticed that, and I was about to translate it. Google's approximate translation is:

Please note that this tele-service time will not be available from a computer April 30, 2002.

Only remaining question, then - if this LaserDisc was to be used for the entire month of April, how did these LaserDisc-based systems get up-to-date listings?

I wonder if the fact that it's likely a laserdisc setup is why the alignment is off by so much (you can see a lot of the unused video under the title card, for example). I bet the reason this is laserdisc as well is because it's in French. Probably when it was running full-time and not in wind-down mode, I'd bet they were sending LDs with French language promos on it. Cheaper than creating a French satellite feed just for Quebec

mixdup wrote:I wonder if the fact that it's likely a laserdisc setup is why the alignment is off by so much (you can see a lot of the unused video under the title card, for example). I bet the reason this is laserdisc as well is because it's in French. Probably when it was running full-time and not in wind-down mode, I'd bet they were sending LDs with French language promos on it. Cheaper than creating a French satellite feed just for Quebec

Quite possibly - and they may have done that even if it was in English, because Canadian television networks are significantly different from American ones and I do not believe that there was any satellite feed just for Canada, or that the American satellite feed was used in Canada.

Another interesting video find. No wonder PG struggled there's like 100 variants of it

I don't think PG is localised for French, just all the generated text is in there. Note the stuff that's hardcoded - "channel" "tomorrow at" etc are in english.

Also it seems the overscan of the LD is much larger than the Amiga's genlock (as opposed to offset) - either a unforseen production fault in the LD (they made the screen too big) or setup problem with the Genlock. A shame cos that looks REALLY
unprofessional. I note on a lot of videos there's a little bit of offset in most PG's I am surprised they didn't have an easy adjustment dial on the genlock!

Also I wonder if they did have a satellite feed for the listings - remember that's only a 2400 baud audio subcarrier - easily purchased and plenty available - whereas the video transponder for the promos would be a lot more expensive. I would find it odd if the listings also came from the LD, at it would have to be connected another funky way to the amiga to allow it to extract listings, and the whole lot would have to stop from time to time to play the listings audio to the Amiga.

BTW the last but few words in the text is COMPTER not computer - just means sort of "as of" in this context (I think, french is not my strong point) so basically this service is not available as of April 30th 2002.

tin wrote:Another interesting video find. No wonder PG struggled there's like 100 variants of it

I don't think PG is localised for French, just all the generated text is in there. Note the stuff that's hardcoded - "channel" "tomorrow at" etc are in english.

Also it seems the overscan of the LD is much larger than the Amiga's genlock (as opposed to offset) - either a unforseen production fault in the LD (they made the screen too big) or setup problem with the Genlock. A shame cos that looks REALLY
unprofessional. I note on a lot of videos there's a little bit of offset in most PG's I am surprised they didn't have an easy adjustment dial on the genlock!

Also I wonder if they did have a satellite feed for the listings - remember that's only a 2400 baud audio subcarrier - easily purchased and plenty available - whereas the video transponder for the promos would be a lot more expensive. I would find it odd if the listings also came from the LD, at it would have to be connected another funky way to the amiga to allow it to extract listings, and the whole lot would have to stop from time to time to play the listings audio to the Amiga.

BTW the last but few words in the text is COMPTER not computer - just means sort of "as of" in this context (I think, french is not my strong point) so basically this service is not available as of April 30th 2002.

isn't it rogers now? i use to be in detroit and it picked up both guides and it plastered rodgers for information on viewer's choice PPV.

tin wrote:Also I wonder if they did have a satellite feed for the listings - remember that's only a 2400 baud audio subcarrier - easily purchased and plenty available - whereas the video transponder for the promos would be a lot more expensive. I would find it odd if the listings also came from the LD, at it would have to be connected another funky way to the amiga to allow it to extract listings, and the whole lot would have to stop from time to time to play the listings audio to the Amiga.

BTW the last but few words in the text is COMPTER not computer - just means sort of "as of" in this context (I think, french is not my strong point) so basically this service is not available as of April 30th 2002.

Good catch. Quite possible that they retained a satellite feed, although I am surprised by the lack of the blinking data indicator. I also wouldn't be surprised if by 2002 they rigged up an Internet-based data link for the few remaining Amiga installations, and hooked it up to the Amiga's serial port - but it should still have the data indicator.