Prevue Guide Forums

AriX wrote: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.

DOH, forgot about the lack of a blinky cursor... Even more interested in how they did get the data into the Amiga then - another prevue variant that I know little about Perhaps it could just play the audio track from LD at 4 in the morning or something, or perhaps it had a very different method of getting listings data in.... hmmmm. Suppose it could also be that there was no data transmitted at the time of this recording?

Well, the LD couldn't realistically have guide data because if they sent it out once a month, it would be stale pretty quickly. I'm sure most programmers know their schedule that far out, but others don't, and there are often lots of changes. Month-old listings would be very unreliable (plus, they'd really be like two months old because they have to have time to produce and manufacture the LDs and distribute them)

I would be on board with the "they bought an audio subcarrier somewhere" or heck even used the WGN audio feed and just used a different video source, and it happened to not be downloading anything at the time. Maybe they only sent canadian listings occasionally, since there's much fewer channels? Did "normal" prevue channels flash the dot 100% of the time? IE: if listings for channels that lineup didn't have were currently in the feed, would it be flashing?

Another distinct possibility is since this was the early 2000s, by then they could have had a modem-based setup. It's just serial, so all they'd have to do is setup an external modem that auto-answered and start feeding data in that way. 2400 baud is part of the v.32 standard, so it wouldn't require anything special.

mixdup wrote:Well, the LD couldn't realistically have guide data because if they sent it out once a month, it would be stale pretty quickly. I'm sure most programmers know their schedule that far out, but others don't, and there are often lots of changes. Month-old listings would be very unreliable (plus, they'd really be like two months old because they have to have time to produce and manufacture the LDs and distribute them)

I would be on board with the "they bought an audio subcarrier somewhere" or heck even used the WGN audio feed and just used a different video source, and it happened to not be downloading anything at the time. Maybe they only sent canadian listings occasionally, since there's much fewer channels? Did "normal" prevue channels flash the dot 100% of the time? IE: if listings for channels that lineup didn't have were currently in the feed, would it be flashing?

Another distinct possibility is since this was the early 2000s, by then they could have had a modem-based setup. It's just serial, so all they'd have to do is setup an external modem that auto-answered and start feeding data in that way. 2400 baud is part of the v.32 standard, so it wouldn't require anything special.

All good points. I think you may be absolutely right about the modem thing - makes even more sense than an Internet-based link. Typically, on other Amiga setups, the data indicator did flash all the time due to the "data carousel" technique where information is sent out on a continuous loop. But certainly by 2002, when very few systems were still in operation, a modem-based solution is possible - and could have been in use since the 90s for the Canadian side of things.

kwest93 wrote: 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

Cool, so let me get this straight, the video was taped over, but the audio was kept intact. Right? I know that happen to some older VCRs where someone tapes over one tape and suddenly the audio was dubbed in by accident from an old recording.

Very interesting that Prevue uses a variety of different music back in 1993, since they usually used the "Opening Act" theme.

joseph_sobora wrote:Cool, so let me get this straight, the video was taped over, but the audio was kept intact. Right? I know that happen to some older VCRs where someone tapes over one tape and suddenly the audio was dubbed in by accident from an old recording.

No, I think he means the opposite. He took someone's video and put his own audio over it.

AriX wrote:

joseph_sobora wrote:Cool, so let me get this straight, the video was taped over, but the audio was kept intact. Right? I know that happen to some older VCRs where someone tapes over one tape and suddenly the audio was dubbed in by accident from an old recording.

No, I think he means the opposite. He took someone's video and put his own audio over it.

yeah it was a go video vcr/dvdplayer and somehow recorded it by accident. but i remember the tunes it had from the killer tracks library. some of these were during the james and aster library. one song was played during earthvue on the top of the screen. i used my area even though the tape was in a Los angeles area. i had viacom in my area. but the agreement here was crazy because our provider kept going from viacom to comcast to at&t and then back again. by the time we had "TV Guide" they plastered Comcast instead of the "TV Guide logo running the blue guide right before we had the 2000-2003 windows NT Yellow guide.

I think this video has the same audio as that EarthVue music: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anVEWzo0 ... r_embedded

AriX wrote:I think this video has the same audio as that EarthVue music: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anVEWzo0 ... r_embedded

it is. james and aster library was their logo music.

I lived in This Area Of LA in 2003-04.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gySiuzuz ... re=related

kwest93 wrote:I lived in This Area Of LA in 2003-04.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gySiuzuz ... re=related

What did they do to the TV Guide Channel (formerly Prevue)? The colors are all weird for the regular listings. I am surprised that most cable systems still have the scrolling listings at least until 2007.