Question Third party EPG for satellite TV?

[Megawhat]

Hi

The EPG on my satellite receiver is not great, so I'm looking for a 3rd party alternative. Ideally a web site, but could also be an android app.

Basically, I want to be able to sit in front of the TV, look at my phone/tablet and easily find what's on that I might want to watch or record.

I receive foreign visitors, so I want to be able to filter by language. If I'm in the mood for music, I want to be able to filter by genre and select music channels only. And I never want to see shopping channels.

The receiver has record functionality, so it would be useful to see what programmes are coming up.

I have a multi-lnb dish, so it would be useful to select multiple satellites e.g. 28.2E + 19.2E + 13E

So in summary...

Must have:

• Up to date list of channels
• What's on now & next
• Filter by language
• Filter by Genre

Nice to have:

• 24 hour or 7 day guide
• Select multiple satellites

Does such a thing exist?

 

[snaithg]

Does your box support "Freetime" ? If not then purchasing a "Freetime" box may satisfy some of your requirements.


Graham.

 

[kevkbuk]

Does such a thing exist?

Not really...

There's this for the PC , but I've not used it in years so can't comment on how current it is...
TV-Browser

It wasn't that good for the weaker sats so I stopped using it, but you may find it's better for the more popular 19.2E and 13E.

If you upgraded to an E2 Linux based box you can certainly load the Sky EPG for 28.2E and you'll get some of the providers for 19.2E and 13E. You can view 7 day EPG on screen and setup recordings etc. There's also a web based interface and phone/tablet apps to do the same.

You'd see whatever sats/channels are in your channel list, and if you use downloadable channel lists they'll already be sorted by provider and genre somewhat. Useful genre and language info is not transmitted so you'd have no filtering on those, but you can search program titles and descriptions.

Freesat/Freetime is a good option for 28.2E but of no use for the others.

 

[davemurgatroyd2]

The Openbox V8S combo has downloadable 7 day EPGs sorted by intended country/region of reception

 

[Megawhat]

Not really...

That surprises me. You'd think the TV companies would want to make it as easy as possible for you to find something to watch.

Does your box support "Freetime" ? If not then purchasing a "Freetime" box may satisfy some of your requirements.

No, and worse, it runs proprietary software. I will replace the receiver with a Linux based one at some point in the future. I'm looking for a 3rd party EPG to use in the mean time.

There's this for the PC , but I've not used it in years so can't comment on how current it is...
TV-Browser

Thanks very much, I'll take a look at that. It seems to be available for all the desktop platforms.
Unfortunately when I tried to install the android version...
Download
...it says "This item is not available in your country"
But I'll give the desktop version a spin if there's nothing else available.

 

[Megawhat]

I have a German visitor arriving this evening. I could hand him the remote control and say "there are some great German language TV channels on here, but I don't know what's on and the channels are randomly interspersed with several thousand other channels that are in other languages or not of interest. Good luck finding something to watch."

Surely we can do better than that.

Say I wanted to give them just a menu of available channels via email or print. How would I go about that?
I can get a list of channels that broadcast to Germany here...
Free TV from Germany - LyngSat
...put it into a spreadsheet and filter by satellite. But just because the channels are broadcast to Germany, they are not necessarily in German.

So I would need to cross reference with this list...
List of television stations in Germany - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I still can't group them by genre.

It ought to be easier than this.

 

[logiciel]

Freesat and Sky have full EPGs.
On other satellites they vary from nothing to full.

 

[Megawhat]

Freesat and Sky have full EPGs.
On other satellites they vary from nothing to full.

STB EPGs are the subject of other posts, not this one. This is all about web and app based EPGs, so is there a freesat EPG online?

There's one for BBC...
BBC - TV - On Now
...and channel 4...
All 4 - EPG
...and itv...
TV Guide | What's on TV - ITV

...which is better than nothing, but is there a consolidated freesat EPG? If not, why not? What if I'm on the bus home and want to decide what to watch/record this evening?

 

[kevkbuk]

The Freesat online guide is here:
TV GUIDE | FREESAT

I don't know if Germany has an equivalent free service... The Sky Deutschland (19.2E) and Sky Italia (13E) online guides can be useful too, but they will include paid subscription as well as free channels.

 

[logiciel]

The FS one is part of the Sky, in effect.

 

[davemurgatroyd2]

With most reasonable receivers you can set up "favourite lists" and most can have up to 5 such lists. So merely set up a list for five major languages. With many receivers you can also "save" to usb sticks etc the channel list together with the favourite lists and reload them later - so it is possible to build up a "library" of sticks with as many language options as you wish. I know not much use to you at present but worth remembering for the future replacement receiver(s)

 

[Megawhat]

... set up "favourite lists" and ...build up a "library" of sticks with as many language options as you wish.

That's a good idea, I could do that with my current receiver, but it's very painstaking if working from lyngsat, wikipedia etc. I've been looking at how the Linux receivers do it, and they use the term 'bouquet' to describe a selection of channels. Is there an web based bouquet generator / editor? That would help.

 

[davemurgatroyd2]

That's a good idea, I could do that with my current receiver, but it's very painstaking if working from lyngsat, wikipedia etc. I've been looking at how the Linux receivers do it, and they use the term 'bouquet' to describe a selection of channels. Is there an web based bouquet generator / editor? That would help.

Try flysat for lists of free channels on all satellites by country of origin - FlySat FTA TV Channels Index - click on region then choose country of origin.

 

[kevkbuk]

web based bouquet generator / editor? That would help.

There's DreamboxEdit and similar software for the PC and there's the AutoBouquetMaker plugin on the box itself that covers Sky UK and some other sats. Or you can download premade bouquets direct on the box as I described earlier. These will have providers on the sats split by channel categories. You'll have subscription as well as free channels but quick and easy access after a few button clicks on the remote. I guess you could remove subscription channels in DreamboxEdit if you wanted. Have a look at the Vhannibal lists as an example. An E2 Linux box really is the way to go...

 

[Megawhat]

Try flysat for lists of free channels on all satellites by country of origin - FlySat FTA TV Channels Index - click on region then choose country of origin.

The trouble with FlySay and LyngSat is that they don't carry a language field, and country is not the same thing.

However, KingOfSat enables filtering of satellite channels by language:
Astra 1KR / Astra 1L / Astra 1M / Astra 1N (19.2°E) - All transmissions - frequencies - KingOfSat
e.g. Filtering by German language shows channels from Germany, Switzerland, Austria, France etc. Also carries a category field.

So now I can create a list of channels to choose from.

 

[Megawhat]

For the EPG, it seems we need to look to each broadcaster separately for their own EPG / TV Guide. There's a list of EPG channels here (i.e. as used by the receiver STB) on WebGrabPlus
EPG channels | WebGrab+Plus
that includes URLs of the broadcaster's sites and it only takes a few clicks to find their EPG:
e.g. TV Program Guide | DW.COM

Is there a list of web based EPGs anywhere? If not, lets start one. If you know / find an EPG, please post it in this thread. Consolidated EPGs like freesat's are obviously more convenient than for single broadcasters. Thanks.

 

[grahamlthompson]

STB EPGs are the subject of other posts, not this one. This is all about web and app based EPGs, so is there a freesat EPG online?

There's one for BBC...
BBC - TV - On Now
...and channel 4...
All 4 - EPG
...and itv...
TV Guide | What's on TV - ITV

...which is better than nothing, but is there a consolidated freesat EPG? If not, why not? What if I'm on the bus home and want to decide what to watch/record this evening?

The Humax Freesat app for IOS and Android has the epg.