no more radio times (DigiGuide)

Member Name: yvonnedavies

Product:	DigiGuide
Date:	03/04/04 (73 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: time saving, money saving , powerful well written piece of software

Disadvantages: small yearly fee, no remind if program closed

Hmm, Tuesday night. What's on TV? Time to pop on my PC & find out!!

Digiguide is a downloadable program that costs £5 or £6 pounds a year (however check as they may still have the free trial at the time you read this). Much cheaper then buying the radio times. However is it worth it. - YES!!

What do you get? An application that allows you to pick the TV channels you want to display for a start. You can go to your TV provider list and select the packages, or just pick the channels you want. It's also handy as it gives your TV providers channel number, so if I find out that a film is just about to start there is no "aghh quick, what number is movies 2 on?" anymore. It also means you don't have to have listings for channels you have no interest in. It is easy to use and easy to amend the channels

You can view these channels as a grid, allowing a quick glance of what is on, or you can click on the individual channel and get a list of what?s just on that channels for the day. It is also easy to scroll forwards hours, days or select a particular date to jump to.

If you wish to find out more about a show, you can click it for a summary, or go to the online library where it will provide you with any useful links they have (I found a few Angel web sites this way).

Customising: You can select digiguide to set the colours of your favourite types of programs as you see fit, which makes it easier on the grid to tell at a glance if there is anything on. I also have the movies set, so that if the first ever showing of a film is on, it shows in a different colour. You can also change categories as you see fit. All in all really a really good program designed to let you get what you need from it.

Favourites & Reminders: You can select your favourite shows, to show a little symbol for speed when glancing at the grid page. You can also click on a page and set to display only your pre-selected programs (e.g.
favourites), which saves you looking through the grid to find something to watch. This I have found the most invaluable feature of the product and has saved me missing endless programs.
You can also set programs to remind you when they are on, you can choose to have a one off reminder for that instance only, or you can set it to remind you every time this show is on. It is quite amusing when you hear that robotic voice for the first time. (Unsurprisingly this only works when you leave the program active on your pc).

Search: Digiguide has a powerful search feature, allowing you to search all listed channels from chosen keywords. This is ideal if you have missed your show and want to find out if it?s back on soon. I also find it useful for planning the best time to watch a film (i.e. not too late but late enough to not have visitors in my case)

New Listings: lastly digiguide only needs to go online when it wants to download new listings. As I have a broadband mine is set up update when I open it daily, so I always have the latest listings to hand

Summary: A great time and money saver, and a powerful tool.

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