I want to make sure my understanding of something is correct, so:
RCA has a guide+ feature on their tvs that gets “subchannel” data on a cable signal to fill out a list of upcomming shows and displays them.
Non-RCA TVs don’t seem to have this feature (at least the ones I’ve looked at), but I’ve seen such a feature on non-RCA TVs, so I assume that with digital cable or satellite, the cable box or receiver respectively also has the capability to do the same thing - the RCA tv just has the hardware built in to do it, whereas most TVs rely on the cable box or satellite receiver to do that.
So if you’re on a non-digital cable connection, only RCA TVs with specific guide+ tech will be able to display that sort of list, right?
Also, does any cable connection support those “subchannel” details? Or just some? Right now I have an older RCA tv that doesn’t have guide+ functionality, but it does have an info button that will display the name of the show… but it only works about 50-60% of the time (often comes up blank).
Sorry to bump this, but I’m buying a tv soon, and this is something I want to know.
Lemme see if I can take a stab at this:
The Guide+ feature on the RCA TVs is tied to the TVGuide branded on screen guide. This feature is generally available through cable or satellite providers as you say.
So if your cable connection does not provide the specific TVGuide brand guide, then no, your RCA television will not be able to show an on screen guide.
Honestly, from what I’ve read this really isn’t a good reason to pick this TV over others. Most people seem to say it only works occasionally (as you mentioned with your info button) and further, almost all cable companies that provide this service will provide a cable box capable of decoding it anyway.
Mine seems to work most of the time, but on occassion it will come up blank, I have had the similar feature on the cable box but it would have shows listed that the RCA guide would not have information for.
It seems like it only recieves the info once a day or so, and if you lose power to the TV you lose the data. Also, if you have the cable hooked up through a VCR the data will not be recieved if the VCR is on.
I’ve been in love with the Guide+ for over 2 years. From my understanding, the channels beam into your TV via Gemstar satellite or via cable at 1:00 am every day. It is definately NOT like the TV Guide Channel. It stores 3 days worth of programming. And it includes episode information as well, most of the time anyway. It is very cool because you can look forward in the schedule and preprogram your TV to turn on or switch channels at the appropriate time. It usually does it two minutes ahead of schedule though. And the time is controlled automatically so you’re stuck. Still, it’s just like having a TV guide right there on your TV, you scroll down with your remote and highlight the channel you want to see, then click enter and it changes the channel. You can also set it up to record to your VCR. I haven’t really had much success setting this up. There is a little IR sending unit you stick onto your VCR, right in front of where the IR signal comes in. Anyway, the idea is fantastic. You can program Guide+ to record your shows for you. No more setting up your VCR. And even if you don’t want to set up the recording, VCR+ codes are listed in the Guide.
Guide+ is reasonably accurate and it has most of the channels. Some of my cable channels aren’t correctly listed. But these channels aren’t all that common anyway, so I don’t mind much. Occasionally the listings will get erased, especially if you have a power surge or your power shuts off. Don’t know why the TVs don’t save the programming. In fact if you lose power too long you might have to re-setup your Guide+, and it can take awhile to turn off the channels that you don’t want. The cable list is pretty long, and you probably want to turn off some channels. There are maybe 10 Spanish channels in my area, which I hide.
Anyway, if you are thinking about what TV, I would recommend you see if it has Guide+. RCA isn’t the only company that has Guide+, by the way. Though it is the most common brand. I think Zenith has Guide+ too. Or maybe I’m just confusing it with my VCR. Anyway, highly recommended. I don’t know what I would do without it.
I leave my VCR on all the time and the shows seem to come in fine. Maybe it depends on the model. My older TV seems to have an older version of Guide+ than my new TV.