Finally, the wait is over and you can now take control of your TV - watch what you want, when you want with iceguide - Australia’s first electronic program guide for PC and set top box based Personal Video Recorders (PVRs). Up until now the full capabilities of PVRs and PC media centres have not been realised. This is about to change….

 

ice is pleased to announce they are now fully compatible with a number of PC and set top box based PVRs including the Topfield PVR. Stay ‘tuned’ for further announcements.

 

With an ice-powered Topfield PVR you can record your favourite TV shows each week in digital quality. Not only will you have access to the latest program information for ABC, ABC2, SBS and the 7, 9 and 10 networks, you can schedule the shows you want to record up to a week in advance, at the click of a button.

 

Recording TV shows couldn't be easier. No more complex timer functions. Just point and click the shows you want to watch from iceguide and your shows will be saved onto your Topfield PVR. And Topfield's twin tuner capability means you can record two shows simultaneously while watching a third. With the convenience of ice and Topfield working together you'll never miss a show you want to watch again.

For just $3 a week (based on a prepaid 12 month plan) you can now take control of your TV. Don’t have a Topfield?  Buy online now for $1099 with 12 months' iceguide included.

 

iceguide is delivered over the internet, using your PC and the loader software provided free-of-charge when you subscribe. iceguide is currently available for Sydney and Melbourne with other capital cities becoming available over the next few months.

 

Subscribe to ice now at www.icetv.com.au

I'd like to trial it before I committed to 12 months...

They do offer a two week full money back guarantee.

Regards

Peter Gillespie

Fair enough then

Do I need to have the PC near the PVR?

Will it be availble for the Opentel 4000?.

Does ICE work on time or when the program actually airs?
If I pay my money will I get the complete start and stop of the unfortunate program airing on Channel 9 after Eddie or will I get the end of Eddie (running over time) and miss the end on my program (because it, in turn ran over time)?
I wouldn't want to pay to miss the end of programs. I can do that now without ICE.

Ice is currently a bit of a limp fish. The email is a bit loose with the truth:

"you can record two shows simultaneously while watching a third"

"you can schedule the shows you want to record up to a week in advance, at the click of a button"

Both these are nominally true, but if you asked a lay person what they implied they'd get it wrong.

The Toppy will tape two programs simultaneously and let you watch a previously recorded show. But more specifically to ICE, you currently need to download the guide over the internet (preferably on a daily basis) and then connect your PC to your Toppy and upload the guide. Software is provided to make this as simple as possible (ie button clicks) but it still requires a fair bit of physical effort. The guide is as accurate as ICE can make it but takes no account of network overuns or last minute resheduling. So, for example, ER is hard coded from 8:30 to 9:30. Obviously it doesn't actually air exactly between these times so the "one click" will need to be edited to esure you add 15 minutes or so either side.

At the moment ICE is not much more than any number of free EPG's you can download from the web. For $150 I'd expect a little more.

However, the full vision of ICE is that the TV guide will be transmitted directly to your Toppy (PVR) via FM digital radio and this guide will be realtime and allow you to sellect "Record ER" and let the PVR figure out if its on or not at any given moment. That would be worth paing for.

On the Toppy forum I've suggested that those with enough money aren't interested in fiddly internet donloads, whilethe rest of us won't pay $3 a wekk for something that adds such little vaue. I support the eventual ICE concept so I hope they can get past this startup hurdle.

Regards

Peter Gillespie

Thanks Peter,

Your post provided a lot more info than I was able to get from the ICE website.
I concur with your comments about its true value, and also look forward to the day that real-time EPG information is transmitted by RF.

Wasn't going to buy in myself, after that advertorial, but Peter makes the point well.
(Anyone half familiar with the Toppy would read the ad as saying "Buy a full RRP Toppy, and it can do wonders for you, and we'll add it 0.5% of guff to the equation..."

From $156.00 a year, its a lot of money just to program your Toppy.
Not really something I can justify or afford.

Until the EPG is real-time, with push button control and records the "show" not the "time-slot" and all updates happen with no user interaction, then I just don't see the point.
Besides, at $156 a year, I would rather spend that on more/faster ADSL, then I don't need an EPG, just a web site with a few links and a bit of download time, which can happen when I'm not their anyway.

I wish ICE the best of luck, but its going to depend on getting enough ppl that have no idea in order to survive.