Post by guideless on Jul 22, 2008 22:40:15 GMT 7
I must say, I'm seriously underwhelmed by Starhub's on-screen TV guide. Singapore - Asia in general - is supposedly more technologically advanced than the west, but the program guide doesn't compare to the same thing (Time Warner) in the States even 7 years ago.
We used to get the printed magazine, which was more informative, but gave it up to be a bit greener (especially since half the magazine was in Chinese, and there was no option to only get the English version) and because I assumed the on-screen guide would be better.
For instance, fully one third of the screen is wasted on dead space & ads for demand TV; consequently, there isn't enough space to write much information about the programs.
Mind you, except for films, Starhub don't seem to bother much with information anyway. It's rare to find any synopsis for individual episodes - it's usually something along the lines of 'in series 7 the cast is back for more fun filled episodes'. For some channels, they don't even bother describing the series; I think it's Discovery channel that has something like 'Discovery brings you interesting programs about life' (OK, maybe not quite so bad - but very nearly - but I don't actually memorise these things
)
It's a clunky, not-user-friendly thing. For example, you cannot search for a program by name - CSI is on offer on at least 3 different channels, but if you want to find out which, or you've forgotten which one it's on today, you've got to search through the listings channel by channel.
And you can only see the programs for one channel at a time, so it's not so easy to see that, say, two programs you'd like to watch are on at the same time.
Neither can you search or set an alert more than 3 days ahead - and they seem to advertise series on Starhub the day after they've aired, so if you want to catch it, you just have to remember it's coming around.
And wouldn't it be nice to have the option to switch off (or on) the Chinese or Malay subtitles? When a film has, say, Japanese dialogue, it would be nice to be able to read the English subtitles on the original film, rather than have them overwritten. I'm sure that can't be too hard to sort out.
Similarly, some of the channel logos, or the ticker-tape for upcoming programs are so large they obscure part of the program you're actually watching, which can be rather irritating.
Thankfully, whoever types in for Central seems to have learned to turn off the caps lock button; unfortunately, I don't think his colleague for Channel 5 realises that there's a separate line for the cast, rather than putting them in the body of the synopsis and taking up valuable space.
It is nice that they've started putting in series numbers for some of the long running series, so you know where on earth you are in the story line (hope they do it for all of them). It would be nice if they could also put the year a film was made, so you'd know if it's going to be a classic or a modern hit.
Phew - rant over (I've run out of steam, for now)
We used to get the printed magazine, which was more informative, but gave it up to be a bit greener (especially since half the magazine was in Chinese, and there was no option to only get the English version) and because I assumed the on-screen guide would be better.
For instance, fully one third of the screen is wasted on dead space & ads for demand TV; consequently, there isn't enough space to write much information about the programs.
Mind you, except for films, Starhub don't seem to bother much with information anyway. It's rare to find any synopsis for individual episodes - it's usually something along the lines of 'in series 7 the cast is back for more fun filled episodes'. For some channels, they don't even bother describing the series; I think it's Discovery channel that has something like 'Discovery brings you interesting programs about life' (OK, maybe not quite so bad - but very nearly - but I don't actually memorise these things
)It's a clunky, not-user-friendly thing. For example, you cannot search for a program by name - CSI is on offer on at least 3 different channels, but if you want to find out which, or you've forgotten which one it's on today, you've got to search through the listings channel by channel.
And you can only see the programs for one channel at a time, so it's not so easy to see that, say, two programs you'd like to watch are on at the same time.
Neither can you search or set an alert more than 3 days ahead - and they seem to advertise series on Starhub the day after they've aired, so if you want to catch it, you just have to remember it's coming around.
And wouldn't it be nice to have the option to switch off (or on) the Chinese or Malay subtitles? When a film has, say, Japanese dialogue, it would be nice to be able to read the English subtitles on the original film, rather than have them overwritten. I'm sure that can't be too hard to sort out.
Similarly, some of the channel logos, or the ticker-tape for upcoming programs are so large they obscure part of the program you're actually watching, which can be rather irritating.
Thankfully, whoever types in for Central seems to have learned to turn off the caps lock button; unfortunately, I don't think his colleague for Channel 5 realises that there's a separate line for the cast, rather than putting them in the body of the synopsis and taking up valuable space.
It is nice that they've started putting in series numbers for some of the long running series, so you know where on earth you are in the story line (hope they do it for all of them). It would be nice if they could also put the year a film was made, so you'd know if it's going to be a classic or a modern hit.
Phew - rant over (I've run out of steam, for now)