TV guide

With so many channels to choose from, finding the one you want can be a challenge. The solution is the on-screen programme guide.

This TV guide makes the whole thing manageable. It displays the channels on your TV screen, line by line. You scroll up and down, using arrow keys on the remote, to view more channels, and from side to side to see what’s coming up later in the day. Another button jumps you forward or back to see other days in the week.

An easy to read TV guide and straight forward to use

Less easy to see

Typically, a good on-screen TV guide can show about five or six channels at a time with the start and finish times for each programme, so you can plan an evening's viewing. Not so good guides show, say, three programmes for each channel with no details of their length - or show only one channel at a time. Being able to display just your favourite channels can be useful.

A full 7 or 8 day TV guide is best so you can check for the next episode of a weekly programme.

Some digital boxes have TV guides that are very slow to fill up after you switch on. We give good ratings to those which fill up within a few minutes.

And, if you opt for a digital TV recorder, you set it to record programmes by selecting them from the on-screen TV guide, using the same arrow keys on your remote control. It couldn’t be simpler. No more timer setting or looking up and entering long VideoPlus numbers.

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