USB Recording in the UK? No IP-EPG!

[nsur]

One of the reasons I bought the 37PFL7666T is that it was advertised (on philips.co.uk) as being able to record programs to external USB devices. However, I now understand that this works only with the IP-EPG, for reasons that are very unclear indeed, as every other PVR on the market is fine with the Freeview EPG. It would have been nice if this had been mentioned in the advertising.

Unfortunately, the TV does not appear to be able to connect to the IP-EPG: even though I have selected "Programme Guide from Network", I still get the normal DVD-T (Freeview) EPG, and I do not get a record button of any type. How do I get onto the IP-EPG? Some posts here in the forum have suggested that this function is simply not available in the UK -- I this true?

I have bought an external HDD specifically for this function. It has formatted fine, the TV is connected to the network and NetTV works fine (well, as fine as it ever does given its clumsy and slow interface), timeshift works (but is of no interest to me), but as there is no IP-EPG, there is no USB recording.

What to do?

Thanks!

Martin

PS: Fine TV -- pity about the user interface.

[Toengel]

Hi,

try to setup your TV to ireland (see IP-EPG availability: http://www.supportforum.philips.com/...ch-cable-users!)

Toengel@Alex

[Philips - Marco]

Hi,

I can confirm that unfortunately the IP-EPG feature is not available for the United Kingdom.
The unique nature of the EPG system in the United Kingdom means that it is not possible to simultaneously broadcast an EPG via both broadcast signal and the internet.
Currently the only feature that is available for UK sets is the ability to pause Live TV.

Regards,
Marco

[nsur]

Thanks, Toengel -- I'll try that. I'm not sure what unintended consequences changing the country setting will have, in particular whether this will deactivate BBC iPlayer (which is a core part of the TV's functionality) and whether all my channels will be recognised. Should be easy enough to change back if necessary.

Probably needless to say, as already posted many times here in the support forum, but Philips have a serious problem with their software development and their advertising. They are breaching UK law by advertising features that are not available to UK customers, in this instance USB recording. Their customer retention rate is likely to suffer badly from the poor implementation of the EPG and PVR features -- they are well behind their competitors on these (indeed well behind where their competitors were five years ago: my 2006 Panasonic TV and 2006 Sony PVR both have a MUCH better EPG delivered through DVB-T and the PVR has no problem scheduling recordings through the DVB-T EPG). This is all a pity as there is so much that Philips got right with the hardware.

Martin

[nsur]

Thanks, Marco -- we posted simultaneously. The obvious solution to that particular problem is of course to do the same as all your competitors and use the (excellent!) EPG data available through the Freeview DVB-T system to schedule USB recordings.

I was serious when I said that Philips are in breach of UK law, and I will report this to the Advertising Standards Authority. The description of the 37PFL7666T on philips.co.uk reads:

"Find, schedule, record and pause TV -- Record live digital TV on a USB connected to your Philips TV or pause content whenever you want to take a break and continue watching whenever you want. Use the Electronic Programme Guide to find your favourite programmes and easily schedule your preferred recordings. Now you can programme your TV viewing around your life."

While there is a footnote saying "country restrictions may apply", any reasonable customer (which is the ASA criteria) will expect the feature to be available in the UK given that the above quote appears on the Philips UK (!) web site.

The most serious part of this is that your customers cannot discover that there is no HDD recording facility until AFTER buying an external hard drive -- the TV itself give no indication whatsoever of which EPG it is using. My TV is set to "Programme guide from network", and this gives no error message or dialogue, you just get an EPG which one has to assume is the IP-EPG (this is what was selected, after all). The help file says that a recording button will appear in the EPG as soon as a USB hard disk is connected and formatted. The first indication that anything is amiss is that this does not happen and the EPG is unchanged even with a formatted hard drive connected.

It is only after then checking the support forum posts here (NB: NOT the Philips FAQ or help files!) that it became clear to me that the EPG I was seeing was actually the DVB-T EPG and not the IP-EPG: the TV was set to receive the EPG from the network and simply does not do this without displaying any message saying so.

Not good.

Martin

[DunxUK]

I have exactly the same problem and also bought a £60 portable hdd only to find that I can only use it to pause television (which it does badly) and the cable gets in the way of the ambilight. I also know deep down that the Philips developers have no intention whatsoever of (a) allowing recordings to be set from the broadcast EPG or even manually, and (b) will never incorporate freeview into their Net EPG. It is similarly inept that there is no way to 'hide' channels you don't want from the dreadful EPG in the first place.

I decided to add a review to the John Lewis website adding these warnings to anyone considering buying a Philips because - as you rightly point out - they do not admit that these features will not work on Freeview. Now I discover that John Lewis only accepts reviews that are in no way critical as poor reviews affect their sales.

I still love the telly but am now forking out for a Panasonic DTT recorder, thankfully Panasonic have discovered a mysterious way to set recordings from the broadcast EPG using the dangerous knowledge of start time, end time and channel number.

[nsur]

I decided to add a review to the John Lewis website adding these warnings to anyone considering buying a Philips because - as you rightly point out - they do not admit that these features will not work on Freeview. Now I discover that John Lewis only accepts reviews that are in no way critical as poor reviews affect their sales.

As I also bought my TV from John Lewis, I will contact their customer service -- as far as I can see, John Lewis are the only significant distributor for Philips TVs in the UK, so presumably they have somewhat more clout with Philips than we have. Without them, there simply will not be any more Philips TVs in the UK (one way of solving the compatibility problem, I guess). In any case, John Lewis need to know that they are also in breach of UK consumer law by repeating the Philips marketing claims on their own web site.

Otherwise, as I have discovered yesterday, making an official complaint to the Advertising Standards Agency is a quite straightforward process.

[DunxUK]

Good idea, I think I'll try that too. If Philips' own marketing department starts asking the questions we are asking maybe something will happen.

[DunxUK]

Hi,

try to setup your TV to ireland (see IP-EPG availability: http://www.supportforum.philips.com/...ch-cable-users!)

Toengel@Alex

I can clarify to all that that THIS DOESN'T WORK. None of the channels are identified and the EPG, albeit the NET EPG, shows all as "Unidentified Channel" and the only options to set them to are Irish channels.

[DunxUK]

Good news, the Advertising Standards Authority have written back and have opened a case against Philips on this issue.

[fatbloke]

Another customer here who bought an external HDD to record programmes only to find this feature is not actually present on the 42PDL7906T/12. I too will be in touch with the ASA. I'll also be interested to see what Philips' response is, just wrote to them.

[davideo0]

Hi,

I can confirm that unfortunately the IP-EPG feature is not available for the United Kingdom.
The unique nature of the EPG system in the United Kingdom means that it is not possible to simultaneously broadcast an EPG via both broadcast signal and the internet.
Currently the only feature that is available for UK sets is the ability to pause Live TV.

Regards,
Marco

Whilst I am very pleased with the picture of this model, I was very disappointed with the sound output and quality. So, I forked out another £200 for a cheap sound bar to boost the output. It is still not as good as my previous old fashioned Sony TV but I thought I could live with it.

I then bought a 320GB HDD to record programs only to find, like all the other complainants, that it doesn't work.

I feel that I have been misled by the advertisements, and had I known how much the total price would be I would have bought another brand where these facilities are provided.
Having seen the above comment by Marco on behalf of Philips there seems to be a complete lack of concern for customers genuine complaints, and no indication that Philips have any intention of putting things right.

I shall certainly never buy another piece of Philips electronics.

davideo0

[Philips - Benedickte]

I feel that I have been misled by the advertisements, and had I known how much the total price would be I would have bought another brand where these facilities are provided.
Having seen the above comment by Marco on behalf of Philips there seems to be a complete lack of concern for customers genuine complaints, and no indication that Philips have any intention of putting things right.


davideo0

Hi Davideo0.

When it comes to this advertisments, where did you get advertised that our TV's can do recording in UK on your set?

Best Regards
Benedickte

[davideo0]

On Philips uk website

http://www.philips.co.uk/c/televisio...43.app101-drp3
Wherein it states:

"Find, schedule, record* and pause TV
Record live digital TV on a USB connected to your Philips TV or pause content whenever you want to take a break and continue watching whenever you want. Use the Electronic Programme Guide to find your favourite programmes and easily schedule your preferred recordings. Now you can programme your TV viewing around your life."

That to me, and any one else, is quite clear.
The advertisement is totally misleading.

[Philips - Benedickte]

On Philips uk website

http://www.philips.co.uk/c/televisio...43.app101-drp3
Wherein it states:

"Find, schedule, record* and pause TV
Record live digital TV on a USB connected to your Philips TV or pause content whenever you want to take a break and continue watching whenever you want. Use the Electronic Programme Guide to find your favourite programmes and easily schedule your preferred recordings. Now you can programme your TV viewing around your life."

That to me, and any one else, is quite clear.
The advertisement is totally misleading.

Hi Davideo0

I'm sorry you find this missleading, but please also see the *, where you can see further down it's stated:
* USB recording is only possible for digital channels covered by the TV IP bases Electronic Programme Guide (country and channel restrictions may apply); recordings may be limited by broadcast copy protection (CI+). An Internet connection is required.

As you live in the UK, you are not using a CI+ module but a digital set-top box. This also mean that you are not able to do the recording , only pause live TV.

Best Regards
Benedickte