TV programming, rewritten

Rahul Verma / TNN / May 5, 2006, 20:20 IST

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The way you watch TV is going to be revolutionised now - at the touch of a button, you can defer live programmes or find out when your favourite movie's being shown.

The way you watch TV is going to be revolutionised now - at the touch of a button, you can defer live programmes or find out when your favourite movie's being shown...
When was the last time you rushed home to watch that live match, or maybe had a face-off with the better half when she wanted to watch her favourite soap while you rooted for live news coverage? Or missed that great movie, for you were not aware that it was being shown on the telly in the first place?
No sweat, for Microsoft is putting the power of controlling entertainment back in your hands now. With the recently launched Microsoft Windows XP Media Center, with the Electronic Programming Guide (EPG), you can revolutionise your TV viewing experience forever!
First of its kind in India, EPG is a comprehensive on-screen list of what's playing on what channel and when over the next 15 days.

So you can take your pick of what you want to watch, and maybe also see a review of it on the system. And there's no chance you are going to miss anything on telly ever again, for EPG covers over 80 English, Hindi and other regional language channels.
This is a paid subscription service in most countries, costing around $10, but in India it will be free for all those who have a Windows XP Media Center based PC. The system will automatically download and update everytime you connect to the Internet.

This is not just a PC but an all-in-one entertainment device that works as a PC, TV, radio, music system, digital picture library and DVD player.
Through a simple TV-like remote, you can get unlimited entertainment options.Take its search option, for example. Just by typing in the name of your favourite programme/movie/actor, you can search across all the 80 channels to find out on which channel are they being featured on, and at what time.
That's not all, if that flick you were dying to catch is being shown on a workday, you can record it to be seen later!
EPG also provides you with detailed programme description that you never had access too. At the touch of a button, you can now get a description of the genre, programme/movie plot, start time, duration, actors, directors and also know what's playing much in advance!
And if that's not enough, you can programme the system to record all of them, running across 80 channels, and make a DVD collection of your own.
Another feature of the EPG is the ability to record series. You can record an entire series of your favourite programmes - whether it's Pokemon or Khana Khazana.
The EPG will automatically identify every new episode of the series and keep recording each one till you ask it to stop.
And EPG even offers you a conflict resolution feature! If you schedule a match recording when your wife wants to record a saas-bahu soap - the EPG will resolve the conflict for you by automatically searching for the repeat telecast of either of the two programmes and scheduling the two recordings separately.
And the system is so simple to use that anyone from your three-year-old to tech-unsavvy grandmother can use it to the max. Windows XP Media Center PCs are available at an affordable price from all leading PC vendors such as HP, HCL, Sahara and Zenith.

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