Digibox
Selecting channels
Selecting channels is simplicity itself!
I've used the EPG method on another Digibox (on Sky) and to be honest, I find this method is
simpler...
Press Services, then 6, select a channel and press Select.
Your chosen channel will appear, here is TV
Andalucía, for example...
EPG
Forget it.
Some (not all) channels provide the pop-up banner showing details of the current, and next,
programme. Sometimes it is totally incorrect! There is no way to flip through to see what is on
later - you'll need to see if the channel provides teletext for that...
The information that appears when you press the i button... Generally you'll
see "No programme synopsis is available". If something is there, it is often either the
title of the programme or a description of what the channel actually broadcasts (in the case of
Sky News).
Teletext
A good number of channels include a teletext service. This is often the way to find out about the
channel and its programmes.
Note that you'll need a television or computer that is teletext capable. The Digibox cannot
display teletext itself (some boxes can do this).
Obviously, the teletext service is in the language of the channel!
Radio
When you select a radio station, the screen output is made more mute. I would suggest, to listen
to radio, you turn the TV off and pipe the sound through a hi-fi...
What the Digibox doesn't do (maybe an oversight in the design?) is it doesn't have any marking or
icon to let you know that this is a radio channel. You cannot redefine the stored channel names
either, so you can't pop "[R]" (or whatever) into the name.
The station I like to listen to is Alouette (it means
Skylark), but since we're not close to the transmitter and in a valley, FM reception is
pretty poor. I've been known to string up wires across my room to attempt to improve matters. So
I was quite pleased to find...
DOGs
Woof!
A DOG is a Digital On-screen Graphic. Some, like the TV Andalucía one (above) are
fairly subtle, while others like RAI Uno (below) jar the
eyeballs. Then there are ones like Al Jazeera that are
distinctive yet somehow incomprehensible (at least, to me!).
It has been argued that DOGs provide an on-screen identity in this morass of channels, but I
think this is a failed argument in the digital era where the channel identity is shown to you
when you select a channel, and also with the press of a button...
What I think they should say is the DOG is there to prevent people taping stuff and then
selling those tapes as originals; and maybe to stop lame stations from stealing/rebroadcasting
content that isn't their own. Either way, the DOGs are here to stay...
Copyright © 2004 Richard Murray
