Comcast XFINITY TV → Official Comcast blog about new SA guide

»blog.comcast.com/2010/05 ··· xes.html

Yeah, I love how they say that customers love it when it hasn't even been rolled out to customers yet.

"Customers love the color — coded grid, which helps you quickly identify Sports (green), Kids (light blue) and Movies (purple), from general television programming (blue)..."

I want my I want my I want my PASSPORT GUIDE...I want my I want my I want my passport guide...

Eff that, and eff passport.

I want this.

»/r0/do ··· iful.jpg

Now THAT's a grid!

Beautiful!

HIT!.......wait that probably wasn't the right response. Oh well

So we'll see this in what? 5-7 years?

That guide is codenamed "Barcelona". I think it's still running on simulators, but it might be running on a STB. It's a next gen tru2way guide that is even more advanced than "Aspen". Aspen is basically iGuide with spiffy graphics and it works on tru2way devices.

It is now running on Motorola DCX set tops. Were closer to reality, and my guess is we may see some small instances of it starting in 2011... but don't quote me on it.

It's been in development for quite some time now. Rolling Tru2Way standards, rolling hardware specifications, Separable security mandate 7/7/2007, and other projects deemed more important (like plant cleanup, HD expansion, DOCSIS 3, Triple Play Push, etc...) all put it behind schedule.

This version will include VOD Search. Your search results can return hits from all sources... DVR material, Live material and VOD content. It also looks to have some sort of "user profile" system like Cox's Trio guide. It is supposed to be more 'modular' in design, so new features and updates will be easier and quicker to roll out.

Hardware requirements are yet to be determined. It's likely that you'll need a newer set top that has the memory and cpu specs to handle it.

Do you have the guide in the pictures above? I was not aware anyone had that guide yet. thats the tru2way guide right?

Edit: I quoted the wrong person.

No, the pictures obtained are from tech demos at various cable & broadcasting trade shows.

However aspen looks like the photo I attached. It's basically an updated "skinned" I-Guide that is available for download into Tru2Way Panasonic TV's in the greater Chicago area.

Unfortunately, I was hoping for you SA/Cisco set top users, your new guide would look more like "Aspen" and not I-Guide. The SA set tops have dual RISC based processors and have been harnessed to do other features like transparencies, animations (element sliding in/out of view) and smooth UI fade transitions. I don't recall if SARA ever had polished transition effects, drop shadows and anti-aliasing, but Passport did and that ran on SA set tops.

I know Comcast wants a "Consistent User Experience", but Aspen is pretty close to I-Guide as to what buttons do what, and where menu elements are. It's just more visually updated with the modern 'skin'.

I bet Guide S25.2 for your platform won't take advantage of any of SA/Cisco's video acceleration features, and your menu's will simply 'pop' on screen (ie, no transparencies or animations). It's an upgrade from SARA, but a downgrade from Passport.

The downgrade from Passport is what kind of bugs me about this. Now if they can port over all of the a28 features into the s guide I'll be a bit happier. I also recognize that I'm one of the few users still using passport in the company and I guess I have to take the hit in this case to make others experience better but I am hoping that this is the first step and not the last step in this guide transition.

i like how many are on the grid. But that guide hurts my eyes. I dont like the blue at all.

They just ported the moto guide by the looks of it.

Color doesn't bother me.....being colorblind helps!

Well it would be nice if you can change the font size (and subsequently it would change the grid size). Then if you could pick a color scheme (perhaps you want red grids instead of blue?)

But it's so preliminary that no one outside of Comcast's very secret guide dev team actually knows anything about it.

I'm curious how it will crop on a 4:3 TV using S-Video, Composite or RF connection.

Here is what it looked like in 2008 running on a simulation. The blue grid looks darker. Either that's the PC's different color pallet, the TV, the guide revision at the time, or the camera.









images C/O Endgadget »hd.engadget.com/2008/01/ ··· ast-dvr/

Article now up on Engadget HD!
»hd.engadget.com/2010/05/ ··· -iguide/

Attached is this funny blurb between BenD at Endgaget and Jeremy Hammer from Ceton.

At least they are confirming EBIF features ARE available on this platform...

Another article regarding S25: »www.multichannel.com/art ··· oxes.php

I didn't see where the new guide filters out the channels you don't get. Or at least color code it. Also, warning us now when its 80% full instead of 95% full is rather annoying.

Notice in that article..

"And on a separate track, Comcast is continuing to develop and test "Buckeye," the code name for its IPG optimized for 16-by-9 high-definition TVs. That guide, expected to enter trials in late 2010 with deployments next year, is supposed to include advanced search and discovery capabilities across TV listings, VOD and DVR recordings, among other enhancements."

Buckeye? I thought it was called J-Guide, or Barcelona. Buckeye, like »www.buckeyecablesystem.c ··· dex.html the Cable company with the logo that mysteriously resembles Time Warner?

Typo?

Barcelona is out now, in trials/labs/expos only. It is supposed to replace Aspen later this year with larger footprint deployments next year... what is "Buckeye"?

what is comcast's plant clean up project?

They say customers love it because it's the same Guide that's been in use in Motorola areas for years. Just now it's been ported to the Cisco/SA equipment.

Will "Comcast Central" channels be added and will they work with a cable card?

when the heck am i going to see this, and is this going to be pushed through on the legacy SA devices like the SA8300

what bothers me is when Comcast goes around and touts their TiVo software on their Motorola boxes, but forget that a majority of their customers have Scientific Atlanta boxes. In their advertisements and "how to videos" they always use Motorola on screen guides, never SA, making the videos useless.

See to be blunt, I mainly use my MOXI, which has a really good user interface and on screen guide, as well as the grid style. »moxi.com/us/hd_interfaces.html I get all the features, with the exception of on demand, but thats a limitation of the cablecard technology, not the device.

The rumblings that I've heard state that mid-late June is when we'll have our S.25 put in place.