Incorrect EPG data and unreliable schedule information is making life difficult for viewers on the UK’s terrestrial experiment, as these quotes from the HD Trial forums reveal:

“I keep missing programmes because the schedule is either wrong or out of date.Three suggestions to get people viewing more:
1) Get the schedules correct as well as up to date
2) Get the full schedules on the EPG
3) Show repeats rather than a preview on during the day. You know it makes sense.”

“Please get ride of the previews from all channels and repeat the same programmes all day, with the same movie 2 or 3 times after nine o’clock. That way we can watch the content whenever we like. The preview stuff has done it’s job now, what is the point of still running it? “

“Arrrgghhh, I was looking forward to watching Summer of Love last night (Wed 26th July), a movie that received great reviews at the cinema, and was
SCHEDULED according to both this site and the BBC site and… depress-fest Sylvia was on instead. WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON WITH THESE
SCHEDULES? It’s gotten really annoying, SORT IT OUT. How difficult can it be? Answer: not very!!!!!!!!”

“This is sooo annoying at the moment. The PDF that says what is on said Billy Elliot was going to be on yesterday (22/7) which i was looking for. Plus, the EPG said that Man in The Iron Mask was going to be on ITV HD… But neither things where on…”

“This is getting very irritating.”

“Does anyone know if Five will be increasing there air time? The y have IMO a great list of shows planned with various CSI and House M.D. plus plans to show some proper movies. They seem only to have Thursdays allocated and I am missing this due to a regular commitment. More days needed urgently so that I can give honest answers in the questionaires.”

“ It is a problem when the epg dos not function accurately and this discourages use of the HD channels. Please make the epg more reliable this will improve our chances of choosing to use HD more regularly and will result in better feedback for your data collection.”

“ If the EPG isn’t going to work can we please at least have updated/accurate listings posted here? Most of the schedules posted here are now out of date, and a lot of what was supposed to be on in the last few days hasn’t been on, ie. Isle Of Wight Festival wasn’t on Ch. 4 yesterday, ITV isn’t broadcasting today but the schedule says it should be, and now there is a movie about World War 1 on Channel 4 HD, but I have no idea what it is and only stumbled upon it because I happened to be flicking around. How are we supposed to enjoy/evaluate HD if the programming is being broadcast on a hide & seek basis?”

“It would be far better for the trial if there was less choice (hear me out). Instead of having channels broadcast programs at the same time, they should have programs scheduled so only one program is on at a time (or two) and if there are two, then one of them is a repeat.
I find it annoying when i want to watch Hannibal and Lost, but they are on at the same time. Also, showing programs all day would be a great help, rather than the BBCs repeat loop, showing constant repeats would be preferred. And if ITV have nothing to broadcast, then C4 should be showing something. Something should always be on to watch. Would be more effecive use of time. Even if all the shows during the day were repeats, I wouldn’t care, because i cant always watch all the programs.”

“ As some programmes are to be broadcast with 5.1 surround sound, I think it would be a good idea if the schedules could indicate which will be broadcast with this so the sound quality could be assessed.”