DCT 700 box and the "Guide" channel
joed5588
Newbie

I've read all the posts regarding the DCT 700 box, which I have in my room and have found the answer to my question of why I dont get the guide channell.

 The next question I have is a rather dumb one, but here goes: Can I just manually enter a channel to go to the guide channel to see whats on tv or is it impossibe to find out whats on tv with the DCT 700 box?

Thanks for your help. Not quite sure of how this forum works and how I will get the replies to this post,{edited for privacy}

Once again, Thanks

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Re: DCT 700 box and the "Guide" channel
ekem015
Specialist - Level 1

You will get the replies to this post underneath your post; it is called a "thread."

I think you are confusing a few things here.

The DCT-700, the "digital converter," does not have an electronic program guide. That is the Verizon-provided program guide which is built into the software on your set-top box. All of the set-top boxes besides the digital converter have it. It is not a "guide channel," but rather a graphic generated and displayed by your set-top box.

You referred to a "guide channel." I assume you mean the TV Guide Channel, which all cable providers have had for decades. Last year, the TV Guide Channel was bought by a different company, and in May 2010, it stopped providing any program guide at all, across all cable providers. It only airs regular programming like any other TV channel now. I am guessing they made this decision because a lot of people now have set-top boxes which give them a program guide anyway. Similarly, I don't think they have a print program guide like they used to (it was popular in the 90s and 80s), nor do most newspapers print any substantial program guide anymore.

So if you are looking for a "guide channel," you are not going to find one. So in that sense, yes, it is impossible to find out what's on TV with a digital converter (DCT-700).

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Re: DCT 700 box and the "Guide" channel
lasagna
Community Leader
Community Leader

As ekem015, you're not going to get that with a DCT (view a DCT simply as a converter which let's your TV work on the FiOS system -- basically the same as you used to have with analog cable TV if you didn't have a box).  .  The old "TV Guide" guide channel you're thinking of was actually a network channel provided to your TV provider and they have moved away from providing the program guide any longer (go figure ... a channel called the "TV Guide Channel" that doesn't show you anything related to the TV Guide).   That's not a FiOS thing however ...

The simple answer is upgrade to a regular SD STB if you want the channel guide features (it's about $2/month additional).   The side beneift will be that you'll also get the video-on-demand access as well.

Of course, your other option is to pull up the TV guide information on your computer and look there.

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