Guide Plus+/TV Guide On Screen/Rovi Guide

[Retail Fan+ (Justin Hill)]

Guide Plus+ was launched in the United States in the mid 1990s on many different electronic devices, including TV sets, VCRs, DVRs, and DVD-Rs. It contained program listings that were provided to people free-of-charge, whether they used a TV antenna, cable TV, or satellite TV. The original analog TV service used the VBI of host televisions stations (mainly local PBS affiliates) that datacast the service, similar to the way closed captioning and teletext are broadcast. The information took 24 hours to download, because the information is being sent at a low bitrate.
The digital version of the service, now known as TV Guide On Screen, was launched in 2006 using the ATSC digital television standard. While this significantly improved the service, older systems are no longer able to download the listings as of the digital television transition, which occurred on June 12, 2009.


TV Guide on Screen

In late 2012, Rovi (formerly Gemstar-TV Guide, later known as Macrovision) sent a notice to North American viewers through the Guide Plus+, TV Guide on Screen, and Rovi Guide message systems that the broadcast transmissions of the service would be discontinued, starting in November 2012, and completed April 2013.


As of summer 2013, only Sony Bravia flatscreen TVs with a LAN connection are able to connect to Rovi Guide via Internet connection.


Guide Plus+ was also available for ATI All-In-Wonder and the ATI TV Wonder tuner cards for PCs. However, ATI switched to rival TitanTV for their line of digital tuner cards.