TVGuide

TVGuide is a lightweight software application whose purpose is to help you check out TV listings downloaded with XMLTV. It can be deployed on all Windows versions out there.

The program employs a wizard-like approach for helping you set up some configuration settings for the beginning. You are offered step-by-step assistance throughout the entire setup process. You can specify the location of XMLTV and select the appropriate grabber for your country in order to make the utility load and display the TC listings in the main window. You may also change these settings later on.

You are welcomed by a well-organized suite of features. A help manual is not available so you need to experiment with the dedicated parameters in order to understand how the program works. What’s more, you can view the listings either in a horizontal/vertical grid or a list.

TVGuide offers you the possibility to schedule XMLTV to download new listings automatically, highlight shows that you watch regularly with a user-defined color, set up recurring reminders for your favorite shows, as well as check out the movies available for the next day or week.

What’s more, you are allowed to perform searches in order to quickly identify shows and apply different criteria (title, subtitle, description, credits, category, episode number), schedule the recording of shows with Windows Media Center from TVG, check out ‘My Schedule’ list which contains data about what’s on today and shows that you are interested in, and export ‘My Schedule’ list to HTML or plain text file format.

Other important features worth being mentioned enable you to access links to IMDB so you can quickly view movie info, configure custom plugins, hide finished shows, show favorite channels first, and limit the search results to favorite channels.

To sum things up, TVGuide comes bundled with a handy suite of features for helping you check out TV listings and schedule XMLTV downloads. It is suitable for less experienced users and professionals alike.