LB> Does anybody want to see the October 97 BIRDFEED list posted here?
 CY> it was neat to have available.
  LB>  TV Agent - customized display of listings from FTP - $24.95/yr
 CY> I got a free trial subscription to On-Sat.  Pretty good mag, but
 CY> I stopped subscribing when they went up to $60 per year.
 CY> My total cost for satellite TV subscriptions has been less than
 CY> $80 per year.
Mine is $0. There has always been more FREE TV on analog C-band than I
can watch, and PLENTY of time for watching) so I never even got a
decoder. I was sorry to lose The Learning Channel this year but now if
I have spare time there's WWW.
 CY> I am not going to pay big bucks for a schedule
 CY> when most of it is free in the newspaper :)
I'm VERY selective about what I watch, and would HATE to miss the
episode details if I depended on a newspaper. And the dumb printed
guides!!! I used to search for and mark favorite series in Satellite
TV Week, and EVERY week, they sent me a new copy WITHOUT any marks in
it, and I had to do it all again!
AND, there are SO MANY channels I don't receive, and my receiver's
satellite ID's don't match the ones printed in the mag, and there is
SO MUCH ink wasted with sports and Petticoat Junction and other
garbage ... all those listings do nothing but make it hard to find the
listings I DO want.
AND, schedule changes made within 2 weeks of air time can't be printed
and mailed.
The OBVIOUS solution --  TV Agent. The data travels by modem and C &
Ku satellites, so changes made Wednesday for Friday's schedule are
included in the listings TV Agent distributes on Thursday. TV Agent
has MORE (and more complete) episode details than Satellite TV Week. The
first time TV Agent shows me listings for a new channel which I don't
subscribe to, with two keystrokes I tell it to NEVER show me ANY
listings for that channel. I've already told it not to show me program
types
PLAYOFF SPORT           CARTOONS
PSEUDO-SPORT            DAYTIME SOAPS
SPORT EVENT             GAME SHOWS
SPORTS ANTHOL.          RELIGIOUS
SPORTS RELATED          SIGN-OFF
TEAM VS. TEAM
and it keeps its eye open for over 1400 titles so it NEVER shows me
listings for
"30 Minutes to Dinner"
"700 Club Newswatch"
"A-Team"
"A.J.'s Time Travelers"
"A.M. Weather"
"AARP Works"
"Abbott and Costello"
"Accounting Concepts"
"Accounting for Managers"
etc. It takes 3 keystrokes to add a title to the "DELETES".
It also REMEMBERS another 200 titles I would have manually marked
every week in a printed guide; I do 3 keystrokes once and those titles
show up HILITED whereever they appear, in every day's listings. I had
vague fond memories of a 60's series called "The Rogues" so I put that
title in and the FIRST day and time that it showed up (on TV Land
F3/18), it stood out hilited in my listings. It watches for a dozen
keywords I've entered, too, and any listing with those words anywhere
in the details also shows up hilited (or, gets printed on the 1 page
personal guide which is TV Agent's substitute for the bulky hard
copy.) And, it uses the weird satellite ID's *I* want to match my
"obsolete" equipment.
People who have a C-band dish and a 286+ not in use 24 hours a day (like,
while sleeping or working) can aim them at G4/6 and get the 9600 bps
Skylink datastream on a subcarrier (listen at ~7.26 MHz) continually
streaming in the serial port. And of course this TVRO echo is among
the Fido echoes coming in that stream (and shareware, TV Agent
listings, weather, news, etc). A subscription to Skylink (or Planet
Connect, 19200-128000 bps) includes a subscription to TV Agent.
... TV Agent - customized display of listings from BBS - $24.95/yr 
423-623-8300
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