Need help, want a NICE EPG...

I have a DTVpal Plus - my experinence has been fairly good with it. The EPG is hands down the best available on any CECB that I am aware of. Picture quality has been criticized by some but I find it acceptable. My chief problem with the unit is that it locks up from time to time, becomes unresponsive to the remote, and has to be unplugged to get it working again.

I also have 2 Zenith DTT901's which have a more rudimentary EPG where you can only see a couple of stations at a time and if you scroll through them you have to tune to the station to get the program information to display. The DTT901 is a good dependable unit though so if the EPG isn't crucial I would highly recommend it.

The best EPG I have for OTA is on my Sony Bravia TV which has TVGOS. It gets program information from the digital CBS affiliate here - KYW-DT. Works great, more words in the descriptions than you get from PSIP information. One drawback to TVGOS is that it doesn't have information for all channels, e.g. here in Philly it has information for NBC affiliate WCAU 10.1 and 10.2 but not for the sports content they have on 10.3.

There is a separate forum for discussing the CECB boxes. see: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forum...ysprune=&f=186

Great discussion and a thread on most of the individual boxes. Take a look at the Zinwell 970A thread. It has an extensive EPG as well.

The CM7000 has 12 hours. Downsides: no analog pass through; you have to be able to scan a channel to add it; small closed caption font. Best feature: S-Vid connection.

The CM is no comparison to the theoretical 7 days of the DTVPal, but I have lots of guide data, and my TR40 (F103) tries to fit it all in by deleting existing data, so the CM is more reliable.

I thought the Zinwell 970A has no more than now/next EPG, except that the early, 24 hr clock version gets an extended EPG with a Dollar Tree remote. The 12 hour 970A and the 950A that replaces the 970A doesn't get the extended EPG with the DT remote.