On Screen gives you easy ways to schedule and manage your recordings.

What is TV Guide On Screen®?

TV Guide On Screen is a free electronic program guide that's built into some TVs, DVD recorders, and DVRs (digital video recorders). Even though it shares its name with the TV Guide magazine and the TV Guide channel, On Screen is a unique member of the TV Guide family. It's an interactive program guide. That means that rather than just showing you what's on right now, it lets you scroll and sort through 8 days of TV listings to find the programs you want to watch and record — recent versions even let you search by keyword. You also get easy, intuitive ways to schedule and manage your recordings.

Sort listings by category to quickly find the shows you want to watch.

Features and capabilities

Sort: In addition to simply scrolling through the listings, you can sort the programs alphabetically or by category, including "Movies," "HDTV," "Educational," "Sports," "Children's," "Series," and more. Then, you can narrow your results further with subcategories. For example, if you wanted to watch the next Yankees game, you would look under "Sports," and then the subcategory "Baseball."

Search: Newer versions of On Screen also allow you to search for programs using customized keywords. With this feature, finding the next Yankees game would be even easier — just type in "Yankees," and On Screen will find it for you.

Record: On Screen makes it simple to set your recordings, too. After you find the program you want to save, just push the "record" button on the remote. When the time comes, your DVD recorder or DVR will start recording the program you've selected. And TVs with On Screen can control many external recorders (like a DVR or DVD recorder). Once you've made your recordings, On Screen also keeps them organized so they're easy to find later on.

Recent versions of On Screen let you search listings by keyword.

Why people love it

TV Guide On Screen is all about making TV easier — watching and recording the shows you like, without the hassle of scrolling through hundreds of channels or setting complicated timers. It features an intuitive user interface, and lets you sort and search through TV listings and set one-touch recordings. Some On Screen models are capable of pausing and rewinding live TV, and it's a free service. All in all, On Screen offers a lot of bang for no buck. It's an excellent extra for any TV fan.

TV Guide On Screen and the switch to digital television

After analog TV broadcasts ceased on June 12, 2009, some people discovered that their On Screen-equipped televisions, set-top boxes, or DVRs stopped receiving updated program listings. Here are a few possible causes of the problem as well as possible solutions.

Your On Screen host station may have changed
TV Guide On Screen gets its program info from what's known as a "host station." This is a local station that sends information to your On Screen guide behind the scenes. Some host stations changed with the analog cutoff. If this happened in your area, you may stop receiving program updates because your On Screen-equipped component is essentially looking for it in the wrong place. If this is the case, resetting your On Screen device and doing a new automatic channel search should do the trick. Some folks have found that changing your zip code in the On Screen menu to 00000, turning the component off for about 15 minutes, then turning it back on and entering in your real zip code also fixes the problem.

There may not be a new digital host station in your area
Many people received On Screen data from analog host stations that are no longer around. In order for you to continue getting On Screen updates, you'll need a digital host station in your area. You can find info on local digital stations at www.rabbitears.info (TV Guide On Screen host stations will have an On Screen icon next to them.) If you don't currently have a digital host station in your area, there's unfortunately nothing you can do except wait until one becomes available.

Your On Screen component may not support digital host stations
Not all components with TV Guide On Screen can receive program data via digital channels. The first thing you should try in this case is updating the firmware. If a firmware update doesn't fix the problem, then unfortunately, you would need to replace the component. However, we recommend contacting the manufacturer first to see if they can offer a solution.

Other things to remember
Make sure that your On Screen component is OFF and that your cable box (if you have one) is ON overnight, or whenever you're not watching TV. On Screen info is sent out from a host station via broadcast or cable, typically late at night or early in the morning. Turning your cable box off or On Screen unit on before or during this download will prevent it from receiving all or part of the programming info — resulting in the "no listing" blocks. And be patient. During initial setup, it can take On Screen units longer than 24 hours to download all of the program listing information.

Finally, keep in mind that if you have a DVR that can't get programming information for TV Guide On Screen, it may still be able to control most major brands of cable boxes and will likely have alternative ways to set recordings, such as VCR Plus+®.