The TV guide
for your own box

On the tablet and in landscape, the channel list turns into a TV guide grid: channels with their logos on the left, time running to the right, every programme a box as wide as it lasts. A red line shows what is on right now. Swipe through the evening and through the week; a tap on “20:15” jumps to prime time.

Programmes with a timer have a red frame. Tapping a box opens the description with the button “Aufnehmen” (record) – the grid stays in place behind it.

One channel, its programme across all the days the box knows – usually a week. At the top a bar: now · 20:15 · today · tomorrow · Sunday … The highlight moves along as you scroll. Swiping left or right switches to the next channel.

Next to every programme there is a circle. Tap it, and the recording is scheduled; if a timer is already set, the circle is filled red. That is how you go through a TV guide and set the week's recordings in one pass.

“Aufnehmen” (record) creates a timer for exactly this programme, with the lead-in and lead-out time set on the box. For the daily soap or the Sunday crime drama there is “Als Serie aufnehmen” (record as series): Mon–Fri, weekly, daily or individual weekdays to tap. If a programme runs on weekdays, the app suggests Mon–Fri right away.

The recording margin is set in the app and stored on the box – so that beginning and end are not missing when a channel starts early or overruns. Suggestion: 3 minutes before, 10 minutes after.

The timer list shows what is planned and what is being recorded right now, sorted by day. Title, date and times can be changed, timers switched on and off or deleted; one button clears finished timers. With the plus button you can create a timer by hand, even without programme data.

Under “Aufnahmen” (recordings) you find the finished recordings with description and size, and above them the free space on the hard disk. A tap on “Abspielen” (play) starts the recording in the device's video player, such as VLC – streamed directly from the box and fully seekable. Whatever has been watched is deleted – after asking.

EnigmaPlan talks to OpenWebif, the web interface that runs on almost all Enigma2 receivers. Satellite, cable or DVB-T does not matter. Phone or tablet only need to be on the same network as the box – from outside it works through a VPN, for example the one built into a FRITZ!Box router.