One of the things I miss about my old TiVo PVR was its ability to record programmes based simply on a keyword entry and a channel.

It didn't matter if a show wasn't currently airing. Day after day, TiVo would sit there, methodically searching the weekly TV listings for any mention of Alias or The X-Files and automatically recording them. You could even set it to record everything starring a certain actor or anything helmed by your favourite director.

Part of the joy of TiVo ownership was that you didn't need to know when your favourite shows were on. You could set catch-all keywords months in advance and leave the PVR to get on with recording them.

It made life easier. And that's what the whole 'digital home' idea should be about.

Why I'm not choosing Media Center

Skip forward to 2008 and things aren't so straightforward. True, the Media Center software embedded into versions of Windows Vista can do much the same thing with keywords. Media Center has its uses, but I've long since abandoned it as a viable TV recording system in favour of a simpler, less fiddly Sky+ box.

That's not to say that Sky+ isn't without its limitations. You can't set recordings more than a week in advance, for example. How will I know when the Battlestar Galactica prequel Caprica begins? Or when cult US show Breaking Bad makes its debut on UK TV? I'd have to actually watch the trails and adverts between programmes – the very things I bought Sky+ to skip.

Similarly, I don't want to have to type programme searches into radiotimes.com every week. What I really need is a modern TiVo-like system that scans the schedules for me and then alerts me when the shows I want to watch are about to air.

So far, I can't find anything.

Web-based TV guides come close

As I've said, there's Media Center. But the old Shuttle box that I've now got running Windows Vista Home Premium has a gutsy fan that sounds like a small hairdryer when it wakes from standby. I'm not going to spend £500+ on a brand new (much quieter) Core 2 Duo system to replace it.

(I do like the look of the Sony VAIO TP2 though).

There's Digiguide. This started as a downloadable Windows program, but has since expanded its reach to include an online component. It has some of the functionality I'm looking for – favourite programmes, email and SMS alerts, smart keyword searches and RSS.

Testing is ongoing – at least until the free trial runs out (Digiguide charges £8.99 per year). But I can already see limitations – you can't assign email reminders to keyword/smart searches and Digiguide doesn't provide listings for some of Sky's more obscure channels, like FX. It's ideal for all you Freeview owners though.

How I hacked a solution (for now)

I thought I'd found a better solution in mytv rss, which can create a customised feed of TV shows, using XML data from tvrage.com. But it's US only.

The new series info page on tvguide.co.uk could prove handy. But it's a flat HTML page – there's no email option or RSS functionality. As a workaround, I'm trying out FeedWhip.com to create a custom RSS feed and send me email alerts when the content of the page changes.

Has anybody got a better solution for auto-searching UK TV listings? Leave me a comment below.

Read my previous posts:
Why my Xbox needs a bigger hard drive
When it rains on cloud computing