When I first got my Thomson, when I set it to record a Dr.Who documentary, I got several messages when the BBC either changed the title of the program or time of the program. This is the only time I have ever received messages.
Should the PVR send you a message if the program time changes ?
Also it would be useful if you got a message saying a weekly scheduled program was no longer broadcasting, so you could cancel it.
Surely it would be easy for the box to compare your recordings with the latest EPG download ?

Maybe I am just expecting too much ??
What use is the message facility ??

The message facility was used when the software was updated and described the new features.

Apart from that it will tell you when a one-off reservation changes time, but not repeats. In my experience you hardly ever get these, with the exception of when you get a corrupt EPG download overnight in which case you can get a flurry of them, often a precursor to a YLD (Yellow Light of Death) lockup.