Does it work like PDC and records the actual programme, or does it just record the aloted time slot - and if so, can you add those couple of minutes before and after.
I was looking into the Freeview PVRs a few days ago and none of them have any PDC like features - which seems a bit of a step back in some ways actually!
yes, you can - you can choose how much time to add at the beginning and end of the recording.
as has been said, if the time of the programme changes and the epg information is updated, then the programme will still be recorded but some broadcasters aren't very quick at updating the epg.
i'd be interested to know if broadcasters can update the epg using a web browser at any time and from anywhere, or whether they have to phone sky or go through some other process where the change is implemented by a couple of people down the chain.
i'd be interested to know if broadcasters can update the epg using a web browser at any time and from anywhere, or whether they have to phone sky or go through some other process where the change is implemented by a couple of people down the chain.
It depends on the broadcaster and how they link with the EPG system.
Large broadcasters - like the BBC - are able to feed their EPG data live into the Sky EPG system - and if they update their EPG data accurately from their live playout areas, it updates very quickly and reasonably automatically. (An exception to this is News 24 - where the transmission area is NOT directly connected to the EPG system - and thus late changes to the schedule, most commonly a recorded programme being replaced by rolling breaking news coverage, will often not appear, as in this case a phone call or e-mail is sent AND has to be processed)
However if you don't update your own data - even if you have a data link to Sky it won't update.
Smaller broadcasters send Sky a schedule "off line" - which is just programmed into the EPG by Sky I believe - and which won't be dynamically updated.
BBC are particularly good at updating their EPG entries on Sky. I remember during the World Cup it was changed every couple of minutes during extra time on one game, with the news being shuffled forwards by about 5 minutes each time.
It meant that anyone recording Dr Who that night actually got the programme without having to reset the planner.
However, I noticed some anomalies when the clocks change. This week Sky+ wanted to record Emmerdale at 18:00, and Corrie at 18:30 on Monday (according to the planner) but they did it correctly at 19:00 and 19:30.
BBC are particularly good at updating their EPG entries on Sky. I remember during the World Cup it was changed every couple of minutes during extra time on one game, with the news being shuffled forwards by about 5 minutes each time.
It meant that anyone recording Dr Who that night actually got the programme without having to reset the planner.
Yep - the BBC implemented decent EPG facilities when they opened their original digital transmission areas at TV Centre - and Red Bee also have good quality links at the Broadcast Centre. They just decided to do it properly...
I've been considering upgrading to Sky+ for some time now, but really want to know if it's worth it!
I mean the whole watch what* you want when* you want it thing sounds great, as does the ad skippy thing. But just how flexible is it? Just how reliable is it? Just how infuriating is it? And is it worth the extra subscription fee per month?
* shows that have already been broadcast
No I DON'T recommend it. I find it VERY overrated many reasons firstly the 'you'll never miss your favourite show' thing is a lie because you'll often sit down to watch your show only to be greeted with the classic 'Record Failed' message.
Also the series link thing is a joke, it doesn't work on everything only certain things and it doesn't cross channels. You can't tell it EG 'Everytime you see ''The Simpsons'' record it. It doesn't work that way you series link it will only record the Sky One 7pm episode everyday you can't tell it to always record every ''Show X'' the box finds regardless of channel.
Also I did share with a family and the amount of times my recorders would be wiped my other people 'by mistake' and others who record stuff and leave it sitting on the box taking up space for over 6 months and never watching it. Also you can skip the ads but its same as a VHS in that you still have manually ‘fast forward’ yourself and press play again at the right time. It doesn’t do it for you
Waste of time. If one has it all to themselves than maybe it’s worth it, but it’s the emperors news clothes not as good as it seems.
I've been considering upgrading to Sky+ for some time now, but really want to know if it's worth it!
I mean the whole watch what* you want when* you want it thing sounds great, as does the ad skippy thing. But just how flexible is it? Just how reliable is it? Just how infuriating is it? And is it worth the extra subscription fee per month?
* shows that have already been broadcast
No I DON'T recommend it. I find it VERY overrated many reasons firstly the 'you'll never miss your favourite show' thing is a lie because you'll often sit down to watch your show only to be greeted with the classic 'Record Failed' message.
Also the series link thing is a joke, it doesn't work on everything only certain things and it doesn't cross channels. You can't tell it EG 'Everytime you see ''The Simpsons'' record it. It doesn't work that way you series link it will only record the Sky One 7pm episode everyday you can't tell it to always record every ''Show X'' the box finds regardless of channel.
Also I did share with a family and the amount of times my recorders would be wiped my other people 'by mistake' and others who record stuff and leave it sitting on the box taking up space for over 6 months and never watching it. Also you can skip the ads but its same as a VHS in that you still have manually ‘fast forward’ yourself and press play again at the right time. It doesn’t do it for you
Waste of time. If one has it all to themselves than maybe it’s worth it, but it’s the emperors news clothes not as good as it seems.
Which channels suffer from failed recordings? That almost never happens with our Sky+ - what are your signal strengths like ? Occasionally one of the tuners gets a bit confused - and you get an error when tuning to some channels. A power-down helps this.
As for series link - that is partially the fault of the broadcasters. They have to specifically provide series link information to Sky - though you are right that compared to Tivo and MCE the Series Link functionality is far more limited.
On the other hand, Sky + copes well with soft padding, and because it records the broadcast stream with no quality loss, the replay quality is identical to recording, and also subtitles survive recording (which is a real boon for the hard of hearing)
I have MCE, Tivo and Sky + and they all have their good and bad points.
Tivo is by far the most user-friendly, has 30" ad-skip (when enabled by the back door), and has fantastic wishlist and season pass functionality. However it has the poorest picture quality of the three as it adds an MPEG2 compression (even though it has RGB in and out), and it only has a single recording channel.
MCE with a DVB-T tuner and a VGA->SCART or XBox 360 output solution provides excellent loss-less picture quality. It can also handle multiple tuners to allow dual record, or single record+Live TV (and you can hack to add more than two tuners).
However MCE is still Windows - so has the inherent problems that that introduces - but also allows for other uses, MP3 and Photo replay, DVD replay etc.
MCE is only really good as a Freeview based system though - if you integrate it with Sky you either have to drop the picture quality to composite/S-video, or do some very "hacker" stuff with a satellite capture system and experimental drivers.
Sky+ has the poorest EPG and search facilities, the least flexible recording scheduling, but excellent picture quality, is low cost, and relatively straight forward and reliable.
These days they all have various methods for scheduling recordings remotely. (Sky Remote Record, Tivo Web, MCE Webguide etc.)
No I DON'T recommend it. I find it VERY overrated many reasons firstly the 'you'll never miss your favourite show' thing is a lie because you'll often sit down to watch your show only to be greeted with the classic 'Record Failed' message.
I only ever had that message twice in 18 months. You obviously have a dodgy box!
Bewitched_Fan_2k posted:
Also the series link thing is a joke, it doesn't work on everything only certain things and it doesn't cross channels. You can't tell it EG 'Everytime you see ''The Simpsons'' record it. It doesn't work that way you series link it will only record the Sky One 7pm episode everyday you can't tell it to always record every ''Show X'' the box finds regardless of channel.
"Series Link" is provided by the broadcaster not Sky. C4 is obviously not going to link Simpsons episodes on Sky One any more than the other way round - get real!
Bewitched_Fan_2k posted:
Also I did share with a family and the amount of times my recorders would be wiped my other people 'by mistake'
Mark it as "keep" by pressing blue and they wouldn't be able to delete it!
Bewitched_Fan_2k posted:
Also you can skip the ads but its same as a VHS in that you still have manually ‘fast forward’ yourself and press play again at the right time. It doesn’t do it for you.
Is it that much trouble to press fast-forward. How do you keep your eyes open without help?
Mark it as "keep" by pressing blue and they wouldn't be able to delete it!
They still would delete stuff even then. We don't have it anymore and the failed recording would usually be nickeledon or the nicktoons channel, but twice in 18 months is twice too often. There should be NO reason for it and the series link well let's say you ask it 'record' eg. Dead Ringers each monday. Say after 3 weeks it wasn't on for a week because of snooker or golf. It would vanish and you would have the set the series link up again, thus you would forget and miss all the episodes after that.
Another fault is if you want to record something only to find someone else is already recording something at the same time. I'd give up on it because if your recording 2 things at once. Every time someone would come along turn Sky to see what was on BANG! that's one the recordings knackered and guess who's each and everytime Its marketed as 'end of all arguments in the family' well it created more in ours.
There should be NO reason for it and the series link well let's say you ask it 'record' eg. Dead Ringers each monday. Say after 3 weeks it wasn't on for a week because of snooker or golf. It would vanish and you would have the set the series link up again, thus you would forget and miss all the episodes after that.
That isn't the case currently - you can leave a series link in and it copes with missing weeks fine. (I suspect it was a broadcaster data issue, rather than a software issue, with the broadcaster incorrectly starting a new series link chain after the break.)
Quote:
Another fault is if you want to record something only to find someone else is already recording something at the same time. I'd give up on it because if your recording 2 things at once. Every time someone would come along turn Sky to see what was on BANG! that's one the recordings knackered and guess who's each and everytime Its marketed as 'end of all arguments in the family' well it created more in ours.
Bit of a worry if your family can't understand the very big warning banner that comes up if you try to watch a different channnel whilst recording two others. It IS annoying that you can't tune three services at once - but nearly all dual-tuner PVRs have this limitation (though SOME Freeview boxes will allow you to watch a 3rd service as long as you only need to tune to two muxes for all three)
You'd need three LNB feeds and a triple tuner Sky system to be able to cope with this. (MCE can be persuaded to run with 4 tuners so that would solve the problem I guess)
It will be interesting to see if local PVR recording continues to be the best way of watching TV once higher bitrate broadband becomes widespread. Systems like the BBC iPlayer and BTVision - offering VOD versions of previously broadcast shows (ideally pre-emptively downloaded) - may be a better solution for some - with no clash issues.
Bit of a worry if your family can't understand the very big warning banner that comes up if you try to watch a different channnel whilst recording two others.
They are set in their ways well my dad is, would turn on and just press all the buttons til the 'stupid' message that he didn't understand dispeared. Likewise when in the recorded shows part would just delete 'the recordings he didn't understand what they were' and when the "this has been marked as keep are you sure" thing flashed up he would just press all the buttons with ''oh whatever go away" attitude.
