To be honest, the Sky firmware seems to be getting more buggy.
The rewind issue, where it doesn't actually rewind, has only started occuring recently for me. I am sure it never used to occur.
I agree with the other poster. The soft reboot option is definately required more and more frequently.
When I delete the "Searching....", I end up not being able to pick up some channels! I suspect its becuase both tuners are end up being used to try and download program information and are hence unable to pick up the channel stream....
Got a couple emails and a phone call from Sky today.
They confirmed my suspicion that if you want to ensure you catch the end of a live event that may go over time, you need to use manual recording and allow the time you think you might need.
They said a fix is being tested regarding ..searching. No specifics on what the fix was attempting to fix, and no estimate of a release date.
They wanted my to try TV1 recordings again, with overlaps of 10 and 10 minutes, with no other recordings around the time. Don't know if that means they think they fixed something...
There has been some uncertainty as to whether you need to keep the most recent copy of a series or not.
One theory held that the series link info was stored in the last recorded program, not the line that showed a recording to be done in the future. I have found this theory to be false.
On Monday, I set up Hogans' Heroes (Prime 5pm weekdays) and Shortland Street (TV2, 9:35 am weekdays) on series link. The TV2 entry, as usual does the ..searching thing. The Prime entry shows Hogan's Heroes for tomorrow 5pm, after recording today's episode.
Every evening I deleted both programs, so there were no recorded copies of either program on disk. Both future entries were there every day (except Hogan's Heroes was preempted by something else one day), and continued to record as expected the next day. I even started doing this with 3 News (6pm), which I actually watch.
This test was done in the context of doing soft reboots after deleting any ..searching lines (or any time I had the vaguest feeling something might be funny), and after cutting power, and avoiding cutting power in the first place. Note that this is the exact opposite of the old Sky digital decoders, where unplugging the power cable was the only way to reset the box. Definitely a no-go for MySky!
JohnPorter: Got a couple emails and a phone call from Sky today.
They confirmed my suspicion that if you want to ensure you catch the end of a live event that may go over time, you need to use manual recording and allow the time you think you might need.
They said a fix is being tested regarding ..searching. No specifics on what the fix was attempting to fix, and no estimate of a release date.
They wanted my to try TV1 recordings again, with overlaps of 10 and 10 minutes, with no other recordings around the time. Don't know if that means they think they fixed something...
The software that controls the menus, recording, EPG, etc is downloaded automatically to the hard drive. So yes, the updates are automatic. I suspect there is a copy of Linux or something in there.
If you notice the channel switching to 0 for no apparent reason, it could be an update was downloaded and the program restarts itself. That happened on the old decoders too - I caught some instances of it with my hard drive recorder. And lost the rest of the program I was trying to record.
wonderstuff: To be honest, the Sky firmware seems to be getting more buggy.
Not very firm, in other words! :)
wonderstuff: The rewind issue, where it doesn't actually rewind, has only started occuring recently for me. I am sure it never used to occur.
I suspect it may be a timing thing - when you press the keys too close together, or a specific sequence of keys in a short time or something. If so, it could well be that as you get more accustomed to using it, you start doing it more quickly, and then encounter the problem. I have been using a hard drive recorder to timeshift everything for 2.5 years now and got to where I always drove the thing as fast as it would go, so it's not surprising I would encounter the problem immediately. Back when I used VHS, I used to do any rewind very carefully, and try really hard to avoid the need to ever do so in the first place! Now I do it at the drop of a hat, even to the point where I get careless about watching the program while doing other things. If I hear the laugh track when I'm not looking, I know I can easily rewind to see the sight gag. I even keep a second remote across the room for easier access from the kitchen.
My suspicion is that Brown wrote that after a couple of days of using MySky. I had very few problems in the first week or two, and was generally positive about the product. It wasn't until later that I expected daily failures recording, and all the other problems.
Assuming he kept the box, and it wasn't a review one that had to be returned, it would be nice if he was honest enough to describe all the products (I find it difficult to believe that he won't experience them) in a future article.
> When I delete the "Searching....", I end up not being able to pick up some channels! I suspect its becuase both tuners are end up being used to try and download program information and are hence unable to pick up the channel stream....
Just supporting my own arguement here. :-)
Just in the process of recording two channels at the moment.
Note 1 - no music is being played on the Guide screen (must normally is streamed by one of the tuners
Note 2 - can browse the planner, can select a program to record, bu cannot select that program to be Series Linked. This again suggests that Series Link during the "Searching..." uses a tuner to download info.
Hence, that would suggest why some of us are having issues when we delete the "Searching..." programs and are unable to view any channels "due to atmospheric conditons". The Tuners are clearly getting locked into these dodgy searches.
wonderstuff: Just supporting my own arguement here. :-)
No problem - anything we can do to try to figure out how to get MySky to work better, has to be good!
Certainly something gets confused when you delete ..searching lines! Clearly there are limits on how many things you can do at once. From memory, the doc even mentions that certain features are not available when recording two programs. You cannot get synopsis info from the guide, for example.
Just tried your scenario - started recordings on two channels (3 and 4), then set up a future recording on 5. The series link button was enabled, but when I pressed it, it said "series link info not available when two recordings are in progress". And yet at the same time I can change series link on and off on a program I had previously selected for recording!
I suspect the two LNBs installed on the dish are directly connected to the two tuners (input 1 and input 2 on the back of the box), and the multitasking operating system chooses the first available one when it needs one. I suspect that each tuner requires its own dedicated LNB. It would be nice if someone from Sky would clarify some of these things. What we spend hours speculating about they could clear up in minutes. OTOH, we don't want to distract them from fixing things do we?!?
Speaking of dodgy, I got two instances of "Part Rec no signal" last night, but there was heavy rain from time to time. With the old decoder, I would assume it was the rain. With MySky, I'm not sure. And they were both TV1 programs I was doing because Sky asked me to!
Totally agree with your suspicion, Tony - likewise with the Herald article.
Anyone getting issues with remote extenders the one I got works well with the original decoder that I KEPT once I found out that efectivley u only have one video OUT spread out over two outputs NOT what I was lead to belive!!!!!!!!. grrrrrr
Also I have found a fair few bugs and ive only had it a couple of days very dissapointed so far..
whatty: Anyone getting issues with remote extenders the one I got works well with the original decoder that I KEPT once I found out that efectivley u only have one video OUT spread out over two outputs NOT what I was lead to belive!!!!!!!!. grrrrrr
Also I have found a fair few bugs and ive only had it a couple of days very dissapointed so far..
What sort of remote extender? The IR blaster I used on the old decoder doesn't work on MySky, and the learning remote I used before doesn't learn the new remote's commands either.
You can click on the Edit button and edit your own posts (on the forum, not on MySky!).
BTW, anyone tried to get anything out of the USB or RS-232 ports?
After swtiching to 3 News for a while, I went back to One News. The first night (Saturday) it was ok, then Sunday night the recording started late again by a minute or two. This seems to be absolutely reproducible, and occurs only when recorded off series link. The guide shows 6:00 to 7:00 every time I have looked, yet the recording starts late every time off series link.
I had thought it might be due to recording 3rd Rock at the same time, but that was not the case this time, being a Sunday.
Ok, after having MySky for three weeks now, here are my conclusions.
1. It is a great product, and truly will revolutionise the way you watch tv. If you want to timeshift, this is the way to do it.
2. The NZ implementation is still a bit buggy. Hence, there are a few things that you need to know to get the most out of it (these should be added to MySky's online FAQ):
2a. Some future recordings of a series will show up as ..searching. Until this bug is fixed, you will need to recognise the program from the scant info given. We are stuck with that for now. Get over it.
2b. Don't delete the ..searching lines. That was my first impulse, but it just gets the box more confused.
2c. If you ever do need to delete one (eg, when you want to stop recording a series), do a soft reboot afterwards (GoBack+Select on the front panel).
2d. If you ever have the vaguest feeling something may be amiss, do a soft reboot. Kinda like early versions of Windows.
2e. Don't turn the power off. Note this is in direct contradiction to the old digital decoder, where that was the only way to reboot. If you do lose power, take it off standby, put it in standby, then do a soft reboot.
2f. Some programs will be truncated, especially on TV1. Either acknowledge that this is unimportant, or do a backup recording on your hard drive recorder or vcr.
2g. Series link has issues, especially series on TVNZ. This can cause unexpected "recording conflicts" with other channels. Conspiracy theorists, this is your cue!
2h. For live sporting events that may go over the allotted time, use manual recording instead.
2i. Don't expect to record two programs in a row on the same channel and get a single complete recording. The two recordings may overlap, or there may be a gap where material is lost between recordings, including program material. This is mainly on TVNZ, or programs recorded at the same time as TVNZ programs.
3. Sky is probably violating advertising standards or something in their claim that you can record all episodes of a series at the touch of a button. In my experience, this feature is not enabled for many of the programs I want to watch, and is unreliable for others.
4. Don't expect meaningful dialog with Sky support staff in regard to these issues. They are uncoordinated at best.
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