Ads running about the EPG update.

Charlie

As as we knowthe new EPG is suppose to be unleasehd soon. People may have already seen this but sky are now running ads advertising so. You can go to channel 999 and press red and you get a look and talk through about the new EPG. Sorry if this is common knowledge and im just repeating well known info but im avidly wating new the EPG (like are alot of disgruntled sky+ customers) and hadn't seen anything about this ad posted anywhere.

byte

I haven't seen the ad myself. Might take a peek at 999 tonight. It's a channel I never use even though I used to use it back in the olden times

daveirl

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Mossy Monk

heres hoping they dont **** up the boxes further with this new update

Charlie

Mossy Monk wrote:

heres hoping they dont **** up the boxes further with this new update

Hopefully so. Not to mad on the idea that they have replaced the sky + planner/sky planner category with just pressing the green button. Nothing big but we already had a button choice for it and the ability to scroll to it.

watty

daveirl wrote:

This post has been deleted.

Which no doubt explains why newer remonte have a little loudspeaker symbol on the zero.

Why they didn't have all this from day on is a mystery.

Creamy Goodness

hope they add the feature where as when your using the search and scan bar to see whats on for the next six hours, that if you have highlight a program that's in 2 hours and press i that it gives the infomation for that show and not the one that is showing now.

i hope you's get me lol

Phen

Does anybody know for definate if the rest of the BBCs (ie: 3, 4, News 24 etc.), UTV and ITV 2 will be on the Irish EPG?

Charlie

Cremo wrote:

hope they add the feature where as when your using the search and scan bar to see whats on for the next six hours, that if you have highlight a program that's in 2 hours and press i that it gives the infomation for that show and not the one that is showing now.

i hope you's get me lol

Know exactly what you mean. Not only should it show info for later programmes on the channel you're watching, but it should show info for any program on any channel you select when using the search and scan banner. This is feature on ntl. Boy did I have egg on my face when I finally managed to convince my parents to switch form ntl to sky, telling them sky was so much better, only to find out that it lacked a feature whch is so basic very ntl.

lawhec

charlie mchugh wrote:

Know exactly what you mean. Not only should it show info for later programmes on the channel you're watching, but it should show info for any program on any channel you select when using the search and scan banner. This is feature on ntl. Boy did I have egg on my face when I finally managed to convince my parents to switch form ntl to sky, telling them sky was so much better, only to find out that it lacked a feature whch is so basic very ntl.

IIRC this information is put on every transponder Sky use, it isn't directly in memory in the receiver itself. Upgrading this to allow info for all channels over six hours or more would result in quite a large datastream. Wherever its possible for Sky receivers to be able to do this, I don't know - I'd guess the whole EPG would have to be downloaded to a spare memory pool first which I'd guess isn't possible. Of course Sky's answer would be to use the main EPG guide.

Haven't touched NTL for a while but for all the Freeview channels programme info is available for all channels on a now & next basis on almost all receivers - some might also be able to cache this from the 8-day EPG stream as well (likely to be more high end recent receivers).

Slippers

Would I be right in thinking that the full EPG is essentialy a channel, only instead of pictures and sound it is comprised of text - the i-button information for all the programs on all the channels in the next ~7 days broadcast in a loop of a few seconds - and the reason that this information can't be selected with the search and scan banner is that the decoder is tuned to the channel that the user is watching and not the EPG 'channel'?

watty

Basically true, Though I think the full EPG is on more than one transponder and there may be a few TV channels on same transponder.

Basically full info is only available for current channel Now & Next as on a FTA receiver.
Older Digiboxes may not have enough memory to Cache extended EPG information. My FTA box does Cache some EPG info as you channel surf.

Slippers

Thanks.

Sparky

when you use the guide as normal, and select certain programmes and press (i) it pauses for a second and then gives the info, could it not be possible for sky to link to this info for when you use the S&S banner??

watty

It comes from the 2 or 4 transponders with extend epg. The delay is latency in the transmission loop.

The latest digibox caches more than the old one. If you do someting unexpected in EPG or Interactive or keep changing quickly there is no difference in speed. Otherwise the new box seems 10 times faster, Obviously caching the next page of interactive or likely next EPG requests in advance.

To use extended info on S&S would be a transponder change in most cases (you would lose picture and sound). Unless you had previously accessed the full guide recently and the box had enough time and memory to store it to cache memory. (unlikely).

andrew3

about time too - move all the sh*te to the bottom of the epg! - just hope my box doesn't delete all the recordings in the update - lost a whole series of weeds, lost etc last week -- needless to say I wasn't impressed!

they should add the other channels part to the favourite channels function as well!

JohnC.

Speaking of Sky advertising their features, I saw a Sky HD ad a couple of days ago too.

I also just caught the end of another ad which was advertising Cold Case (I think) and using the rewind feature with it, which still doesn't work, does it? But like I said, I only caught the end of it, so I could be mistaken.

Sparky

Kahless wrote:

Speaking of Sky advertising their features, I saw a Sky HD ad a couple of days ago too.

I also just caught the end of another ad which was advertising Cold Case (I think) and using the rewind feature with it, which still doesn't work, does it? But like I said, I only caught the end of it, so I could be mistaken.

yeah they show that ad now after most films on sky movies, trying to target the right audience

Xcom2

4 wishes

A sleep timer:I mean how hard is it for someone at SKY to set up a sleep timer to tell the digibox to turn off after a set period of time?

Same channel sountrack:When I go into the programme guide why do I have to listen to elevator music? I want to hear the channel I am watching so I know when the ad's end!

More information:When i'm flicking through my favourite channel's,to get information about a programme 2 hour's from now I have to go into the programme guide! why?

Last channel:My 12 year old Grundig STR 1 used to have a button that switched between the channel your watching and the channel you are on(none of this scrolling between menu's because you cannot remember the channel number).

That is just 4 off the top of my head I'm sure I could come up with more.

watty

You can turn off the music in Guide.
It can't play the TV soundtrack as it has switched transponder.

I have no idea why there is no channel history. Most PC sat cards and FTA digital receivers do it.

More information:When i'm flicking through my favourite channel's,to get information about a programme 2 hour's from now I have to go into the programme guide! why?

Not possible. Read posts above again to see why.

shabbyroad

Phen wrote:

Does anybody know for definate if the rest of the BBCs (ie: 3, 4, News 24 etc.), UTV and ITV 2 will be on the Irish EPG?

BBC3 and BBC4 on the Irish EPG..... please !!!!

That would make me a very happy bunny.:D

watty

Unlikely.
BBC pays Sky for all their Channels on UK EPG.
Sky pays BBC for BBC1NI and BBC2NI on ROI EPG.

Pal

is there some way to force the upgrade ?

watty

Forced update usually only works for fully rolled out upgrades that box has missed by being unplugged.

Hold backup on box while reconnecting mains power till all four lights are lit.

It won't make any difference at the momement

byte

Also, it's recommended that you remove the viewing card from the box when forcing an upgrade. But, as watty says, until people report getting the new software, there is little point in forcing an upgrade anyway.

okden

watty wrote:

I have no idea why there is no channel history.

i think there should be 3 channel history buttons, storing the last unique channels viewed.
x2 x3 x4

need the box be on standby for the update to happen?
will we lose recorded progs? (ive got a few movies backedup i have to see)

watty

All you need is <- and -> working like browser history

Mossy Monk

okden wrote:

need the box be on standby for the update to happen?
will we lose recorded progs? (ive got a few movies backedup i have to see)

they should be ok
besides, history has shown Sky+ boxes are always last to get these updates