Sky EPG feedback (vs NTL, etc)

spockety

I'm a Sky newbie, got HD installed a couple of weeks ago. Have been a long time NTL digital user (since 2001).

Anyway, my impressions of the Sky EPG having used it for a couple of weeks are:

1. Relative to NTL, it's lightning fast.

2. In the 'browse' mode, i.e. when you press any of the directional keys to scroll through time/channels without leaving the channel you're on, there is no colour key shortcut to jump back to the first channel on the list and start your browsing from there. This is the yellow button on the NTL Browser and it is very handy.

3. There is no 'back' button on Sky to jump back and forth between two channels, again on NTL this is the yellow button when watching TV and it is damn handy. You would think the "Back up" button on the remote could be used for this, but alas seemingly not.

4. It is very annoying that the sound for the programme you're watching disappears when you go into the "TV Guide" menu, and is replaced with some built in Sky background music. Hell, on NTL you can actually carry on watching your program in a small screen!

5. On my HUMAX Hd box, you can have more than one list of favourites (up to 5 I think), so you can categorise your favourite channels, and then when you press channel up/down, or go to the 'browse' function, you're only seeing your current category of favourites, again, very handy if you only want to watch/browse a subset of channels at a time.

6. When in the 'browse' mode scrolling through (not sure what the equivalent term is on Sky as against NTL) channels, it is not possible to press the 'i' button to get programme info for the selected channel/time/programme.. This is incredibly cr@p! You have to go into the "TV Guide" to get programme info for a programme on another channel or time. Which as I say in point 4, means leaving picture/sound from the programme your watching.

7. When watching Anytime or recorded programmes, if you go into System Setup (say to do something like adjust the optical audio output delay in ms), once you come back out of it, you are not sent back to the recorded programme you are watching, but instead dumped back to a live tv channel. Shoddy.

That's just my initial impression ..

Kotek Besar

spockety wrote:

6. When in the 'browse' mode scrolling through (not sure what the equivalent term is on Sky as against NTL) channels, it is not possible to press the 'i' button to get programme info for the selected channel/time/programme.. This is incredibly cr@p! You have to go into the "TV Guide" to get programme info for a programme on another channel or time..

This point is the one that irritates me the most about the Sky EPG. For a company with so many advanced and unique features, I will never understand why that convenient yet simple functionality is not there.

Jip

It may sound simple but the implementation is not. The program information is carried by each individual channel and not a general feed as such so therefore you have to have to be on the channel or the EPG to get the info whereas with UPC I suspect the program info is carried in a seperate channel/feed.

spockety

Well the programme name itself is obviously contained somewhere that is not native to each individual channel, surely the data store which holds that can be expanded to include programme info?

Kensington

spockety wrote: »

Well the programme name itself is obviously contained somewhere that is not native to each individual channel, surely the data store which holds that can be expanded to include programme info?

Not practically, no. Each "group" of channels (transponder) must carry the EPG data for the next 6 hours or so for every channel. This uses a certain amount of the capacity of each transponder. To carry programme information for each channel also would seriously eat into the amount of space left for actual channels, and just wouldn't be practical. So unless you are tuned to the particular transponder which sends out the entire EPG data for the next seven days, all you'll get is 6 hours programme info and information for the current program you're watching (as you can't tune to two "channels" at the same time without a seperate feed from your LNB). This is unfortunately just one of the limitations of satellite TV systems like sky digital.

On UPC though, each box has a main tuner for the channel itself and is then able to pull in all the EPG data off the EPG "channel" using a seperate tuner, at the same time.

This is the same reason behind number 4. Going into the EPG causes the box to switch from the channel you are watching to the EPG "channel".

spockety

The software on a Sky+ or Sky HD box could be modified to use the 2nd LNB input to download a load of EPG info when it's not in use for recording..... ?

loyatemu

theres a new EPG coming - probably in the new year. Points 4 & 6 will be addressed in this. It'll probably only be rolled out to users with the latest Sky+ and HD boxes though.

Kotek Besar

loyatemu wrote: »

theres a new EPG coming - probably in the new year. Points 4 & 6 will be addressed in this. It'll probably only be rolled out to users with the latest Sky+ and HD boxes though.

That's good to know, thanks. Do you have any point of reference for this?

spockety

Sounds good.. another annoying one on the search and scan is for current programs it tells you it is on "NOW".. yes , we obviously know it is on now.. could you not please tell us when the thing actually started, so we know how long into it it is without having to subtract the running time from the end time in our heads!

Kotek Besar

spockety wrote: »

Sounds good.. another annoying one on the search and scan is for current programs it tells you it is on "NOW".. yes , we obviously know it is on now.. could you not please tell us when the thing actually started, so we know how long into it it is without having to subtract the running time from the end time in our heads!

Yes! I agree, that's another thing frustrating me too.

loyatemu

benifa wrote: »

That's good to know, thanks. Do you have any point of reference for this?

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=686968

BigMoose

Kensington wrote:

Not practically, no. Each "group" of channels (transponder) must carry the EPG data for the next 6 hours or so for every channel. This uses a certain amount of the capacity of each transponder. To carry programme information for each channel also would seriously eat into the amount of space left for actual channels, and just wouldn't be practical. So unless you are tuned to the particular transponder which sends out the entire EPG data for the next seven days, all you'll get is 6 hours programme info and information for the current program you're watching (as you can't tune to two "channels" at the same time without a seperate feed from your LNB). This is unfortunately just one of the limitations of satellite TV systems like sky digital.

OK, so why cant they give information for the next program on the channel I'm watching? It's rare I want to know about a program more than 6 hours in advance and I accept the issue with carrying all channels. However most often I want information on the next (or so) program on the channel I'm watching. This I find the must infuriating thing with the Sky EPG over NTL. Also how does the TV Guide work if that has info for all channels/progs?

grimm2005

spockety wrote: »

7. When watching Anytime or recorded programmes, if you go into System Setup (say to do something like adjust the optical audio output delay in ms), once you come back out of it, you are not sent back to the recorded programme you are watching, but instead dumped back to a live tv channel. Shoddy.

just hit the play button from the live feed and it takes you straight back to your recording, not too much of a annoyance

Sounds good.. another annoying one on the search and scan is for current programs it tells you it is on "NOW".. yes , we obviously know it is on now.. could you not please tell us when the thing actually started, so we know how long into it it is without having to subtract the running time from the end time in our heads!

pressing 'i' will tell you when its started, slight inconvinience but its certainly a lot easier than your suggestion

saying that, itll be nice to get a new EPG, ive been with sky since 2001 and as far as i can remember they havn't spruced it up at all. only differences really are more specialised categories and addition of anytime (not really an EPG upgrade though). Also would be nice if sky+ could be more flexible with recordings i.e. being able to label them or put them into specific folders, rather than just having viewed and recorded. its a great device, interface could just do with being a little less basic.

byte

Ooh, I didn't realise that pressing Play took you back to your recording. Good to know that!

Folders for recordings would be a good idea alright also.