Sky box limitations

Liam Byrne

After a few months of having a FreeSat box, I had a guy install Sky last week with the picture routed throughout the entire house with magic eyes.

That element works really well. At the moment the channels available are pretty much the same as what I previously had, until I get the card next week.

Unfortunately, Sky's EPG setup is annoying the crap out of me, and apparently it'll get worse when the card arrives and some of the channels get relegated to the "Services - Other Channels" menu.

Is there no way for the Sky box to do what the old box used to allow me do....i.e. delete references to the channels that I won't watch and add the channels that I will watch, so that the EPG lists everything that's available ?

Gadgie

Liam Byrne wrote: »

Is there no way for the Sky box to do what the old box used to allow me do....i.e. delete references to the channels that I won't watch and add the channels that I will watch, so that the EPG lists everything that's available ?

No. Sky control the EPG.

Rippy

Add the channels you watch to favourites and watch via tv guide - blue button.

Liam Byrne

Rippy wrote: »

Add the channels you watch to favourites and watch via tv guide - blue button.

Don't think the blue button works with the "Other Channels", though.

Bloody annoying! I mean, off the top of my head, I definitely won't be watching UCB, Baby TV, Gay TV, most of the supposed "adult channels", the foreign stuff and the premium stuff that I'm not paying for.

In the meantime, apparently when I get the Sky card the proper stuff like ITV 2/3/4, UTV, Channel 4, etc, will all be relegated to the arse-end of the system under Services.....

Brolly

Liam Byrne wrote: »

Don't think the blue button works with the "Other Channels", though.

Bloody annoying! I mean, off the top of my head, I definitely won't be watching UCB, Baby TV, Gay TV, most of the supposed "adult channels", the foreign stuff and the premium stuff that I'm not paying for.

In the meantime, apparently when I get the Sky card the proper stuff like ITV 2/3/4, UTV, Channel 4, etc, will all be relegated to the arse-end of the system under Services.....

Go to services and you can remove all the adult channels from the EPG.

Liam Byrne

brolly wrote: »

Go to services and you can remove all the adult channels from the EPG.

Thanks brolly....

Not quite the same thing, though (that's kindof a "parental control" thing).

What I was hoping for is that, when using the guide to see what's on, I could (a) exclude the channels that I've no interest in
(b) exclude the premium channels that I haven't subscribed to
(c) include the "other channels" that have been added (currently Channel 4 but apparently will include a lot more once I get the Irish card)

I mean, that's surely what a receiver's EPG should do.....let you scroll through the programme guide channels that you have without cluttering it up with rubbish or with stuff you don't have access to, isn't it ?

My old FreeView receiver did that, no problem; it came preloaded with all the listing (fair enough) and it let me remove the crap channels and the pay-per view stuff, so that the EPG reflected what was available, removing the need to scroll through pages of stuff that isn't actually available.

It'd be great if you could also change the order (the other box did that, too) but I'd put up with the illogical order if the channels and their contents were at least listed without jumping through hoops......

MartyM

Liam Byrne wrote: »

It'd be great if you could also change the order (the other box did that, too)...

Yeah, this is my biggest frustration with Sky Digital, the inability to sort channels! This was simple to do with Sky Analogue years ago but alas, apparently not so easy in the digital era??

Perhaps it is possible, if your other box was a digital receiver also?? Then I'm not sure why Sky dont offer that facility...

The blue button can be painful because you can only scroll forward.....i bet everyone gets annoyed when they just miss their desired channel by one click!!!!

The favouites option in the TV Guide is good though, but then again, its only good because of the lack of other options...

ongarite

I use the favourites option and it works quite well with all my most watched stations in a neat list.

djimi

To be fair, I have the full Sky package, and there is about 20 channels that I actually watch, and I know all the channel numbers. Maybe its just me, but I doubt you will actually use the EPG when you get used to Sky, except for to record programmes and to see what is on.

Liam Byrne

djimi wrote: »

To be fair, I have the full Sky package, and there is about 20 channels that I actually watch, and I know all the channel numbers. Maybe its just me, but I doubt you will actually use the EPG when you get used to Sky, except for to record programmes and to see what is on.

Well, I would have thought that the whole point of an EPG was so you could see what's on at any stage......there's so little decent stuff on TV these days that I'd hate to miss something worthwhile just because it was hidden away under "Services"

MartyM

Liam Byrne wrote: »

Well, I would have thought that the whole point of an EPG was so you could see what's on at any stage......there's so little decent stuff on TV these days that I'd hate to miss something worthwhile just because it was hidden away under "Services"

The only way around this is the old fashion TV magazine!

I purchased 'TV & Satellite' magazine in Easons at the weekend and must say its brilliant. Very well laid out and all channels are there...will definitely be a weekly purchase for me!