News - Freeview Connect coming to disrupt YouView

[Rob_B]

Sky might walk over Freesat, but compared to my Freeview box, Sky's (Sky+, not HD, in my case) EPG is absymal. It's slow as hell, the search function barely works, and it drives me absolutely nuts. I'm about to move away from Sky, and the EPG and the way the DVR functions is a large part of why.

I much preferred our Sky HD (500GB version) EPG. It was quick, simple and unintrusive. We never used search so I can't comment on that (Sky nor Freesat)
If I could get a SKY HD box with freesat/DVR then I'd be laughing.

[ataru]

EPG isn't relevant to me now, I just watch stuff on the Most Popular/Recommended pages or find it in A-Z. Only thing the broadcast TV is good for is live news.

[Saracen]

I much preferred our Sky HD (500GB version) EPG. It was quick, simple and unintrusive. We never used search so I can't comment on that (Sky nor Freesat)
If I could get a SKY HD box with freesat/DVR then I'd be laughing.

Couple of things about my Sky box. Press the 'I' button to get details of a program, and at least half the time, it tells you no information is available. Cancel it, wait 5 or 10 seconds and press 'I' again, and the info is there. And that's at least half the time, probably more like 75%.

As for search, three things.

You can only search by first letter. So if you want, NCIS, you go into search and press N, and it shows all the Ns. But then press C and now you get all the Cs.

To find a particular program, you have to repeatedly PgDn, and that can mean 30, 40, 50 or so PgDn's if what you're after is about midway between N and O, like Night. Oh, and there's probably 20 pages of News entries to get past.

Next, about half the time, it loses track of where it is, and resets to A. So you could have
selected N, then done 40 PgDns, before it gives up and resets, meaning you get to do it all again.

But the real winner in "Idiot of the Year" contest. About half the time, even doing a search on "All channels", it doesn't find programmes that ARE there. It even does that if the program is on Sky 1.

So, first, it's hopelessly slow, second it's buggy as gell, and third, they can't even inckude all their own programs on their own channels when you "search all".

All told, it's utterly useless.


The Freeview, on the other hand, I can search by multiple letters, word, partial multiple words, and it finds all matches, has never yet let me down and is pretty much instantaneous.

[Rob_B]

So nothing like my Freesat HDR then
Want to see listings? Press guide and it pops up and stops the picture in the background, a few seconds later the picture will come back, it seems not to be able to cope with doing 2 things at once. Come out then go back in again? Yep, it has to reload the listings again!

Things like:

- Scheduled recordings hang around forever even if the series has finished months ago
- Sometimes it misses recordings
- Confusing menu when clashes occur
- Can’t delete more than 1 thing at a time (unless you delve into the menu and bulk delete) With Sky I pressed Yellow and it was gone & I could then instantly do another rather than have to wait for the 1st to delete.

To me it’s just unpolished, I appreciate it’s an older box and maybe a higher end box would improve things but from images/video I’ve seen it doesn’t look like massive improvements have been made.

[Saracen]

I can't really speak to Freesat. I do have Freesat, but it's on a fairly old Freesat receiver (not PVR) connected to an old (but superb) Pioneer HDR which, sadly, is old enough to have analog broadcast TV only as a built-in tuner. It's now used as a recorder (with 3 external receivers) and editor. In fact, it's so good as an editor that I have two of them.

I can record, edit (frame accurate), and then either watch or burn to disk the edited program.

Anyway, got sidetracked. The Freesat system is currently connected to an old analog Sky dish (or rather, a 90cm dish awaiting an LNB upgrade and either a manual readjustment, or more likely, a cheap motor, as that receiver (given to me by a friend that upgraded) has a built-in positioner.

Currently, getting Freesat means either disconnecting one Sky+ LNB output, or running another Sky-type double cable run to the Sky+ dish. I must get around to doing it, one way or another. Probably the motor (Disecq).

[DanceswithUnix]

You can only search by first letter. So if you want, NCIS, you go into search and press N, and it shows all the Ns. But then press C and now you get all the Cs.

That is just laughable.

I think some of the problem is that TiVo have patents on all the clever stuff (like being able to tell the box you want to record anything with Derren Brown in it on any channel). But then then it isn't like they patented a rounded rectangle. We are all used to digital recording now but in the late 90's the idea that you can rewind live TV was pretty amazing.

Am fascinated by the NowTV box being so responsive, given it is just a Raspberry Pi in terms of CPU grunt so nothing special these days.

[Saracen]

That is just laughable.

....

Not when you've got one. I alternate between screaming in frustration, pulling my hair out (explains a lot, I guess) and trying to suppress the searing desire to throw it out of the window. Using it makes me feel like a cross between the Grinch on Christmas day, and a bear with a very sore head. It is guaranteed to put me into a foul mood.

And that's when the box itself doesn't just decide to pretend it's not getting a signal, and reboot .... thereby losing anything it was doing at the time. Quite seriously, anything I really want, I try to schedule to record at least on the main channel and +1, and if it's repeated, on another day too. The box really is a piece of junk.

[jim]

SkyHD EPG is like night and day compared to the old Sky EPG. It really does make a tremendous difference, and given that my only expense was £30 for a second hand HD box it was a pretty good deal.