Fw: Arghhh!!! Bloody PVR's :(

[Gareth Cook <g@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Sky+ recordings are not encoded chap - the raw bitstream is dumped to
disk, and then the stream is decoded as if it were a live broadcast.

If you record a Sky movies film, but then downgrade your card to no
movies, you wont be able to play back that film because it cannot decode
the stream anymore,

You do get this weirdness every now and again. For some reas tonight mine
turned off ! It has already had the new Sky+ upgrade yesterday so fek
knows what it did. It says "Power Fail" on the recording and lost
10 mins,
but it connected to a ruddy great big UPS, along with the whole of Node0.

G.

Gareth Cook
Tools and Process Architect
IBM SWG Sales - Lotus Park, Staines, TW18 3AG
Office: +44 (0)1784 445166 - Mobile: +44 (0)7980 445166
AIM Chat : TheBoyG - MSN Chat : chat@xxxxxxx
email: g@xxxxxxx


----- Forwarded by Gareth Cook/UK/IBM on 19/01/2006 23:46 -----

Discussion
Main Topic

ukha_d@xxxxxxx
Today 23:31

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Subject:
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[ukha_d] Arghhh!!! Bloody PVR's  :(
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Category:



Bloody technology  :(

Got into trouble off SWMBO tonight.

Having got SKY+ a few weeks ago we have gradually been migrating our
recordings to it instead of Tivo as we get used to how it works.

Tonight SKY+ did a VERY BAD THING :(

I like the way SKY+ pads the program out slightly as *generally* our
recordings have been complete unlike on Tivo where due the the
broadcasters
complete inability to read a clock the end of the programs often gets the
chop. Having said that I believe the padding is the cause of tonights cock
up

SWMBO was going out tonight so I had four recordings set up for her

BBC1             19:30 Eastenders
CH4              20:00           10 Years Younger
Five             20:00 Diet Doctors
CH4              21:00 Big Brother

TV was on but I wasnt really watching it when a message about a conflict
came up. I ignored it like you do with TiVo because I thought Eastenders
finishes at 20:00 so both tuners will then be available.

Now the totally unfigureable bit.

When I looked at the program planner it had the following

Eastenders - RECORDED
Diet Doctors - PART REC
10 Years Younger - RECORDED

Thinking that PART REC must be because the first minute of so was missing
because of padding Eastenders I looked at the info.

"0 mins".

Hmmm!. That looks like NO REC rather than PART REC so decided to look at
it.

SKY+ *STARTED* to record the program at 20:00 then after about 30
seconds...
STOPPED

It then recorded the other 20:00 program. As if that wasnt bad enough....
TiVo decided to add insult to injury due to a Season Pass that we hadnt
removed. It recorded Ch4 as well.

It wouldnt have been so bad if SKY+ had totally ignored the program but to
record 30 seconds and then give up is really annoying.

What annoys me most is that when I set up the two 20:00 recordings it
didnt
complain at all so I assumed (WRONGLY) that the padding wouldnt be a
problem.

To *try* and fiugure out how it decided what to do I have set up two
things
to be recorded at midnight and two more at 01:00 on different channels.
Again there were no prompts about conflict even though the times are
consecutive. Will find out tomorow what it does.

Picture quality is something I have an issue with as well

When I was using TiVo as my main PVR, I did notice some artifacts on the
picture at times but put his down to the fact that I wasnt using the
highest
quality setting. Terrestrial TV seemed to be OK but Sky recordings seemed
to
have more noticable artifacts which I put down to redigitising a digitally
generated image.

Given that one of the supposed benfits of SKY+ is the fact that it records
the raw bit stream therefore there should be any difference between live
and
recorded I was looking forward to better pictures.

Did I get them..... NO :(

A lot of our viewing is BBC1/Ch4 which with Tivo was of Analogue origin.
With SKY+ everything is now digital in origin and the one thing that has
become apparent is the appalingly low bit rates that Sky are using for
many
channels.

Digital was supposed to give better quality pictures but the best pictures
I
have ever had on my TV from broadcast TV were D2MAC and non Videocrypt
Astra
satellite signals.

Rant over... for now !!!!

Keith