Sky box auto shutdown nonsence
 

In article 177485ce-1b17-4c27-b9f7-1e2fefdef8c1
@v5g2000prm.googlegroups.com, Dom Robinson says...

And the point of it being in standby is? Oh yes... none.

Is pretty much the right answer. Sky+ standby is nigh on useless.

--
Conor

I only please one person per day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow isn't
looking good either. - Scott Adams

Sky box auto shutdown nonsence
 

In article , Adrian
says...
Conor wrote:
In article , Adrian
says...

Not on a standard sky box which is what this thread started on.

So in your own words...

More bull****! If you don't know the facts don't bother posting.

You're a ****wit Turton if you can see Radio programmes on a standard sky
EPG prove it. You can't because once again you're a Liar!



I was referring to your comments about the timed recordings.

--
Conor

I only please one person per day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow isn't
looking good either. - Scott Adams

Sky box auto shutdown nonsence
 

On Wed, 17 Dec 2008 at 07:32:40, Dom Robinson
wrote in uk.media.tv.sky :

It took me a couple of days before I realised what was happening as
the first time I just assumed the box had crashed, so started it back
up, then after it did it again the following morning - losing
recordings both times - I googled the problem.

Sky mentioned the auto-standby thing over a year ago, and for Sky-
boxes only. It serves **** all purpose for anyone and whoever thought
of it should be killed.

Given that it was presumably some loony Greens, a case could be made...
:)
--
Paul 'Charts Fan' Hyett

Sky box auto shutdown nonsence
 

"Dom Robinson" wrote in message
...
On 17 Dec, 14:17, Conor wrote:
In article , says...

On Wed, 17 Dec 2008 10:34:08 -0000, "Adrian" wrote:

John Russell wrote:
It will bugger up any attempts to e.g. record a daily serial while
away on holiday or where the satellite receiver is used as a radio
feed.

This is auto-standby, not auto-shutdown, which the SKY can't do
anyway. As others have said, it is greenwash. You don't need your
SKY
to be on to make scheduled recordings. If people think that it's
little wonder so many people leave the SKY on all the time.

You _do_ need it to be on to make scheduled recordings of _radio_.

I'm sure ,in response to a thread in DS,that I tried recording
something then putting my Dodgybox in to standby and the recording (
TV Programme) failed at that point onwards .

Shouldn't have done. I record Click on BBC News at 4am and it's on
Standby when I pop off to bed.

And the point of it being in standby is? Oh yes... none.

My 2p worth here. I have Sky HD, and was aware Sky had released the firmware
with the Auto Standby feature. For a few weeks after this, I noticed that
recordings that were due to be recorded the next morning rarely worked, and
the Sky box was unresponsive (wouldn't come out of Standby, or acknowledge
remote signals at all) nearly every morning. I had to unplug the box and
power it up again to make it wake up.

After some experimentation, I discovered that the box was going into Auto
Standby. After disabling Auto Standby the problem disappeared. A few months
later I re-enabled it to see if this issue had been fixed, but the problem
returned. I then disabled it again, and I've not had the problem since. Auto
Standby is still disabled to this day on my box.

This was a long time ago of course - they may have fixed this bug since
then, but according to my energy monitor socket, the Sky box hardly saves
anything in Standby compared to being powered up. The power consumption
obviously differed depending what the box was doing - just watching an SD
channel used about 25 Watts, recording two HD channels while playing another
HD recording used 35 Watts. In standby it used 20 Watts. Auto Standby only
kicks in after a few hours of inactivity during the early hours of the
morning. For me, I calculated it saved around 5 Watts for 4 hours. Or on my
electricity tariff at the time about 0.018p of electricity per day. A decent
kettle uses 560 times as much electricity while boiling. The daily saving if
Auto Standby, for me, equates to around 6 seconds of boiling my kettle. My
point being, there are better ways to save electricity, and for me, the
hassle of the missed recordings and having to reboot the Sky Box more than
outweighed the 6p I'd save a year on electricity. Sorry environment, but
that's the way it is.

Anyway - Auto Standby, in my humble opinion, sucks.

--
Vincent

Sky box auto shutdown nonsence
 

John Russell wrote:
It will bugger up any attempts to e.g. record a daily serial while
away on holiday or where the satellite receiver is used as a radio
feed.

This is auto-standby, not auto-shutdown, which the SKY can't do anyway. As
others have said, it is greenwash. You don't need your SKY to be on to make
scheduled recordings. If people think that it's little wonder so many people
leave the SKY on all the time.


I used to program recordings using the EPG and set the VCR to external
control but I found the EPG less reliable than leaving the box on and
setting the timer on the VCR.

I might use the EPG if there are several programs on several channels
that I might like to record while I am out. But if I want to be sure of
getting it I rely on the VCR timer. (Or just press record before I go
out/to bed)

Sky box auto shutdown nonsence
 

On Wed, 17 Dec 2008 13:35:35 -0000, "Gary"
wrote:


"Adrian" wrote in message
news:[email protected] com...
Ekul Namsob wrote:
Adrian wrote:

John Russell wrote:
It will bugger up any attempts to e.g. record a daily serial while
away on holiday or where the satellite receiver is used as a radio
feed.

This is auto-standby, not auto-shutdown, which the SKY can't do
anyway. As others have said, it is greenwash. You don't need your
SKY to be on to make scheduled recordings. If people think that it's
little wonder so many people leave the SKY on all the time.

You _do_ need it to be on to make scheduled recordings of _radio_.

You might but mine (a Thomson Sky+ HD) will happily make scheduled
radio recordings while in standby. (Or should I say, "If you don't
know the facts, don't bother posting"?)

Cheers,
Luke

How do you do that when the EPG doesn't have radio programmes?

Look under radio in epg guide menu and there are radio programs on the EPG
which you can record just like TV progs.

Gary

No, you can see radio channels for which you can set up manual timed
recordings. That is not the same at all as searching through the EPG for a
particular programme & selecting that to be recorded.
--

Cheers

Nigel Barker
Live from the sunny Cote d'Azur

Sky box auto shutdown nonsence
 

On 17 Dec, 16:17, "John Russell" wrote:
"Dom Robinson" wrote in message

...

On 17 Dec, 10:34, "Adrian" wrote:
John Russell wrote:
It will bugger up any attempts to e.g. record a daily serial while
away on holiday or where the satellite receiver is used as a radio
feed.

This is auto-standby, not auto-shutdown, which the SKY can't do
anyway. As others have said, it is greenwash. You don't need your SKY
to be on to make scheduled recordings. If people think that it's
little wonder so many people leave the SKY on all the time.

You _do_ need it to be on to make scheduled recordings of _radio_.

Or any recordings to a PVR that isn't the cancer of Sky-

So you have a crap PVR which can't be triggered by an external device -
that's not SKY's problem. Even later VCR's had the ability to be triggered
externally so this isn't a new idea.

The Sky box doesn't trigger the TiVo but vice versa. Why would it
happen the other way round?

Funny how you consider any other PVR crap compared to the Sky+ since
anyone with a brain who's experienced a different brand to that seems
to think different.

Sky box auto shutdown nonsence
 

On 17 Dec, 00:17, Mike Henry wrote:
In ,

Dom Robinson wrote:
One thing that happened to my Pace and of those in the DS thread I
linked earlier, a few days later the software was reversed so the
'feature' went anyway.

Interesting. Still no sign of it on my Pace (9F0701). Sounds as if there
was a problem with the Paces and they not only didn't finish the roll-out
to the rest of the Pace models, but they rolled back too.

But that is probably temporary - my old spare Grundig (4E0301) got the
upgrade to EPG 3.7.6 last Thursday, so it seems that they're pressing
ahead with the other models.

Let us know how that goes. However, is anyone else having problems
with the Other Channels lately? I went into the menu recently when I
entered the BBC1 and BBC2 variants and found the old ones I put in
were there.

However, since then I've found the list blank when I've gone back in -
two days on the trot, both times when I was just about to record
something (GRRR!!!)

Anyone know what the problem is here? I've gone back into the Other
Channels menu just after adding them and they are there, so I can
select them, but the next day they're gone! :(

I'm using these Other Channels to avoid getting those annoying 'press
red' logos for unrelated concerts popping up, eg. what the hell is the
point of "Paul Weller and Adele" appearing 25 mins into Lead Balloon?!
I'm watching Lead Balloon! I don't want intrusions like that, nor do I
want to have then to press a button to get rid of it after it ruined
the atmosphere.

Sky box auto shutdown nonsence
 

"Dom Robinson" wrote in message
...
On 17 Dec, 16:17, "John Russell" wrote:
"Dom Robinson" wrote in message

...

On 17 Dec, 10:34, "Adrian" wrote:
John Russell wrote:
It will bugger up any attempts to e.g. record a daily serial while
away on holiday or where the satellite receiver is used as a radio
feed.

This is auto-standby, not auto-shutdown, which the SKY can't do
anyway. As others have said, it is greenwash. You don't need your
SKY
to be on to make scheduled recordings. If people think that it's
little wonder so many people leave the SKY on all the time.

You _do_ need it to be on to make scheduled recordings of _radio_.

Or any recordings to a PVR that isn't the cancer of Sky-

So you have a crap PVR which can't be triggered by an external device -
that's not SKY's problem. Even later VCR's had the ability to be
triggered
externally so this isn't a new idea.

The Sky box doesn't trigger the TiVo but vice versa. Why would it
happen the other way round?
Since the EPG is in the source you want recordings to triggered by that. The
PVR can't know if program times have been changed. A decent PVR should be
able to monitor an input for video and start recording when video is
present.

I have no complaints with my SKY HD box. It allows me to watch and record
SKY HD programs. Try doing that with a Tivo!

Sky box auto shutdown nonsence
 

Dom Robinson wrote:


Funny how you consider any other PVR crap compared to the Sky+ since
anyone with a brain who's experienced a different brand to that seems
to think different.

For some people, the advantages of Sky+ outweigh the disadvantages:
record two programmes simultaneously, convenient integration, happens to
be free with SkyHD.

Unless I've missed another post of his, the PP did not suggest that 'any
other PVR [was] crap compared to the Sky+'.

Cheers,
Luke


--
Red Rose Ramblings, the diary of an Essex boy in
exile in Lancashire http://www.shrimper.org.uk

Sky box auto shutdown nonsence
 

Paul Martin wrote:

In article ,
Light of Aria wrote:

Who the **** do Sky think they are shutting down devices in peoples' homes
without so much as a formal letter of notice or the basic courtesy of asking
for consent? (Rhetorical question).

Sony Digibox VTX-S750U:

Active: 16.5W (25VA)
Standby: 15W (25VA)


Amstrad DRX-100 (not connected to LNB):

Active: 17W (25VA)
Standby: 16W (25VA)

All it seems to do is change the Power Factor of the box. The same
electricity has to be generated, but as a domestic consumer the power
company can only charge you for 60% of it in standby or 66% of it when
active.

This isn't even slightly green. There is no change in the energy that
has to be generated to supply the digibox.

For the benefit of those of us whose talents lie elsewhere, could you
please explain that in layman's terms? I thought electricity was charged
in kWh and that meant that a one thousand watt appliance, left on for an
hour, would use 1 kWh. Am I to understand that this only approximates to
the energy usage?

Cheers,
Luke


--
Red Rose Ramblings, the diary of an Essex boy in
exile in Lancashire http://www.shrimper.org.uk

Sky box auto shutdown nonsence
 

"Paul Martin" wrote in message
...
In article
1is53ku.1mw0zhjuq2uqtN%[email protected] wronghead.com,
Ekul Namsob wrote:

For the benefit of those of us whose talents lie elsewhere, could you
please explain that in layman's terms? I thought electricity was charged
in kWh and that meant that a one thousand watt appliance, left on for an
hour, would use 1 kWh. Am I to understand that this only approximates to
the energy usage?

Electricity is produced by generators, which produce an AC waveform.
With perfect power transfer, the voltage and the current are in sync.
This is a power factor of 1.0. If the appliance presents anything
other than a pure resistive load, the current flow will lag or lead the
voltage waveform, reducing the efficiency of power transfer from power
station to appliance. A Sky digibox only has a power factor of
0.6-ish, meaning that only 60% of the energy generated does work in the
appliance. The rest is lost in heating the supply cabling, substation
transformers, etc.

Electricity companies charge domestic users only for the energy that
does work in the appliance, measured in kWh. Large commercial users
are charged for the power that was generated rather than the power that
did work.[*] They have therefore an incentive to apply power factor
correction to ensure that their load on the power supply network looks
as close to a pure resistor as possible, so as to reduce their bills.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_factor


[*] Either that, or they're charged for kWh used and a hefty fine for
having a poor power factor (usually less than 0.95).

--
Paul Martin



That makes sense to me. Nice clarity.

Comes back to the point I and many many fine others have made: If Sky gave a
toss about She-Environment instead of mere green-washing, not to mention the
possible fire-safety issue, they would have designed the Sky box to have a
hardware-off transformer-off power switch (and earth lead) all those years
ago.

Sky deliberately specified out a power off switch so that THEY could
maximise they monetisation of their end users (downloading malware,
downloading video SPAM, installing pop-up software (but not the option of
Virtual-DOG ****), delivering an EPG intended to secure their control of the
EPG market, excluding non-paying broadcasters (e.g. Rapture TV), and listing
the top EPG subscribers (the BBC, ****V) at the top of the listing), etc.

Sky box auto shutdown nonsence
 

Paul Martin wrote:

In article 1is53ku.1mw0zhjuq2uqtN%[email protected] wronghead.com,
Ekul Namsob wrote:

For the benefit of those of us whose talents lie elsewhere, could you
please explain that in layman's terms? I thought electricity was charged
in kWh and that meant that a one thousand watt appliance, left on for an
hour, would use 1 kWh. Am I to understand that this only approximates to
the energy usage?

Electricity is produced by generators, which produce an AC waveform.
With perfect power transfer, the voltage and the current are in sync.
This is a power factor of 1.0. If the appliance presents anything
other than a pure resistive load, the current flow will lag or lead the
voltage waveform, reducing the efficiency of power transfer from power
station to appliance. A Sky digibox only has a power factor of
0.6-ish, meaning that only 60% of the energy generated does work in the
appliance. The rest is lost in heating the supply cabling, substation
transformers, etc.

Thanks for the explanation. Does this mean that the Digibox is
spectacularly inefficient (moreso than, say, my DVD recorder)?

Cheers,
Luke


--
Red Rose Ramblings, the diary of an Essex boy in
exile in Lancashire http://www.shrimper.org.uk

Sky box auto shutdown nonsence
 

"Nigel Barker" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 17 Dec 2008 13:35:35 -0000, "Gary"
wrote:


"Adrian" wrote in message
news:[email protected] .com...
Ekul Namsob wrote:
Adrian wrote:

John Russell wrote:
It will bugger up any attempts to e.g. record a daily serial while
away on holiday or where the satellite receiver is used as a radio
feed.

This is auto-standby, not auto-shutdown, which the SKY can't do
anyway. As others have said, it is greenwash. You don't need your
SKY to be on to make scheduled recordings. If people think that it's
little wonder so many people leave the SKY on all the time.

You _do_ need it to be on to make scheduled recordings of _radio_.

You might but mine (a Thomson Sky+ HD) will happily make scheduled
radio recordings while in standby. (Or should I say, "If you don't
know the facts, don't bother posting"?)

Cheers,
Luke

How do you do that when the EPG doesn't have radio programmes?

Look under radio in epg guide menu and there are radio programs on the
EPG
which you can record just like TV progs.

Gary

No, you can see radio channels for which you can set up manual timed
recordings. That is not the same at all as searching through the EPG for a
particular programme & selecting that to be recorded.
--

Cheers

Nigel Barker
Live from the sunny Cote d'Azur

Yes your right

I was confusing that with my Freeview and when I used to use a TIVO before
the number changes.

Gary

Sky box auto shutdown nonsence
 

"Light of Aria" wrote in message
...

"Paul Martin" wrote in message
...
In article
1is53ku.1mw0zhjuq2uqtN%[email protected] wronghead.com,
Ekul Namsob wrote:

For the benefit of those of us whose talents lie elsewhere, could you
please explain that in layman's terms? I thought electricity was charged
in kWh and that meant that a one thousand watt appliance, left on for an
hour, would use 1 kWh. Am I to understand that this only approximates to
the energy usage?

Electricity is produced by generators, which produce an AC waveform.
With perfect power transfer, the voltage and the current are in sync.
This is a power factor of 1.0. If the appliance presents anything
other than a pure resistive load, the current flow will lag or lead the
voltage waveform, reducing the efficiency of power transfer from power
station to appliance. A Sky digibox only has a power factor of
0.6-ish, meaning that only 60% of the energy generated does work in the
appliance. The rest is lost in heating the supply cabling, substation
transformers, etc.

Electricity companies charge domestic users only for the energy that
does work in the appliance, measured in kWh. Large commercial users
are charged for the power that was generated rather than the power that
did work.[*] They have therefore an incentive to apply power factor
correction to ensure that their load on the power supply network looks
as close to a pure resistor as possible, so as to reduce their bills.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_factor


[*] Either that, or they're charged for kWh used and a hefty fine for
having a poor power factor (usually less than 0.95).

--
Paul Martin



That makes sense to me. Nice clarity.

Comes back to the point I and many many fine others have made: If Sky gave
a toss about She-Environment instead of mere green-washing, not to mention
the possible fire-safety issue, they would have designed the Sky box to
have a hardware-off transformer-off power switch (and earth lead) all
those years ago.

Sky deliberately specified out a power off switch so that THEY could
maximise they monetisation of their end users (downloading malware,
downloading video SPAM, installing pop-up software (but not the option of
Virtual-DOG ****), delivering an EPG intended to secure their control of
the EPG market, excluding non-paying broadcasters (e.g. Rapture TV), and
listing the top EPG subscribers (the BBC, ****V) at the top of the
listing), etc.




SKY are only competing with themselves to supply SKY Box's. We would all be
complaining about the price never coming down if they released a newer,
better, box every 6 months! One can only hope that the next generation of
box's will be more power efficient, especially in standby.

Sky box auto shutdown nonsence
 

On Thu, 18 Dec 2008 10:31:52 +0000,
(Ekul Namsob) wrote:

For some people, the advantages of Sky+ outweigh the disadvantages:
record two programmes simultaneously, convenient integration, happens to
be free with SkyHD.

It's not free. It's available as part of any Sky subscription(minimum 17 pounds
per month) otherwise it's 10 pounds per month for non-subscribers.
--

Cheers

Nigel Barker
Live from the sunny Cote d'Azur

Sky box auto shutdown nonsence
 

In article ,
says...

"Dom Robinson" wrote in message
...
On 17 Dec, 16:17, "John Russell" wrote:
"Dom Robinson" wrote in message

...

On 17 Dec, 10:34, "Adrian" wrote:
John Russell wrote:
It will bugger up any attempts to e.g. record a daily serial while
away on holiday or where the satellite receiver is used as a radio
feed.

This is auto-standby, not auto-shutdown, which the SKY can't do
anyway. As others have said, it is greenwash. You don't need your
SKY
to be on to make scheduled recordings. If people think that it's
little wonder so many people leave the SKY on all the time.

You _do_ need it to be on to make scheduled recordings of _radio_.

Or any recordings to a PVR that isn't the cancer of Sky-

So you have a crap PVR which can't be triggered by an external device -
that's not SKY's problem. Even later VCR's had the ability to be
triggered
externally so this isn't a new idea.

The Sky box doesn't trigger the TiVo but vice versa. Why would it
happen the other way round?
Since the EPG is in the source you want recordings to triggered by that. The
PVR can't know if program times have been changed. A decent PVR should be
able to monitor an input for video and start recording when video is
present.

To me, a decent PVR allows me to record programmes and allow me to rip them
direct to my PC, for one thing.

As for video being present, there's no reason why it shouldn't be. A once-in-
a-blue-moon digibox crash is one thing, but the supplier controlling my
digibox and whether it should go into standby is another. I pay the leccy bill
in my house so they can get stuffed if they want to pretend to be 'green'.

I have no complaints with my SKY HD box. It allows me to watch and record
SKY HD programs. Try doing that with a Tivo!

No need. I have a regular Sky subscription but prefer to watch HD versions of
some programmes and torrents help with those.
--

Dom Robinson Gamertag: DVDfever email: dom at dvdfever dot co dot uk
/* http://DVDfever.co.uk (editor)
/* 1186 DVDs, 386 games, 451 CDs, 114 cinema films, 56 concerts, music & news
/* gears of war 2, c&c red alert 3, deacon blue, sean lock, jim jeffries
New music charts - http://dvdfever.co.uk/music.shtml
Youtube - http://uk.youtube.com/user/DieHardDom

Sky box auto shutdown nonsence
 

In article 1is530i.q7leus183d2pjN%[email protected] wronghead.com,
says...
Dom Robinson wrote:


Funny how you consider any other PVR crap compared to the Sky+ since
anyone with a brain who's experienced a different brand to that seems
to think different.

For some people, the advantages of Sky+ outweigh the disadvantages:
record two programmes simultaneously,

Only a handful of programmes don't get a quick repeat within the week (at
least not without the Spacker's Wheel over them), so that's not an issue, and
the TiVo finds the alternative showings for you.

convenient integration,

Two boxes instead of one. Big deal. I like the way I can plug my Xbox 360 into
the TiVo so I can record a load of GTA4 footage, for example, and then edit
daft videos like this: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=zZprPW-TDVs

happens to be free with SkyHD.

Something I don't wish to subscribe to.


Unless I've missed another post of his, the PP did not suggest that 'any
other PVR [was] crap compared to the Sky+'.

No, you just missed part of the same post. Sorry if it's confusing.
--

Dom Robinson Gamertag: DVDfever email: dom at dvdfever dot co dot uk
/* http://DVDfever.co.uk (editor)
/* 1186 DVDs, 386 games, 451 CDs, 114 cinema films, 56 concerts, music & news
/* gears of war 2, c&c red alert 3, deacon blue, sean lock, jim jeffries
New music charts - http://dvdfever.co.uk/music.shtml
Youtube - http://uk.youtube.com/user/DieHardDom

Sky box auto shutdown nonsence
 

In article , {$mrtickle$}
@nospam.demon.co.uk says...
In , Dom
Robinson wrote:

And the point of it being in standby is? Oh yes... none.

For Sky+ boxes which this thread isn't about: there is a problem with the
software when you set Sky+ to record two programmes at the same time and
you're viewing live TV beforehand. It sometimes thinks you're still
watching live TV which clashes with one pending recording, and fails to
record it. Putting it in standby when you're not in the room is a
work-around for this bug to make it more likely that you get both
recordings.

For normal Sky digiboxes: the point of it being in standby is: none. A
Negligible amount of power is saved.

HTH

Why couldn't they keep it with just Sky+?
--

Dom Robinson Gamertag: DVDfever email: dom at dvdfever dot co dot uk
/* http://DVDfever.co.uk (editor)
/* 1186 DVDs, 386 games, 451 CDs, 114 cinema films, 56 concerts, music & news
/* gears of war 2, c&c red alert 3, deacon blue, sean lock, jim jeffries
New music charts - http://dvdfever.co.uk/music.shtml
Youtube - http://uk.youtube.com/user/DieHardDom

Sky box auto shutdown nonsence
 

On Dec 16, 2:49*am, "Light of Aria"
wrote:
Thankfully, these newsgroups had pre-warned me of the forthcoming "problem".

Twice yesterday, my (Grundig) "Sky" receiver, who's only function is to feed
Bloomberg TV round my home/office, shut its self down.

Who the **** do Sky think they are shutting down devices in peoples' homes
without so much as a formal letter of notice or the basic courtesy of asking
for consent? (Rhetorical question).

After about 2 mins, I found out how to disable this unwanted sabotage of my
Sky receiver.

I can imagine across the country in gyms, restaurants, offices, and schools,
many others are struggling with this newly created technical fault.

Picture this:
You get a letter saying that the electricity will be off for six hours
starting at midnight the coming Saturday for system work. (Swap
transformers?)
You happen to be out of town.
You get back and find that what the theives didn't steal, they
vandalized. Thousands lost or ruined. They knew when the elecricity
would be out - and no answe to the knock on the door told them the
home was empty.

Not a happy arrival home. The next time, years later, I stayed home
with candals lighting the place.

Sky box auto shutdown nonsence
 

"Mike Henry" wrote in message
...
In , "John Russell"
wrote:

SKY are only competing with themselves to supply SKY Box's. We would all
be
complaining about the price never coming down if they released a newer,
better, box every 6 months!

No, there have been several generations of Digibox (and remote controls)
spanning the last ten years since Sky digital was launched. Some of them
are described he
http://www.uk-satellite-tv.co.uk/digibox.html

I never said there hadn't been mutiple box's. I said there wasn't the market
pressure, like with TV's, to release newer better models every six months.

Sky box auto shutdown nonsence
 

"Dom Robinson" wrote in message
t...
In article ,
says...

"Dom Robinson" wrote in message
...
On 17 Dec, 16:17, "John Russell" wrote:
"Dom Robinson" wrote in message

...

On 17 Dec, 10:34, "Adrian" wrote:
John Russell wrote:
It will bugger up any attempts to e.g. record a daily serial
while
away on holiday or where the satellite receiver is used as a
radio
feed.

This is auto-standby, not auto-shutdown, which the SKY can't do
anyway. As others have said, it is greenwash. You don't need your
SKY
to be on to make scheduled recordings. If people think that it's
little wonder so many people leave the SKY on all the time.

You _do_ need it to be on to make scheduled recordings of _radio_.

Or any recordings to a PVR that isn't the cancer of Sky-

So you have a crap PVR which can't be triggered by an external
device -
that's not SKY's problem. Even later VCR's had the ability to be
triggered
externally so this isn't a new idea.

The Sky box doesn't trigger the TiVo but vice versa. Why would it
happen the other way round?
Since the EPG is in the source you want recordings to triggered by that.
The
PVR can't know if program times have been changed. A decent PVR should be
able to monitor an input for video and start recording when video is
present.

To me, a decent PVR allows me to record programmes and allow me to rip
them
direct to my PC, for one thing.

As for video being present, there's no reason why it shouldn't be. A
once-in-
a-blue-moon digibox crash is one thing, but the supplier controlling my
digibox and whether it should go into standby is another. I pay the leccy
bill
in my house so they can get stuffed if they want to pretend to be 'green'.

I have no complaints with my SKY HD box. It allows me to watch and record
SKY HD programs. Try doing that with a Tivo!

No need. I have a regular Sky subscription but prefer to watch HD versions
of
some programmes and torrents help with those.
--

So SKY are to worry about your minority problems when you admit your a rip
off merchant! If you actually paid we would be eligible for sympathy, as you
don't you have no right for your complaints to be taken seriously by anyone.

Sky box auto shutdown nonsence
 

Mike Henry wrote:

In , Dom
Robinson wrote:


For normal Sky digiboxes: the point of it being in standby is: none. A
Negligible amount of power is saved.

Ah but, Ah but - Sky are a 'carbon neutral' company, or so it says on
the vans. This is obviously their 'contribution' to that piece of
nonsense.

J

Sky box auto shutdown nonsence
 

In article ,
says...

"Dom Robinson" wrote in message
t...
In article ,
says...

"Dom Robinson" wrote in message
...
On 17 Dec, 16:17, "John Russell" wrote:
"Dom Robinson" wrote in message

...

On 17 Dec, 10:34, "Adrian" wrote:
John Russell wrote:
It will bugger up any attempts to e.g. record a daily serial
while
away on holiday or where the satellite receiver is used as a
radio
feed.

This is auto-standby, not auto-shutdown, which the SKY can't do
anyway. As others have said, it is greenwash. You don't need your
SKY
to be on to make scheduled recordings. If people think that it's
little wonder so many people leave the SKY on all the time.

You _do_ need it to be on to make scheduled recordings of _radio_.

Or any recordings to a PVR that isn't the cancer of Sky-

So you have a crap PVR which can't be triggered by an external
device -
that's not SKY's problem. Even later VCR's had the ability to be
triggered
externally so this isn't a new idea.

The Sky box doesn't trigger the TiVo but vice versa. Why would it
happen the other way round?
Since the EPG is in the source you want recordings to triggered by that.
The
PVR can't know if program times have been changed. A decent PVR should be
able to monitor an input for video and start recording when video is
present.

To me, a decent PVR allows me to record programmes and allow me to rip
them
direct to my PC, for one thing.

As for video being present, there's no reason why it shouldn't be. A
once-in-
a-blue-moon digibox crash is one thing, but the supplier controlling my
digibox and whether it should go into standby is another. I pay the leccy
bill
in my house so they can get stuffed if they want to pretend to be 'green'.

I have no complaints with my SKY HD box. It allows me to watch and record
SKY HD programs. Try doing that with a Tivo!

No need. I have a regular Sky subscription but prefer to watch HD versions
of
some programmes and torrents help with those.
--

So SKY are to worry about your minority problems when you admit your a rip
off merchant! If you actually paid we would be eligible for sympathy, as you
don't you have no right for your complaints to be taken seriously by anyone.

I do pay. What part did you miss about me being a Sky subscriber?
--

Dom Robinson Gamertag: DVDfever email: dom at dvdfever dot co dot uk
/* http://DVDfever.co.uk (editor)
/* 1186 DVDs, 386 games, 451 CDs, 114 cinema films, 56 concerts, music & news
/* gears of war 2, c&c red alert 3, deacon blue, sean lock, jim jeffries
New music charts - http://dvdfever.co.uk/music.shtml
Youtube - http://uk.youtube.com/user/DieHardDom

Sky box auto shutdown nonsence
 

On Thu, 18 Dec 2008 21:53:43 -0000, "John Russell"
wrote:


"Mike Henry" wrote in message
.. .
In , "John Russell"
wrote:

SKY are only competing with themselves to supply SKY Box's. We would all
be
complaining about the price never coming down if they released a newer,
better, box every 6 months!

No, there have been several generations of Digibox (and remote controls)
spanning the last ten years since Sky digital was launched. Some of them
are described he
http://www.uk-satellite-tv.co.uk/digibox.html

I never said there hadn't been mutiple box's. I said there wasn't the market
pressure, like with TV's, to release newer better models every six months.

I am not sure that there is even a market. It is very difficult to buy a
digibox through normal retail or online channels (argos etc) Mostly they are
free or cheap with a Sky installation or subscription.
--

Cheers

Nigel Barker
Live from the sunny Cote d'Azur

Sky box auto shutdown nonsence
 

"Conor" wrote in message
...
In article , Adrian
says...
Conor wrote:
In article , Adrian
says...

Not on a standard sky box which is what this thread started on.

So in your own words...

More bull****! If you don't know the facts don't bother posting.

You're a ****wit Turton if you can see Radio programmes on a standard sky
EPG prove it. You can't because once again you're a Liar!



I was referring to your comments about the timed recordings.

--
Conor

I only please one person per day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow isn't
looking good either. - Scott Adams

Add a manual recording (Services6) for the Start and End time and you can
record a radio programme to the HDD

Sky box auto shutdown nonsence
 

In article ,
writes
[snip]
It's fairly well spoken about .Apprently it happened with a recent
update .It happened to me and I couldn't figure out why until I
happened to see something on Dig Spy about it . If the box isn't used
for a while after 2300 Hrs it issues a warning and then goes in to
stand-by if you don't do anything .
The option can be changed in the Serices menu.
http://www.sky.com/portal/site/skyco...ntentid=691410

Thanks for the link!

We wanted to tape the Australian Open tennis overnight and were *not*
impressed by the digibox developing a mind of its own.

Incidentally, the Sky site says that the digibox will go into standby
between 11pm and 4am if there is no activity, but it does it outside of
those hours as well. It's happened during the evening when we've watched
the same channel for an extended period. The first time we saw that
message was during the Obama inauguration, which took rather a long
time...

I have exercised the option described on the Sky site:

Settings menu of the Sky Guide. Go to Services, 5 - Sky+ Setup,
Auto-Standby: set to off

Helen

Helen Edith Stephenson helen at baronmoss dot demon dot co dot uk
--
(I'm sure you can figure out what I mean!)
Website: http://www.wuronga.me.uk/helen/index.html
Blog: http://blog.360.yahoo.com/helenedithuk

Sky box auto shutdown nonsence
 

"Helen Edith Stephenson" wrote in
message ...
In article ,
writes
[snip]
It's fairly well spoken about .Apprently it happened with a
recent
update .It happened to me and I couldn't figure out why until I
happened to see something on Dig Spy about it . If the box
isn't used
for a while after 2300 Hrs it issues a warning and then goes
in to
stand-by if you don't do anything .
The option can be changed in the Serices menu.
http://www.sky.com/portal/site/skyco...ntentid=691410

Thanks for the link!

We wanted to tape the Australian Open tennis overnight and were
*not*
impressed by the digibox developing a mind of its own.

Incidentally, the Sky site says that the digibox will go into
standby
between 11pm and 4am if there is no activity, but it does it
outside of
those hours as well. It's happened during the evening when
we've watched
the same channel for an extended period. The first time we saw
that
message was during the Obama inauguration, which took rather a
long
time...

I have exercised the option described on the Sky site:

Settings menu of the Sky Guide. Go to Services, 5 - Sky+ Setup,
Auto-Standby: set to off

Helen

Helen Edith Stephenson helen at baronmoss dot demon dot co dot
uk
--
(I'm sure you can figure out what I
mean!)
Website:
http://www.wuronga.me.uk/helen/index.html
Blog: http://blog.360.yahoo.com/helenedithuk


Auto-standby may have nothing to do with the failure to record
the Australian Open.

The Sky+ recording functions depend upon the Electronic Programme
Guide (EPG). Individual broadcasters are responsible for
providing accurate EPG data to Sky.

Most broadcasters keep their EPG data up to date. Some
broadcasters (which include the BBC and Sky) even send Start and
Finish signals at the beginning and end of their programmes.
Sky+ can recognise these Start and Finish signals, so provided
the broadcaster has maintained the EPG properly, Sky+ can extend
recording times automatically. This is particularly useful when
sports coverage overruns - which is why the BBC and Sky Sports
manage to avoid too many problems on their channels.

It is rather unfortunate that this year's Australian Open
coverage is carried by British Eurosport - who pay scant regard
to viewers' needs. Although the Australian broadcaster films the
matches in 16:9 widescreen, Eurosport convert the broadcasts into
4:3 standard ratio.

Sadly, Eurosport never update their EPG data to accomodate
programme overruns - and have been known to switch coverage
between Eurosport One and Eurosport Two, without adjusting any of
the EPG information.

In the absence of up to date programme data, Sky+ records
according to the published schedule. Consequently, a viewer
might find that instead of tennis, Sky+ has recorded Ski-jumping
or motor racing. To add insult to injury, Sky+ rarely offers the
Series Link marker.

With the latest tennis coverage, Eurosport billed this morning's
programme as "Live Australian Open". Then, they changed the
timings on the EPG - and also changed the programme description
to "Live Murray vs Granollers". I noticed the change - and
re-programmed my Sky+. Consequently, I was able to record the
programme OK. However, a digibox does not have "a mind of its
own". It acts upon data provided by the broadcaster, so anyone
who had programmed Sky+ before Eurosport changed the schedule
would have lost this morning's coverage.

Sky do not provide or implement changes to the EPG data - so it
is not their fault. However, the situation with Eurosport is
unacceptable. Viewers pay to view these programmes, so I believe
a strongly worded complaint would be fully justified. Sadly, I
doubt whether Eurosport would listen to individual complaints.
However, they might respond to pressure from Sky.

Sky box auto shutdown nonsence
 

Bob Lucas wrote:

"Helen Edith Stephenson" wrote:

We wanted to tape the Australian Open tennis overnight and were *not*
impressed by the digibox developing a mind of its own.

Auto-standby may have nothing to do with the failure to record the
Australian Open.

Auto-standby would cause the failure if the Sky+ box was being used simply as
a digibox, with the recording of its output being made on a different machine
(which is what I understood the PP to mean).

Sky do not provide or implement changes to the EPG data - so it is not
their fault. However, the situation with Eurosport is unacceptable.
Viewers pay to view these programmes, so I believe a strongly worded
complaint would be fully justified. Sadly, I doubt whether Eurosport
would listen to individual complaints. However, they might respond to
pressure from Sky.

I'm sure it's possible to set the Sky+ box to record by manual programming
(like a VHS recorder). That way, the "slot" could be sufficiently padded to
cater for likely over-running.

Sky box auto shutdown nonsence
 

"JNugent" wrote in message
...
Bob Lucas wrote:

"Helen Edith Stephenson" wrote:

We wanted to tape the Australian Open tennis overnight and
were *not*
impressed by the digibox developing a mind of its own.

Auto-standby may have nothing to do with the failure to record
the Australian Open.

Auto-standby would cause the failure if the Sky+ box was being
used simply as a digibox, with the recording of its output
being made on a different machine (which is what I understood
the PP to mean).

Sky do not provide or implement changes to the EPG data - so
it is not their fault. However, the situation with Eurosport
is unacceptable. Viewers pay to view these programmes, so I
believe a strongly worded complaint would be fully justified.
Sadly, I doubt whether Eurosport would listen to individual
complaints. However, they might respond to pressure from Sky.

I'm sure it's possible to set the Sky+ box to record by manual
programming (like a VHS recorder). That way, the "slot" could
be sufficiently padded to cater for likely over-running.

Yes. That is possible. But manual recording won't help, if the
broadcaster switches a programme from Eurosport 1 to Eurosport 2
(or vice versa). That happens from time to time with Eurosport.

With Eurosport, another solution might be to tell Sky+ to record
the next few programmes that are listed in the EPG - to cater for
overruns.

Incidentally, BBC2 broadcast the Murray v Melzer match live. The
schedule over-ran by almost one hour.

BBC manage the EPG properly, so the match recorded in its
entirety.

Sky box auto shutdown nonsence
 

"JNugent" wrote in message
...
Bob Lucas wrote:

"Helen Edith Stephenson" wrote:

We wanted to tape the Australian Open tennis overnight and were *not*
impressed by the digibox developing a mind of its own.

Auto-standby may have nothing to do with the failure to record the
Australian Open.

Auto-standby would cause the failure if the Sky+ box was being used simply
as a digibox, with the recording of its output being made on a different
machine (which is what I understood the PP to mean).

This problem is a luddite problem. Does the world have to stop until they
decide to ditch their VCR? Some of the later VCR's came with various
techniques for controlling external sources which didn't need them to be on
all the time to record from them.

Sky box auto shutdown nonsence
 

John Russell wrote:
"JNugent" wrote in message
...
Bob Lucas wrote:

"Helen Edith Stephenson" wrote:
We wanted to tape the Australian Open tennis overnight and were *not*
impressed by the digibox developing a mind of its own.
Auto-standby may have nothing to do with the failure to record the
Australian Open.
Auto-standby would cause the failure if the Sky+ box was being used simply
as a digibox, with the recording of its output being made on a different
machine (which is what I understood the PP to mean).

This problem is a luddite problem. Does the world have to stop until they
decide to ditch their VCR? Some of the later VCR's came with various
techniques for controlling external sources which didn't need them to be on
all the time to record from them.

I don't agree. The Sky+ box has no facility for burning a DVD-R. If you want
to do that, the easiest and quickest way is to use the Sky+ as a pure digibox
and either record straight to DVD-R or onto the HDD of a suitable DVD-R
recorder (for editing, etc). Recording onto the Sky+'s own HDD means having
to tie up the Sky+ when (later) copying the programme to the other machine.

Sky box auto shutdown nonsence
 

"JNugent" wrote in message
...
John Russell wrote:
"JNugent" wrote in message
...
Bob Lucas wrote:

"Helen Edith Stephenson" wrote:
We wanted to tape the Australian Open tennis overnight and were *not*
impressed by the digibox developing a mind of its own.
Auto-standby may have nothing to do with the failure to record the
Australian Open.
Auto-standby would cause the failure if the Sky+ box was being used
simply as a digibox, with the recording of its output being made on a
different machine (which is what I understood the PP to mean).

This problem is a luddite problem. Does the world have to stop until
they decide to ditch their VCR? Some of the later VCR's came with various
techniques for controlling external sources which didn't need them to be
on all the time to record from them.

I don't agree. The Sky+ box has no facility for burning a DVD-R. If you
want to do that, the easiest and quickest way is to use the Sky+ as a pure
digibox and either record straight to DVD-R or onto the HDD of a suitable
DVD-R recorder (for editing, etc). Recording onto the Sky+'s own HDD means
having to tie up the Sky+ when (later) copying the programme to the other
machine.

All decent DVD recorders can be triggered externally. You set up the SKY box
to come on using the EPG, and that triggers the DVD recorder to record.
There is no need to leave the SKY box on all the time if you buy decent
recording equipment. The problem is with those who buy cheap tat which don't
have such features, not with SKY!

Sky box auto shutdown nonsence
 

John Russell wrote:

All decent DVD recorders can be triggered externally. You set up the
SKY box to come on using the EPG, and that triggers the DVD recorder
to record. There is no need to leave the SKY box on all the time if
you buy decent recording equipment. The problem is with those who buy
cheap tat which don't have such features, not with SKY!

That only applies to standard Sky boxes, not Sky+, so leaving on or in
standby makes virtually no difference.
--
There's probably no god, so stop worrying and enjoy your life.

Sky box auto shutdown nonsence
 

On 25 Jan, 14:05, "John Russell" wrote:
"JNugent" wrote in message

...



John Russell wrote:
"JNugent" wrote in message
. ..
Bob Lucas wrote:

"Helen Edith Stephenson" wrote:
We wanted to tape the Australian Open tennis overnight and were *not*
impressed by the digibox developing a mind of its own.
Auto-standby may have nothing to do with the failure to record the
Australian Open.
Auto-standby would cause the failure if the Sky+ box was being used
simply as a digibox, with the recording of its output being made on a
different machine (which is what I understood the PP to mean).

This problem is a luddite problem. Does the world have to stop until
they decide to ditch their VCR? Some of the later VCR's came with various
techniques for controlling external sources which didn't need them to be
on all the time to record from them.

I don't agree. The Sky+ box has no facility for burning a DVD-R. If you
want to do that, the easiest and quickest way is to use the Sky+ as a pure
digibox and either record straight to DVD-R or onto the HDD of a suitable
DVD-R recorder (for editing, etc). Recording onto the Sky+'s own HDD means
having to tie up the Sky+ when (later) copying the programme to the other
machine.

All decent DVD recorders can be triggered externally. You set up the SKY box
to come on using the EPG, and that triggers the DVD recorder to record.
There is no need to leave the SKY box on all the time if you buy decent
recording equipment. The problem is with those who buy cheap tat which don't
have such features, not with SKY!

You're wrong and you're a grotesquely, ugly freak. Thanks.

If my Sky box is off, then the TiVo can turn it on, but with the
delays between turning the Sky box on and sending channel numbers,
whatever I tried there's not always enough time to guarantee that the
Sky box will be ready to receive the channel numbers by the time it's
issued them.

And besides, when it comes to putting the Sky box into standby there
is ABSOLUTELY **** ALL POINT IN DOING SO.

And if you think there is, then go and lock yourself up in a padded
cell because that's the only place for you.