TV Scheduling Changes

Have only managed to catch about 1 1/2 episodes of current Dr Who series because of the constant time shifting. Rather a shame as I'm somewhat taken with his new assistant.

Many years ago they subjected Tomorrows World to this treatment and IMHO that's what killed it off.

Willy.

I don't understand your dilemma. I watched the last episode of the prisoner as it was broadcast last Saturday on ITV1. Why didn't you record that one?

Why not go for Freesat?

My hand was forced by the imminent switch-off of terrestrial in East Anglia. I went for broke with a 50" plasma upgrade for my >10yo 29" CRT and got a Humax FoxSat twin-tuner box with built-in hard disc recorder. This uses the Electronic Program Guide which can just be told to record the whole of a series and will adjust itself for any variations in scheduling.

About £100 for the dish and cabling (4 cables for my set-up - 2 for the FoxSat, 1 for TV with FreeSat built-in and another TV fed by a cheaper Humax box with no recording facility) and £250 for the FoxSat. No 'running costs', of course. Quite a few more channels available but not enough to swamp you.

Fraser

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I don't understand your dilemma. I watched the last episode of the prisoner as it was broadcast last Saturday on ITV1. Why didn't you record that one?

Because my timer was set for the series, and they transmitted at a different time. As it happened, we were away from home for a couple of days and hence missed it. I hadn't looked at Radio Times and had just left the timer on its "Record ITV1 Saturday 2100" setting. I will watch it on internet catchup tomorrow, but bloody annoying.

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Why not go for Freesat?

I have considered it, but yet another box in my already crowded AV room? Also, doesn't Freesat miss some of the channels, or am I misremembering? And furthermore SWMBO hates the idea of Sat Disk on the house - she's been trying to get me to take down my Galaxie 17 for years!

There are plenty of "watch again" systems for most TV channels.

Sky box will adjust for changes , only if the suppling channels tell Sky and they change the EPG, I suspect Freesat will be the same , ie no guarantee of changes being implemented.

For any programmes likely to over run I try and make sure I record the programme after as well.

Dr John it seems to me you need some assertiveness training re your boss , a little too boss IMO.

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There are plenty of "watch again" systems for most TV channels.

Sky box will adjust for changes , only if the suppling channels tell Sky and they change the EPG, I suspect Freesat will be the same , ie no guarantee of changes being implemented.

Stop trying to impose logic on my rant.

The trouble with the timing being altered by the recorder in association with (hopefully) transmitted data from the broadcaster is that it would occasionally clash with some other program on the timer. That's one of the reasons I use 2 recorders.

Not strictly relevant, but I hate the fact that with the web access to programs, watching the adverts seems to be compulsory - at least I've never managed to fastforward through them.

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Not strictly relevant, but I hate the fact that with the web access to programs, watching the adverts seems to be compulsory - at least I've never managed to fastforward through them.

A good point , which is why we time shift 99% of our TV watching.

Sorry to intrude on your rant.

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A good point , which is why we time shift 99% of our TV watching.

Sorry to intrude on your rant.

Thanks for agreeing with me. Feel free to intrude as much as you want.

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I have considered it, but yet another box in my already crowded AV room? Also, doesn't Freesat miss some of the channels, or am I misremembering?

(a) The Humax is a substitute box, not an addition. It is smaller than any DVD-recorder I've seen. (b) You 'misremember' - there is no loss cf. terrestrial.

The dish is small, black and mounted high on the house - well above the natural eyeline.

Of course if you could get >= £350 for your wife as a trade-in, the whole measure would be cost-neutral or cost-beneficial.

Fraser

Thinking of being "forced" to watch adverts on things like ITVplayer reminds me ...

Don't you hate the fact that you can't skip the studio propaganda, legal messages etc when you load a DVD?

Other time wasters are stupid menu sequences (even more irritating when watching DVDs of TV series), anti-piracy videos which are sometimes very difficult to avoid watching (or even impossible). My usual trick is to put the DVD in and go off to "make a brew". Unhappily this doesn't always work as some of them seem to expect input at some point - such as telling the player what language to use.

Disney and some other studio's habit of trailers at loadup - hitting MENU doesn't stop them and the only way I know of getting through them is SCENE SKIP - sometimes having to be repeated several times.

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Of course if you could get >= £350 for your wife as a trade-in, the whole measure would be cost-neutral or cost-beneficial.

I suspect I would have to PAY someone to take her off me ...

Can I take it that your dearly beloved isn't a visitor to this Forum John?

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Can I take it that your dearly beloved isn't a visitor to this Forum John?

SWMBO is total illiterate as far as computers and anything "technical" is concerned. She have other "desirable" attributes, though, and is wearing very well.

I'll come clean and admit I've been "trolling" just to set up a discussion. We all have to have our bit of fun, and I suspect I am not the only guilty one.

SWMBO says I will sometimes take a contrarian viewpoint just to wind people up ... I don't know WHAT she means ... (pity I can't use italics for ironic emphasis here). She says I'm especially guilty of this with my eldest daughter's husband - but he's such an easy target. .

I usually get my own way on equipment purchases Although the our income is all from my pension(s), everything we have is in joint ownership except for some things in her name to take advantage of her tax allowance. Although I could just go out and spend the money (and so could she), we discuss larger purchases.

Seriously, I think I may need to do a bit more work on her before she lets me go and listen to the nDAC and possibly buy one. She knows very well that I am almost completely incapable of coming out of the shop without buying if I like it, hence my rule of never listening to anything I can't afford. That's more down to my own character flaws than anything else. The other "fault" I will admit to is that I can be a bit of a collector, and do tend to become a bit "completist" when I get interested in something - hence things like suddenly acquiring all the available old series Doctor Who DVDs which I must try to watch without my 2 year old grandson "helping" with his frequent requests for "tarans" (Sontarans), daleks etc.

That's enough baring of my soul. (strange thing for an atheist to say, but it has the benefit of being apposite) Back to the thread ...

Some of our TV stations are also guilty of not sticking to the published times - starting a couple of minutes early or late on occasion. This makes a bit of a nonsense of EPGs, esp when SWMBO comes to complain that she's missed the beginning or end of one of her programs. It's just a case of the technology not delivering what it ought to because of the thoughtlessness of TV companies. Hence I tend to ignore the EPGs altogether and program the timers manually, with a few minutes extra at beginning and end. Is it too much to ask for TV companies to stick to their scheduled times except for nationally important news information etc? Yes, I do realise that I am in the minority in not having much time for our national sports.

I've just discovered I missed the final episode of Heroes, broadcast a few weeks ago. When I checked what was marked as the final episode I discovered half an hour of snooker followed by some sort of music documentary which looks like it might be interesting but isn't Heroes. Bah humbug.

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I've just discovered I missed the final episode of Heroes, broadcast a few weeks ago. When I checked what was marked as the final episode I discovered half an hour of snooker followed by some sort of music documentary which looks like it might be interesting but isn't Heroes. Bah humbug.

I think it's all a ploy to make you buy the DVD set.

I haven't been watching Heroes since series 3, but have been to check if SWMBO still had it on her PVR (she often has programs from months ago still on there, unwatched), but she must have watched it already and deleted it. Sorry, can't help.

That was a nice thought. Thanks for that. I think you could be right though. I have often thought they were trying to make it difficult to record an entire series by randomly rescheduling programmes at short notice.
Incidentally BBC2 Scotland is showing the final 2 episodes at the moment. I guess they got enough complaints to embarrass them into doing it. I'm recording them now so barring disaster I'll see them some time. By disaster I mean Virgin often do routine maintenance at this time of night so let's not count our chickens.