[sclug] 99 channels and nothing on...

[Jason Rivers]

On Wed, 29 Sep 2010 13:31:07 +0100, Neil Haughton
<haughtonomous at googlemail.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>> During the strong winds last year our dish was blown out of satellite
>> alignment. Ok, I said, we'll just watch the recorded content. But a sky
>> box
>> will not play any recorded programs without an active feed. I imagine
>> it's
>> designed to stop you filling a box up and sending the disk off to a
>> friend
>> outside the UK.
>>
>>
> That's just about typical of Sky's attitude to customers. When they
can't
> supply you with a signal (and this occurs in bad weather as well) you
can't
> watch recorded stuff either.  How logical is that? They could, I am
sure,
> easily encrypt the content in a way that ties it to your own box or
card,
> if
> they could be bothered, in order to protect the content from
distribution.
>  But why bother when there's not much competition?
> 
> Have you noticed that whilst it is screamingly easy to subscribe to
> additional services online, it is almost impossible to unsubscribe the
same
> way? You have to do it over the usual appallingly tedious telephone
> service,
> and in my experience several times before they get the message. I've had
> more arguments with them over that than I care to mention.
> 
> If it weren't for my wife and our poor Freeview reception I would
> cheerfully
> kick Sky into touch, but she likes the service so that's that for me.
:-(
> 
> It's a funny old world.
> 
> Neil.


I run bot Freeview and Freesat using Tuner cards in a PC running as a DVR,
it has more recorded content on it than I care to imagine, (filling up
around 3TB at the moment) and this is a great solution for me. On the other
hand, I don't tend to watch a lot of TV. But the recorded content is very
useful when there's naff-all on. I basically have various things set to
record when they're on. but never really get round to watching them. when
it's miserable outside and there's nothing on, That's when these start to
get watched.

J