Watching Sky when recording two channels

[KenjohnB]

Morning everyone

I know that when recording two channels, it is not possible to watch a third, but I thought you could watch either of the two channels being recorded. If I'm recording, for example, Sky 1 HD and Syfy HD, and Sky 1 HD is the channel on the TV, I cannot switch to Syfy HD - I get a message saying that if I want to watch Syfy HD I must cancel either recording Sky 1 HD or Syfy HD!
I rang Sky who said this is normal, but I'm sure I've been able to switch between the two in the past.

Any ideas?

Many thanks

Ken

 

[Broadz]

Sky are wrong. The two tuners in the box are tuned to the two channels being recorded - so these are the only two channels that can be watched. In fact, pressing the up or down channel buttons on the Sky remote should switch between these two channels only.

It is always possible that only one of your two inputs works, so even though the box said it was recording SyFy HD it in fact wasn't, in which case you wouldn't be able to view it either. Once the recording finishes, check whether both recordings are viewable, or whether one reports as failed.

The other possibility is that the box is showing signs of failing - a reboot (once the recordings have finished) may sort it out. Alternatively, start watching back the recording from the SyFy channel in the planner (rather than watching it live) and fast forward to a second or two before the live showing.

 

[mattclarkie]

Alternatively, start watching back the recording from the SyFy channel in the planner (rather than watching it live) and fast forward to a second or two before the live showing.

The issue with this is recordings playback faster than live tv, so you catch-up and get the message 'You have reached the end of the recording', so you have to rewind. From my experience the playback is ~1minute per hour faster than broadcast.
Or am I the only one that gets this problem? It has happened on 2 different Sky boxes so I've always assumed it was just a bug with the software.

 

[Broadz]

The issue with this is recordings playback faster than live tv, so you catch-up and get the message 'You have reached the end of the recording', so you have to rewind. From my experience the playback is ~1minute per hour faster than broadcast.
Or am I the only one that gets this problem? It has happened on 2 different Sky boxes so I've always assumed it was just a bug with the software.

I often watch playback a couple of seconds behind live so as to remove the red button from the screen - and I remain a couple of seconds behind live right to the end, even if it is a two and a half hour football match (with all preliminary and succeeding analysis). So yes, I would guess it is only you who gets this problem.

In some ways it might be a useful feature if it did do what you describe. So, if a movie was listed as being two hours and seven minutes, record it to your planner then play it back from that and it shortens the length of the movie to two hours and five minutes - which would mean it would fit on a standard DVD disc at SP quality. Whereas two hours and seven minutes would require recording to be done at LP quality, or would need the credits to be cut short.

 

[davemurgatroyd2]

The issue with this is recordings playback faster than live tv, so you catch-up and get the message 'You have reached the end of the recording', so you have to rewind. From my experience the playback is ~1minute per hour faster than broadcast.
Or am I the only one that gets this problem? It has happened on 2 different Sky boxes so I've always assumed it was just a bug with the software.

You do not have to rewind at this point - merely wait a short while and press play again. In my experience playback is NOT faster than live viewing but that this occurs when you are very close to live viewing and the box has not yet saved its last cache to the HDD and is particularly noticable on boxes where the HDD has been upgraded to one with a larger cache than OEM disk.

 

[KenjohnB]

It is always possible that only one of your two inputs works, so even though the box said it was recording SyFy HD it in fact wasn't, in which case you wouldn't be able to view it either. Once the recording finishes, check whether both recordings are viewable, or whether one reports as failed.

Thanks Broadz.

In fact, both channels do record perfectly well.

Ken