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Can't view planner when signal blocked
I suffer when there's heavy snow in that I lose my sky signal. What really annoys me though is that I can't play anything from my planner when I'm not receiving a signal. Does anyone know why this is?
Also I have another sky dish which is used for my multiroom box, which doesn't suffer signal issues. Would Sky charge me for connecting my other box to this dish?
Also I have another sky dish which is used for my multiroom box, which doesn't suffer signal issues. Would Sky charge me for connecting my other box to this dish?
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you can connect your box to any dish you want, it makes no difference to sky. if you mean will they charge to come out and physically do the work, then yes.
I have sprayed my dishes & LNBs with silicone spray, that helps stop the snow accumulating
When you start to watch a recording the box checks to see if there is a signal. If there is then it allows continuation UNTIL you try to watch a channel or exit the recording. Even with no signal now in force you can continue watching any recording started to the end. It must be to prevent recordings being made (eg loads of movies) then cancel your subs and watch them all without a sub. So Sky needs to check a sub is acrive first.
Though maybe there could be other ways to check (eg via a phone link as these do not go down with snow like dishes do).
A massive snow storm started in the middle of a recording I was watching last night but I only realised this when I exited to watch something else and I had the no signal fault 29 message.
I tried rebooting but there was nothing. Just an empty planner 100% full. It was three hours before the signal returned when snow turned to rain. Had it not done so - with the dish unreachable on the gable end roof - we might have had no Sky for days. But the rain washed the snow away. Pity they cannot coat LNBs with something that gradually melts any accumulated snow.
But at least being able to watch your recordings if you have to wait days for someone to access the dish would be something when you are paying large sums per month to view. So maybe some other ways to check your right to view can be sought?
BTW the planner empty 100% full message after a reboot is needlessly scary and Sky should consider tweaking the way this works. In lost signal periods you might have it there for hours falsely reporting the planner is empty and it must convince people that the snow has lost them everything recorded - possibly leading to doing a system reset in hope of a cure when that would have the unfortunate result of wiping things that were actually still there.
A message not saying the planner is empty (as 100% fuil does imply!) would be better - eg 'cannot access planner wuthout signal'.
If someone from Sky reads this maybe they can suggest that tweak to avoid unnecessary stress. This 100% planner empty message only arrived with the new EPG and I suspect nobody considered this potential complication of the wording.
so you want the box to dial out every time it needs to check viewing entitlements?
your phone line would be in constant use.
and what would people do that don't (or choose not to) have a phone line?
No, just when no satellite signal is being received. That way if it rains too hard or we get a snow shower, I can still watch what is on my planner or even use the catch up service.
I've never tried this, but if you do lose your satellite signal does Sky Go stop working as well?
Of course not as its delivered via the internet.
Sky Go doesn't use Satellite in any way, so not sure why would think it would.
Sky Go is purely internet based.
I didn't think it would.
At least I know in future, during a severe rain storm or snow shower, the whole family can huddle around my iPod and watch Sky Go.
Sky Go on the internet knows I have a valid subscription, so why can the box not check for this as well?
It must be possible.
because Sky Go is IPTV based and uses your internet connection and DRM to provide you with the content.
if you don't have an internet connection you can't view.
the sky box is satellite based and uses satellite combined with viewing card to check your entitlements.
if you don't have a satellite connection you can't view.
2 separate ways of viewing - not linked in any way.
I guess it could be possible with a major firmware re-write or make the box cache the subscription entitlement for a set period of time if it loses signal.
Better to ask for these on the Sky forums, if enough people complain they may take it on board, otherwise I cant see it happening.
While sending the EMMs over the ethernet or phone connection would be possible, it would be far easier to prevent them from being received by the box so it is unlikely that Sky would enable this.
I presume they wouldn't want to do this, as they would then be sending/receiving some form of encryption keys which could be sniffed by other devices to try and crack them?
Assuming that the rationale is sound, then why not allow people to view recordings so long as there's been an active signal in the previous 12 hours or so? Signal loss due to bad weather isn't that unusual and the first thing many people will do when the signal is out is try to watch something they've recorded.
You could well be right, I have no idea what information has to be sent, although I would think the box could cache the entitlement from the over the air signal with a degree of security.
It has always worked that way for standard entitlements, even before the white cards. The entitlements last longer than a month normally though so that is quite a while of extra 'free' subscription if the kill signal is blocked. You are right with respect to the recording features though; with the old cards, the recording features never expired. This meant that if the kill signal was not received, those cards would allow recording for ever.
That is not quite true; the keys are sent along-side the broadcast stream, but in an encrypted form which can only be decrypted by the viewing card (and the card will only do this if it has the correct entitlements). When a recording occurs, these keys are re-encrypted by the card (which 'locks' the recording to that specific card, as only that card will now decrypt them) and saved on the hard disk. The box preventing playback is a completely artificial limitation in the box software.
Ah I see! That makes sense.