recording from digital cable

[David H]

Is there a system yet that lets you record more than one channel on cable when you're out, eg Sky 1 and another later on discovery? The theory seems simple but there is no literature in the retailers about it, though there seems to be something called qlink, but no details were given on the TV brochure I read.

[geofbob]

I'm on Telewest Cable, and switched from Analogue to Digital several months ago, and was surprised and annoyed to find that, unlike Analogue, Digital has no timer faciility for switching channels automatically. Possibly even more annoying is that if you go on holiday, and leave the cable box on a channel, hoping to record a progamme or series of programmes, the cable box seems automatically to switch from that channel to a menu channel after a certain length of time. Another downside with Digital is that the 888 subtitles are either non-existent or tend to go off during a programme. All in all, I've found the transfer from Analogue to Digital one of those many IT "upgrades" that simply isn't. I'm well aware that the foregoing does nothing to answer your question, butit's good to get it off my chest!

[LeMarchand]

geofbob - same with NTL, who seem to use a lot of the same equipment/software. If the signal is lost for whatever reason, rather than return to the channel you were on, it defaults to the "preview" channel (as we all love to watch that ;-) ). I can set the box to change channels, but only up to the ridiculously low 3-day limit of the EPG. They claim that the EPG is so massive, that there isn't enough memory spare to hold longer than 3 days. Funny how Sky can do it.

[David H]

Oh well, I took the advice and phoned the NTL operator to see if the reminders could change rather than remind, who sounded as if I'd asked her to do a Bill Clinton, and had to ask her superiors. The reply was a mystified 'What gave you that idea' sort of answer, and could you please get off the line as quickly as possible. Sort of sums up their total attitude I've suffered over the last 8 years, and as cable companies hold a monopoly per area, doesn't look like improving as they can't lose regardless.

[LeMarchand]

Sorry David - guess you're on the old software :-(. You could try writing, but like you say, it won't have any effect. I think some major cities are still on older versions of the software, and as NTL has cashflow problems (from what I read on the aforementioned NTHellworld site), I guess that it'll stay that way for a while.