Is this true?
Received the following e-mail:
A sky tech let slip that the free to air channels (tvnz, tv3 etc) are sending commands via their digital sky network that delete series links for their shows off people’s mysky planners. I had noticed that the links to shows like CSI and McLeod’s Daughters were mysteriously vanishing off my series links. Have you noticed it too? The tech said it was all very hush hush and that you could get an adapter from DSE to stop it.
Now I do know if this is true or not. It certainly is true that the series link function does start to miss some shows over time and you need to reboot the mysky box to restore them. I haven’t checked in the past is the deleted series links are just from the free to air channels. Has anyone else been keeping check and/or know if this is true or false?
February 1st, 2008 at 8:55 am
This is going to be an epic thread
February 1st, 2008 at 9:00 am
This is all Heather Simpsons fault.
February 1st, 2008 at 9:04 am
I was just about to say “this is all the Labour government’s fault”. Someone beat me to it, though I suspect they were being serious.
February 1st, 2008 at 9:05 am
pathetic if it is true, I was about to have it installed too
February 1st, 2008 at 9:07 am
I raised the problem of series links and forgotten (non-series link) recordings with Sky in the middle of last year.
They quite simply told lies to us. They said nobody else was having the same issues. We knew two or three other people with Mysky at the time and, IIRC, all of them were having the same issues as we were. Sky assured us this was new to them.
To me, a software fault would more likely explain the lost programming than a conspiracy. DVR is technically difficult and clever software, and still less than a decade old.
We could rule out conspiracy immediately if there are security features that prevent networks from doing that sort of thing (seems like an obvious thing to prevent).
February 1st, 2008 at 9:08 am
But does’t this just sum up the big brother state the Labour Party is ushering in. Of course why should anyone be surprised. They are socialists who want to confiscate private wealth and control everyone’s lives. Cullen thinks we will weather the economic storm because the GOVERNMENT books are in surplus, he does not care about the highly leveraged balance sheet the average person has.
[DPF: And that is 10 demerits for seriously off topic]
February 1st, 2008 at 9:09 am
I have notice that series links from the main channels does disappear every now and then. A reboot of the mysky seems to fix the problem. I also have to reboot the mysky when the channel numbers disappear. If this is true then TVNZ & TV3 have some explaining to do.
February 1st, 2008 at 9:13 am
I lose the whole program guide and ability to set up new recordings about once a week and need to reboot.
Haven’t noticed a particular pattern of series links being lost as I have always assumed that it has been because of programming changes or end of series. But I will certainly be watching a lot closer.
February 1st, 2008 at 9:15 am
tim – TV3 is a private business. If you want to froth at the mouth shouldn’t the conspiracy be how big business is trying to secretly control our lives? Or are you only worried about TVNZ because TV3 is yet to figure out how to penetrate your tin foil hat?
February 1st, 2008 at 9:16 am
They use to do this in USA about hrm, 9 years ago now with satalite TV to kill of hacked sat boxes. So it’s very possible.
February 1st, 2008 at 9:17 am
The EPG (Electronic Program Guide), which is where I would expect the programming links to originate from, is controlled,written, and owned by Sky. They simply scrape the info off the Free to air channels sites, the channels cannot change any info in here.
It sounds more like a software bug in the MySky boxes,
The thing to look for would be comparing TV1,2,3,4 to Prime, ( Which is owned by Sky), and see if there appears to be any difference in loss of links,
This smells like an urban legend.
Also, Interesting to note Foxtel in OZ have just released their HD mysky equivalent box, so I would imagine that it will seep to this part of the world around the time that HD freeview starts up in March,
February 1st, 2008 at 9:29 am
It was the mother of all budgets that caused this to happen. The failed policies of the past.
February 1st, 2008 at 9:31 am
Jesus – so that’s National’s secret agenda…
February 1st, 2008 at 9:36 am
Burt, you’re wrong. It was the moon and the sun.
February 1st, 2008 at 9:36 am
Yes, have noticed it. Will watch this with interest.
February 1st, 2008 at 9:47 am
Urban legend like anonymouse said. While I’m not too sure if the content is scraped off the TVNZ/TV3 websites (I’m sure they actually provide this data bacause it is copyrighted to them) it would be Sky that loads this into the system.
Sounds like MySky is flakey. I have a satellite card in my PC with MediaPortal and it picks up Freeview, where I say “Record this show at this time every week.” It does the trick. Who needs “series link”?
February 1st, 2008 at 9:50 am
Why would they do that ????, if they had Freeview PVR’s maybe, but even then it’s hardly a smart business decision.
It sounds way more like a lack of skill/testing in EPG programming & the integration of the EPG’s isn’t working right, could be it be the source was the programmer covering his tracks
February 1st, 2008 at 10:00 am
Losing the series link for McLeod’s daughters is surely a positive thing!
February 1st, 2008 at 12:08 pm
DanielM series link is a little better than just making a standing time recording. Firstly, if the time of the show moves and you don’t know, it does, and you don’t lose the show. Second, if the recording conflicts with some other recordings and usages (sometimes happens if you leave the TV on a third channel when you have 2 channels set to record), it automatically finds the next repeat of this show and books that for recording. Which could be at 3am the next morning. Quite choice when it works.
When it doesn’t it’s a biatch. I’m sure it’s a software fault, a hack seems as unlikely as ever as an excuse for bugs.
February 1st, 2008 at 12:35 pm
I accept that David, but there is a theme here. And the theme is big brother carefully nurtured by the Labour Party.
February 1st, 2008 at 12:59 pm
Hey there’s no way this is Labour’s fault … it was the Shipley National government in 1999 (with the active support of the Business Roundtable).
But seriously … I have the same problem with MySky dropping series link links after about 3 weeks. But I’d be very surprised if somehow TVNZ and TV3 were able to send some sort of nefarious signal across Sky’s broadcast to tinker with MySky. Methinks that a conspiracy theory promoted by someone with (i) close links to Sky and (ii) an over-active imagination.
I suspect the truth might lie more closely with the way Sky assemble their EPG and how they code their series identifiers.
February 1st, 2008 at 1:12 pm
llew, if the the mysky dosen’t record McLeod’s Daughters there is hell to pay in our house. But I’m with you, biggest load of Aussie dribble around. In Sth Aus last year and they were filming an episode of this crap and of course the wife wanted to stop, thank God the town had two pubs.
February 1st, 2008 at 4:49 pm
This is most definitely an urban legend and in breach of the Law of Common Sense. The real story is rather more ominous.
Deletion of the series link is in fact arranged by the SIS under ultra-secret clauses of the Electoral Finance Act. Under this legislation, it is the role of the SIS to scour episodes of popular programmes for any mention of policies or points of view that are at odds with the views of the current government. Episodes which fail to conform to Labour Government policy are simply deleted from MySky record settings. Series which continue to offer up nonconformist mutterings will be deleted entirely.
It’s pretty obvious why shows like CSI (‘tough on crime’) and McLeod’s Daughters (‘rural heartland voter bias’) are on the Don’t Play list. BLUE’S CLUES is another programme that is inherently unsound.
HOUSE is probably safe until someone from the department realises it’s not part of Parliament TV. Similarly THE F WORD is presumed to be about ministers’ unguarded whispers and is also OK for now.
And UGLY BETTY automatically gets recorded by every MySky box whether chosen by the householder or not.