topic Re: Hidden Engineers menus/options in Sky Q

Hidden Engineers menus/options

Anonymous — Sun, 05 Mar 2023 12:05:53 GMT

I was wondering what exactly the hidden engineers options allow to be done - that a normal user cannot access ?

Such as DELETE ALL or perhaps even SET A PROGRAM REMINDER ?

Could someone please confirm ?

Re: Hidden Engineers menus/options

nigea99 — Sun, 05 Mar 2023 12:11:32 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:

I was wondering what exactly the hidden engineers options allow to be done - that a normal user cannot access ?

Such as DELETE ALL or perhaps even SET A PROGRAM REMINDER ?

Could someone please confirm ?

Maybe look for yourself - there are plenty of discussions here that tell people how to access the engineers' menu

As you may guess neither of what you suggest are there - although there is one way to delete all - which involves a full reset

Re: Hidden Engineers menus/options

Daniel0210 — Sun, 05 Mar 2023 12:12:27 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:

Such as DELETE ALL or perhaps even SET A PROGRAM REMINDER ?

@Anonymous

No, not available on Sky Q by any means.

Re: Hidden Engineers menus/options

TimmyBGood — Sun, 05 Mar 2023 13:52:23 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:

or perhaps even SET A PROGRAM REMINDER

Difficult to conceive of circumstances in which that would be developed but then concealed.

The most common use of the 'hidden' menu is to switch off WiFi.

Re: Hidden Engineers menus/options

Anonymous — Sun, 05 Mar 2023 14:23:21 GMT

@TimmyBGood

I still cant get my head around the reason that Sky failed to implement the PROGRAM REMINDER side of HD into Q

I mean - who is responsible for missing this vital part of the programming ?

Re: Hidden Engineers menus/options

TimmyBGood — Sun, 05 Mar 2023 14:27:06 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:

I mean - who is responsible for missing this vital part of the programming ?

Only conceivably 'vital' to those who used that feature of Sky+

This has been discussed extensively since Q launched in early 2016.

Re: Hidden Engineers menus/options

Anonymous — Sun, 05 Mar 2023 14:52:44 GMT

@TimmyBGood

That makes it even worse

They have had 7 years to add this via updates and have failed to listen to customers

Re: Hidden Engineers menus/options

TimmyBGood — Sun, 05 Mar 2023 14:55:54 GMT

@Anonymous

Again, a small minority of Sky+ customers. As Reminders are only useful when live television is being viewed we tend to suspect it was seen as a legacy feature not suited to the online/on-demand bias of the Q system, and there's also the issue of how it could fit into the new Multiscreen topology which Q introduced.

Re: Hidden Engineers menus/options

Anonymous — Sun, 05 Mar 2023 15:00:16 GMT

@TimmyBGood

That is what many people use Sky for - believe it or not - watching TV live!

Re: Hidden Engineers menus/options

TimmyBGood — Sun, 05 Mar 2023 15:02:45 GMT

@Anonymous

Certainly, and Sky presumably knows exactly what percentage (and of that percentage how many ever set a Reminder) from the telemetry which internet-connected Sky+ boxes provided, and made design decisions about Q accordingly.

Re: Hidden Engineers menus/options

Chodley — Sun, 05 Mar 2023 15:53:07 GMT

What's the point in reminders when you can watch everything on catch-up anyway?

Or is there stuff you can't?

Re: Hidden Engineers menus/options

Laing1 — Sun, 05 Mar 2023 16:53:28 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:

@TimmyBGood

That makes it even worse

They have had 7 years to add this via updates and have failed to listen to customers

@Anonymous I think as well it's not as easy to mimplement reminders on a multiscreen platform as it is on Sky+HD where you set the reminder on the box and it apprearedon that box.

With a multiscreen platform which box should the reminder come up only the box it was set or all box. If only the box it was set on means you would have to run about setting reminders on different boxes dependant on whdere you will be watching a certain programme.

If all boxes then it could become tedious to others if they keep being informed about reminders.

From what we have learned over the years on these forums is that Sky did have information from the HD boxes how often reminders were used and they also sent out a survey to some customers prior to Q being released on what features they used add into this that you can record 6 channels whilst watching a 7th

I used reminders on Sky+HD but have learnt to live without them on Q

Re: Hidden Engineers menus/options

oj01 — Sun, 05 Mar 2023 17:08:28 GMT

@Chodley wrote:
What's the point in reminders when you can watch everything on catch-up anyway?

Or is there stuff you can't?

Live sport is what I mainly use Reminders for.

Re: Hidden Engineers menus/options

Chodley — Sun, 05 Mar 2023 17:22:04 GMT

Oh ok.

Set it on yer phone instead I guess. Siri / google are very (surprisingly) good at that.

Re: Hidden Engineers menus/options

Anonymous — Sun, 05 Mar 2023 17:42:03 GMT

So being able to record 6 programs at one go

How many times have any of you used that?

Re: Hidden Engineers menus/options

nigea99 — Sun, 05 Mar 2023 18:09:30 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:

So being able to record 6 programs at one go

How many times have any of you used that?

I admit I don't think I have ever set 6 but I have definitely had 4 on several occasions but these were not instead of reminders just like the flexibility when programmes clash

I don't generally use recordings as alternatives / workarounds to reminders (although I have done so occasionally) - the whole point of reminders for me is to switch to 'live', be it sport or press conferences etc

I must say I only used reminders rarely but I do think it is a shame that Reminders didn't make it to Q - for the reasons given. I don't use the the other suggested workarounds though (I refuse to have any device listening in on me) - I just rely on clock watching

Personally I miss at least one other feature that was on the HD box more - namely bookmarks in recordings

That all said I still prefer my SKY Q box - the few features from SKY HD never implemented are, in reality, minor and whilst I miss a couple I am not going to get upset by their absence

Re: Hidden Engineers menus/options

oj01 — Sun, 05 Mar 2023 18:25:30 GMT

@nigea99 wrote:

Personally I miss at least one other feature that was on the HD box more - namely bookmarks in recordings

Odd isn't it. To this day, I've never once used Bookmarks.

Re: Hidden Engineers menus/options

nigea99 — Sun, 05 Mar 2023 18:30:42 GMT

@oj01 wrote:

@nigea99 wrote:

Personally I miss at least one other feature that was on the HD box more - namely bookmarks in recordings

Odd isn't it. To this day, I've never once used Bookmarks.

Not odd at all - we all have different ways of watching etc.

I record some Concerts or hang onto some sports events to watch again & bookmarks are very handy to get to the points I want to watch. I use them on my freeview recorder (which also allows me to edit the recording to remove unwanted segments as well 🙂 )