Cannot watch certain channels when recording one programme

[Suffolk_n_Watt]

My wife records a programme on FOX  to watch later, but when I try to switch from BBC1 to Sky1 or Skysports I get a message telling me to cancel the recording in order to watch my selected channel. Should this be happening?

[Gondola · Accepted solution]

Hi @Suffolk_n_Watt

It's normal.  Only one internet delivered channel can be selected at any one time.

What I do when I find there's a clash of viewing / recording is to use the TV Planner app to see if the recording can be rescheduled at a different time.  The planner will advise if the programme to be recorded is scheduled at a different time.

OK, it's not Virgin Media 6 channels being recorded at a time but it's what we've got for now.

[ferguson]

Yes, you can only record/watch a single internet TV channel at a time.

http://help2.talktalk.co.uk/recording-my-talktalk-tv-plus-box-0#8766

[Suffolk_n_Watt]

Thanks guys. That makes sense, but seems a bit stingy. Another thing to bare in mind when the contract's up! 

[Mulgie]

This ridiculous single channel recording headache is drIving my wife and I round the bend! 😕

We've just switched from Sky+ HD to TalkTalk to try and save a bit of money and were willing to sacrifice the HD but are now a bit annoyed at the TV service after subscribing to the 'full' entertainment package.

After initially only recieving a sluggish, streaming-only (no record at all!) Huawei box from TalkTalk we've since had to fork out £149 for a BT-branded Humax box that CAN record.

Unfortunately, even after buying a decent box that IS able to record we're still restricted to recording a single Internet channel at once.  We will need to record 3 programmes next Wednesday evening when 24 Legacy starts on Fox and wife already wants Grey's Anatomy AND Masterchef America on 'W'.  GA is available on catch up but the Fox and W(atch) channels are not available on catch up at all.  Even at that we MIGHT have been able to record one of the non-catch-up channels on a '+1' channel with Sky/BT/Virgin but for some insane reason Talk Talk don't have ANY +1 internet channel either!?

Feeling very disappointed and misled.

Really hoping that Talk Talk can improve their service/add +1 channels soon as we're on the 38Mb Fibre broadband too so it can'take be a bandwidth issue.

Really don't like the Murdoch empire so loathed to go back to Sky but will have to consider my other options if we're missing out on all our programmes due to a lack of service. 😕

[Gondola]

Hi @Mulgie

What I do when I find there's a clash of viewing / recording is to use the TV Planner app to see if the recording can be rescheduled at a different time.  The planner will advise if the programme to be recorded is scheduled at a different time.

In this case, I don't have all of the Entertainment channels so I couldn't check for you on the TV planner app... I used the Radio Times.

24:Legacy is repeated at 1:10 (I assume it's the same episode).

Keeping your wife happy is priority No 1.

She watches Masterchef USA on W at 8pm

She watches Grey's Anatomy on Sky Living at 9pm

You record 24:Legacy on Fox at 1:10am and it's there ready for you to watch from Thursday onwards.

But is definitely easier to schedule your viewing with the TV Planner app. Try it.

[Mulgie]

His Gondola,

Thanks for offering some helpful selections WRT opting for a repeat slot to avoid clashes.
I did try doing this but unfortunately when I Series-Linked the repeated Thursday morning episode of 24 Legacy the Youview software (Unlike Sky) then tried to record the next episode on the Wednesday again which re-created the clash issue.
Basically it looks like Youview''s implementation of Series Link will always record the first calendar instance of the next episode of a series rather than using a set slot each week like Sky does. This means that in order to avoid a clash I would have to manually go in and set my box to record that later episode slot EVERY week like some 1990's VCR/DVD recorder. 😕

Another thing that grates is that it keeps missing the end 2/3 mins off my Walking Dead recordings on Monday nights. I have even now had to series link Talking Dead too but there is still a gap between the end of one priogram and the beginning of the next so the only way to truly watch the ending is by using Exodus on Kodi which feels both inconvenient and wrong.

[Gondola]

Hi @Mulgie

Nightmare!  Keeping the whole family happy when all we ask for is the ability to record more channels simultaneously. With Virgin and Sky's products way ahead of YouView there's a lot of catching up to do.

Well spotted on the scheduling of series recordings. I thought it did select the same weekday repeat. I'm going to have to look and see why the TV planner isn't optimised to default to a weekly schedule if there is one. On some channels there are so many repeats and if there is no 'weekly' pattern it's always going to be difficult to organise a packed recording schedule until we get the ability to record more channels.

There is a built in overrun on recordings and maybe we need to have an option to select a longer overrun.  However, if there are recording clashes and the box needs to change channels because of the limitations on recordings then the overrun or sometimes the end of programme gets cut off. I agree, it's frustrating. 

[HelsW74]

I'm a bit gutted, recently moved House and Virgin media (who I've been with for years) isn't available where I've moved to...Talk Talk seemed to offer the best deal, but it didn't even occur to me that I wouldn't be able to simultaneously watch one thing whilst recording another as I've been doing that with Virgin. Feeling pretty annoyed with myself right now. 

[Skala1]

I am in exactly the same position! I had been with Virgin for over 20 years - I downsized to a lovely flat half a mile away - but no Virgin service available in this street. The talktalk service is SO inferior by comparison - not being able to watch Upstart Crow now as im recording a film...what rubbish.  Very disappointed.

[HollyBy]

Hi all,

I appreciate this is an old thread, but thought you might like to know that we will soon be introducing the ability to record one boost channel while watching another. We expect this to be available in the next couple of weeks.

Thanks, Holly

[Mulgie]

Hi Holly, thanks for the update.
To be fair we've been unable to record *any* of our boost channels for around 6 months now due to the picture and sound breaking up on all of our Internet channels. We're basically having to watch all our programmes on the Player apps which are lower definition but at least they will play most of the time. Even then we can get buffering. We're paying for 38MB Fibre but I couldn't even connect to the company servers last night because my wife was watching Netflix at the same time! 😕
I've just been flicking through the channels and things like Sky Sports News, Sky Witness and SyFy are unwatchable.
We have contacted TalkTalk tech support and done the whole 'connect via your master socket' rigmarole but we always get fobbed off because our connection isn't 'down', just horribly unreliable. I'm not sure if it's to do with the fact that we still have the original, noddy old Huawei Router we were given 2 years ago (when we switched across from Sky). Our internet was mostly fine for 18 months but since then the connection has been shocking and getting ever worse. Even the telephone crackles now.
Right now on Ookla Speed Test (over a CAT 5E Ethernet Cable) I'm getting just 24.00MB Download and 9.51 Upload when we're supposed to have 36MB Download. What we need is an engineer to come out but sadly there appears to be zero chance of that happening unless we switch to BT OpenReach as they seem to run all things internet-related round here. 😕