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jdugal's avatar
jdugal
New Contributor

SDV channel timeou

When the following message appears it messes my mom up.  "...the channel you are watching has timed out due to inactivity...".

Instead of entering the channel number she presses the up / down channel button, which is a very reasonable thing.  When she does that it sends her to on-demand or some channel in the 1900s.  Really?

This is far more polite than deserved:  whoever designed the function so you have to punch in the exact number to return to normal is a poor engineer.

Why?  Because apparently he didn't consider people will be using the remote.  Why am I incensed?  Because the vast majority of engineers realize that people (surprise) will work with what we build, and we think about them.

Did he consider that often this happens when people sleep with or fall asleep of in front of the tv; they wake up groggy, instinctively hit the up or down button, and they are thrown into on-demand land or some other unfamiliar place (complicated by the fact they still aren't fully awake).

Did he consider that many people, due to age, arthritis, physical disabilities, or diminished capacity can't manipulate the small number buttons?  They live by the channel up / down buttons, which are about three times as big as the number keys, but you resist that solution.  Speaking of solutions, what about the simplest - you can hit any button to return the tv to normal.  Are you going to tell us in this day and age one of those solutions is technically impossible?

Please do something about this or stop turning off the channel.

J

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  • wees41's avatar
    wees41
    Contributor II

    what hardware does she have?  what channel is she watching?  maybe bad sdv adapter or channel map have you tried rebooting the adapter?

  • jdugal's avatar
    jdugal
    New Contributor

    She had two receivers which were Cisco Explorer 9865HDC installed 4 months ago.  The channel is 27 in the Lafayette, La region; this is the standard definition USA network.

    Two weeks ago we replaced one of her receivers with a Cisco Explorer 4742HDC.  The channel is 27 in the Lafayette, La region; this is the standard definition USA network.

    I had two other different model receivers in my home; based on appearance they were different models and different from any of hers (for example one was 10 years old and had one of the previous versions of menu and program guide).  One operated on various HD channels and the older operated on only standard definition channels.

    I replaced both of those receivers with the Cisco Explorer 4742HDC last week.  These are now operating on various HD channels.

    All six of them, including four different models, exhibit the same issue - they time out after inactivity (which I dislike but have to accept) and then require you to enter the channel number to restore operation..  If you press an up / down channel button you are sent to on-demand land or something in the 1900's.

  • Becky's avatar
    Becky
    Moderator
    Hi Jdugal,

    I’m sorry that the SDV channel timeout is causing so much frustration. With traditional broadcasting, all TV signals are broadcast constantly, whether anyone is tuned to that channel or not. This takes up a lot of bandwidth. Switched Digital Video provides the signal to you only when you tune to a particular channel. Because the system only sends customer-demanded channels, spare bandwidth is freed up for other network services.

    If a TV/cable box is left on an SDV channel for longer than 6 hours and has not received any commands from the remote control during that time, the user is prompted to press Select to continue watching the channel. If no confirmation is received, the channel is released, freeing up bandwidth. Many TV providers utilize SDV technology in this manner. The reason a channel number is necessary to resume viewing after the timeout is because the receiver isn’t technically “on” a channel at that time. The channel stream was released, and the “timeout” message is displayed using a virtual channel slate; usually utilizing channel 1998. That’s why pressing up or down takes you to a channel in the 1900s. Does that make sense?

  • jdugal's avatar
    jdugal
    New Contributor

    The receiver as delivered can perform the following.  The receiver can be turned off and when it is turned back on it will return to the last channel.  The receiver can remember the last channel even when it is turned off, but not during a time out (even with the advantage of remaining on).

    Please help me understand why that makes sense.  I am truly curious.

    Jdugal

  • Becky's avatar
    Becky
    Moderator
    Hi Jdugal,

    Your question relates to the difference between virtual channels and real channels. The virtual channel number is the number displayed in the Guide. The real channel number is the actual channel frequency in use by the TV station to broadcast the TV signal. The virtual channel number of each channel in the Cox lineup is mapped to the frequency of a specific TV network broadcast.

    When a cable receiver is programmed to 'power on' to a specific channel number or the last channel viewed, it is tuning to the frequency of a specific TV network broadcast. In contrast, the SDV timeout message slate is a virtual channel; it has no associated TV network frequency. This is why I said the receiver isn’t technically “on” a channel once the SDV timeout occurs; the channel frequency has been released. This is the best way I know how to explain why you have to press a channel number once the SDV timeout message is displayed.

  • jdugal's avatar
    jdugal
    New Contributor

    It's clear that the device can store the last frequency information even when turned off.  If it can store it then it can certainly store that information while it is turned on, even if the tuner is assigned no frequency.

    Another way to look at this is that the tuner is assigned no frequency when it is turned off.  In spite of that, when the device is turned back on it can refer to what is obviously a stored frequency and use it.

    So it would be nice if theydesigned the function so that prior to timeout it stored the last frequency, and then watched for any button press on the remote.  When it saw a button press it would tune to the last frequency.

    Best Regards,

    Jdugal