[mythtv-users] press a key to continue watching this channel

[Johnny Walker]

On Wed, Feb 9, 2011 at 11:13 AM, Marc Randolph <mrand at pobox.com> wrote:
> On Wed, Feb 9, 2011 at 10:51 AM, Ryan Patterson <ryan.goat at gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Wed, Feb 9, 2011 at 10:34 AM, Johnny Walker <johnnyjboss at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> So I noticed this morning on a long news program, Morning Express with
>>> Robin Meade on HLNHD using TWC in Dallas, Tx
>>>
>>> After several hours the cable box popped up the message asking me to
>>> press any key to continue. I was watching the show time shifted about
>>> 2 hours but with commercial breaks I was catching up fast.
>>>
>>> Anyway I was still 45 mins behind so the channel went to black for a
>>> moment and then switched to showing SYFY channel and the recording
>>> continued.
>>
>> The only time I've seen that happen is with an old cable box (ten
>> years ago?) that you could pre-program what shows you wanted to record
>> in the future.  Then when the time came it would ask you to press a
>> button to NOT change the channel.  This allowed the customer to
>> program the VCR to record at a certain time and not worry about using
>> an IR-blaster to change the channel on the cable box.
>>
>> I don't know why a cable box would do this without being programed
>> that way.  Perhaps Sci-Fi channel (I can't type the new dumb name)
>> pays them money to switch the channel if you are not paying attention?
>
> The behavior Johnny describes is very bothersome.  I wonder if they
> ran out of switched digital video (SDV) channels and that is their
> method for reclaiming them.
>
this is indeed what google tells me - it's only an issue in a program
longer 2 hours so I'm not likely to be hit by it unless I really want
to watch all of this morning long program. (which should be my right
as the consumer, but I don't want to stir that up on this list)

Ill take it up with my provider, perhaps on a day I'm in a really,
really good mood.

-Johnny