Formula 1

[roger@rcaph.co.uk]

I am amazed at the amount of effort you guys are putting in for our benefit so firstly, thanks.

An F1 fan just needs to set up 3 SPs (for "Formula 1" on each of BBC1, BBC2 and BBC3) in order to record all the F1 programmes. If there are three series, you may need to set up up to 9 SPs to capture all the combinations of progamme and channel!

At the moment I have wishlists set up to record various permutations of FORMULA 1, FORMULA ONE, F1 etc as in the past, the name has changed and recordings have been missed. Unless I am missing something fundemental about TIVO, a season pass CANNOT be set up in advance on a channel a program does not currently appear on. While F1 is on BBC1, I cannot set up a season pass for F1 on BBC2. When F1 appears on BBC2, then I can set up a season pass if I want to. For this reason, for me I will stick with the wishlists, which I hope won't need changing.

My opinion of the one link against 3 is that 3 gives more flexibility. Sure, I could set up a season pass which gets all 3 programs in one hit, but I already have that with a wishlist. Separating out the qualifying, live race and highlights does give added value as I could then just record the races if I want to.

To conclude then, 3 SPs would be better, but anything is better than nothing so I shan't complain whatever you do.

[Pete77]

My opinion of the one link against 3 is that 3 gives more flexibility. Sure, I could set up a season pass which gets all 3 programs in one hit, but I already have that with a wishlist. Separating out the qualifying, live race and highlights does give added value as I could then just record the races if I want to.

To conclude then, 3 SPs would be better, but anything is better than nothing so I shan't complain whatever you do.

I'm glad to see at least one of my ideas seems to be getting some support on the forum.

I see the most critical thing as being that the F1 Race Live programs have a different program name from F1 Qualifying, F1 Highlights and F1 Race Rerun (which in practice is always nearly an hour or more shorter than race live). If that happens then most of us may not set Season Passes at all but may instead set only Wishlists for those F1 programs we personally like to watch (ranging from only F1 Highlights or F1 Race for many of us through to all possible F1 programs for the true devotees which I would actually once have ranked as 20 to 25 or so years ago in the days of Prost, Senna and Mansell except that back then we only had the BBC's partial coverage of only some of the race live on Sunday Grandstand available to watch). By doing this we can then capture F1 Race or F1 Highlights regardless of which channel they are shown on as whilst F1 Race is normally shown on BBC One and F1 Highlights on BBC Three this could easily change on say the finals Sunday of Wimbledon or during the London Olympics fortnight next year.

I have actually already tried to achieve this with the current Tribune Formula 1 program name by using a Wishlist for Formula 1 and then using Mike's Global Blocklist to block recordings of programs containing the word Qualifying or Highlights but for reasons unknown this currently only seems to succeed in blocking recording of the Qualifying program on BBC One but does not block the Highlights program on BBC Three. Also Global Blocklist is a hack only available to those with networked Tivos and is not a standard Tivo software feature. Unhelpfully this year Tribune (although probably the originating culprit for this change is the BBC) have changed to using the terms Race Live even for some some showings of the Race or Qualifying which are not actually live at all.

[ghstone]

As one of the afore-mentioned Formula 1 nuts, who will also watch anything with wheels in preference to people running about, the simplicity of a single Seasion Pass covering Qualifying and Race with another for higlhights - which I never watch - would be great, but if it suits others to have either one SP for each, or one SP for all then that's fine too, I'm just grateful that someone is going to so much effort to make all of this work.

Now, as a wishlist item, how about the ability to programme 'Red Button' recording ? That way i can get Friday Practice 1 & 2 and Staturday Practice 3 without having to be in the room to kick it off...

Graham

[Pete77]

Now, as a wishlist item, how about the ability to programme 'Red Button' recording ? That way i can get Friday Practice 1 & 2 and Staturday Practice 3 without having to be in the room to kick it off...

On most Freeview boxes this is in theory possible as channel 301 can be selected directly as though it was a normal channel number (even though you can also navigate to 301 indirectly by using the Red Button whilst viewing BBC One, BBC Two etc). The only problem with Freeview is it now only has one red button stream instead of the previous two. This is apparently so that the BBC can sell off the DTT air space previously involved to allow what must be a tiny number of people to watch Sky Sports 1 and 2 on this air space instead via TopUpTv. Meanwhile over on satellite the Beeb can have up to five red button feeds that are not broadcast on any normal channel although generally they content themselves with no more than three extra streams outside of the first week of Wimbledon (when the full five are suddenly deployed). However the problem is that on a Sky box you cannot call up these satellite streams directly and instead have to press the Red Button and then select the interactive streams page and finally select the screen number you want to watch. As the number given to each stream on the Interactive page (or indeed the total number of streams being offered by the Beeb on satellite at any one time) cannot be forecast n advance you cannot program a Tivo to change channels to them. On top of this Sky don't publish an EPG for the Beeb's interactive streams. Of course if you get yourself a conventional Eurosat box you can select the stream directly as a channel number but unfortunately Tivo does not support the EPG for the streams even if you hacked your Tivo to map some channel numbers on the Tivo to match the streams on the EuroSat box.

Hence the only way to watch these satellite streams non live as far as I can see is on the BBC Iplayer apart from Red Button channel 301 on Freeview for which the AltEPG ought to be able to produce the channel listings (even though it doesn't do so at present). Annoyingly all too often not all the satellite streams are made available as programs on the Iplayer.....

[Tcm2007]

Are red button shows accessed by justpressing he red button - a single keypress - or is it more complicated than that?

[Pete77]

Are red button shows accessed by justpressing he red button - a single keypress - or is it more complicated than that?

Its more complicated than that, especially with a Sky Digibox.

On a Sky box press Red. After pressing Red navigate to the pop up menu choice of the day for the interactive sports stream or other events stream choices available. These front page menus after pressing Red are not consistent in order or layout from day to day.

Anyhow find the menu you need and then press Select. Wait an eternity for the interactive events streams page to load and finally be faced with a screen of a number of different feeds where you need to pick the number of the feed you want to expand it to full screen. There is no way to be sure in advance which numbered feed the feed you want to watch will be on. Although if you want Live coverage of the main sporting event of the day not covered on a normal BBC channel then it is likely to be on feed number 1 for which you need to press button 1 on the Sky remote.

Hang on a moment but didn't you used to have a Sky box in the days when you were Sanderton. Nothing significant has changed about the method for accessing the interactive streams on a Sky box since you stopped being able to use one in your own home following your move.

[Tcm2007]

My memory for trivia is limited, Pete. Can't recall ever using the red button.

[Pete77]

My memory for trivia is limited, Pete. Can't recall ever using the red button.

I find that extremely hard to believe when the BBC has been promoting the benefits of the red button utterly relentlessly for at least the last 10 years, especially since the launch of Freeview (even though the red button options on a Freeview box are ironically much more limited compared to those on a Sky box).

I also find it extremely odd that someone who works on a specialist technology magazine and still hangs out in a forum for anorakey techno loving geeks who would otherwise be plane or train spotting (had they not invented the internet and computers to fill up our time) and who has even dabbled in the horrible mysteries of TCL should now claim that he has no mind for trivia.

[gcobb]

I find that extremely hard to believe when the BBC has been promoting the benefits of the red button utterly relentlessly for at least the last 10 years, especially since the launch of Freeview (even though the red button options on a Freeview box are ironically much more limited compared to those on a Sky box).

I have also never pressed the red button, in my recollection. The reason being: it requires watching TV live! I have a Tivo and I never watch live TV!! Even sporting events I usually watch at least a few minutes behind (it saves bothering to wait for the start or timing stopping whatever I am doing at a precise time).

[Tcm2007]

My memory for trivia is limited, Pete. Can't recall ever using the red button.

I find that extremely hard to believe when the BBC has been promoting the benefits of the red button utterly relentlessly for at least the last 10 years, especially since the launch of Freeview (even though the red button options on a Freeview box are ironically much more limited compared to those on a Sky box).
.

Maybe I have but I can't remember doing so. MC7 enabled the red button for Freeview about 18 months ago. I think I pressed it once to see if it worked; it did. I've had no cause to press it again.

[Pete77]

Maybe I have but I can't remember doing so. MC7 enabled the red button for Freeview about 18 months ago. I think I pressed it once to see if it worked; it did. I've had no cause to press it again.

Then you are completely missing out on the very useful Driver Tracker screen from Formula One management that shows where each car currently is on the track and as it moves around it along with the driver name throughout the race. And I was under the impression that you do watch the Formula One races.

Of course perhaps to you it is more important to only watch a crystal clear live stream in HD of the racing action than to know where all the drivers currently are on the track.

Unfortunately the Driver Tracker only has a very small insert screen of the actual live racing action so you have to flip between that and the live race screen. It would be better if there was a screen split horizontally that was half Driver Tracker and half live racing action images. Perhaps the BBC or FOM will get round to this in the end.

[Tcm2007]

I do watch F1, but seldom fully live.

I'm not that obsessive to want the driver tracker stuff, but if I did I'd use the iPad (which I believe can synch with recordings).

[poppadum]

Now, as a wishlist item, how about the ability to programme 'Red Button' recording ? That way i can get Friday Practice 1 & 2 and Staturday Practice 3 without having to be in the room to kick it off...

On most Freeview boxes this is in theory possible as channel 301 can be selected directly as though it was a normal channel numbe

Is that 301 channel what the channel name BBC Sport Interactive [Freeview] might refer to? If so, we may be able to fetch listings for it.

[Pete77]

Is that 301 channel what the channel name BBC Sport Interactive [Freeview] might refer to? If so, we may be able to fetch listings for it.

Yes that should be the channel we are talking about. The great thing is that on Freeview it can also just be selected as a normal channel number, unlike on a Sky Digibox.

[mikerr]

I do watch F1, but seldom fully live.

I'm not that obsessive to want the driver tracker stuff, but if I did I'd use the iPad (which I believe can synch with recordings).

..and excellent it is too !

It's quite an expensive app at £19.99 (for one year no less!)

Recording the red button (301) would be great, although I use VM TiVo to record the F1 in HD these days.