Sound breaking up on Sky HD recordings

[Viper_Larry]

Last night we tried to watch Heroes that I recorded on Monday. However, the sound was all broken up with gaps and quiet sections. At the same time, the Sky HD box was recording a program on BBC HD (Horizon) and on Sky Real Time (Overhaulin').

I tried another recording (BBC HD Great Events) with the same sound problems. I then tried to playback the Horizon footage that was still recording and this also had the sound problem. I deleted the Horizon program but let it carry on with Overhaulin'.

Now both Heroes and Great Events played without an issue.

So it seems that if you are recording 2 programs, one of which at least is HD, and try to watch a 3rd, then it can't cope with the sound playback. I've encountered this before with Lost and deleted the recording in a huff, but maybe it was OK in the first place, just I was trying to do too much at once.

Anyone else seen this behaviour?

[JustinP1]

Yep.

It has f***ed up recordings for me by doing that too, failing them halfway through.

Recording more than one HD program seems to much it up. Realistically, I think that the file sizes per second for recording two HD programs and playing back a third is too much for the hard drive.

You would need a very high spec drive to do that consistently. I guess they don't want to advertise that fact though...

[GI Jnr]

Early symptoms of your hard drive on it's way out. It's happened twice to me and is a known fault apparently.

Ring up Sky and get it checked out by an engineer, they should replace it. I was out of warranty on mine and they still replaced it as a gesture of goodwill.

Tuan

[Viper_Larry]

GI Jnr said:

Early symptoms of your hard drive on it's way out. It's happened twice to me and is a known fault apparently.

Ring up Sky and get it checked out by an engineer, they should replace it. I was out of warranty on mine and they still replaced it as a gesture of goodwill.

Tuan

And guess what? They called me today to say that my bix runs out of warranty on Friday this week!!!! Best get a call in tomorrow...

However, if it is a hardrive fault, maybe I could replace it with a higher spec drive? Did that on my old non-HD box without a problem.

[GI Jnr]

My first HD box was purchased within the first month of the service going live. It lasted 24 months and then started playing up, I rang Sky to chance it and played the 'I don't want to buy a new box and will just consider cancelling/downsizing my service', they looked at my account history and voluntarily offered a replacement box, with a new warranty.

It's worth asking nicey nicey.

Tuan

[JustinP1]

GI Jnr said:

My first HD box was purchased within the first month of the service going live. It lasted 24 months and then started playing up, I rang Sky to chance it and played the 'I don't want to buy a new box and will just consider cancelling/downsizing my service', they looked at my account history and voluntarily offered a replacement box, with a new warranty.

It's worth asking nicey nicey.

Tuan

Agreed.

I have been through 4 Sky Plus and 3 Sky HD boxes. I paid for one of each and each time replaced free of charge in warranty or not.

They are paying for a box what I give them each month. Realistically they won't let you go to Virgin unless they really don't want your money.