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

[Marc Randolph]

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.

   Marc