Is this too much to ask from you Eastlink? (Favourites)

[Riplin]

Is this technically impossible or just a feature no one really cares about?

Why can't the remote's/boxes be programmed so that when you press the favorites button it permanently sets the favorites as active so when you channel surf using the up/down buttons it only cycles through your fav chans both ways.

I find it a pita having to surf through non subscription chans especially when these boxes take a second to show the channel. If it was instant channel changing it would be a bit more bearable.

I have a logitech harmony one remote and am able to program the chan + key to act as the fav button so surfing up I can view my subbed chans all the time but its the down that peeves me.

Does anyone else find this annoying?

Riplin

[Tom_Joad]

Yes...

When we had LookTV in Ontario we could set up a channel list. All you had to do was pick the channels you wanted from a master list and the UP/DOWN channel selector only displayed the channels in your package. Kind of like the Favorites but much faster and easier to set up. And I believe you could also set it up for multiple users. This was back in 2000-2002, so the tech does exist...

Personally, I find it too much of a pain to go through and pick "favorites".

[Tom_Joad]

I should also add that Look let you pick-and-pay for your specialty packages. For example, I could select 10 channels for $10, 15 channels for $15, etc. You could literally assemble your own specialty packages and get the channels you were actually interested in and willing to pay for.

What a novel concept!

[dirtroad]

Riplin (and others) I have Bell Satellite, and what I do rather than use my favourites, is "lockout and hide" the channels I don't subscribe to or don't want to see, by chance is there any similar setting in the menu of the Eastlink STBs?

[Riplin]

dirtroad: unfortunately no. you can set a favs list and activate it when in the guide and it removes all the chans you don't have set as fav but you have to do it everytime you open the guide and it always resets you back to chan 2.

Its retarded. Whoever set this up in programming had no clue what they were doing.

[magnet]

Motorola writes the software for the boxes, not EastLink. It would be like blaming Aliant Mobility for not offering Flash on iPhones.

[Riplin]

I figured that might be the case. No excuse though for eastlink not to ask for this feature.

Push it in a fw update.

[magnet]

Whoever set this up in programming had no clue what they were doing.

Maybe they did.
By forcing you to see what programs you are missing by not subscribing to a particular package or channel; they can increase the potential of increasing your bill.

[mediamercenary]

Motorola also writes the software for Bell Aliant FibreOp TV, but yet you can hide unsubscribed channels on their box. It would seem to me that the service provider would specify the features they want and not Motorola; otherwise we would see active USB and firewire ports for example. Eastlink is using this to market the channels you aren't subscribed to. It is incredibly annoying.

[robbie3130]

They don't make it for fibreop .. its Microsoft Mediaroom

[denben73]

Does any cable provider in Canada let you only see subbed channels in their IPG?

[57]

I believe that all Cable providers show all the channels. However, recent firmware on Rogers shows your unsubscribed channels in a different colour - grey. We can also create a "favourites" list, as can Shaw...

[excatvdude]

The IPG software actually dictates features not the firmware.

The Rovi Prevue guide used to be based on an Amiga 2000 OS. It's crappy software and doesn't allow anything for features.

Bell Satellite you can display only subbed channels. I have a favorites list of only subbed channels but having to go into the menu to display each time is a pain.

On the Passport Echo IPG software you have to also to create a favorites list but at least with that software you can specify to use that list all the time so you don't have to keep selecting Menu -> favorites -> subbed list all the time.

[smallmj]

The guide features are probably dictated by Motorola's biggest customers. Folks like Comcast, Time Warner, and Charter. Motorola could easily add a decent favourites feature, but likely won't bother unless their major partners ask/pay for it.

Mark

[57]

Also, many of these STBs are pushing their limits (some are quite old technology), so adding the feature might compromize other features or slow the STB down too much. (Newer STBs with more capability could perhaps handle different firmware and allow it.)