Home user media providers; Now more than 110 % Corrupt!

[RJSV]

  Sorry, I know that can't exceed 100%, but wanted the attention grabbing title.

   Fed up, now (but I'll live), as the latest sudden updated TV / Server on satelite has absolutely piled on the crapola.
   Along with the really lame remote control key press bugs,  they have now featured a BLOCK on fast-forwarding, during commercial play.
This is for when playing back a show, (History Channel).
   Any kid could eventually hit up on that gem, thinking up cheap ways to gouge the customer experience, and I'm not talking about some 'free' YouTube stuff, this time.
   
   Ok, so that new outrage, on a PAID for system, is accompanied by several interface changes, as last few weeks have unfolded:

   2.).  Basic TV channel entries are rife with buggy and non-de-bounced action,  either by 'freeze-ups', or by giving multiple key strikes when trying press one time.
Freeze-up for as much as 2 seconds, followed by quick acceptance;  so you get a result something like:   '36666', for '36'.

3.).  Sometimes, Fast Forward gets to where the real-time broadcast is live, then just freezes, rather than continuing on with normal speed program.
Some of this has been discussed here, regarding lack of proper testing, but now I'm thinking it might more of not testing every system type.

4.).  When 'disgust' takes over,  you cannot even turn the system OFF....Seriously, it usually takes grabbing the second remote, and then pressing 'OFF', on that, second type remote.
   The system does an apparent power off;  waits a minute, then comes back ON....
ZOMBIES IN MY TV,   arrrrgggghhhhhh.

Well, at least there are TWO remotes to throw, in anger.   Not my system, so I can't.

[Benta]

Keywords for you:
"The Market Will Fix It"
"Free Enterprise"
"No Deep State"
"Deregulate Everything"
"Business Knows Best"

Need more? I've got plenty.
 

[RJSV]

    Thanks, appreciate your opinion.
   Free Speech,   yay!

[Simon]

It could be worse, you could be driving a car that will slam on the brakes when going around parked cars. And you can't turn the feature off!!!!

[Bicurico]

Just get a Linux based receiver running E2.l and use your smartcard with it.
Or get an IPTV subscription and use it with a cheap Android TV box.

I have the official Triple Play receiver imposed by my provider, which I rarely use. Instead I use Netflix and YouTube (free), along with regular DVB-T modulated channels received with the TV tuner.

[soldar]

Keywords for you:
"The Market Will Fix It"
"Free Enterprise"
"No Deep State"
"Deregulate Everything"
"Business Knows Best"

Need more? I've got plenty.
 

What do you suggest?

You think TV quality is better in North Korea?

What do you suggest?

[Haenk]

Service providers constantly will test, a) how much you are willing to pay, before quitting, and b) how much pain you are willing to take, before quitting.
That's a delicate balance with a) and b) in mind.
And I'm unhappy to announce: The "happy times" (aka the last 2 decades) are now over, or as it is now called "enshittification", is in full motion.
You can still vote with your wallet, which is a very good (and the only) way to stop this.

[Ranayna]

Keywords for you:
"The Market Will Fix It"
"Free Enterprise"
"No Deep State"
"Deregulate Everything"
"Business Knows Best"

Need more? I've got plenty.
 

What do you suggest?

You think TV quality is better in North Korea?

What do you suggest?

You don't need to go to the full other extreme. There *is* a middleground. I think that is one of the major problems in the current western world, that people lose the sight of the middleground and lose the ability to compromise.

In may aspects of modern technology, or rather the companies behind this modern technology, i am extremly glad to be a EU citizen, and not in the US.

Just a small recent example: If you set up a fresh install of Windows 11, in the US, OneDrive syncronisation of your personal data will be automatically enabled. I do not know if you can properly turn this off. In the EU, you are at least asked if you want to enable this.
Or Microsoft Recall, which will be baked into Windows 11 almost everywhere, except in the EU, where it will be relegated into an App that you explicitly need to install.

Some regulation is a good thing. Of course that needs a deft hand, but in my opinion, from the viewpoint of a citizen (as opposed to the viewpoint of businesses), too much regulation is better than too little.

[pcprogrammer]

Service providers constantly will test, a) how much you are willing to pay, before quitting, and b) how much pain you are willing to take, before quitting.
That's a delicate balance with a) and b) in mind.
And I'm unhappy to announce: The "happy times" (aka the last 2 decades) are now over, or as it is now called "enshittification", is in full motion.
You can still vote with your wallet, which is a very good (and the only) way to stop this.

Yep, but voting with your wallet has only three options.
A) stay where you are and face the music.
B) move to another provider and face the same music
C) quit the whole shebang and have no music

The bastards in Hollywood e.a. are the ones pulling the strings here. They are afraid content gets stolen and pirated so the normal paying customer has to suffer. No longer allowed to watch TV on my linux machine via the web interface they offer. Switch to Windows they say.

Encryption scheme used that works on my enigma box with smart card is going to be phased out. Buy a CI module to keep watching your programs, but recording from multiple channels that are not on the same transponder won't work any more. Again has to do with fear of pirating the content.

Then you have the advertising community of course that also wants the adds watched and not skipped, so they chime in too.

For short, you are f.....d by greed.

[tom66]

I gave up on linear TV half a decade ago.  My current TV has no connection to any antenna.  Everything is via streaming services, Blu-Ray discs or on my NAS. 

[NiHaoMike]

Yep, but voting with your wallet has only three options.
A) stay where you are and face the music.
B) move to another provider and face the same music
C) quit the whole shebang and have no music

Then there's the option of getting a VPN or Tor gateway and pirating the content. Based on how the paid user experience is going, it probably won't be long before that's the more ethical option, if it isn't already there.

[Simon]

Keywords for you:
"The Market Will Fix It"
"Free Enterprise"
"No Deep State"
"Deregulate Everything"
"Business Knows Best"

Need more? I've got plenty.
 

What do you suggest?

You think TV quality is better in North Korea?

What do you suggest?

 that is hardly a good example. There is a reason why businesses love deregulation and political parties relying on them for cash give it to them. It means companies can make any old shit. I don't know about your country, but I moved back to the UK from Italy expecting to live in a country where I actually had rights, only to find that I do not. Every little bit of regulation is now voluntary, or the funding was taken out of the organization that was enforcing the rules or the law is just so light touch that you have to be willfully damaged by the company before anything will be done.

My father once had a free gas boiler replacement under a scheme where the energy companies had to pay for it. After 5 levels of subcontractors paying subcontractors to do their work for them a bloke knocked on my fathers door. Got him to agree and then a gas installer and hardly competent electrician turned up to install the boiler not to building regulations and leaving the job incomplete. But has he had not parted with any money it was not fraud, well it was but the 5-6 levels of contractors above the two monkeys that did the work were the "victims" while it was my house that was left in a poor state and with a system installed illegally.

Fortunately the company that sent people out to knock on doors having vanished had done such a bad job that enough people complained that the energy company that originally funded the job sent people out to check every house and get the work remedied as ultimately they were responsible.

But I guess the same happens in north Korea so it's OK.

[RJSV]

   It's not (just) the corporate GREED factor, although that's a first thought.
   'They' changed the whole rewind/fast forward look and feel, on the instances of video material that retained those two heritage features;  you see the entire package is two modes.
   One mode, of playing video material, is the usual, with fast forward, pause, and rewind.  In the other, 'internet' mode, you get to wait, while the 'system' goes to download the 'channel' that you tried to play,...but seamless at first, as you do the selection like a normal satellite dish system (Comcast).
   That's kinda weird, as the 'internet' movie, or whatever, lacks any rewind,  fast forward, or even a 'pause', although you can press the buttons,...until you realize you have now changed the PLAY mode, without really trying.

   Hot day, and imprecise dish aiming, on the hot roof,  affects the internet inspired channels to much greater (angst).   So, while you sit and wait, for streaming to find it's stride, you cannot even change your mind....the 'go back' button just blurps at you.
And, when that process clears, and the now unwanted program starts, you realize, "HEY!",
"I wanted it at 15:10 to start"!
   No way;  you have to sit there for 15 minutes, while the shit plays, to 15:10.

    But anyway, back to the mode / channel lucky enough to work in traditional VCR fashion, the rewind and fast forward screen presents as screen in screen.   The starting point sits frozen, filling the whole, big screen.
   Meanwhile, your 'moving' adjustment is in the smaller screen, in screen,...so you squint, until that button press FWD or REW held down gets the little screen to whatever you were thinking of viewing, in the first place.
   Whew, by that I mean;  if you can manage to remember where and what you were after, originally.   For example, say you've spotted a Delorean car, and simply wanted to back up the video a few seconds.

   On satelite, it's the higher up channels that get errors, more.   Like NASA, on ch 352.

[Kim Christensen]

I've got this crap media box on my 2nd TV. If it's "run" for longer than 24hrs (Just being plugged in) it locks up or does weird stuff. Cycling the power fixes it.
So I made a simple solid state relay out of an N-FET and an opto-isolator. I trigger the opto from the USB jack on the TV, so when the TV is turned off the media box power is killed.
This way, when the wife turns the TV on, the media box boots up and works fine.
Yea, I'm a cheap bastard.

[RJSV]

   I'm one of the renters, so it's hands-off the system.   House here has all Engineers, and no METH,  as I'm required to state, (being right near Hayward, and Oakland).  Just kidding, but it does do horrible things, in any household, breaking bad and all.   Meth users tend to create accidental fires, ....one of my big pet peeves!

   But house rules, can't mess with the server box, or satelight box,  but I think landlord here has purchased a 'server' box, that works in conjunction with original Comcast satelight dish system....two remotes being used.
The second remote goes with the newly added server and is mainly used to 'assure' the TV monitor shuts off ....you need to wait 30 seconds before the garbage system goes dark...and THEN press the second remote 'off' button.

   It's (almost) worth the trouble, getting entertained by 'Back to the Future 2'
o by 'Ghost Busters'.       Movie offerings.

[Shock]

TLDR:
Mainly a cohabitation problem, unsatisfactory interface and media viewing experience provided by landlord.

[Bicurico]

   I'm one of the renters, so it's hands-off the system.   House here has all Engineers, and no METH,  as I'm required to state, (being right near Hayward, and Oakland).  Just kidding, but it does do horrible things, in any household, breaking bad and all.   Meth users tend to create accidental fires, ....one of my big pet peeves!

   But house rules, can't mess with the server box, or satelight box,  but I think landlord here has purchased a 'server' box, that works in conjunction with original Comcast satelight dish system....two remotes being used.
The second remote goes with the newly added server and is mainly used to 'assure' the TV monitor shuts off ....you need to wait 30 seconds before the garbage system goes dark...and THEN press the second remote 'off' button.

   It's (almost) worth the trouble, getting entertained by 'Back to the Future 2'
o by 'Ghost Busters'.       Movie offerings.

While the US has different TV systems (modulations, bands, etc.), what you describe does not seem to be a provider issue, but rather a pretty unfriendly and inefficient system provided by the landlord. I imagine they are using a global satellite receiving headstation that then distributes the signal to every flat in the building, probably requiring an individual receiver (hence the second remote).

Since it is normally not possible for a tennant to setup his own antena or dish on a rented flat, I recommend you to consider IPTV. Get a good internet provider with sufficient bandwidth (>20MBPS is OK) and buy an IPTV receiver. I guess AppleTV will provide TV channels, too. If not, there are certainly legal operators that do. If you prefer to go the illegal route, just buy a cheap AndroidTV box and a matching IPTV subscription from AliExpress. That will give you thousands of TV channels.

Last resort is to watch the channels on your laptop. Many TV stations are FTA (Free To Air) and surprisingly you can receive them through the internet. What TV providers sell is the distribution of the TV channels, not the "renting" of those channels, despise trying to get you to think that.

Finally, TV is at the end and being replaced by Youtube and alikes, that allow you to watch the niche content that you specifically like.

[jonovid]

 
everything is PC youtube video 1080p or 720p downloads to HDD & playback on a dumb LCD TV via the USB
so experience no annoying youtube advertising that you get from live-streaming.
or just play video games via the TV HDMI .  pulled the plug on foxtel set top box years ago when it get stale & repetitive.
 do not use netflix also sadly I find nowadays Hollywood is in deep moral decline so why pay for streaming garbage.

[Kim Christensen]

I find nowadays Hollywood is in deep moral decline so why pay for streaming garbage.

Streaming or steaming?   

[Infraviolet]

My recommendation: second hand DVDs. Very cheap, all but fairly recent films are going for £2 or so each, and given you are getting older films, you get good content from before the time the studios started focusing on making things deliberately worse. The DVD is yours, under your control, forever, no incidents where a streaming provider suddenly snatches the content you've paid for.