Book Report – Skippa User Manual
Things what I lurned from reading this book.
First up, Skippa ships with a HDMI cable. Somewhat rare these days, although I suspect it won’t be high quality. I don’t need one as the HDMI cable from my LG PVR is still in place ready to go. At least I’ll have a spare as I gave my last spare away recently.
There are four LED’s on the front panel. It may look like a Christmase tree, but we’ll wait and see. My CCTV system has two very bright LED’s on the front panel. A piece of black electrical tape fixed that.
I was somewhat surprised to find composite video connections on the back, but I guess they have to allow for the lowest common denominator.
The remote is certainly colourful, but also fairly crowded. My biggest problem will be translating all of those buttons across to my Harmony One. I suspect it will take a while to work out which of the non-standard buttons (My Week, MySeries, My Recordings, AutoSkip, UnSkip etc.) I use most often. I’m not looking forward to numerous updates on the remote before I finally get it right. I checked online and the Skippa still isn’t showing up in the Harmony Remote database under the name or model number shown in the manual.
On the program guide, as others have mentioned, I’d prefer to see more channels and less info in the top panel. I’d at least like the ability to configure it any way I like. I have two options on my TiVo and they both show more than four channels. I quite like the option to set reminders. TiVo can’t do that and it could be useful. I also like the fact that you can simply hit the Record button to flag a show to be recorded and hit it again to unflag it. However, the manual doesn’t say if there are any further steps required or options available. The same instructions appear on page 19. On TiVo, if I hit record from the guide, it brings up options. The same applies if I wish to cancel a recording. Does this happen on Skippa or does it just use the default options and one has to dig a little deeper elsewhere to set options such as custom padding, series recording etc.
On page 12, the section on the i-Plate, it looks like someone got lazy and thought, I couldn’t be bothered explaining all the options, just click the help button. I thought that was a bit RTFM (Read The F***ing Manual), which is kind of ironic considering that’s what I am doing.
Then we move to page 13 and jump to Settings for channels. Wouldn’t it make sense to just cover all setting in the settings section?
I’m a little confused about the volume buttons. I don’t plan on using Skippa to adjust the volume, I’d prefer to use my AVR and I’m sure many others prefer to use their TV to adjust volume. If so, what volume do I leave the Skippa on? Should it be up at full volume, somewhere in the middle? Please explain.
Chase Play – This is a big one for me. TiVo has a buffer on both tuners, meaning I can set a channel on one tuner knowing I have a 30 minute buffer available to me when I switch to that tuner. Skippa doesn’t have that feature. To my mind, that makes Skippa a one watching, two recording tuner device rather than a three tuner device. Yes, I know I can simply record the other channel(s) and then playback the recordings, but that’s a lot more stuffing around and will result in more housekeeping to delete shows I was forced to record for the sake of a five or 10 minute buffer. Is it just me or do others find that annoying? Update suggestion: Buffers on all three tuners and the ability to switch between tuners at the press of a button.
I like the look of the My Recordings page. I think it is better than TiVo. It certainly has more options than simply a list of recordings by date.
I’m a little confused as to why Auto-Skip prioritises processing by genre. That seems unnecessary. Why not simply process them by recording order. To be honest, I’m not overly concerned about Auto-Skip. It looks a little complicated. I mean, why should I have to set pre-padding to 10 minutes (I assume globally), just so Auto-Skip works better? As long as I have skip buttons on playback (as opposed to simple fast forward), that will do for me. I’ll reserve judgement until I actually try it.
Looking at the settings, I get the impression that I have to set things like skip forwards/backwards and pre/post padding globally. Great that you can set defaults, but can you modify them on an ad hoc basis for each recording? Can that be done on the app? I’m confused.
The local media playback page doesn’t include a list of compatible media. It’s not even on the specifications page. That really should be fixed.
The network media playback section really needs more explanation and examples. It should show how I can watch a recorded show on my iPad. The information there tells me nothing. They seem to go to much more trouble explaining how to use HBB TV and Freeview.
Do we really need two full page ads extolling the virtues of the IceTV app. Pretty sure we’ve already got it by now.
The missing Apps section. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if this is one of the main reasons for the delay. It’s quite possibly a legal, rather than technical, problem. But I’m just guessing.
In conclusion, I’m still looking forward to getting my Skippa…eventually, and expect it to be a suitable replacement for my TiVo, despite some limitations. Time will tell.
FMB
Conspiracy Theory: Did anyone else notice that most of the screen shots in the manual are from July 19 and 20? The manual was originally due for release on July 20. Did they anticipate that or have they been updated?
