sprites & bites

Gaming, iPads and a few biscuits on the side…

Category Archives: television

Sky+ iPad App Out Now

Sky have today just released their Sky+ app for ipad. Already on the iphone, Sky+ allows you to view the 7 day EPG and set a remote record to record programmes.  Despite the remote record on iPhone requiring a registered phone number, for obvious reasons the iPad app does not. You just need your login details to the sky website.

A few thoughts. The app looks good. Bright and colourful you can easily see the display of the EPG and click on any programme to get more details or set a remote record.  You can search for programmes, search by day, set it to display only certain categories and also change the display so programmes list across or downwards.  There is one minor issue and scrolling can be a bit wayward. It is possible to scroll back to programmes shown previously in the day and this is an annoyance as when it is scrolling wayward it is too easy to scroll backwards. I really do not need to see programmes already shown and they need to implement a stop so it will scroll left only from the point where programmes are on now – like on the iphone version.

For those who also have the Sky mobile TV app, you can have them in one app so they work seamlessly between the two.

Now for the obligatory screenshots:

Samsung TV Problem

I have no idea whether it is a TV problem or a sky HD box problem.

Every night at around 12.15-12.30am the TV will lose its HDMI signal. Its as if the source (sky box) has been switched off and it says “HDMI 1 – No source detected”. But the sky box is still on.

If I switch the TV off and on again viewing will come back. It will repeat itself every 10 mins or so for about an hour and a half. It NEVER happens during the day or at any other hour.

There is no timer on the TV, auto standby on the box is switched off.

Now here is the weird thing, it only ever happens when watching E4. If I am watching any other channel it does not happen.

I have tried different HDMI sockets (TV has 3) I have tried different cables but the same thing happens. It does not happen to the PS3 or the Xbox 360.

I have called Samsung and they are baffled but have escalated it to the higher tech team. I have called Sky and they are equally as baffled and have also escalated it to the higher team.

TV is Samsung LE40A557P and is about 5 months old
HD box is a Thomson with EPG version sky+8.3.2 and is little over a year old.
The problem has been occurring only for last 3-4 weeks.

Does anyone have any idea what may be causing this please? Because everyone I speak to is out of ideas. Even if I hear from someone with the same problem but no resolution, I don’t mind at least I feel I am not alone then

Samsung LE40A557 Sky Remote Code

I unashamedly bought a new TV yesterday.  It is the 40 inch Samsung LE40A557 from Comet £599.  OhMyGoodNess it is an amazing television.  I previously had a Polaroid 26 inch and this is better than that Tv by a country mile.

No longer do I have HDMI issues, the sound is better (not tinny) and of course with a contrast ratio of 30,000:1 it has much better blacks.  There is one area that Polaroid beats this TV and that is the menus.  On the Polaroid I could easily switch input sources between consoles and sky by pressing source and selecting the input I wanted.  With the Samsung I can go from sky to ps3 or 360 in one button press as it detects the next HDMI source, but going back to sky I have to cycle through all the inputs to get back to sky and that is highly annoying.  But I can live with that.

Right now to set up the Sky remote code.  Press interactive on the sky remote and navigate through the options to customer services and choose to setup your remote control.  Go down to Samsung but you will find this model not in the list.  No problem, just select the closest match which is the LE40A566 – Sky code 0840

Then follow the on screen instructions to change the code.  Voila! You can now control your TV volume etc with your Sky Remote.

I have confirmed this code works with Sky HD remote controls.  I am unable to confirm it with other remotes.