Adult Guard should be more robust!

[gweempose]

My wife was totally embarassed today when our Nanny asked her to turn on Noggin for the kids. Imagine her surprise when she powered up the 622 and they were suddenly confronted with a close-up of some pretty hard core action on the Xtsy channel. Fortunately, our 3-year-old twins were out of the room at the time, but our Nanny was shocked to say the least.

The night before, I had set the 622 to record some adult movies. As usual, I locked out the adult channels before I went to sleep. When my wife turned on the machine this morning, it was still tuned to the Xtsy Channel because that's the last channel it recorded. I suppose I could have added an extra recording after the adult movies from a regular "family" channel, but this shouldn't be necessary. In my opinion, as soon as you select "Hide Adult" from the Locks menu, it should be impossible for anyone to view adult content. If tuner #1 is busy recording something from an adult channel then it should automatically switch to tuner #2 and block access to tuner #1 until the recording is done. If both tuners are busy recording adult channels, then a message should come up saying something like "Both tuners are currently in use. Please try again later or enter the unlock code to continue".

I also think that all references to adult content should dissapear once the Adult Guard feature has been engaged. The way it works now, when you go into My Recordings, the adult movies all show up as "Locked Event". This is also true when browsing the recording history. Wouldn't it be more logical to just remove the adult movies from the list altogether? It doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out what "Locked Event" means, and I'm quite certain our baby sitter has had some good laughs at our expense. ;)

I'm sorry to rant on and on like this. I think the 622 is a wonderful piece of gear, but it annoys me that the programmers have done such an incomplete job when it comes to the Adult Guard feature. I can't imagine it would be very difficult to implement the type of changes I have addressed.

[James Long]

In my opinion, as soon as you select "Hide Adult" from the Locks menu, it should be impossible for anyone to view adult content.I agree, although it would have also failed your recording (since the receiver was locked) if it would work the way I would set it up.

It seems that if you leave the receiver on a locked channel it will stay on that locked channel until the receiver is powered off or one changes channel (I locked out 200 CNN to test this). It is similar to when you are watching a channel and change the guide to one that doesn't have the channel you are watching. You can still watch the hidden channel and tune to it (if also locked you will need the password) but it is "hidden" in the guide.

I have noticed PPVs being on all day when I set an event for first thing in the morning. IIRC a PPV set for the last airing overnight doesn't leave the channel open the next day (but then it's a PPV thing, not a monthly subscription).

[Ron Barry]

First addressing the issue of recording in the guide showing up as locked ...

It can be bad UI design to have things disappear and reappear when you toggle a setting. This would be one place where it would be in my opinion... Since recorded shows take up space. If one was to just hide these shows it could lead to a lot of confusion when remaining disk space and issues arising when deletion algorithms come into play and locked programs are on the system.

The hide lock channels feature is just that.. Hide locked channels not recorded content. I also thought it was odd and confusing that if I record something and then lock the channel my recorded content then showed as locked.. (Other side of this argument). This is a tough one and basically I think Dish did a decent job at making a compromise. As for knowing what is locked.. Heck.. it could be anything and not necessarily constitutes adult movies.

There does sound like there is a hole in this feature in terms of timers firing. If you have channels locked and a timer fires, in my opinion since these channels are not unlocked there should be a prompt.. If not answered the timer should go unfired with reason "Password not supplied". Of course, this would create an issue with the OP use case, but it would be the most secure way of assuring that content is not accidentally viewed.

Originally I thought that the show should go recorded and then flipped back to the previous program but whose to say that people are not sitting around with the TV on and then bingo.. Channel flips and you have the exact same situation that you the OP had..

[James Long]

IIRC if you lock a channel you must use the password to view any previously recorded content from that channel. It still shows up in My Recordings but cannot be viewed (without the password). Good for systems where TV1 has different channels locked than TV2 (such as a family that uses TV2 in a kids room and locks out movie channels and other content they don't want free access to).

The flipping away at the end of the recording doesn't seem to be getting done. If this is a regular habit (recording adult content overnight) having a morning event to change the channel is a good idea. It doesn't have to be a recording. One could set up a manual "Auto Tune" event early enough in the morning to be before people wake up but late enough not to be missed due to another event. I suggest channel 214 (weather) or a local tv channel. If you have kids that would be the first to turn on the set you might want to set it to Nick or Disney or whatever they generally would turn on anyways.

Yes, I'd like to see a solution to this "stay on the channel" issue, especially for hidden channels. At least there is a workaround.

[tedb3rd]

I agree with what you're saying. But on the other hand, I wish I could have seen the look on the nanny's face!!! LOL. ...sounds like a scene from a Chevy Chase movie.

[Hall]

I tried to lock down my receiver recently, beyond the "Hide Adult" and "Hide PPV" channels, and was very disappointed in Dish's implementation. My Time Warner/SA8300HD with Passport s/w did a much better job and I'd love it if Dish looked at their methods and considered some of them.

For example, I could lock channels so that when the kids turned on the TV, they could only view a few channels that I left unlocked. If they wanted to watch Nickelodeon, which was locked, they needed the PIN. Once the PIN was entered, it unlocked all the locked channels. I tried to set up my 622 similarly and quickly became annoyed. Did the same thing with leaving a number of channels unlocked but when you went to a locked channel, it asked for the PIN. After entering the PIN, the channel was unlocked but only as long as you stayed tuned to it. If you changed to another locked channel, you had to enter the PIN again. Overkill, IMO, but we could live with it. Here's the kicker: If you go back to Nickelodeon, guess what ?? It was locked again, requiring a PIN. That's overkill there. On the SA box, the un-locks were "session" based, that is, once you unlocked it, they remained unlocked as long as the receiver was turned explicitly 'on'.

Also, regarding recordings on locked channels, it didn't affect the recording process at all. Only when you attempted to play it back did it stop you by prompting for the PIN.

[marcuscthomas]

One fairly new feature of the 622 could be helpful. After recording a show that you would prefer that the kids not see in the "My Recordings" listing, you should edit its name. If you have the ratings lock set and the name edited to something uninteresting, most kids, or nannys will not be tempted to look at it. Oddball sports (like billiards, if you can call it a sport, or bowling) work pretty well.

Of course, if they highlight the show, they can see its description (need an edit description feature), but with dozens and dozens of recorded shows on the list, it is unusual for most kids to go hunting for the show details.

Unfortunately, you can only edit the name after the recording begins.

[Guitar1969]

IIRC if you lock a channel you must use the password to view any previously recorded content from that channel. It still shows up in My Recordings but cannot be viewed (without the password). Good for systems where TV1 has different channels locked than TV2 (such as a family that uses TV2 in a kids room and locks out movie channels and other content they don't want free access to).

The flipping away at the end of the recording doesn't seem to be getting done. If this is a regular habit (recording adult content overnight) having a morning event to change the channel is a good idea. It doesn't have to be a recording. One could set up a manual "Auto Tune" event early enough in the morning to be before people wake up but late enough not to be missed due to another event. I suggest channel 214 (weather) or a local tv channel. If you have kids that would be the first to turn on the set you might want to set it to Nick or Disney or whatever they generally would turn on anyways.

Yes, I'd like to see a solution to this "stay on the channel" issue, especially for hidden channels. At least there is a workaround.


Even broader - I think the locks system on the 622 sucks. I use locks based upon rating(PG-13 and up) because I have little children. What stinks is at night when watching shows I have to enter my password on every channel change - even if I go to another channel and go right back to the original channel(Have to enter it again). On My old Directivo unit, once I unlocked, it would stay unlocked for a 3 hour time frame or relocked manually.

I have not figured out if there is a way to temporarily suspend locks(I only see an unlock whole system, and then manually go through the recreation of a lock when I want to relock)

[Hall]

Dish, are you listening ??

[Amherst]

Another failure of the locks system is the fact it automatically locks out OTA because it can't pick up a rating. My kids like to view the PBS sub channels and I have to unlock the machine to do so. Great setup, what a pain.

[stol]

Another failure of the locks system is the fact it automatically locks out OTA because it can't pick up a rating. My kids like to view the PBS sub channels and I have to unlock the machine to do so. Great setup, what a pain.

I have mine set the opposite, since I don't want to unlock channels that have shows that are NR (like PBS) I don't have ratings limits turned on at all.

It would work much better to have the NR separate from the AO ratings. I would love to turn on the ratings lock for AO and still allow NR!