topic Rif.: Trying to find the most user friendly way of navigating between channels in Other TVs

Trying to find the most user friendly way of navigating between channels

Kleisthenes — Sun, 02 Nov 2014 23:12:32 GMT

I recently bought a KDL-42W829B to replace our aging Sony CRT television and a digital set top box (STB). I’ve been trying to find the most user friendly way of changing from one favourite channel to another.

On our old STB, I was able to set up a circular list of our favourite channels and order them so that our most popular channels were bunched together. Then, by pressing one button on the STB control, you were put into the list and the channel currently showing was highlighted. You could then scroll to the desired channel and select the channel by pressing one button. I’ve been trying to set up something as near to this as possible on our new Sony TV, but I have struggled.

I have managed to create a list of our favourite channels in “Favourites 1”. However, the first problem is how to access the list with the shortest number of key presses on the control. The quickest I have found is to press DISCOVER which first displays “Top Picks” (whatever they are!) and then I can scroll down to reach “Favourites 1”. The next problem is that the list is not circular, the highlighted channel is simply the first in the list (not the channel currently showing), and I can find no way of ordering the channels in the list. All this means that, in order to select an HD channel, I have to scroll through many other channels from the beginning of the list in order to get to the desired channel.

I’ve tried using the Guide via the Guide button on the control but, because I can see no way of grouping our favourite channels together, there are similar problems in navigating between channels.

As a result, I have just about given up. I have now written a list of our favourite channels with their channel numbers on a post-it and stuck the post-it on the surface where we keep the control. And we now change channels by typing in the digits of the channel number. This is by far the most user friendly method I have found (and the quickest). But I feel it is quite pathetic to have to resort to this.

So far, I have been very disappointed with the user interface. I expected something so much better these days.

Any suggestions please?

Rif.: Trying to find the most user friendly way of navigating between channels

rooobb — Mon, 03 Nov 2014 10:13:27 GMT

if you setup the fast zapping option in the system preferences, whenever you press the channel up/down button it appears a list of the channel on the right side of the screen in which you can choose to show all the DVBT channels or one of the 4 favorites. There you can scroll in a loop as you seems to look for!

Rif.: Trying to find the most user friendly way of navigating between channels

Anonymous — Mon, 03 Nov 2014 18:48:32 GMT

Ahhh the bugbear of having more than 4 channels on a TV

As rooobb said above, switch on 'fast zapping'. Also have a look at the 'Fast Zapping : Category Setup" as this may help put things into favourites etc.

Rif.: Trying to find the most user friendly way of navigating between channels

Kleisthenes — Mon, 03 Nov 2014 20:52:52 GMT

Thank you for the replies. However, I can't find the fast zapping option on my TV. Are you sure that my particular model (KDL-42W829B) supports fast zapping?

Rif.: Trying to find the most user friendly way of navigating between channels

Anonymous — Mon, 03 Nov 2014 21:02:01 GMT

Ummm - thats a bloody good question.... My 2013 TV does However, 2014 TVs do things differently and I dont have enough experience on a 2014 TV.

Unfortunately once again, the manual is less than helpful. So..... Going to have to get back to you on that one (unless another forum member can confirm or deny?)

What happens when you press the P+ or P- button on the remote control on a freeview channel? Is it any quicker?

Cheers

Rif.: Trying to find the most user friendly way of navigating between channels

rooobb — Tue, 04 Nov 2014 08:43:30 GMT

Unfortunately I have too an "old" 2013 model and it works like a charm. Let's see if any user with a 2014 model come up with an hint

Rif.: Trying to find the most user friendly way of navigating between channels

Kleisthenes — Tue, 04 Nov 2014 13:10:27 GMT

Yes, my TV is a 2014 model. And yes, there is no mention of fast zapping in the i-Manual. I had already searched that.

You ask what happens when I press the PROG +/- buttons while on a Freeview channel? It just goes to the next or previous channel in channel number sequence. So, in general, it is definitely not quicker to change channel that way.

Just a thought. Did the 2013 models have the DISCOVER app along with a DISCOVER button on the remote control? If not, might the DISCOVER app have superseded the fast zapping feature?

Rif.: Trying to find the most user friendly way of navigating between channels

rooobb — Tue, 04 Nov 2014 14:29:52 GMT

Discover is a feature of 2014 models only, I don't see why they should have canceled the fast zapping options...

Rif.: Trying to find the most user friendly way of navigating between channels

Anonymous — Tue, 04 Nov 2014 18:21:03 GMT

Hi there

I think myself and Rooobb may have inadvertantly confused things (due to our 2013 TVs). I recieved this today from my contact in Sony.

it has been reworked and is now called "discover". You have to use the touchpad remote and can scroll through the channels:

As far as I can see fast zapping is no longer available as in 2013 model:

I think thats it really, that and the EPG (Guide). So your right, the Discover as superseeded the fast zapping feature.

Cheers

Rif.: Trying to find the most user friendly way of navigating between channels

Kleisthenes — Tue, 04 Nov 2014 20:56:58 GMT

Thanks once again for all the help. I played around with DISCOVER a little more today and I became even more sure that it was indeed the "son of" fast zapping.

I have some questions about the use of DISCOVER but I think it would be more appropriate to ask them on a new thread. The i-Manual is not at all helpful on how to use DISCOVER.

I don't have a touchpad remote control, but I can still use DISCOVER. I'm not sure your contact is correct therefore, but maybe I have misunderstood you.

Rif.: Trying to find the most user friendly way of navigating between channels

Anonymous — Tue, 04 Nov 2014 21:13:54 GMT

I think he means that you can (not 'have to') use Sony's "One Flick" remote - the one with the touchpad.

Might make it quicker to 'flick' through

Rif.: Trying to find the most user friendly way of navigating between channels

tatcan — Mon, 01 Dec 2014 22:04:07 GMT

Have you finally got this set up the way you want? As my new tv kdl-50w815 came i had the same problem with the channels and favourite. But i used a software which was on a sony site ( can't find it any more) which i need to export a sdb.xml file from the tv to my computer to edit the channels down and a range them in the order i would like and which number i wanted them on.

This is the site of the creator : http://www.setedit.de/SetEdit.php?spr=2&Editor=140

You'll need to install the software on you pc and the go to your tv with a usb memory stick and export the channel list.

Put the stick into your pc and run the setedit software select file on the top left and look for the the usb memory stick and the xml file.

Now all the channels are in the list, i found that if i a range the 1st 80 or so into order i can then delet the ones i dont want ( like the adult stuff but they will get retune and save at the high end number's channels.

Save the new list back to your usb and over Wright the old file. Eject the usb and insert it back into the tv .

got back to the setup menu and import the channel list. Now they should be in your digital tv list when you hit discover so don't need a favourite list with channel numbers all over the place . had to do this twice as i have twin tuner freesat and freeview on my tv.

As before my software was from sony direct but cant find the page.

Hope this helps

Rif.: Trying to find the most user friendly way of navigating between channels

tatcan — Tue, 02 Dec 2014 10:52:26 GMT

Found it.

http://www.sony.de/support/de/content/cnt-dwnl/prd-tvhc/sony-editor/sony-editor

Rif.: Trying to find the most user friendly way of navigating between channels

Kleisthenes — Tue, 02 Dec 2014 15:50:15 GMT

tatcan, thank you for the replies. I will think about your suggestion. I discovered that there is a page in English where you can download the editor:

http://www.sony.co.uk/support/en/content/cnt-dwnl/prd-tvhc/sony-editor/sony-editor

The only problem is that, unlike the page in German, it contains no installation instructions. Still, I learnt German at school so, with the aid of a dictionary, I should be OK.

Currently, I have my favourite channels set up in four lists in Favourites 1, 2, 3, and 4 within DISCOVER, with all the other categories hidden. This is just about acceptable. My main issue is "Top Picks" which you see when you use DISCOVER for the first time after switching the TV on. I'd like to know how to get rid of, or hide, Top Picks. And what is this keyword that I am continually being asked to set?

Rif.: Trying to find the most user friendly way of navigating between channels

tatcan — Tue, 02 Dec 2014 22:17:10 GMT

I know the top pick was and still a pain for me, but not as much as the favourite with their numbers set by the tv.

I have bbc1,2,ITV,Channel 4 all hd set as 1,2,3,4 with the software, I bunched up the rest like bbc channels e4 then films, music, news and so on.

I found the favourite needing to scroll through to find what i want, but with the new numbers i just need to remember the start of each bunch numder then scroll through . With the software u can edit the favourite list as well. Alot of the new tech i've found that what should be a 10 minutes tweak can easily become 2hrs