Play from the start?

[davidmbell]

Excuse this dim question, with a BT pro box, if I go in to the TV guide, some programmes have a little play icon in a circle, I thought that meant I could set that programme off from the start? How do I do that please? I thought it was just by pressing and holding rewind, but that just rewinds the programme by the amount of time I’ve been on that channel and doesn’t set it off from the start? Am I doing it wrong? (ITV)

[Anonymous]

I don't have the box to hand and from memory you highlight the programme and hit OK. It's either once or hold and a restart countdown comes up, I can't remember which.

It's green button on a BBC channel that is still playing and you want to restart which opens iPlayer.

If you hit rewind it just plays from the earliest point in the live recording buffer. 

[Midnight_Voice]

@davidmbell 

I have my DTR-T4000 in front of me.

The play icon in a circle will let you watch programmes that have completed by pressing OK.

However, for programmes that are playing now, OK will take you into the programme, but you can only rewind to the point where you went into it. (ITV/ITVX).

On Channel 4 and My 5, the same.

On BBC programmes, though, you get the option to ‘Hold OK to restart in iPlayer’, the same Press Green option you can get on the live channel.

[davidmbell]

Ah so it’s programmes that have finished showing? So I can’t skip back to the start of a show that’s been on 25 mins say (a show that’s an hour long) I’d have to wait for it to finish?

[Andy005]

Hi @davidmbell 

The 'Play' symbol simply means that a programme is available On Demand, it is not a 'Watch from the beginning' feature.

If the 'Play' icon is present in the Guide for a programme that is currently on, selecting it will simply select that programme. If you want to watch that particular programme from the beginning you need to launch the relevant app yourself and find that programme.

If you scroll backwards or forwards in the Guide and select a past or future programme with the 'Play' symbol, the box will launch the relevant app and start playing that particular programme.

It's a good feature in as much as you can scroll through the Guide and quickly see what's available On Demand, so for example I now know that the latest Series of Professor T is available to watch rather than having to wait each week for it. With BT/EE TV, there some good bits but they never seem to be finished off properly, but you get what you pay for I guess.

[Midnight_Voice]

@Andy005 @davidmbell @Anonymous 

There are some very fine distinctions to be made here.

When ‘Kung Fu Panda 2’ was on live yesterday on Channel 4, it had the Play symbol. But today, it doesn’t. So it had the Play symbol to indicate you could go to it live yesterday, but it only means ‘available On Demand’ when you are looking at programmes that have completed. (Or have not yet started, but still have the symbol, probably because they have been shown live before).

As for playing the buffer since you started, if you happen to have had the box tuned to the channel you are looking at, since before you chose the current programme on the EPG, then it will go back to the start of the programme for you - or at least, it will go back as far as the recording buffer allows, which seems to be two hours, as tested on BBC Four.

And for BBC programmes, even if you only just selected the channel, you can additionally ‘Hold OK to restart in iPlayer’ - no need to open iPlayer manually at all.

And having left BBC1 on for quite a while, and rewinding, it has even rewound through the previous two programmes, and not in iPlayer.

I’m just trying that on itv2, but I will have to wait for the programme changeover at 2:55, and then a little bit, to see if this works anywhere but on the BBC.

[Edit 15:02] Yes, this works on itv2 also, going back from Hop to my starting point in Ice Age.

[Andy005]

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@Midnight_Voicewrote:

As for playing the buffer since you started, if you happen to have had the box tuned to the channel you are looking at, since before you chose the current programme on the EPG, then it will go back to the start of the programme for you - or at least, it will go back as far as the recording buffer allows, which seems to be two hours, as tested on BBC Four.

And for BBC programmes, even if you only just selected the channel, you can additionally ‘Hold OK to restart in iPlayer’ - no need to open iPlayer manually at all.

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I didn't know that you could hold OK to restart in iPlayer @Midnight_Voice , I prefer to use the apps direct on my TV as I find that they're more reliable.

Rewinding back through the buffer makes sense although I didn't know that it was up to two hours and I can't ever imagine an instance when I would ever want to go back anywhere near that far.