Parental Control Bug?

[Lester Jacobs]

I have recently activated parental control on my Sage setup since my oldest kid is now beginning to understand how to use the remote and has once or twice gotten into shows that were outside his age range. However I have discovered a rather annoying bug.

If a user is watching Live TV and the next show after the current is outside the limit set for the parental control then the parental control dialog is displayed and asks for the password when the next show is about to begin. If the user does not know the password there appears to be no way to get rid of the dialog. The only way to kill the dialog is to type in the parental control pin. This behaviour appears to only occur with Live TV. When attempting to select a recorded show which exceeds the parental control limits the dialog can indeed be dsmissed by pressing enter without entering a pin. Sage then cancels playback of the recorded show.

This is an issue since whenever this occurs one of the parents has to intervene to type in the code. In my mind, pressing enter without typing in the pin should stop playback of Live TV and thus allow the user to pick some other show from the program guide or scheduled recordings.

I'm going to report this via the official bug report channel but wanted to confirm that this is indeed a bug before I do so.

Can anyone confirm that this behaviour seems to constitute a valid bug?

Cheers
Lester

[Opus4]

What version of SageTV are you using? If you are not using one of the latest betas, try v6.3.10 because there was a fix for something like this a few versions back.

... and if you are using v6.3.10, then please provide exact steps to reproduce it so I can check it again. Thanks.

- Andy

[Lester Jacobs]

Originally Posted by Opus4

What version of SageTV are you using? If you are not using one of the latest betas, try v6.3.10 because there was a fix for something like this a few versions back.

... and if you are using v6.3.10, then please provide exact steps to reproduce it so I can check it again. Thanks.

- Andy

I'm on 6.2.10 on my "production" system (I lag behind somewhat since I don't typically have much tinkering time these days and hesitate to change a smoothly running system unless a newer version offers fixes or features that are compelling). I'll load up 6.3.10 on my test box to see if the issue exists on that version. I'll report back if the bug still persists there.

Thanks
Lester

[jpwegas]

Originally Posted by Lester Jacobs

If a user is watching Live TV and the next show after the current is outside the limit set for the parental control then the parental control dialog is displayed and asks for the password when the next show is about to begin. If the user does not know the password there appears to be no way to get rid of the dialog. The only way to kill the dialog is to type in the parental control pin. This behaviour appears to only occur with Live TV. When attempting to select a recorded show which exceeds the parental control limits the dialog can indeed be dsmissed by pressing enter without entering a pin. Sage then cancels playback of the recorded show.

This is an issue since whenever this occurs one of the parents has to intervene to type in the code. In my mind, pressing enter without typing in the pin should stop playback of Live TV and thus allow the user to pick some other show from the program guide or scheduled recordings.

I'm going to report this via the official bug report channel but wanted to confirm that this is indeed a bug before I do so.

Can anyone confirm that this behaviour seems to constitute a valid bug?

Lester,
I definitely consider it a bug, and it has been around for a while. I reported it back on 9/13/07 (when I was running 6.1.9) to Sage. After some email discussions with support, the end result was:

"Unfortunately I don't have any fixes to offer you now, but the developers have this listed to fix in a future version."

So they are aware of the problem. But it wouldn't hurt for you to submit a bug report also. It may help them prioritize fixes.

Currently I'm running 6.3.5 (haven't had time to upgrade to 6.3.10) and the problem is still there.

The kids "work around" this by putting the extender to sleep (using the remote), waking it up and going back to the recording screen, but I don't consider that a solution.

--John

[Opus4]

jpwegas: As I said above, this should be fixed in a recent beta, v6.3.9 to be exact, which came out after your v6.3.5 release version so you will still see it in the version you are using. A bug report should not be submitted until trying it again with the latest version. I also asked for the exact steps to reproduce it if you try the latest version & find that the issue is still there.

- Andy

[jpwegas]

Originally Posted by Opus4

A bug report should not be submitted until trying it again with the latest version.

Andy,
Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that he should submit another bug report before trying the newest version, only that he shouldn't not submit one just because I said I had reported it in the past.

--John