Catch-up and archive
Catch-up plays a programme that has already finished, out of an archive your provider keeps. The app does not record it for you. That is recording, and it is a different thing.
Using it
Section titled “Using it”- In the guide, move back in time and press OK on a finished programme. The card says whether it will play from the archive.
- On a channel that is on air, the player offers Start from the beginning, the same archive, used to skip the part you missed, and the usual way people skip the advertisements at the top of the hour.
- A day rail lets you jump between the days the channel keeps.
Which channels have it
Section titled “Which channels have it”Whatever your provider archives, and only that. What a provider advertises about its archive is often wrong in both directions, so the app does not take its word for it and checks the recording itself before telling you it is there.
That is also why the app is deliberately optimistic: when a provider never said how far back it keeps recordings, OK on a past programme still asks, because that is where recordings often are anyway.
If there is nothing there, you get This channel has no catch-up, with the offer to capture the programme live instead.
Seeking inside a catch-up stream
Section titled “Seeking inside a catch-up stream”An archive stream is put together by the provider as it is served, rather than stored as one finished file. That matters:
- A seek lands near where you dropped the marker rather than exactly on it, and plays on from there.
- A jump is not instant the way it is in a downloaded film, and it never will be.
How long the archive stays
Section titled “How long the archive stays”That is your provider’s decision, not a setting in the app. What the app controls is how long it keeps the guide for those days, and a channel with an archive is exempt from the ordinary limit: it keeps as many days of guide as the provider says it archives, because otherwise there would be nothing to click on.
See Keep the guide for on Where the guide comes from.
Recording out of the archive
Section titled “Recording out of the archive”A past programme can be recorded rather than watched, which downloads it from the archive into your own storage, useful when the provider’s window is about to roll past it. See Recording.