DON’T make the same Sky TV guide mistakes as everyone else.
You can instantly up your TV game with a few clever hacks.
SkyGet to grips with the Sky TV guide and you’ll be well away[/caption]
If you’re already paying for Sky TV, you might as well master it.
Sky TV guide trick #1 – guide shortcuts
If you’ve ever used the Sky TV guide, it can sometimes feel like a pain to find exactly what you want.
Thankfully there are a few remote control tricks that let you skip around quickly.
If you hit the Fast Forward button on a Sky Q remote, this will let you skip forward 24 hours on the guide.
That means you can easily see what’s going on tomorrow (and beyond) in seconds.
Similarly, if you hit Rewind then you’ll be transported back 24 hours.
If you get deep into the guide and want to return to what’s on right now, just hit the Play button.
This could shave minutes off your daily browsing, if you remember to use the shortcuts.
Sky TV guide trick #2 – quote it!
Don’t just rely on your TV guide to find what you’re looking for.
A clever Sky TV hack is perfect if you’re always forgetting the names of movies.
It lets you quickly track down a film simply by using a famous quote.
You simply use the voice control function on your Sky remote.
Press the microphone button and then say the famous quote.
For instance, saying “You can’t handle the truth!” will bring up A Few Good Men.
And “My Precious” will get you The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.
There are dozens of quotes that you can try the feature with.
You can find the full list of supported movie quotes here.
Sky TV guide trick #3 – skip the guide!
Most people using Sky TV will set recordings by pressing the TV guide button to open up a list of channels and what’s on that day.
You can then flick across to something you’d like to watch later and hit the record button to save it to your box.
That’s all well and good, but it means you have to exit what you’re currently watching to browse programmes.
The show is minimised and shunted into a small, rectangular box that appears at the top left of the guide.
Thankfully it’s possible to keep whatever you’re watching in big screen mode while selecting a programme to record.
To try it out for yourself, press select on your Sky remote to bring up Sky’s information banner.
The small block at the bottom of your screen shows the title and description of what’s currently playing.
Press up or down to browse channel listings and see what other broadcasters are showing right now.
You can then press left or right to see what those channels will be showing later in the day.
Once you’ve found something you want to watch, you can press the record button to set up a recording.
That programme will now be recorded – without you ever needing to dive into the TV guide.
You can tell if a programme has been set to record by the appearance of a red icon next to its title.
Pressing the red button sets up a series link, so that all future episodes of that show are downloaded.
That’s indicated by two green lines next to the red record icon.
To remove the series link, press the record button again. Press it a third time to remove the recording altogether.