Cyfra+

Cyfra+ is a Polish digital satellite platform, owned and operated by French media company Canal+ ("Cyfra" is Polish for "Digit"). It offers 95 channels. By 2010, Cyfra+ had 1,6 million subscribers.

Setbacks

• Some channels disrespect the English soundtrack default setting and start with a Polish soundtrack when first turned on. In the past it affected HBO channels
• From May 26, 2008 till Sep 2008, Discovery channels Adventure, World and Science did not provide English soundtracks as specified in the product offer
• As of June 2, 2008, Zone Reality did not provide an English soundtrack. The track was retored later on.
• As of Sep 2008, Discovery Channel does not provide an English soundtrack as specified in the product offer
• Some Discovery Channel documentaries provide no English translations of non-English dialogs with English soundtrack
• Some movie channels spontaneously switch to Polish sound track in the midst of a recording
• Fox News is no longer available (as of August 2003).
• English-language Al Jazeera was promised in April 2006, and was made available only in Nov 2006 (on the day the English version of the channel launched)
• BBC Learning is no longer available (as of August 2006). In 2011, it was replaced with BBC Knowledge
• BBC Prime was phased out by the end of 2007. In 2001, it was replaced with BBC Entertainment
• As of Sep 1, 2006, for two continuous months, Hallmark Channel did not provide English sound track (only Polish dialogs). The service in English is now resumed
• Occasionally, various channels do not provide advertised soundtracks (either English, Polish, original or other). This happened among others to Hallmark, Zone Reality, Discovery channels, C+, and others
• In the period Dec 1, 2005 - Mar 31, 2007, all four Discovery channels included a digital protection signal that resulted in interrupted recordings (with 2-15% of the programmed recording missing). Recordings made with the record button (as opposed to the Timer) would simply stop in 3-15 minutes
• National Geographic HD channel did not provide an English soundtrack (until 2011)

Philips PVR

As of Nov 30, 2007, users of Cyfra+ can choose an option of Cyfra PVR decoder.

Advantages

• easy recording of programs from the program schedule
• recording one program while watching others (twin converter needed to watch all channels while recording, some channels are also available on with a single converter)
• HD quality on HD channels
• recording all soundtracks along with the video solves the problem of language switching listed in setbacks
• software updates via satellite often solve problems that plagued early users

Disadvantages

• PLN 20 rental fee per month for the use of the PVR (PLN 10 extra as compared with cheaper decoders)
• PVR often hangs up during the library preview while recording at the same time
• menu system shows only in Polish (even though it is quite easy to master for speakers of other languages)
• numerous bugs in software (those are gradually removed with monthly software updates)
• very slow EPG that covers only a small subset of channels (around 8% of roughly 900 channels)

Limitations

• not all channels and programs are available in the programming schedule (those need to be programmed manually, which is an arduous process)
• library preview shows recordings in the default language, which is not English if the soundtrack name differs from "English" (e.g. "Original" or "Language 2", etc.)
• limited set of options for managing the library of recordings
• poor navigation in the library of recordings (lack of equivalents of PgDn, Home, End requires moving through dozens of recordings one by one)
• lack of options for setting chapters in recordings stored on the hard disk
• no options for editing the recordings such as deleting advertising, trimming, splitting, etc.
• playback resume takes 4-7 seconds to play sound resulting in incomplete viewing (unless a rewind button is pressed). Rewind also results in 4-7 sec. break in sound
• Polish subtitles on some movie channels cannot be turned off (subtitles in other languages are not available)
• subtitles can be thrown out of synch with the sound (so that silent portions of a movie are subtitled with texts from dialogs occurring earlier or later)

External links

• CYFRA+ (Cyfra Plus)