BBC's reply to Sherlock

On the 2 August I posted that Sherlock had failed to record. Having discovered that it wasn't just me, or my particular model of recorder I made a complaint to the BBC. On the 27th September they finally replied.

Now to recap how things are supposed to work with my box. I set it to record a series, that information is kept in the box. 15 minutes before a programme is supposed to start the box wakes up and reloads the programme guide (EPG) to check if it's moved. With the slot confirmed it waits for when the programme is supposed to start and then waits for the broadcast signal. As such I've seen programmes start recording before the EPG changes (early) and after the EPG has changed but the programme hasn't started (late) likewise I've seen it record after the programme has already started.

So with this in mind consider the reply.

We are not aware of any problems with the broadcast of this programme or the time signal related to it.. This largely depends on who provides and updates the EPG on the PVR.

Except the EPG wasn't causing the problem, it happily stated that the programme started at the time it did.

The BBC use both Freesat plus and Freeview plus which provide an 8 day EPG and accurate recording so that in these circumstances this delay would have been picked up, not so in others. If you finds [sic] that this continues, simply add time to account for this, as the EPG may not be updated in time to trigger the recording correctly at the later time.

Except there was no delay for this programme it started at the scheduled time as also shown in the EPG.

The only accurate junction we transmit in real-time is the Now/Next change. The EPG update does not respond to a real-time change which a recorder can start on (like PDC). It's likely that your equipment uses scheduled time to record programmes, having got the programme information from the EPG to set up the recording slot.

Nope it uses the signal otherwise every recording would start bang on time and they don't.

The BBC sends a trigger at the exact time the programme starts, but only Freeview plus DVD recorders will react to this.

Except this is a Freeview Plus recorder though not a DVD one; I think they mean DVR. So in other words despite stating that many others had this problem in that the programme only started to record 20 minutes in despite the EPG displaying the correct information it's a problem at my end.

Arse-covering?