I have noticed discrepancies with the time setting (typically it jumping forward an hour) - I believe this may be due to the receiver getting a different time zone (Central European Time is an hour ahead) depending on which satellite you point it at - despite being able to set the time zone on the receiver itself.
Running the receiver without the Update Time feature has seemed to work OK since.
Regarding the timer programming, the following details have to be set:
Whether you want the receiver to switch on or off.
The time (separate fields for hours and minutes).
Ch Mod is the channel type (Digital TV, Favourite, etc)
Ch No is the channel number within that type.
Unfortunately, with my current firmware (1.01b from the Strong website) there is no date facility so the options set repeat daily. This is a big limitation which I hope Stong fixes soon. Hope this helps.