Calculate which part of the broadcast you need
Write down the programme’s actual start time and when you joined the stream. SBS documents a 120-minute live playback window. In an illustrative case, joining a programme that started two hours and twenty minutes earlier puts its first twenty minutes outside that window. Choosing a restart command cannot recover those minutes from that live session.
The calculation is only a way to understand the limit. A programme may begin earlier or later than its scheduled time, so use its actual opening where you can establish it. A guide entry is useful context, but should not be treated as a frame-accurate recording boundary.
Read the available restart choice
SBS says a programme beyond the window can present Watch Live or Go Back 2 Hours. If you choose the latter, confirm where the programme resumes and make clear to other viewers that you are watching behind the live edge. The result is not necessarily the programme’s beginning.
Its help also explains that restart points follow electronic programme-guide timings. A small overlap with the previous programme can occur and may be corrected by scrubbing forward. That minor overlap is different from losing the opening because it is more than two hours old. Record which of those two conditions you observe.
Check a catch-up edition separately
If you need the missing opening, look for a separately published on-demand edition. Its availability and expiry must be checked on the programme page; the existence of a live restart feature does not establish that a full replay will appear later.
SBS lists supported routes for Play from Start and specifically excludes Fetch and HbbTV. If the control is absent on one of those routes, the problem differs from a supported route reaching the rewind boundary. When asking for help, include the programme, channel, approximate start and joining times, viewing device and the choice offered by the player. This separates a window limit, a schedule offset and an unsupported device feature.