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Alternatives to Sky+ ?
Hiya. I've just bought a house and it came with a Sky disk attached, but no
Sky box. I'm considering getting Sky+ for it. But I'd like to avoid paying an extra £10 a month, so I'm considering alternatives too. (See the recent thread for debate on the merits of this charge.) Unless I'm very much mistaken, the Sky+ is distinctive because it would allow me to record one channel and watch another at the same time. (Two tuners in the box.) With alternative hard-disk-video-recorders, the original Sky box is there connected to a SCART lead. Only one tuner and reliance on either the Autoview facility or for it to transmit remote control signals. Am I reading the situation right? If so, anyone with an alternative hard disk video care to comment that this not such a great advantage? I've had the basic Sky package for a few years. I recall the occasional clash of schedules around 9pm, but there would often be a repeat of one somewhere. The big problem of schedule clash came with the film channels. Films tend to sit like an 800lb gorilla in the schedules. It became clear we were not using the film channels and so we canceled that part of the subscription. Therein could be a possibile way to avoid the £10/month payment for Sky+. Pay up the film channels for the free Sky+ subscription. Do Sky+ users find they watch more films than they did with the basic Sky box? Thoughts? Opinions? Comments? Bill, is very sorry. |
Bill Godfrey wrote:
I'm considering getting Sky+ for it. But I'd like to avoid paying an extra £10 a month, so I'm considering alternatives too. There is only one choice with the Sky+: subscribe to a package of £30 or more and the Sky+ fee is waived. Unless I'm very much mistaken, the Sky+ is distinctive because it would allow me to record one channel and watch another at the same time. Indeed. But see below. With alternative hard-disk-video-recorders, the original Sky box is there connected to a SCART lead. Only one tuner and reliance on either the Autoview facility or for it to transmit remote control signals. Hmm. More or less, though some units like the Tivo don't need the autoview feature. The big problem of schedule clash came with the film channels. I don't see why. Films (and most other pay channels) are endlessly repeated. The "one-offs" are usually only on the FTA and FTV channels. I have one Sky box connected to my Tivo and another that I control manually for clashes. And I have no Sky sub at all as I find that the pay programming really isn't worth the cost. -- Digibox problem? : A reboot solves 90% of these. The Sky Digital FAQ: http://tinyurl.com/yvnsy How to get UK TV overseas: http://tinyurl.com/6p73 Fed up with logos / red buttons? : http://logofreetv.org/ BBC gone? : http://www.astra2d.co.uk/ ---- Only the truth as I see it. No monies return'd. ;-) |
"Bill Godfrey" wrote in message ... Hiya. I've just bought a house and it came with a Sky disk attached, but no Sky box. I'm considering getting Sky+ for it. But I'd like to avoid paying an extra £10 a month, so I'm considering alternatives too. (See the recent thread for debate on the merits of this charge.) Unless I'm very much mistaken, the Sky+ is distinctive because it would allow me to record one channel and watch another at the same time. (Two tuners in the box.) With alternative hard-disk-video-recorders, the original Sky box is there connected to a SCART lead. Only one tuner and reliance on either the Autoview facility or for it to transmit remote control signals. Am I reading the situation right? If so, anyone with an alternative hard disk video care to comment that this not such a great advantage? I've had the basic Sky package for a few years. I recall the occasional clash of schedules around 9pm, but there would often be a repeat of one somewhere. The big problem of schedule clash came with the film channels. Films tend to sit like an 800lb gorilla in the schedules. It became clear we were not using the film channels and so we canceled that part of the subscription. Therein could be a possibile way to avoid the £10/month payment for Sky+. Pay up the film channels for the free Sky+ subscription. Do Sky+ users find they watch more films than they did with the basic Sky box? Thoughts? Opinions? Comments? Bill, is very sorry. We have had a Sky+ box for a few years. It does ease this problem - more often than not we will start a film recording because we are watching something else when it begins, then begin watching maybe 1/2 an hour into it. By far the biggest things we use this for are "series link" recording (the wife gets to see Emmerdale no matter what and we both get to see the *only* thing I will put off RL to watch - The Sopranos) - and the live pause facility - invaluable for putting the kids to bed or eating tea or nipping to the toilet etc. etc. As it is integrated with the Sky Program Guide it makes it very very easy for the family to make sure they are recording the right thing too. For the price of a few tins of beer each month, I can't fault it - although we get the full package at the mo (going to get rid of sports when I get around to ringing them) - so it come "free" anyway. The only thing I am about to do is upgrade the internal HD as it really is too small to be useful (currently holds around 18-20 hours of footage). |
We have had a Sky+ box for a few years. It does ease this problem - more
often than not we will start a film recording because we are watching something else when it begins, then begin watching maybe 1/2 an hour into it. By far the biggest things we use this for are "series link" recording (the wife gets to see Emmerdale no matter what and we both get to see the *only* thing I will put off RL to watch - The Sopranos) - and the live pause facility - invaluable for putting the kids to bed or eating tea or nipping to the toilet etc. etc. As it is integrated with the Sky Program Guide it makes it very very easy for the family to make sure they are recording the right thing too. For the price of a few tins of beer each month, I can't fault it - although we get the full package at the mo (going to get rid of sports when I get around to ringing them) - so it come "free" anyway. The only thing I am about to do is upgrade the internal HD as it really is too small to be useful (currently holds around 18-20 hours of footage). And the other big advantage of being able to skip adverts at 30x speed:) - MJP |
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Bill Godfrey wrote: Unless I'm very much mistaken, the Sky+ is distinctive because it would allow me to record one channel and watch another at the same time. (Two tuners in the box.) With alternative hard-disk-video-recorders, the pedant No, it's not two "tuners". There is one MPEG-2 decoder (replaces "tuner" for digital transmissions). If you record and watch at the same time, then the raw MPG2 stream is recorded while the watched stream is decoded. When you watch the recorded stream it is decoded on the fly. /pedant This is actually better than two tuners as you lose no quality, and retain things like surround-sound if present on the original MPG2 stream. As someone who doesn't even have his VHS connected any more (except to capture VHS to .avi) I can say that once you've gotten used to digital TV recording you'll never want to go back. Zane. |
In article , [email protected]
coventry.invalid says... Hiya. I've just bought a house and it came with a Sky disk attached, but no Sky box. Get a cheap Sky box, and a TiVo. You know you want one :) -- Dom Robinson Gamertag: DVDfever email: dom at dvdfever dot co dot uk /* http://DVDfever.co.uk (editor), http://LeilaniWeb.co.uk (editor), /* 1008 DVDs, 297 games, 33 videos, 90 cinema films, 91 CDs, concerts & news /* riddick: butcher bay, joss stone, caroline lavelle, kill bill 2, fleet/mac Fight back against "PRESS RED": http://dvdfever.co.uk/pressrel/pressred.shtml |
wrote in message ...
gotten Aarrrgggghhhhh... Ian |
In article ,
Ian F. wrote: wrote in message ... gotten Aarrrgggghhhhh... I did look at that a few times before posting, but decided that the vernacular was ok for a newsgrouop! :-) I supposed I could have said "once one has become accustomed to PVRs"... but that sounded too posh. Zane. |
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wrote in message ...
I did look at that a few times before posting, but decided that the vernacular was ok for a newsgrouop! :-) "Got" would have been OK - it's just the Americanism that made me heave! ;-) I supposed I could have said "once one has become accustomed to PVRs"... but that sounded too posh. We all should use "one" (a la royal family) much more often - one loves it! Ian |
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