Is Sky+ anygood compared to 'Tivo'?

With the news about the £10 fee drop for Sky+ I am very
tempted to upgrade. I am on the full package with Sky but my
digibox is years old and is stupidly slow.

At the moment I have a Tivo hooked up and quite frankly love
it. I have lots of season passes and it works fine. The only
reason I would want to switch to Sky is for the record one
channel view another feature and the speed increase on the
new box.

Is Sky+ as advanced and as easy to use as the Tivo in terms
of setting up season passes and one touch recording of
shows? How many weeks does the EPG cover? Does it have a
decent search facility and wishlists? Does it have a
suggestions feature? How big is the HD, can you vary the
quality it records at?

Any Tivo users who have switched over to Sky+ care to
comment?

ghItlh "Cheddar"


Is Sky+ as advanced and as easy to use as the Tivo in terms
of setting up season passes and one touch recording of
shows?

Not a great question as it dosen't have season passes. Series links are
a poor substitute (not all series have them, for example). Hitting the
record button to record what's on now is as easy as it is on TiVo.

How many weeks does the EPG cover?

Same as your regular SKY EPG

Does it have a decent search facility

I've not found one.

and wishlists?

No

Does it have a suggestions feature?

No

How big is the HD,

It's 20 hours big.

can you vary the quality it records at?

No.


Any Tivo users who have switched over to Sky+ care to
comment?

You've picked on all the questions where (IMO) Sky+ is deficient to
TiVo. Some plusses are, better recording quality, fast operation,
multiple program backup, soft padding.

What we really want of course, is the TiVo operating system with the
Sky+ hardware and support.
--
XBL Gamertag: qIroS

On 6/9/03 12:05 pm, in article ,
"Cheddar" wrote:

With the news about the £10 fee drop for Sky+ I am very
tempted to upgrade. I am on the full package with Sky but my
digibox is years old and is stupidly slow.

At the moment I have a Tivo hooked up and quite frankly love
it. I have lots of season passes and it works fine. The only
reason I would want to switch to Sky is for the record one
channel view another feature and the speed increase on the
new box.


I am a Tivo user with a regular Sky box, but I have friends with Sky +.
Both systems have differing pluses and minuses.


Is Sky+ as advanced and as easy to use as the Tivo in terms
of setting up season passes and one touch recording of
shows?

No. Sky + has a basic "series link" feature - that depends on the
broadcaster (not all series will have it) This a rough equivalent to season
pass on a Tivo. There is no current equivalent to the Tivo "wishlist"
feature on Sky + (so you can't record all "Frasiers" whether they are on C4,
E4 or Paramount with Sky + without setting up separate "series links" on
each channel - meaning you have to know which channel the show is on, or
search the A-Z listings, on Sky+)

How many weeks does the EPG cover?

Sky + EPG only covers about a week - and this is only for the channel search
facility. The A-Z listings cover a shorter period (about 24-48 hours?) It
is easier to set up recordings on Tivo than Sky+ in my experience, though
still not difficult on Sky+.


Does it have a
decent search facility and wishlists?

Not as good as Tivo.

However the EPG on Sky can be updated instantaneously by the broadcaster, so
late schedule changes can be coped with by Sky +, whereas Tivo is only
updated daily. (If a live programme over runs, delaying the next show, Sky+
can - if the broadcaster decides to run their EPG dynamically - cope with a
delayed recording start)

Does it have a
suggestions feature? How big is the HD, can you vary the
quality it records at?


No no suggestions. Hard drive is the same size as a Tivo (40Gb), though
both systems can be simply upgraded (though this voids the warranty -
apparently Sky + is easier to upgrade, but the software doesn't cope
perfectly with a larger capacity HD)

You can't alter the recording quality on Sky+ as it records the broadcast
stream directly with no recompression. This means Sky+ is always going to be
better quality than Tivo. Even in "Best" quality the Tivo is far from
transparent, and the picture quality noticably poorer than the original
broadcast. Tivo only records at a max 540x576 resolution, Sky+ will record
the broadcast resolution (often 720x576)

Any Tivo users who have switched over to Sky+ care to
comment?

The Tivo Live TV buffer is better implemented than the Sky +, with Tivo you
can leave the buffer to check schedules, watch pre-recorded items, and then
return, on Sky + you can't. Tivo also constantly records Live TV, Sky+ only
starts recording when you first pause, so you can't rewind unless you are
already in Live TV on Sky+.

However one of the biggest advantages of Sky+ is being able to watch and
record different Sky channels simultaneously (soon be able to record two
channels whilst watching a pre-recorded item I believe) Tivo can't do this
without using two Sky receivers, and can't record two different channels
without a second Tivo.

I love my Tivo - I can put up with the reduction in quality (I have a
different solution for archiving at high quality) - but the season pass and
wishlist functionality of Tivo makes up for it.

In an ideal world we'd have what the US market has in DirecTivo. This is a
Sky+ style high quality recorder, with two tuners and lossless recording,
and a dynamic EPG, but with Tivo wishlist and season pass recording and
programme search facilities. Sadly we don't - Sky + is not as friendly or
as advanced in this area.

Steve

Stephen Neal wrote:
In an ideal world we'd have what the US market has in
DirecTivo. This
is a Sky+ style high quality recorder, with two tuners and
lossless
recording, and a dynamic EPG, but with Tivo wishlist and
season pass
recording and programme search facilities. Sadly we
don't - Sky + is
not as friendly or as advanced in this area.

Thanks to you and QIroS for replying.

I think i'll stick with the Tivo for the time being and
maybe look into getting a better standard digibox (2nd hand
most probably).

In article , [email protected]
directed.com says...
Does it have a
suggestions feature? How big is the HD, can you vary the
quality it records at?


No no suggestions. Hard drive is the same size as a Tivo (40Gb), though
both systems can be simply upgraded (though this voids the warranty -
apparently Sky + is easier to upgrade, but the software doesn't cope
perfectly with a larger capacity HD)

You can't alter the recording quality on Sky+ as it records the broadcast
stream directly with no recompression. This means Sky+ is always going to be
better quality than Tivo. Even in "Best" quality the Tivo is far from
transparent, and the picture quality noticably poorer than the original
broadcast. Tivo only records at a max 540x576 resolution, Sky+ will record
the broadcast resolution (often 720x576)

I mainly record things on High quality on the TiVo, which is one step down
from Best. Since most things look a bit iffy direct from the broadcast anyway
(Eastenders on SkyDigital being a prime example), there's a negligible
difference watching in 'High'.

As the saying goes, you can't polish a turd.
--

Dom Robinson Gamertag: DVDfever email: dom at dvdfever dot co dot uk
/* http://DVDfever.co.uk (editor)
/* 940 DVDs, 259 games, 33 videos, 67 cinema films, 69 CDs, laserdiscs & news
/* star trek nemesis, bringing down the house, phone booth, human nature
"Those who say they can, can, while those who say they can't, are right."

In message , Cheddar
writes
With the news about the £10 fee drop for Sky+ I am very
tempted to upgrade. I am on the full package with Sky but my
digibox is years old and is stupidly slow.

At the moment I have a Tivo hooked up and quite frankly love
it. I have lots of season passes and it works fine. The only
reason I would want to switch to Sky is for the record one
channel view another feature and the speed increase on the
new box.

Is Sky+ as advanced and as easy to use as the Tivo in terms
of setting up season passes and one touch recording of
shows? How many weeks does the EPG cover? Does it have a
decent search facility and wishlists? Does it have a
suggestions feature? How big is the HD, can you vary the
quality it records at?

Any Tivo users who have switched over to Sky+ care to
comment?


Anyone know if the TiVo can control the Sky+ the same as it does a
regular digibox?
--
Sean Black

Dom Robinson said this:

You can't alter the recording quality on Sky+ as it records the
broadcast stream directly with no recompression. This means Sky+ is
always going to be better quality than Tivo. Even in "Best" quality
the Tivo is far from transparent, and the picture quality noticably
poorer than the original broadcast. Tivo only records at a max
540x576 resolution, Sky+ will record the broadcast resolution (often
720x576)

I mainly record things on High quality on the TiVo, which is one step
down from Best. Since most things look a bit iffy direct from the
broadcast anyway (Eastenders on SkyDigital being a prime example),
there's a negligible difference watching in 'High'.

As the saying goes, you can't polish a turd.

You can't *polish* a turd, but you can store a turd as it is or you can
smear some more crap over it first.

The quality of a recording on Tivo is far worse than on Sky+, both in theory
and in practice. It is very noticable, particularly on the high-quality
channels such as Sky Sports and Sky Movies.

In message , Mike Henry
writes
In , Sean Black
wrote:
Anyone know if the TiVo can control the Sky+ the same as it does a
regular digibox?

Yes. Pace code 20017 (or 20010 if you don't want it to send the "Sky"
key before each channel change).


Cool. Wouldn't mind a Sky+, but wouldn't want to go without the TiVo
software.
--
Sean Black

I think i'll stick with the Tivo

Very wise; I subcribed to Sky+ some time ago with the intention of
selling my Tivo. After a week however I missed my Tivo and connected
it again on my main TV with the old Digibox and put the Sky+ in the
kids room.
I'm also thinking of just giving up my Sky+ subscription, but I just
heard it's going to be free in the very near future.
--

--- Sam ---

"Dom Robinson" wrote in message
...
snip
All radio programmes are recorded in 'basic' (by Tivo) as the picture
doesn't matter and the sound's unaffected.

Theres a difference I havent seen mentioned. YOu can't record radio with
Sky+. Dunno why but it just wont let you.

--
Tumbleweed

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