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

In article ,
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
--

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() wrote:

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

pedant²
Actually the Sky+ does indeed have two ZIF tuners. One is dedicated to
recording and the other is used for the channel being watched live
(and/or recorded).
There is indeed only one decoder circuit and this is used for whatever
is being watched, be it live or recorded.
/pedant²

--
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. ;-)

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.

On Wed, 20 Oct 2004 11:59:55 GMT, () wrote:

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.

One can never sound too posh:-)

--
Nigel Barker
Live from the sunny Cote d'Azur