what is anytime tv?

"Roger Wilmut" wrote in message
. ..
In article , Beck wrote:

So what the heck is this Anytime TV?

I have read a couple of posts on here about how sky will automatically
record stuff for you. The sky website is not very forthcoming with the
important information.

Can anyone please give me a full rundown on exactly what it is?

Latest model Sky+ boxes reserve half the hard disk space for Sky's use.
The proposition is that they will, overnight, download programmes they
think you might like to see: then they will be there for you to watch
without your having to set them in the EPG. Possibly they may make some
programmes available this way before they are available on the usual
channels.

Mine has Weeds S02E01 which hasn't been on yet.

"Sean Black" wrote in message
...
In article , Roger Wilmut
writes
In article , Beck wrote:

So what the heck is this Anytime TV?

I have read a couple of posts on here about how sky will automatically
record stuff for you. The sky website is not very forthcoming with the
important information.

Can anyone please give me a full rundown on exactly what it is?

Latest model Sky+ boxes reserve half the hard disk space for Sky's use.
The proposition is that they will, overnight, download programmes they
think you might like to see: then they will be there for you to watch
without your having to set them in the EPG. Possibly they may make some
programmes available this way before they are available on the usual
channels.

This is all very well if your tastes happen to be the same as Sky's.

It's pretty much a poor Sky attempt at TiVo suggestions.

In some ways it can be quite useful, I have watched a couple of programmes
on it that I wouldn't have otherwise seen. It seems to show Lost every
week, immediately after it's first shown on Sky One/HD, with no DOGS and
no adverts, which is pretty good, but there doesn't seem to be any way of
knowing for sure if it's going to be on there every week, either because
Sky decide not to put it on there, or Anytime stops working altogether,
which it often does, so you have to record it anyway which kind of defeats
the object, and you can bet the week you don't record it anyway, will be
the week it's not on Anytime :-). They did show the first couple of
episodes of the new series of Weeds, but there has been no sign of the
rest of the series.

Anytime stuff expires after a certain time and deletes itself, although
you can record it to your own part of the disc. It would be better if you
could just mark it as to keep, and it stays on the Anytime portion of the
disc rather than using your space.

Some of the things it records do seem rather pointless, especially now
they've revamped the movie channels. On Saturday, I found it had the film
Inside Man on anytime, fine, nothing wrong with that, but isn't that same
film being shown every night this week on Movies Premiere, or whatever
it's called now, not to mention MP+1, so surely anyone that might have
wanted to watch it, but missed it first time, would have ample opportunity
to do so?

It's not a bad thing overall, but I'd still like the option to switch it
off and have the reserved space to record stuff that I know I want to
watch.
--
Sean Black

Anytime can be switched off by going to Services/ Anytime TV Setup/ and
select No next to Enable Anytime TV and Save Settings

Bill wrote:
Anytime can be switched off by going to Services/ Anytime TV Setup/ and
select No next to Enable Anytime TV and Save Settings

....but does it release the reserved space on the hard disc?

George

In message , Mike Henry
writes
In , Sean Black
wrote:

In some ways it can be quite useful, I have watched a couple of
programmes on it that I wouldn't have otherwise seen. It seems to show
Lost every week, immediately after it's first shown on Sky One/HD, with
no DOGS and no adverts, which is pretty good,

Aha! Thanks for that little nugget. Programmes without a DOG is the
first worthwhile thing I've heard about it. And as far as I know it's
the first time Sky have delivered programming to the home without a DOG
for many years, so it is significant.

but there doesn't seem to
be any way of knowing for sure if it's going to be on there every week,
either because Sky decide not to put it on there, or Anytime stops
working altogether, which it often does, so you have to record it anyway
which kind of defeats the object, and you can bet the week you don't
record it anyway, will be the week it's not on Anytime :-).

Yes, that would be the major downside. You'd have to record Lost every
week, then wait another 45 minutes for the no-DOG version to be
broadcast on the secret transponder that Anytime must tune to, so it
would be almost midnight before you could start watching the DOG-free
version - is that right? Or does it let you start watching Anytime
entries before they are fully "downloaded"?

The last couple of weeks I've watched Lost on Anytime, it's available at
11pm, immediately after it finishes on Sky One/HD.
--
Sean Black

In message , George
writes
Bill wrote:
Anytime can be switched off by going to Services/ Anytime TV Setup/
and select No next to Enable Anytime TV and Save Settings

Yes, I know.

...but does it release the reserved space on the hard disc?

George

Unfortunately not, so I just leave it on, on the off chance it might
show something, sometime that I want to watch.
--
Sean Black

"Beck" wrote in message
...

"DannyT" wrote in message
k...
Beck wrote:
So what the heck is this Anytime TV?

I have read a couple of posts on here about how sky will automatically
record stuff for you. The sky website is not very forthcoming with
the important information.

Can anyone please give me a full rundown on exactly what it is?

I believe it's Sky's hopeless attempt to offer a Video on Demand service.
However, instead of the user accessing the provider's servers, with
access to countless hours of stuff, Sky commandeer 50% of your Sky + hard
drive and download material to it overnight (although your own programmed
recordings take precedence).

You then access your 'VoD' service on your own drive. The programmes that
are downloaded are not in any way tailored to your viewing habits but are
a generic 'best of the week' and designed to get you watching more Sky
TV, rather than being viewer-led VoD.

Sky + and Sky HD customers will access the Anytime menu via the red
button.

The scheme might have some small benefit in alerting viewers to series
they might otherwise have missed, but otherwise I can't see the point.

Thanks.
Its a good idea in theory, but without any way of customising it, it might
become a pain in the arse.
It would be nice to say pick categories like drama and documentaries only
and let it pick what I want. I don't particularly want to be having to
delete an entire catalogue of some rubbish like Dr Who or football
highlights.

It will be NO surprise that as new ADS are released Sky will ensure the
programme it appears inbetween will be recorded.

How long before it's slang name is anyspam TV?

Yes, that would be the major downside. You'd have to record Lost every
week, then wait another 45 minutes for the no-DOG version to be
broadcast on the secret transponder that Anytime must tune to, so it
would be almost midnight before you could start watching the DOG-free
version - is that right? Or does it let you start watching Anytime
entries before they are fully "downloaded"?

Sky Anytime is not a true VOD system where you control what you get from a
vast library. It's a "taster" service, edited for you by SKY, and may use
"guest" editors in the future. Why anyone would want to watch programs
because say "Simon Cowell" had chosen them is beyond me. So there is no
guarantee that every episode of any program will be delivered this way.

Sat is a "broadcast" medium and should be treat as such. Only cable or hyper
speed broadband (20-100mps) can run true VOD.

On Wed, 25 Apr 2007 10:28:38 +0100, "John Russell"
wrote:

Sat is a "broadcast" medium and should be treat as such. Only cable or hyper
speed broadband (20-100mps) can run true VOD.

BT Vision does true VOD in 2mbps.

--

"Zero Tolerance" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 25 Apr 2007 10:28:38 +0100, "John Russell"
wrote:

Sat is a "broadcast" medium and should be treat as such. Only cable or
hyper
speed broadband (20-100mps) can run true VOD.

BT Vision does true VOD in 2mbps.

.....and the quality is? People moan about DVB already for poor bitrates ,i,e
less than 4.5 mps.

To run TV as well as Web services (which may also include video!)without
hickups you need extra bandwidth. The Japanese supply HD via Net based VOD,
hence the need to have rates above 20.

"Sean Black" wrote in message
...
In message , George
writes
Bill wrote:
Anytime can be switched off by going to Services/ Anytime TV Setup/ and
select No next to Enable Anytime TV and Save Settings

Yes, I know.

...but does it release the reserved space on the hard disc?

George

Unfortunately not, so I just leave it on, on the off chance it might show
something, sometime that I want to watch.
--
Sean Black

The contracts for VOD, such as that Virgin has for Lost,24 etc, exclude
delivery BEFORE broadcast by those with first broadcasts rights. Therefore
Anytime will show you tasters of episodes that have already been broadcast,
without any option to watch the rest of the programs you have missed.

It's a shame that SKY don't own up that this isn't VOD, but forced
recording. They could then argue with those that sold them the broadcasts
rights to allow taster episodes BEFORE the series starts.