Is Sky+ Worth The Hassle?

Clanc · 15-09-2005 11:25pm

I've had Sky+ since Nov 2003 and apart from a couple of weeks this summer where one of the tuners was acting up (eventually the problem subsided), I can't fault it in any way.

jaggiebunnet · 16-09-2005 9:22am

Tony wrote:

here is what it looks like, the USB ports are worth looking for http://www.pacemicro.com/corporate/products/prodinfo.asp?PID=TDS470N

cool. what devices can you connect to the usb ports?

Lads thanks for all the feedback, I am definitely on for getting one, I need to speak to the better half and see if I can convince her of the benefits (ie no fights when i wanna watch the footie

) As far as failure rates I guess I will pray to the satellite gods...my digibox has never given me a problem although i did have to replace my lnb after about a year...must make sure i get that back from the sky+ fitter when they put in a quad lnb !!

ixtlan · 16-09-2005 9:25am

Yes, I love the Sky+ box, and replaced the 40Gb drive I got with a 160Gb. No major problems. Sometimes the series links drop... sometimes there's a failed recording. Not often enough to be a big issue.

Obviously the failure rate is going to be higher than a regular digibox. You've got a cheap hard drive operating under non-ideal temperature conditions. I have no idea what the numbers are, but certainly some of them are going to fail. It's a risk, but the benefits are worth it.

Unfortunately, and this was obviously Sky's intention, it's hard to consider leaving Sky for another vendor who doesn't have an integrated dual-tuner PVR. I had a long discussion with a Chorus sales guy about this. Their position seemed to be "most people don't want PVRs" and next year "most people won't want HD". This is true now, but short-sighted. With Flat panel TV sales taking off big time, HD is likely to be a must have in a few years... so he should have at least had a road-map...

Ix.

jaggiebunnet · 16-09-2005 10:40am

do Chorus have a road map?

Gwynston · 16-09-2005 1:28pm

While we're enjoying the benefits of Sky+ since getting in July (just too soon for the 80/80 box

) we do get a frustrating number of failed recordings. I reckon a failure rate of about 33%. We only record 3 or 4 things a week at the moment, but losing one of those every week is bit annoying. One week we had Lost fail on the Monday AND the Friday repeat and we so missed that double episode completely... :mad:

I think some of the problems might have been due to playing around with live pause etc. while recording another channel and/or recording two consecutive programmes on one channel while watching another, but we've been trying to avoid that recently without much better success

This week Lost failed (again) reporting a failure code of "9". Anyone know what that means?????

Tony · 16-09-2005 1:52pm

Sounds like hard drive, if you are still in warranty I would go for a replacement, if its a sky box try asking for the new 80/80

Gwynston wrote:

While we're enjoying the benefits of Sky+ since getting in July (just too soon for the 80/80 box ) we do get a frustrating number of failed recordings. I reckon a failure rate of about 33%. We only record 3 or 4 things a week at the moment, but losing one of those every week is bit annoying. One week we had Lost fail on the Monday AND the Friday repeat and we so missed that double episode completely... :mad:

I think some of the problems might have been due to playing around with live pause etc. while recording another channel and/or recording two consecutive programmes on one channel while watching another, but we've been trying to avoid that recently without much better success

This week Lost failed (again) reporting a failure code of "9". Anyone know what that means?????

kazzer · 16-09-2005 2:52pm

Just got Sky+ and multiroom installed. A new 80/80 box alright, I wasnt too happy with the installation though. The guy insisted on connecting the boxes to the phone line. Is this always necessary?

jaggiebunnet · 16-09-2005 2:59pm

kazzer wrote:

Just got Sky+ and multiroom installed. A new 80/80 box alright, I wasnt too happy with the installation though. The guy insisted on connecting the boxes to the phone line. Is this always necessary?

Pretty sure this is the case that it is required. Esp if you have multi room as they want to make sure the extra box is in the registered address.

Did you get the free installation - was wondering on that - how do the installers make any money out of it if the install is free and the box is half price?

How long did you have to wait Kazzer to get installed?

Mossy Monk · 16-09-2005 3:32pm

kazzer wrote:

Just got Sky+ and multiroom installed. A new 80/80 box alright, I wasnt too happy with the installation though. The guy insisted on connecting the boxes to the phone line. Is this always necessary?

yes. sky will know where the boxes are in case someone decides Johnny next door can have a cheap subscription

besides it is on the contract that you would have signed

kazzer · 16-09-2005 3:37pm

Yes free install, you pay for your box thats all. When you ring Sky they usually give you a date about a week ahead.

I wasnt too happy with the install I have to say. The guy cut the phone line to the sky box too short. So what did he do? He got another short length and connected the two together with an RJ11 double adapter. Very tacky indeed.

Anyways, all else looks good. I cannot believe the quality of the recording - superb.

Tony · 16-09-2005 4:27pm

jaggiebunnet wrote:

- how do the installers make any money out of it if the install is free and the box is half price?

Sky pay a fee about 3 months later to the retailer or install company.

watty · 16-09-2005 6:37pm

The only issue with Sky+ is that you buy it AND rent it. You must pay a sub even if you only want free channels.

The palyback IS the same signal as live reception, so no degradion at all, unlike Analog to DVD recorder or a Tivo

Tony · 21-09-2005 3:41pm

clarkbelt wrote:

Yes Malcolm said this . ( no one involved in selling a product will tell you "sorry dude , this product is doogy " )

I met Malcolm at Armstrongs this morning and he denied ever saying this. He told me that at its worst level last year the failure rate of sky+ was 24%

clarkbelt · 21-09-2005 5:49pm

Tony wrote:

I met Malcolm at Armstrongs this morning and he denied ever saying this. He told me that at its worst level last year the failure rate of sky+ was 24%

I told you so !

Anyway 24% is still unacceptable , considering plain old digiboxes have a failure rate of less than 1% .

Tony · 21-09-2005 6:22pm

clarkbelt wrote:

I told you so !

.

Nonsense, I dont believe he ever said this.

clarkbelt · 21-09-2005 6:48pm

I'm getting tired of this !

Tony said …………
I did not put forward an opinion as to what the failure rate was

Then Tony said ………..
Wild exagerattion in my opinion

Doh!

Clarkbelt said …………….

I got these figures from speaking to people in the know , like..........

Five or six of the major Sky dealers in the country .
Malcolm Hardacre Pace Micro Technology ( although , he probaqbly won't admit to this failure rate )
Armstrong Electronics Ltd
Electroplus Cable & Satellite Ltd

And then Tony said …………………..
So are you now saying that the 50% is your opinion rather than fact?

Doh!

Then Tony quoted these figures …………….

I've asked Seamus in Armstrongs and he says the failure rate is more like 15 %

For my own part the failure rate is 10% for sky +

I met Malcolm at Armstrongs this morning and he denied ever saying this. He told me that at its worst level last year the failure rate of sky+ was 24%

Maybe you should all meet sometime , why not in Armstrongs ? , then Seamus Russell could explain how he got a figure of 15% ( must not be talking to Malcolm ) you got one of 10% , and Malcolm got a different figure again ?

Is it not possible Tony , that the people I spoke to regarding Sky+ are closer to the truth on this . By your own admission Malcolm said his return rate was 24% . Surely this return figure together with failures sorted by telephone and field support could actually amount to 50% .

Clarkbelt said ……….
had a failure/return rate in the region of 50% .

Tony · 21-09-2005 7:52pm

The central problem here is that you came up with a figure of 50% and then attributed this to Malcolm from Pace who said no such thing by his own admission, thats the problem nothing more. He has no reason whatsoever to lie about this and your contention that he would not admit to a product being "doggy" (Sic) is clearly not true since he has said that at its worst the failure rate was 24% which is clearly unacceptable. If as you state he would not admit to this then why did he tell you?

People come on this forum looking for sound advice not misinformation from someone who seems to be portraying himself as being "in the know" for reasons that are beyond me.

clarkbelt · 21-09-2005 8:19pm

I have nothing more to say !

TCamen · 22-09-2005 12:28am

We've had Sky+ @ home since 2003 and have never really had any major/recurring problems with failed recordings, though one thing that does happen more frequently on our Sky+ 160 box is that something will record and then refuse to play, even though it says it recorded for X minutes and is using X% on the memory.

Like everyone else, I really hate when I have to watch a live broadcast, generally I'll even put it on pause for a while and wait until there's a buffer built up to skip at least one ad break. The freedom of having so much space on the 160 box is nice - our original box was the 40GB one, so space-wise it wasn't great when something on RTE or BBC would take up like 6% for an hour, whereas now something like the 'Lost' double bill only takes up 3%

Quite frustrating @ the moment with the Live Pause being messed up with the latest Sky software update, I really miss it

Tony · 22-09-2005 7:43am

TCamen wrote:

Quite frustrating @ the moment with the Live Pause being messed up with the latest Sky software update, I really miss it

Have you tried re booting? Seems to have sorted itself out on my 40gb box after a couple of power downs.

jaggiebunnet · 28-09-2005 8:59am

ok guys - ready to take the plunge!

I have decided against multi room (paying another 15 a month is annoying - at least having sky sports channels gets the sky+ free each month) and so am looking for an installer in cork that would:

a) do me sky + for the price on the website + install charges
b) run another cable into the bedroom to hook up to the old sky box for my FTV card.

Can anyone recommend anyone?

Cheers
Robert.

jaggiebunnet · 29-09-2005 10:40am

jaggiebunnet wrote:

ok guys - ready to take the plunge!

I have decided against multi room (paying another 15 a month is annoying - at least having sky sports channels gets the sky+ free each month) and so am looking for an installer in cork that would:

a) do me sky + for the price on the website + install charges
b) run another cable into the bedroom to hook up to the old sky box for my FTV card.

Can anyone recommend anyone?

Cheers
Robert.

So no one got any recommendations for an installer in Cork?

mickd · 30-09-2005 12:15am

I would buy a DVDR e.g some of the Philips ones seem quite interesting. They have 160/400GB hard drives, pause live tv, Gemstar Guideplus, videoplus. One can record fav program etc then if I want to keep it, in 90 secs I can lash it on to a DVD.

jaggiebunnet · 30-09-2005 8:56am

mickd wrote:

I would buy a DVDR e.g some of the Philips ones seem quite interesting. They have 160/400GB hard drives, pause live tv, Gemstar Guideplus, videoplus. One can record fav program etc then if I want to keep it, in 90 secs I can lash it on to a DVD.

Yeah did consider that, don't like the idea of being tied into sky with the + box. Problem is cost for a good one.

Mossy Monk · 30-09-2005 9:15am

but those DVDR boxes dont allow you to watch one sky channel while recording another

jaggiebunnet · 30-09-2005 9:38am

Mossy Monk wrote:

but those DVDR boxes dont allow you to watch one sky channel while recording another

hmm, good point. one of the main reasons for getting +, ie allowing me to tape the footie while my wife watches her programs....

..just need a recommendation now for an installer

watty · 30-09-2005 10:04am

Mind you the non-Sky digital Sat PVR boxes with two (or four!) tuners, CI, card slots, up to 400GByte disk, PIP, mosaic, four channel recordind, PC link (variously firewire, USB2.0 and Ethernet depending on model) etc etc make Sky+ look very very basic. I taped the Dr Dish program on 1W but the dvd might be on www.dxandy.com.

Certinally the Microsoft Media Centre looks dead duck compared with new boxes that combine MP3, Sat, terrestrial, DVD play, DVD Record, HD up to 400G, Wifi, Bluetooth, ethernet etc, etc.

Though if you want Sky Pay channels, the SKY+ is only solution. The Dragon CAM in other PVRs or a Dreambox are not real solutions, but "hobbyist" experiments.

Unless EU forces Sky to make CAM available, it won't happen. The Fact that both BBC & ITV have decided to be FTA shows that they don't think an official CAM for non-Sky box is going to happen any time soon.

Really now I expect Ch4 and Five to join with BBC & ITV in medium term as obviously the "rights" issues can be solved and if the BBC/ITV promoted platform & FTA boxes generally become significant in UK the Advertisers will "force" them.

mickd · 30-09-2005 12:33pm

Mossy Monk wrote:

but those DVDR boxes dont allow you to watch one sky channel while recording another

Used to be the case but forthcoming ones have intergrated DVB satellite tuners with the trend towards FTA and premiership rights up next year subscription cards maybe be not as prominent

jaggiebunnet · 30-09-2005 3:47pm

Just had a look at the sky site and they seemed to have dropped the installation prices again to 75 euro for sky + if you take multi room... :eek:

ixtlan · 01-10-2005 11:43am

Just a quick comment about Sky+ failures... if I dare...

The first thing I did when the Sky+ arrived was disable the "instant rewind" feature.

IDE type drives have a low recommended "duty cycle" time. People will debate what that is, 5-10-15-30%, but there's no way such a drive is designed for 100%, which is what instant rewind is doing. Drives in servers (SCSI and FCAL) are designed for 100% duty cycles, but IDE and SATA are not. Even "enterprise-class" SATA drives are classed at 30% duty cycle.

This is not to say you will have a failure, obviously some people have such drives running for years, but it's all about averages... Your odds of failure will surely be higher with instant rewind on.

Yes I know the drive is always spinning when the box is on, but that's not the same as being active, since the heads are not moving...

IMHO the best thing is to turn off instant rewind...

Ix

Is Sky+ Worth The Hassle?

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