Whats the point of having sky plus?

colmranger

Sky repeat everything thousands of times over so my question whats the point in having sky plus?

Can RTE and BBC be recorded on it?

watty

BBC1 NI, BBC2NI, RTE1, RTE2, TV3, TG4 all work on Irish Variety Pack.

It records the digital signal with additional encryption, but without any re-encoding like standalone DVR/PVRs do, so playback is identical to live.

You can pause live TV if the phone/door/oven rings, and resume without missing anything.

It needs a constant recording rental to record at all, other satellite PVRs of course only work with non-Sky pay channels or all FTA TV including Sky.

Other Channels (BBC2 Wales, BBC3, BBC4, UTV, ITV2, ITV3, ITV4 etc) don't record, these all work with a rental free non-Sky satellite PVR.

ixtlan

It's hard to understand how good Sky+ is until you have experienced it.

Yes, there are repeats but it allows you to choose your own TV schedule to be watched whenever you want. You end up never watching any advertisements as you just fast forward through them. If there's a show on late that you are watching live you just start recording it and go to bed. If there are 2 shows on at the same time on different channels you can record both and watch a previously recorded program.

I know you can say ... a DVD recorder or PVR would do some of this (not the dual recroding) but the convenience is amazing. It really would be difficult to leave Sky... for better or worse.

If you have 2 premium packages (say all the movie channels) there's no extra charge for Sky+ usage, otherwise it's €15 per month.

Ix.

bucks73

I agree...theres no way would I change from Sky and give up Sky+. Think its brilliant and now dont have a VCR in the house.

Another big plus is the series link record. Go away for a couple of weeks holiday and set it to record episodes of whatever series you will be missing.

kilasser

I think Sky plus is brill. The only downside for me is you can't record off the ITV's and BBC 3. On an ROI Sub.

Ulsterman 1690

Its a nice toy but the fact that it it requires an extra subscription even if one is only interested in FTA/FTV channels or a basic sub makes it a complete ripoff.

Especially when there are free (albeit slightly more fiddly) options out there

HungryJoey

I have sky+ my self, Like others. I wouldn't change it for the world. I also have a normal sky box in the house too, And I'm glad I got a sky+ box. Very handy and easy to use.

So far I havn't been able to not record anything. All I know is I am on the Sky World package and I'm able to record anything I have tried. I've recorded a fair few movies too that I want to watch at another time etc.. Very handy.

Hj

FREEBBC

colmranger wrote:

Sky repeat everything thousands of times over so my question whats the point in having sky plus?

Can RTE and BBC be recorded on it?

yes it is but not al of the Beebs:mad:

rogue-entity

Sky+ is nice in practise alright, my cousins have it and its pretty cool. But, its just another form of vendor lockin, a bit like Office or Windows on a PC, people get drawn in to using it, like it, tolerate when it fecks up now and then but cant leave if they want to because there is no alternative system to work with Sky's service. Sky+ is just an extention onto their existing platform, and SkyHD is yet another.

The cheek of them charging people to record unless they subscribe to two premium packages and to say, sorry, you cant record manually tuned channels. The cheek of them to say, although you paid for a HD box, you need to pay us more money just to receive the output in HD, and no, manually tuned channels wont be in HD format, even if you do pay us.

Now, if I had the full package and watched the channels, I could live with Sky+ easily, I would of course get a second PVR for the free channels.

jongore

I got Sky+ a few months ago and it's excellent. Very easy to use, no messing about with timers and tapes/discs.

I like that I can keep a program and then record it to DVD later if I want to keep it.

Strasser

ixtlan wrote:

It's hard to understand how good Sky+ is until you have experienced it.

Frustrating I know, when you would like to know what its like before committing to getting it, but this really is how it is with Sky+

Ulsterman 1690

How many cables are there between the dish and $ky box ?

Im told its four but surely only two are needed (since only two channels can be watched/recoded simultaneously)

Mossy Monk

colmranger wrote:

Can RTE and BBC be recorded on it?

wouldn't it be a good idea if you knew what the system did before dismissing it?

watty

Two cables for each true dual tuner sat PVR, (Sky+ or SkyHD or non-Sky box).
One cable for "ordinary" sat receivers, some though (not Sky) can take a HDD on a single tuner box. You can then only record a different channel if it is on the same transponder.

The Sky+ / SkyHD normally supplied LNB has four outlets (Quad), hence the confusion. Two are spare.

Some people ordering SkyHD get Octo LNB, exp if they have Sky+ and an normal box already (1 + 2 + 2 new = 5 used of 8).

JBoyle4eva

I have had sky+ now for 18 months and I would never ever live without it. It's so convient and amazingly saves you from missing program while fiddling through video after video for a blank one and plus it's one touch recording.

The Rooster

I love Sky+

You watch programs when you want to, not when the TV shows them or repeats them.
Very user friendly.

I dont think I would pay an extra monthly sub for it, but it doesnt apply to me as I'm a Sports nut. Great for sports though as well - as you can pause a live event if there's a phone call or other interupption and catch up when there's an injury or other break in play. Also you can watch a replay of any incident you want.

Other than sports I very rarely watch normal TV anymore. Just go to my Sky Planner rather than a TV guide to see what's on. Very rarely see any adverts any more.

DMC

For someone who hasn't seen what Sky + does, and is looking for an easy answer.... Think of it as your normal Sky Digital box, with one-touch recording. You can go into the programme planner, and press the red Record button for upcoming programmes. You can record two programmes at once, (and even while watching another one thats already recorded on the Sky+ box). Live pause allows you to stop the action and resume from where you left off.

Sky does have its detractors, but this was a triumph of design and a simple easy to use interface. The only problems are would be that there isn't anything that really comes that close to it yet. And yes, the channels added through Other channels such as the extra BBC's and ITV's cannot be recorded.
Another issue having to pay extra for it if you don't have premium channels (Sky Sports and/or Movies), but if you have them, then there is no issue.

Put simply, my 3 year old niece can series link Lazytown on it!

watty

There are alternatives with the two tuners and one touch record, pause Live TV etc, but no series link and no epg. But no rental. Also no Pay channels.

Sky needs to be taken to court for being anti-competitive. (no CAM for 3rd party receivers, no ability to take a CAM on Sky boxes for other PayTV). But no-one interested in doing that has deep enough pockets.

So until there is CAM for 3rd party and EPG support for 3rd Party, Sky+ and SkyHD have a monopoly on true Satellite PVR for UK Satellite TV.
(essentially there is NO Irish Satellite service, we get a varient of the UK platform).

ixtlan

I can see the argument you make, and Watty makes a good point about the CAM support. However only some of the blame for this lies with Sky.

I'm not sure I would call this vendor lock-in. If another service were available on cable I could switch. It would not make my AV equipment redundant. The problem is that there is no other equivalent service. Last year I brought a Chorus salesman in and gave my views, and to summarise... Chorus thinks people don't want Sky+ and they certainly don't want HD... OK.... not much of a prospect there methinks...

As for charging to record without the premium channels... well it is a customer choice. In effect they are charging for the service. Why shouldn't they? Likewise with HD. Why shouldn't they charge? Yes, you paid for the box, but so what? You own your phone but you still pay for rental and calls. Customers know exactly what they are getting (or not getting).

The main problem is the lack of a competitor... where's our DTT? Where's our cable-based HD service? Where's our DTT HD service?

Ix.

rogue-entity wrote:

Sky+ is nice in practise alright, my cousins have it and its pretty cool. But, its just another form of vendor lockin, a bit like Office or Windows on a PC, people get drawn in to using it, like it, tolerate when it fecks up now and then but cant leave if they want to because there is no alternative system to work with Sky's service. Sky+ is just an extention onto their existing platform, and SkyHD is yet another.

The cheek of them charging people to record unless they subscribe to two premium packages and to say, sorry, you cant record manually tuned channels. The cheek of them to say, although you paid for a HD box, you need to pay us more money just to receive the output in HD, and no, manually tuned channels wont be in HD format, even if you do pay us.

Zaphod

There are already numerous hardware alternatives to the Sky+ box with hard drives and dual tuners allowing 'one-click recording'. The main problem is a lack of alternatives to the Sky EPG and the additional flexibility it offers.

The closest equivalent available currently are Kathrein boxes which use the tvtv EPG data stream on 19E.

Hopefully we'll see more manufacturers adopting this system and the availability of a stream on 28E in the near future.

Although why the BBC don't make full use of the current DVB-S EPG other than 'now and next' is beyond me.

watty

The Reelbox also can have two tuners and use TVTV.co.uk via web or the de version on 19E or via web.

But tvtv EPG cost 12 Euro (per month? per year? don't know).

watty

Almost no-one will have DTT HD unless all the SD channels moved to MPEG4. There isn't the spectrum.

Actually at the minute there is hardly content either.

Zaphod

tvtv is 'free' on the Kathreins. Presumably there is some sort of once-off licence fee included in the RRP for the box.