sky anytime tv appeared on my sky+ box last night

vibe666

oooh, just been reading up about it. seems like the UK has had it since March, I guess we'll be catching up with the UK now.

On pushing the red button the user will be presented with a list of programmes that have been downloaded via the satellite overnight – there will be about 5 hours of programming a night downloaded for a total of 35 hours total on the box (HD users might have a slightly different set of numbers depending on the quantity of HD material). Content on the service will include Sky Movies (from the movie channels not, at launch, from the Box Office service), programmes from Sky One, Artsworld, Disney, Turner Classic Movies, Cartoon Network, The History Channel (and its siblings Biography, Crime and Investigation) and National Geographic (and its siblings).

The programmes that are downloaded will be a "best of" – they have employed an editor to choose what the programmes will be, and the content will be “editorialised” – so the information about the show will be more than in the current "info" offering.

For example, they might download the first episodes of a new show on Sky One so that if you miss it (or forget to record it) you can catch up with it at your leisure. In the case of hit series like 24 or Lost Sky can even download it to your box prior to transmission time and hide it until it is transmitted at which time it would become available.

Similarly the plan is to download the latest premiere movies and some other things you might not have otherwise watched. Part of the remit of the editor is to try to surprise and find interesting programming across the channels that are part of the service to attract new viewers to those programmes and linear channels. For channels lower down the EPG it provides an interesting advertising window for their programming.

At launch, there will be no adverts within the downloaded programmes.

Once on your disk you will see a preview window in the top right hand side and a description on the top left hand side changing as you cursor down the programmes that are on the hard disk. The layout also has a date at which the programme will be deleted but just hit the record button and the programme will be saved to your planner to keep for the future. Beware: if you then delete it from the planner it will be gone from the Anytime TV list as well.

Overall this seems like it is a potentially excellent addition to Sky’s offerings. The overnight download will happen automatically and if you have recordings running yours will take preference. To deal with the issue of missed recordings Sky will be retransmitting programmes a number of times to ensure that when your box is inactive it will get all the programming.

So roll on March, if you don’t have a PVR3 or Sky HD box then come March there is a plan to send customers what Sky’s marketing people described as an attractive offer (I assume to upgrade).

The unused 80Gb of space had been a bit of a thorn in the side since the PVR3 was launched but this seems to be a good offering which I welcome.

FYI it (or their mysterious editor) chose the movie 'the producers' something about steven gerrard and dora the explorer. according to the guide that will be there till 23rd May before being auto-deleted.

check it out on your sky+ box with the red button from the tv guide main page.

Mossy Monk

Been on my mothers Sky+ box for some time now. Overall I find it to be boring, nothing on it that I would say as being excellent.

DigiDec

Been on SkyHD for about 5/6 weeks now, only ever watched 2 programmes from it, but its an addition to the service at no extra cost.

byte

Yeah, have it a few weeks now. Nothing much worth watching. A few movies on it, which I can't watch as I'm not subscribed to the Movies package.

bk

DigiDec wrote:

Been on SkyHD for about 5/6 weeks now, only ever watched 2 programmes from it, but its an addition to the service at no extra cost.

I wouldn't say that, the extra cost is the space used up on your Hard Drive that could have been used for recording stuff you actually want to watch.

aliveandkicking

bk wrote:

I wouldn't say that, the extra cost is the space used up on your Hard Drive that could have been used for recording stuff you actually want to watch.

It uses the "spare" 80gb on your box that sky reserved for such a service which most people are unaware of even having a spare 80 gigs but yeah I see your point, that 80gb could have been used to record stuff you actually want to watch

Valentia

Agree. Get rid of it Sky and gimme my 80Gig and stop filling it up with movies I can't watch. Interesting, isn't it, how Sky can ensure that your subscription package works correctly but still can't bother uploading appropriate content to Sky Anytime.

I call it marketing :mad::eek:

vibe666

i haven't had any sky movies uploaded to my box yet in the last 2 or 4 days i've had it. a few of the uploads are all over the place tho, there's a sort of 'coming soon to anytime tv' skit with some bird in it that runs at about 4x all the way through when i try and play it. maybe it was just really windy when it was uploaded or something. bit odd tho.

i'd have to agree that i'd like my 80gb back. i'll be doing a self install of a big fat drive the day my warranty is up anyway but it would be nice to have the extra space now.

byte

Even when you change your harddrive, 80GB of it will still be reserved for Sky Anytime. That said, I upgraded to a 250GB Samsung HDD, and the extra recording space is nice.