Alternative to Sky+ box.

muffler

Hopefully this hasnt been asked before.

My Sky+ box went bang in a recent lightening storm and Im going to get a new one but I have been looking at the digital DVD recorders and apparently they have the same features as the sky+ box - record, pause live TV, rewind etc. Are these essentially the same as the Sky+ box? If so does anyone have any recommendations on whats the best type to buy?

Just to clarify I have an active Sky sub but I cant get any of the freeview channels from N.I. yet although it is rumoured that they may be available from the Strabane transmitter within the next 2 years.

Sam Radford

A DVD recorder will record (onto DVD) the picture and sound from any source that you connect to its input.

muffler

Sam Radford wrote: »

A DVD recorder will record (onto DVD) the picture and sound from any source that you connect to its input.

Ok then it records from any source but what happens when I connect it to the sky dish? Can I pause or rewind live TV?

And how do I work the sky card? I take it i will have to the dish connected to the sky box and then in turn connect the sky box to the DVD recorder.

loyatemu

if you're a sky subscriber then I don't think there's any box that will give you the same functionality as Sky+

watty

Only a satellite receiver can connect to dish. You likely need a new LNB on dish too.

There are systems that give Sky+ functionallity, but not for SKy PayTV channels.

Typical DVD recorders only connect to a receiver or an aerial sometimes.

Humax, Dreambox, Technisat, Reelbox/Reelmultimedia, Lyngbox all have models with hard Drives for recording and satellite tuners like Sky+, but none work well or at all with Sky Pay TV.

hamiltron

muffler wrote: »

Ok then it records from any source but what happens when I connect it to the sky dish? Can I pause or rewind live TV?

And how do I work the sky card? I take it i will have to the dish connected to the sky box and then in turn connect the sky box to the DVD recorder.

Two things that you will have problems with:
1. You will not have a program listing to record from - you would have to specify a time to begin recording and the recording source.
2. The recording source would simply be the input from the SKY box - you would have to make sure that the SKY box was outputting the correct channel yourself.

There are ways around the above, but they are complicated to set up if you are not into that kind of thing.

But if all you want to do is pause and rewind live TV, you are sorted with any number of solutions. But, as the SKY+ service is free and the box is relatively cheap, why complicate matters?

muffler

Thanks guys for all the replies. Im not too well up on these matters so the advice is much appreciated indeed.

I think given the circumstances and from the good advice offered here I will just get a new Sky+ box. While it hasnt been sorted yet it looks as if the insurance company will be paying so hopefully I wont be out of pocket anyhow.

kmurph

I have a Pioneer 440HXS dvd/hd recorder which gives something like Sky+ functionality. It has it's own built in EPG called Guide+ which covers most of the Sky channels.

It also controls the Sky digibox via an IR blaster device which you plug one end into the dvd recorder and then place the other end in front of the IR receiver on the Sky box.

Obviously you can't record one channel and watch another or anything like that, but for being able to set recordings via an on-screen EPG and not have to worry about leaving the Sky box on the right channel as the dvd recorder will do that for you, it's pretty good.

ZOLTAN28

The main problem with non sky+ hard drive recorders is not being able to watch another channel while recording another - once you have sky you seem to be really stuck with getting the sky+ for this type of functionality - I would be gald to hear of alternatives if anyone knows of any?