What Devices Are There Which Will Effectively Emulate What A "SKY+" Box Does??

IT Loser

A mate of mine was trying to put me wise to some item with 500 Gigs of space which Aldi or LIDL were selling which {apparently} allows you to do more or less what a SKY+ box will allow you to do- i.e. save and record programmes, watch one thing, record another, pause live tv etc...{obviously you need a SKY or other digital signal to begin with}

Anybody have any information on this, or do you need the SKY+ box to perform these functions??

Sorry if this is an "old hat" question but I am unfamiliar with these things. The SKY+ box is nice but it is a bit pricey and can only hold 40 hours or so of info.

Ta

wil

I presume he meant a Hard drive recorder.
Aldi/Lidl/whichever were doing one recently, probably 500G in size.
Allows you to record to an internal hardrive, so no need for tapes etc. AFAIK can also record to DVD or backup to same.
Doesnt exactly emulate a Sky+ though as it can only record a single source at one time (though perhaps can play something prerecorded while recording another) , and has not got automatic recording from an epg.
Probably has some timer feature and maybe a videoplus type system but dont know how well that would work with satellite. Probably also can watch and pause what it is currently recording
Mostly what it does is allow you record lots of stuff directly from whatever you plug in to it, be it Sky or NTL etc.

The advantage of Sky+ is the ability to browse an epg listing, decide what you want to record and it will do it automatically, no forgetting to press record button or waiting till its on. They are then waiting for you much as any other live program.

If you have Sky, want to record directly from it either to keep or to watch later, then it will do the trick. If you want to record stuff without having to remember when its on then Sky+ is the best option.

If it has a satellite recording option it might be possible to set your receiver to come on for a certain program, which then sets off the recording automatically. This option is on my VCR

A harddrive recorder is ideal for archiving lots of your own VHS tapes if you need to get rid of them. You are still left with the tedious task of sorting out your own recordings.
For ease of use and minimal technical knowledge required, Sky+ is for most people the simpler option.
Its what I advised my dad to do when he bought a HD recorder, because I know minimal fuss would benefit everyone (especially my mother) and messing with timer settings and sources is not his thing.
For their viewing habits Sky+ is exactly what they require.
He returned the HDR, got Sky+ and hasnt looked back.

I on the other hand, not averse to tinkering with technology make good use of a neat little multimedia HD recorder about the size of a paperback novel.

TheDriver

Other option is upcoming PVRs from freesat in England which will do exact same job as sky+ box i.e. tuner and hard drive all in one

evilivor

wil wrote: »

Probably has some timer feature and maybe a videoplus type system

Guide+ with a Hard Drive Recorder does a passable imitation - i.e. an EPG, one one touch record programming though no series link. Works very well with cable for me (although set up is a bit tricky) and I'd expect works with satellite as well.

watty

Nothing replaces simplicity and ease of use of Sky+ or SkyHD for Sky pay TV.

Hundreds of solutions for non-Sky PAY TV and FTA TV.

No external recorder gives as good quality as a direct interfaced drive on Satellite, Terrestrial or Cable PVR.

I've used S-VHS, DVD Recorder and a rake of different PC SW & PCI card direct receive solutions.

syboit

You can of course change the hard-drive in the sky+ box upto 500gb I believe, but your warranty is gone on the box aswell.

IT Loser

syboit wrote: »

You can of course change the hard-drive in the sky+ box upto 500gb I believe, but your warranty is gone on the box aswell.

Yeah I was wondering about that after all its only a Hard Drive.....the problem is my father is old fashioned and keeps babbling on about saving to DVD and then being able to "bring me DVD with me"...I mean for the love of God.....like most people he has this "beat the man" mentality and is sure he can "DO" Sky by taking the Lidl/Aldi route......:rolleyes::mad::mad:

Anyways thanks for the advice!!!

ITL.

blue banana

How about this?

http://www.ciao.co.uk/Sony_RDR_HXD_870__6676457

IT Loser

blue banana wrote: »

How about this?

http://www.ciao.co.uk/Sony_RDR_HXD_870__6676457

had a look at it but didn't have time to review it fully- does it still suffer from the same drawback as most DVD RECORDERS in that, when it comes to SKY DIGITAL, you can only record what you are watching, given that the SKY all comes in on the one channel {AV} so to speak???

niceirishfella

For that money, Sky + is still the better option.

syboit

IT Loser wrote: »

had a look at it but didn't have time to review it fully- does it still suffer from the same drawback as most DVD RECORDERS in that, when it comes to SKY DIGITAL, you can only record what you are watching, given that the SKY all comes in on the one channel {AV} so to speak???

Plus, certain content coming from sky cannot be recorded onto dvdrw, due to copyright restrictions.

Supercell

I record whatever i want on my 7020 Dreambox.

If someone ever wrote a sky epg plugin that did series links it would be perfect - thats the only thing i miss about using a Skybox (the weird menu system drives me nuts so can live without it though )