Sky customer who wants more than the 40 hours storage Sky+ allows

kangaroo

Apologies in advance for this question which is probably very silly but I couldn't find an answer on the Sky website. I asked on the phone to Sky and they said the Sky+HD does have 80 hours but one has to pay a monthly subscription of €14.95 and we're happy enough with the TV we have so don't want to do that.

So are there other boxes that have the same functionality as Sky+ but hold more than 40 hours that can be used by Sky customers? For example, my friend isn't with Sky and she has a box that holds 80 hours (and she is always having to delete stuff). If I had to, I'd take something that holds 80 hours but if there are other boxes that hold more I'd be interested in them.

samhail

I have seen tutorials online showing how to replace the hard drive yourself.
so instead of what how many gigs there are you could have 100s more.

need to know what your at though - and not mind breaking your warranty

321654

Its very simple to change the disk.

A 4 year old could do it.

Lorddrakul

I just did this recently.

There's a few good guides on what to do.

1. ID you box and find out what kind of hard drive is already in it.
More recent ones had the faster spinning 7200RPM drives fitted. If this is the case, you are laughing.

2. Get a new drive, 160-320Gb works.

3. Open the box, remove the old drive by undoing four screws and disconnect it. Note: You'll need a Torx head (star drive) to open the internal HDD mount screws.

4. Change over the mounting brackets for the drive to the new drive.

5. Put it back in and reconnect.

6. Turn it on and go to Services, System set up then press 0 and then 1 and then select Full system reset and let it work away. It will go to standby after a while.

7. Give it ten-15 minutes and then start it up again.

8. You're done!

In my Pace 3100 model Sky+ box (the white one with the circle of LEDs on the front) a Seagate Barracuda 160Gb worked just fine. I got it for 60 yoyos from Marx Computers.


A

John mac

why not a 500Gb drive?
some info here from people who have done it.

gtg60

Did this years ago, there is even a program available on the 'net that allows you to transfer the current hard drive info to the new one.

One thing I would have to take into account is whether or not you have Sky+ with anytime TV? Because if you do a certain portion will ALWAYS be kept in reserve for it.

For example, on my Sky HD box there is 160GB available for personal recording but the box actually has a 300GB hard drive and even though I have switched the hard drive to a 500GB one I still only can use 360GB for my programs (500-140=360). On other Sky+ boxes with Anytime I believe they don't have as much space allocated.

byte

Current Sky+ boxes use 160GB Hard drives, 80GB for Anytime (which is a savage waste of resources IMO since I never use it), another 80 for personal usage. So, I'd advise getting at least 250GB (80 will still be reserved for Anytime).

As gtg60 said above, Sky+HD boxes reserve 140GB.

I upgraded to a Samsung 250GB drive a few years ago (more so because the drive already there was failing), and it's been going good since. There's times I wish it was bigger, though mostly it's plenty for my needs.

kangaroo

Thanks very much for this information - it's been most useful. It's interesting about the anytime TV using up a lot of the current space. My two brother-in-laws both live nearby and they, as part of their jobs, open up computers so I might leave opening the box up to them (they're conscious of static etc) but have enough information now.

I actually haven't got a box yet but will presume from this that it's best to get a Sky+ box and work from there rather than get other boxes that are on the market.

samhail

what kinda compression is it ?
like how many hors on the hard drives ?
30 hours on 160gb is it ?

Liam Byrne

I'm just surprised to see that anyone thinks there's more than 40 hours worth recording on Sky, tbh......

kangaroo

Liam Byrne wrote: »

I'm just surprised to see that anyone thinks there's more than 40 hours worth recording on Sky, tbh......

I know you're only trying to be funny so no offence taken. But you might like to know that some people only get their all TV channels through Sky (we actually finally got around to cancel our NTL subscription recently - we mainly kept it because of having more than one TV - we've fewer now).

Liam Byrne

kangaroo wrote: »

I know you're only trying to be funny so no offence taken.

No offence intended, but even though there was a tongue-in-cheek element to the post, it's also true - I don't know how anyone could find 40 hours of worthwhile stuff on Sky

kangaroo wrote: »

But you might like to know that some people only get their all TV channels through Sky

Not sure exactly what you mean by this; I am - for the moment at least - a Sky subscriber, so I'm one of those people who get their TV channels through Sky, but I'm probably going to let it lapse once the year is up because the number of decent programmes that aren't repeats is pitiful.

If I'd had a recorder last week then it would have been used for about 3 hours max.

seanybiker

Liam Byrne wrote: »

If I'd had a recorder last week then it would have been used for about 3 hours max.

If me ould fella would stop deleting my stuff from sky+ I oculd easily get 40-50 hours a week. I loves me telly I does.

staker

321654 wrote: »

Its very simple to change the disk.

A 4 year old could do it.

that's as useful as a prick in a nunyard

watty

samhail wrote: »

what kinda compression is it ?
like how many hors on the hard drives ?
30 hours on 160gb is it ?

It records the digital signal directly, so BBC1 will take 5 times to 10 times the space of a rubbish channel and about 30% more than ITV3

The video and audio is compressed upto x450 before transmission.

Playback is the same as live quality.

321654

staker wrote: »

that's as useful as a prick in a nunyard

Its very easy to pull up the habit an d figure out what to do.