Sky Digital vs UPC for HD and recording functions

willmunny1990

I at the moment work in a call center for UPC and have the service at home. I really want to upgrade to a recording box and i also want to go HD but the problem is i don't trust the UPC DVR's and i know UPC's HD channels are limited, defiantly in comparison to Sky anyway.

I am considering going to Sky because i have heard very positive things about their HD, the amount of channels you can get in HD and the reliability of their products is second to known i am lead to believe.

Sky are more expensive, but i feel it may be worth it. I constantly deal with calls about UPC DVR's and people having never ending problems. I myself no at this stage when someone rings if their DVR is fixable or not, you just get a knack for knowing and the hands of the agent dealing with the call are tied to be honest as their is not much we can do bar a reboot and sent a tech.

Does anyone have the same trouble with Sky's recording Box?

I suppose what i am really looking for is the reliability of the service and product, i know already in terms of HD channels Sky trump UPC by a long way, my fear is ringing UPC constantly over problems with the new HD DVR box i will have. They simply are not reliable.

Is Sky worth the extra money?

And if something does go wrong, what is there customer care like?

Mountjoy Mugger

If your Sky box breaks after a year, you pay for the replacement.

If your UPC box breaks after a year, UPC replace it, free of charge.

Dodge

willmunny1990 wrote: »

I at the moment work in a call center for UPC

my fear is ringing UPC constantly over problems

Huh?

Anyway, I can't tell you about the HD aspect but I've never had a problem with DVR with UPC

djimi

Well aint this thread a fine endorcement for UPC

I cant compared Sky HD to UPC HD in terms of the DVR functionality, but compared to a standard Sky DVR the main difference that I can see is that with Sky you can record two shows at once provided you are watching one of them, whereas with UPC if you want to record two shows at once the box must be in standby. Functionality wise I dont think there is a huge amount of difference between them.

In terms of the quality of the equipment Sky definately has the edge. The most noticable difference is the EPG; the UPC EPG is absolutley shocking to use - so slow to use its gotten to the point where I rarely bother and instead just cycle through the mini EPG. Id also say that the Sky equipment is more reliable; Ive never had any major issues with my UPC that have required me to have it replaced, but I seem to have to reboot it far more regularly than I ever did the Sky box. It has a habit of coming out of standby with sound but no picture, and also it can become frozen and unresponsive at times (both require a hard reboot).

In terms of HD Sky wins without a shadow of a doubt; UPCs HD offering is a token gesture at best, and to be honest unless you watch a lot of documentaries I doubt youll even know you have it. Worth the extra €5 a month for the HDMI connection on the box and the increased storage space, as well as the bit of sport on Setanta/ESPN that gets shown in HD I suppose.

willmunny1990

Dodge wrote: »

Huh?

Anyway, I can't tell you about the HD aspect but I've never had a problem with DVR with UPC

You may not have personally.

But there is a lot of problems with the Thomson and Cisco. The bulk of complaints that come in are over service issues with these products IMO.

If i was to upgrade to HD with UPC as i was considering i would be getting a Cisco DVR which is an unreliable product IMO as i also no friends and family that have problems with this.

willmunny1990

Mountjoy Mugger wrote: »

If your Sky box breaks after a year, you pay for the replacement.

If your UPC box breaks after a year, UPC replace it, free of charge.

Yes, but how likely is it for the Sky box to be faulty?

I mean if you break it through your own doing i can understand a charge, at the same time however i agree it is good UPC have no charge.

I have heard stories of people having to replace UPC DVR's 3 times over faults, Especially the Cisco, which is why i don't want to upgrade at the moment because i am familiar with the faults.

Dodge

willmunny1990 wrote: »

You may not have personally.

Well I can only speak for myself.

The "huh?" BTW was because you say you work in a UPC call centre, yet you'd be hesitant to ring them. Surely working for them would help?

Groucho2000

In my experience (I have had both SKY HD and now UPC HD) there's pros and cons for each.

The SKY HD box has a much better guide. However, I got rid of the HD element as it would have problems recording one HD channel and viewing another. It seems to be not powerful enough to handle the HD. For SD it was fine.

The UPC box series link is rubbish. For example if I want to record the new series of Fringe on SKY1 it will record all episodes of Fringe on SKY1, even the 1st season repeats I dont want. You end in going in and deleting a lot of recordings you dont want.

UPC box seems to restart itself a lot and I have come across the bug where no recorded items will play and you need to plug-out and plug back in again.

djimi

willmunny1990 wrote: »

Yes, but how likely is it for the Sky box to be faulty?

Probably best to ask that question over at the Satellite forums and see what the general consensus from Sky users is.

You work for UPC so you see the problems with their equipment, but bear in mind if you work in the support/service department then you are only hearing from people who have problems, so you will get a somewhat skewed perception (youre not ever going to hear from the people who never have a problem with the equipment). Tbh though you are in the best position to know what the UPC equipment is like, and Id imagine that if you have a problem with it you are better placed than most to get it repaired/replaced far quicker than most customers.

CBLFC96

I have a sky + HD box at home at the moment but previously I had the non HD digital + box with UPC. The Sky boxes in my opinion are years ahead of the UPC ones in terms of overall responsiveness, interactive services and layout, thus far the sky box has been the more reliable as well (No major problem that a reboot wouldn't solve). If you switch to Sky you'll never look back

callaway92

As the guy above said, once you get used to sky you wont ever believe why you stuck with upc for so long. ive had sky+ and now skyhd for years and have never had one problem, not once.
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