Haven't people been ripping out the old HDDs anyway and replacing them with bigger and better versions?

Yep, for quite a while now.

As far as I know it's fairly easy to do as well.

Singh400
Haven't people been ripping out the old HDDs anyway and replacing them with bigger and better versions?

snootyjim
Yep, for quite a while now.

As far as I know it's fairly easy to do as well.

Yeah, but this thing isn't gonna be aimed at the type of people who like to void warranties and swap about cables, this is for a woman who's sick of having to delete Loose Women every week.

And on another note, we've just ordered ourselves one :P. Part of a deal with Sky that my mam managed to get one for free. (We've had 3 Sky+HD boxes so far, none of them have lasted more than 2 months).

They've had to - recording HD stuff is uber-space.


Still not going near it tho - perfectly happy with a HTPC and freeview+freesatHD :)

I wish they'd hurry up with Freeview HD. It comes to my local transmitter in March this year, but there isnt a single DVB-T2 tuner for my HTPCs!

matty-hodgson
Yeah, but this thing isn't gonna be aimed at the type of people who like to void warranties and swap about cables, this is for a woman who's sick of having to delete Loose Women every week.

And on another note, we've just ordered ourselves one :P. Part of a deal with Sky that my mam managed to get one for free. (We've had 3 Sky+HD boxes so far, none of them have lasted more than 2 months).

Don't doubt that at at all, people have needed this type of thing for a while now.

The only thing that frustrates me is a lack of any sorting system for recorded programmes, and the option to pull them onto the network.

I don't like having lots of recorded programmes on my Sky box because it just feels way too cluttered. I only really use it for catchup as a result, or occasionally I mass record loads of documentaries and then watch them over the course of the next 2 or 3 months.

The annoying thing is that half of the harddrive is reserved for skyanytime. I have checked skyanytime and about 97percent of the programs |I cant access because I dont have the channels. so its just wasted space and 160gb isnt much for content anyway. I havent had sky HD long and now they finaly bring out a 1TB model and will make customers pay alot of money again..

lodore
The annoying thing is that half of the harddrive is reserved for skyanytime. I have checked skyanytime and about 97percent of the programs |I cant access because I dont have the channels. so its just wasted space and 160gb isnt much for content anyway. I havent had sky HD long and now they finaly bring out a 1TB model and will make customers pay alot of money again..

You can disable sky anytime

Temi_D
You can disable sky anytime

the space will still be reserved thou wont it?

lodore
the space will still be reserved thou wont it?

Yeah it is, nothing you can do about that.

I don't have SKY or the SKY-HD box, but does the SKY HD box also have scart connections for people who don't have HDMI TV's

Looks like it

Who'd want to store 1TB of kak 720p programs anyway.

Terbinator
Who'd want to store 1TB of kak 720p programs anyway.

Too right. If you need that much space to store TV recordings then you have either a serious lack of life away from a TV or have no friends - or both.

Either way it sounds a little over the top for just a TVR. Now if it was a media storage unit for music, photos and what not then it would be good.

Oooo - brain wave.

Terbinator
Who'd want to store 1TB of kak 720p programs anyway.

People that are finding the current box too small.

Are the programs “kak” because they're 720p, or because they're “kak” that happen to be 720p?

In the first case, not everybody has a 1080 TV, and for that matter, not everybody even has 720p sets. And some of those that don't, either can't afford to upgrade them or aren't interested. HOwever, they aren't then likely to want a Sky HD box, whether 1TB or not.

So, I assume you mean people that do have a TV capable of at least 720. Not everyone, including me, is in the slightest bit bothered about 1080, and am certain ly not buying BluRay disks to get get 1080 programming. So …. we're back to people that are finding the current HD boxs too limiting in sizae, and I assume therefore you mean there;s too much “kak” broadcast.

While that is certainly true, what about people that like to record awhole series and watch it in one go? WHat about people that are away for several weeks and want to load up on what they miss? What about people where Mum likes her soaps and soppy programs, Dad likes his sci-fi and war films, and the footy of course, and the kids each also have their onw preferences. You may be splitting that that 1TB among several distinct and non-overlapping users.

And then, there's people like me that record a film and may not get around to watching it for weeks. You don't have to record all that many films before you burn through a lot of space in shirt order.

Personally, I'd like a far bigger drive in my Sky box, and that's a conventional Sky +, not even HD …. or at least I would if my opinion wasn't that Sky +, despite some nice features is, overall, crap anyway.

They're kak because there in 720p. But if you wasn't too be bothered about 720p or have a 720p set (atleast) then why would you even have a Sky HD(+) box ?

On the other hand, is it not possible to use your own sized HDD or attach a external USB HDD ?

It's 1080i people.

Terbinator
They're kak because there in 720p. But if you wasn't too be bothered about 720p or have a 720p set (atleast) then why would you even have a Sky HD(+) box ?

Except that research done by the BBC, and the report from the B/TQE (Television Quality Evolution project group of the European Broadcasting Union) suggests that for screen sizes up to 50“, 720p saturates the eye's ability to absorb detail at that screen size and at the median 2.7m viewing distance, and only closer than that or above 50” is there a perceived improvement.

Also, currently (and as far as I know, for the foreseeable future) HD transmissions will be 1080i or 720p, and there seem to be no plans to go to 1080p transmissions, partly on the basis of keeping compression levels down, and partly on the basis of spectrum efficiency which, of course, is at least in part, a way of saying the same thing.

So, if you have an 1080p source like BluRay, and if you view a large screen close-up, then you may get perceived benefit, but that doesn't impact on what standards a Sky (or Freeview/Freesat) box should support (currently) because it won't be getting 1080p source material anyway.

And if we go from 720p to 1080i, then you get into all sorts of complications about the efficiency of receiver-based interlacing and de-interlacing, and about motion-compensation, etc.

At the end of it all, there's plenty of people that are quite happy with 720p from a transmitted signal, and research to back it up, especially for smaller (sub-50“) sets or at most typical home viewing distances. So, IMHO, ”kak" is over-stating it a bit. ;)

As you mentioned it comes down to peoples perception. I just don't see why you would have up to 1TB (or more) of programs anyway, surely once you've seen your episode of Corrie there's no need to archive it.

Terbinator
As you mentioned it comes down to peoples perception. I just don't see why you would have up to 1TB (or more) of programs anyway, surely once you've seen your episode of Corrie there's no need to archive it.

Does the Sky on demand service work very well? I wonder if this is Sky's answer to on demand offered by Virgin and BT. I hear that when it comes to downloadable content Sky is behind. So maybe sky is compensating for this by offering larger storage space to hold programs for longer where as with BT ad Virgin, there is no need to store so much as you can just watch on demand when you want to… (for a period of time anyhow)

I don't have Sky myself so I couldn't tell you.

Brewster0101
Does the Sky on demand service work very well? I wonder if this is Sky's answer to on demand offered by Virgin and BT. I hear that when it comes to downloadable content Sky is behind. So maybe sky is compensating for this by offering larger storage space to hold programs for longer where as with BT ad Virgin, there is no need to store so much as you can just watch on demand when you want to… (for a period of time anyhow)

Sky Anytime? Useless in my opinion.

They pick 2 programmes a day (more or less IIRC) and then automatically download them to your hard drive to watch later, although I never once saw something recorded on it that I might want to watch. I'm more than capable of picking my own programmes to watch at a later date… don't need somebody to do it for me.

That's the main problems really - it's just a random selection of a few very odd shows, and the odd big coup like a football match or a film, which have all been shown on Sky at a certain point, so you can achieve exactly the same thing yourself. It's only purpose in my eyes was if there was sod all on, and it happened to record something I would consider watching, although the chances of that, it seemed, were around 1 in 50.

I disabled it because it meant the box would start spinning up the hard drive whilst I was trying to sleep, and it never gave me any benefit.

snootyjim
Sky Anytime? Useless in my opinion.

They pick 2 programmes a day (more or less IIRC) and then automatically download them to your hard drive to watch later, although I never once saw something recorded on it that I might want to watch. I'm more than capable of picking my own programmes to watch at a later date… don't need somebody to do it for me.

That's the main problems really - it's just a random selection of a few very odd shows, and the odd big coup like a football match or a film, which have all been shown on Sky at a certain point, so you can achieve exactly the same thing yourself. It's only purpose in my eyes was if there was sod all on, and it happened to record something I would consider watching, although the chances of that, it seemed, were around 1 in 50.

I disabled it because it meant the box would start spinning up the hard drive whilst I was trying to sleep, and it never gave me any benefit.

So this new 1TB drive is likely a PR stunt more than practical hardware to keep a little light on sky while BT and Virgin storm on with on demand content. On demand is the way forward - I've had BT vision and it works very well. Cancelled for now as the TV shows were too dated and not alot of modern shows.

When BT get some big shows like Battlestar, Leverage etc then they will win more support, but showing years old shows does not appeal. The replay though services are brilliant.

Brewster0101
So this new 1TB drive is likely a PR stunt more than practical hardware to keep a little light on sky while BT and Virgin storm on with on demand content. On demand is the way forward - I've had BT vision and it works very well. Cancelled for now as the TV shows were too dated and not alot of modern shows.

When BT get some big shows like Battlestar, Leverage etc then they will win more support, but showing years old shows does not appeal. The replay though services are brilliant.

I imagine that they'll still section off the same-sized partition for Anytime as they did with the smaller drive, and just give you loads more space for your custom recordings.

As before though, short of archiving TV series on your Sky box, I can't see why anyone would need more capacity.

Of course if Sky (and Virgin) actually had boxs that (a) work for more than 6 months at a time (b) allowed you to download from the set top box to another computer (or server) much of this would be irrelevant.

Or best of all, come up with a simple card that allows an HTPC to act as a set top box

cjs150
.

Or best of all, come up with a simple card that allows an HTPC to act as a set top box

You can do this - see here

http://www.radioandtelly.co.uk/satellitetvonapc.html

Google ‘Sky TV on PC’ and lots of tips pop up over various forums.

Brewster: none of those work without your set top box (assuming you are watching Sky or Virgin), sure you can get Free-to-air decoder and presumably Freeview HD decoder cards for your PC but what you cannot do (at least in UK) is watch an encrypted channel such as Sky Sports or Sky movies without your sky set top box.

Now if I have an HTPC I would prefer to ditch the set top box and use proper software that is useful and quick and hardware that does not break down every 6 months

Brewster0101
Too right. If you need that much space to store TV recordings then you have either a serious lack of life away from a TV or have no friends - or both.

Or you could work abroad a lot during the week, like I do, and find that 160Gb of storage available for recordings is nowhere near enough.

Do I have a life away from the TV? Aye. Do I have friends? Aye.

It's about time Sky did this. I long ago replaced the drive in my HD box with a 1Tb drive. I still lose 140Gb or so to Anytime (which is disabled) but at least I have plenty of extra storage space.

Terbinator
As you mentioned it comes down to peoples perception. I just don't see why you would have up to 1TB (or more) of programs anyway, surely once you've seen your episode of Corrie there's no need to archive it.

As burble said, one reason is people away for periods, be it for work or just holiday. Another is for people like me. I go for days at a time without watching much more than TV news and maybe newsnight. But periodically, I've have a lazy “catchup” day. Also, I don't like watching a series over the course of several months, so I record a set of programs, then watch them in one sitting, or several lengthy ones. For instance, I watch all four (or five, whatever it was) series of The Wire by watching 3 or 4 per night, most nights. Right now, doing anything like that means burning them to CD until I'm ready, and then when I'm done, I've a load of useless CDs.

A 1TB drive might not completely eliminate that, but it'd sure cut it down. For instance, we recorded Silent Witness and the three-part Above Suspicion" recently, and the latter sat there for several weeks until the wife and I were both available and in the mood to watch it. Above Suspicion alone took about 10% of available drive space, and it's only three parts.

If you just watch Corrie and Eastenders, and keep fairly up to date, then current drive sizes are probably OK. But if you keep a few documentaries, and a series or two, and a handful of thrillers, all until the weekend or a suitable time, you can run out easily.


Oh, and with the current machine, I don't like letting free space get below about 30% at worst, because that seems to be when problems requiring a reset (deleting all content) start to appear. So, I start with 160GB (standard Sky + box, but the 320GB HD have the same issue, just not as badly) of HDD. 80GB is reserved for “Anytime”, despite disabling it. That leaves 80GB for me to use. Of that 80GB, I don't want to drop below about 70% use, meaning I actually have something like 55-60GB for programs.

Not much, is it?

With the HD boxes, about 140GB is reserved, leaving 180GB, leaving you about 125GB of usable space if you keep 30% free … and HD recordings take more space anyway.

I have this box already.
The EGP Is very fast.

Anyone else notice this?

I have a video on youtube of the new Sky HD box will post it for you guys

This box in action see for yourself what it is like

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWC3mAYdJzc

You can write more than one line in a post you know :)

philipsmith
I have this box already

You

philipsmith
The EGP Is very fast

don't

philipsmith
SD sound is alot quiter than HD channels though

happen

philipsmith
Anyone else notice this?

to be

philipsmith
I have a video on youtube of the new Sky HD box will post it for you guys

spamming,

philipsmith
This box in action see for yourself what it is like

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWC3mAYdJzc

are you?

I've had a 1TB disk in my HB box for a couple of years now, currently down to 25% free. It's quite easy to fill up when you start series linking HD shows and don't have time to watch them. Hopefully this box will be more reliable than current crop of crap that force on us.

jimborae
Hopefully this box will be more reliable than current crop of crap that force on us.

If I had a pound for everytime I read that..


Sky have NEVER made decent hardware, their software is shoddy, their testing worse because doing any of that right would cost de profit.

dangel
….

Sky have NEVER made decent hardware, their software is shoddy, their testing worse because doing any of that right would cost de profit.

Ain't that teh truth, on my 5th thomson HD box now, have replaced the psu capacitors, fan & hard disk myself. Touch wood this one seems to be running ok.

Once, many moons ago Pace produced a half decent 40Gb standard def box. Whip out the hard disk and shove in a 500gb drive and you had an excellent pvr bar the software. :)

Not spamming just needed 5 post to show you a URL

philipsmith
Not spamming just needed 5 post to show you a URL

Well, technically that is spamming. you could have obfuscated it so the forums don't parse the link and reject the post. You can drop the “www.” part, or wrap the URL in tags :)

philipsmith
Not spamming just needed 5 post to show you a URL

And you're prepared to muck about with a thread and ignore the spirit of the rules to do it?

We have rules for a reason. Please abide by them. Some of your posts have been removed.