Sky+ Hd Review

[Bkag 0]

Ok i guess this is only for people from the uk becasue nowhere else uses sky i think.

 

For people who dont know what sky is.

 

Basicly sky is the uk's top Digital satallite tv provider, similar to americas cox tv services, the difference is that from sky you are reciving the tv though a mini dish. Anyway sky a few years ago started to offer sky+ which was basicly your normal sky digi box but with a built in dvr (digital video recorder) so when you see a program you would like to see you just hit record and it will record it for you. Another feature is the pause and rewind feature, you can pause and rewind live tv, or if you are behind you can fast forward.

 

Introduction over

 

Ill cut to the chase

 

Looks

 

The looks of the new sky HD box are completely different to any other sky box and have a classy curved front and a nice matt black finish, over all i think it is a perfect design and doesnt mess up the look of your hd tv with its electronics tower topped off with the sky hd box. The only quarrel i have with it is that indeed it does have to be at the top of the pile, nothing can go ontop of it, but that is only a minor detail

 

Ordering organising and set up

 

I think sky have to brush up on this, they made it almost impossable to order sky, and even now that we have it installed we are missing one box which they left off the order and we have to wait another 2 months to get it. Heres there problems

You talk to them and get cut off after an hour, then when you ring back they have not documented what you said and have to start again

The operators are not good at all, they barely know the service they are offering and often say "let me ask my supervisor"

They try to scam you on pricing, always check the price they offer you with the internet price and any offers that are on.

Installation was difficult in our circumstances but that is because we have an office phone system in our house which did not let the sky engineer have a whole line to the sky box for verification, it took three days and a good 3-4 hours of trail and error with dialling prefixes and what not to get the sky box to verifiey

 

Features and functionality

 

I guess this is what most people want to hear about, the functions are perfect the pause, rewind, fast forward and record all work flawlessly and the remote is easy to understand and use. The hard drive is 160gb and holds 50-60 hours of video which is fine but it would be nice if they offered a 200-300gb hard drive aswell. The menus are quick and responsive, much quicker than what we had previousily (ntl cable) and channels swich fairly fast.

 

The hd channels are gobsmacking, the picture comes through a hdmi cable and offers 1080i and 720p. You can compare bbc 1 and bbc1 hd on the tennis and bbc 1 looks like your looking through a steam room door, it makes such a difference, the color and depth of the picture is amazing and makes a non hd channel look almost un watchable.

 

Cost

 

The box itself costs ?300 which i think is reasonable but not exactely cheap. The subscription is ?10 per month plus how ever much you spend on other channels (the ?10 covers the hd channels)

 

 

In conclusion if you are comfortable with the slight flaws and the ?10 per month ontop of your bill then i would take the pluge and get it.