plague1392
Banned
Ive been using Sky+ for about six months now and Im about ready to put it out the window. Prior to Sky+ I used Tivo and I really regret downgrading to Sky+ because I had problems from the very start. The first problem I found was Sky+ cutting off the end of most programmes and no facility to do anything about it. Another problem was that you couldnt record further than 7 days ahead and yet another was the series link doesnt work with most programmes. Theyve since solved these problems with the manual record and facility to offset the recordings by a specific amount. Unfortunately both these features are almost as bad as recording from the schedule listings.
One problem is that you cant set a weekly timer recording on the day of the week you want it to record. Another is that the time recording offset is global for all programmes you record, unlike Tivo where you can offset the start and end times of individual records that you know are frequently late. Having 15 minutes on the end of every programme to catch one programme that is generally 15 minutes late is just a waste of hard disk space. So in my opinion the timer recording facility in Sky+ is still worse than a cheap VCR.
Then there are the general problems. Looking around this forum I see people with complaints that they cant record, which is solved by unplugging it and plugging it back in. This is one of many small problems. Others are that with some recordings fast forwarding at 30x just causes it the freeze and you have to back out and start playing again. Another is that sometimes playing back a recording causes it to play with no sound, and again you have to back out and start playing again. Other times it just locks up and you have to pull the power out to get it started again. A great one is if the theres a short signal loss during a broadcast; instead of just getting a bit of interference on your recording Sky+ packs up and doesnt record the rest of the programme. Great!
While the above problems, plus many more, show what a shoddy piece of kit Sky+ is theyre all tolerable (well except the signal one, but thats rare). What is completely intolerable is the disappearing programmes bug. You wouldnt believe the number of programmes you set to record that just disappear before the programme is broadcast. For example on Friday I set Sky+ to record three programmes and one film on each day of this week (Mon-Fri) 20 programmes in total. On Sunday I checked to see these timers were still there and found all 20 programmes had disappeared. I went about setting it to record the same 20 programmes on Sunday night hoping that they might stay this time.
On Monday (yesterday) I sat down to watch the programmes I had recorded and found that all of them had again disappeared apart from the ones set to record on Thursday and Friday (though they would probably disappear by then). This left me with nothing to watch and missing programmes in a series with a running story. ****ed right off, I reset the recordings for Tuesday wrote another email to Sky, which theyll ignore, and went to bed early. I just checked today and they have recorded, but having missed yesterdays episodes I cant be bothered watching them.
I never missed anything when I used to use a VCR, or when I used Tivo but since getting Sky+ Ive been either missing the ends of programmes or missing them entirely because the scheduled recording has disappeared.
Sky charge you £10 a month for the privilege of using your £300 piece of hardware. But you get more than that for your £10 a month, you get to miss most programmes making your regular Sky subscription a complete waste of money as well. I dont watch any live TV, and generally record about four or five programmes a day. An alarming proportion of these recordings disappear before they programme is shown. Sky+ has lead to me watching less TV and getting extremely angry on a regular basis.
I do have another friend who has been using Sky+ for a about three months and he thinks its good (but overpriced at £10 a month). I asked him how much he recorded and he said about seven programmes over the time hed had it. It seems like Sky+ isnt too bad if you hardly use it, and the chances of being hit by the disappearing programmes are fairly low. However if like me you record a fair bit you really get to find out how utterly ****e it is. I really regret buying it, but I cant justify buying another Tivo. I keep hoping theyll sort it out, but by now Ive realised that the developers working on the Sky+ software are completely retarded and couldnt
There are more problems with Sky+ than Ive mentioned above, though the main one is the disappearing programmes. If youre considering Sky+ I personally wouldnt bother because it simply doesnt work. The only positive point about it is the recording quality, but thats not much use if the programmes you set to record have disappeared.
Sorry for the long post, but it may be useful to anyone considering ****e+. No doubt people with disagree with these views, but I can only presume these are people like my friend who hardly use it. I should also add that I dont dislike Sky, and think their £16 a month package is absolutely incredible value for the channels you get. Unfortunately Sky+ is junk and makes the rest of the service completely useless, and they dont seem to want to fix it (or probably are too stupid to).
One problem is that you cant set a weekly timer recording on the day of the week you want it to record. Another is that the time recording offset is global for all programmes you record, unlike Tivo where you can offset the start and end times of individual records that you know are frequently late. Having 15 minutes on the end of every programme to catch one programme that is generally 15 minutes late is just a waste of hard disk space. So in my opinion the timer recording facility in Sky+ is still worse than a cheap VCR.
Then there are the general problems. Looking around this forum I see people with complaints that they cant record, which is solved by unplugging it and plugging it back in. This is one of many small problems. Others are that with some recordings fast forwarding at 30x just causes it the freeze and you have to back out and start playing again. Another is that sometimes playing back a recording causes it to play with no sound, and again you have to back out and start playing again. Other times it just locks up and you have to pull the power out to get it started again. A great one is if the theres a short signal loss during a broadcast; instead of just getting a bit of interference on your recording Sky+ packs up and doesnt record the rest of the programme. Great!
While the above problems, plus many more, show what a shoddy piece of kit Sky+ is theyre all tolerable (well except the signal one, but thats rare). What is completely intolerable is the disappearing programmes bug. You wouldnt believe the number of programmes you set to record that just disappear before the programme is broadcast. For example on Friday I set Sky+ to record three programmes and one film on each day of this week (Mon-Fri) 20 programmes in total. On Sunday I checked to see these timers were still there and found all 20 programmes had disappeared. I went about setting it to record the same 20 programmes on Sunday night hoping that they might stay this time.
On Monday (yesterday) I sat down to watch the programmes I had recorded and found that all of them had again disappeared apart from the ones set to record on Thursday and Friday (though they would probably disappear by then). This left me with nothing to watch and missing programmes in a series with a running story. ****ed right off, I reset the recordings for Tuesday wrote another email to Sky, which theyll ignore, and went to bed early. I just checked today and they have recorded, but having missed yesterdays episodes I cant be bothered watching them.
I never missed anything when I used to use a VCR, or when I used Tivo but since getting Sky+ Ive been either missing the ends of programmes or missing them entirely because the scheduled recording has disappeared.
Sky charge you £10 a month for the privilege of using your £300 piece of hardware. But you get more than that for your £10 a month, you get to miss most programmes making your regular Sky subscription a complete waste of money as well. I dont watch any live TV, and generally record about four or five programmes a day. An alarming proportion of these recordings disappear before they programme is shown. Sky+ has lead to me watching less TV and getting extremely angry on a regular basis.
I do have another friend who has been using Sky+ for a about three months and he thinks its good (but overpriced at £10 a month). I asked him how much he recorded and he said about seven programmes over the time hed had it. It seems like Sky+ isnt too bad if you hardly use it, and the chances of being hit by the disappearing programmes are fairly low. However if like me you record a fair bit you really get to find out how utterly ****e it is. I really regret buying it, but I cant justify buying another Tivo. I keep hoping theyll sort it out, but by now Ive realised that the developers working on the Sky+ software are completely retarded and couldnt
There are more problems with Sky+ than Ive mentioned above, though the main one is the disappearing programmes. If youre considering Sky+ I personally wouldnt bother because it simply doesnt work. The only positive point about it is the recording quality, but thats not much use if the programmes you set to record have disappeared.
Sorry for the long post, but it may be useful to anyone considering ****e+. No doubt people with disagree with these views, but I can only presume these are people like my friend who hardly use it. I should also add that I dont dislike Sky, and think their £16 a month package is absolutely incredible value for the channels you get. Unfortunately Sky+ is junk and makes the rest of the service completely useless, and they dont seem to want to fix it (or probably are too stupid to).