Sky's plans for +

[nabby]

http://media.guardian.co.uk/broadcast/story/0,7493,1160537,00.html

some interesting ideas on portable video but how long will it take for them to get the functionality into the public's living rooms?

 

[Starburst]

Not overly impressed to be honest and as for five tuners????

I seriously would have expected some version of SKY+ with two or more independent tuner/decoder combos which could access a single smartcard.
At a stroke SKY could eliminate security issues and in turn charge a nominal fee for a subscriber to view two channels at the same time. That would squeeze cable and make DTT and TUTV look less useful as a second source for current subscribers.

Mildy disappointed that the Amstrad SKY+ isn't any more advanced then it's PACE cousin.

 

[Rasczak]

five tuners????

Five!?!? There isn't enough decent programming on Sky to justify the two we have now!

 

[69COU]

When does the new Amstrad unit start shipping as perhaps it will be more reliable than the PACE unit???

 

[Starburst]

They are currently being supplied to SKY and should enter the market pretty quickly, however I do not know if the usual retail outlets will be getting any soon as I expect SKY will have dibs on the initial batch.

Lets hope the Amstrad variant has better passive ventilation but at least it should not be affected by the picture issues with the PACE versions2 boxes.

 

[gilesm]

Strange report, there's been a number like this in the press over the last 6 months, the last one I saw in T3 was then retracted the following month by someone high up in Sky. Guess they're trying to scupper rumours to stop people waiting for new and better systems.

On the subject of 4 or 5 tuners, does this mean I'll have to have a new dish with 4 or 5 cables coming from it? The cables are big enough as they are, without bunching more there.

 

[StooMonster]

"For example, the week's top 10 films could all be downloaded to the set-top box, with viewers deciding whether and when they wanted to watch them, he said."

I do not want my harddisc filling up with PPV movies that I will never watch!

"The new technology would also be used to produce more compelling and effective interactive advertising, he added."

I don't want more advertising, I use Sky+ to avoid watching ANY advertising on television.

"The research also disproved the theory that people would stop watching live television, he said."

Me, never watch live television anymore; StooMonster Junior may watch CBeebies or NickJr but that's it.

All sounds rubbish to me.

StooMonster

 

[Starburst]

Originally posted by StooMonster


"The research also disproved the theory that people would stop watching live television, he said."

Me, never watch live television anymore; StooMonster Junior may watch CBeebies or NickJr but that's it.

All sounds rubbish to me.

StooMonster

Same here.
The only programming I watch "live" now is sport and news, everything else gets recorded and I watch it when I choose not when the schedules say I've got to watch it.
As for adverts, well why bother watching them

The quote "satisfaction rates of close to 100%" is just laughable, I would love to know what question managed to give that result

 

[Billilu]

Only programming I watch live is sport. Even then, I often pause it for a few seconds to get rid of the red dot.

Rather than fill up my box with 10 unwanted movies, why not bring out a box that can record more than 20 hours of stuff? I've had Sky + for two and a half years and I'm still waiting.

 

[GadgetObsessed]

"The new technology would also be used to produce more compelling and effective interactive advertising, he added."

I remember Sky saying when they released Sky+ that it had the ability to disable fast forward during adverts to force you to watch them. They said at the time that they had no plans to use this functionality though. However, if Sky do manage to move everyone over to Sky+ I wonder how long it will be before they start using this functionality.

At very least sounds like they will be downloading programming (top 10 films and ads) to your box whether you want it or not. Don't they remember the outcry when Tivo did this. (Recording a program that then appeared on the main menu screen and could not be deleted.) Tivo had a special area on the HD for recording such unrequested programs so they argued that it wasn't limiting the amount of recording the box could make. 10 films would take 40Gb though - are they going to be releasing a Sky+ with at least 120Gb to compensate?

 

[Starburst]

Originally posted by garydhooper
"The new technology would also be used to produce more compelling and effective interactive advertising, he added."

I remember Sky saying when they released Sky+ that it had the ability to disable fast forward during adverts to force you to watch them. They said at the time that they had no plans to use this functionality though. However, if Sky do manage to move everyone over to Sky+ I wonder how long it will be before they start using this functionality.

- are they going to be releasing a Sky+ with at least 120Gb to compensate?

The abiliy to stop FF through adverts is part of the core design of the NDS XTV product that SKY+ is based on. That design was for the US market were marketing and advertising pressures are far higher and broadcasters/advertisers have far more power than they do here and yet that facility has never been used.
I have no worries about that feature ever being activated by SKY, not only because it would be commercial and PR suicide but technically broadcasters can't even get EPG listings correct yet alone the far more complex flags required for adverts.

I am still surprised that SKY have never had an offical upgrade path for SKY+, they could still sell a standard 40gig unit as a base model and then bulk purchase 80 or 120gig HD's which could be fitted in mass by more or less any installer with a bit of training and sold with a little profit margin. I can't believe it would be that difficult to upgrade the OS to support larger disks so the useage bar is correct and that would probably remove these 2,5 or 17min bugs some users have experienced.