Guest meaks Posted April 25, 2003 Report Posted April 25, 2003 I know that you can watch one program whilst recording another, but why can't you watch one program on one tv and another program on another tv in a different room? It seems that I have to buy another box as well, which adds another 15 quid a month!
Guest SirGaz Posted April 25, 2003 Report Posted April 25, 2003 Yep, there are two decoders in the box but one doesn't output to the tele (or any of the ouput channels for that matter) so if you want to watch two channels on two teles then you need another decoder. Sky+ is an extra £10 a month anyway so if you're specifically after watching two channels at once then a seperate decoder is better than sky+ (if you haven't already got it ;)) If you upgrade to sky+ you do keep the old box (if you're already a sky user) so you only pay for the extra sky card. Like you say it's £15 extra but it mirrors what package you have on your main card so if you have all sports and movies (£37?) then you get that on the second card for only £15 so it's not as bad as it seems. It's skys little way of getting the maximum amount of money out of you. Don't take it personally, they do it everyone.
Guest SirGaz Posted April 25, 2003 Report Posted April 25, 2003 You could record one program and watch it later of course?
Guest spacecowboy6982 Posted April 25, 2003 Report Posted April 25, 2003 Sky+ is an extra £10 a month Is it...dont think so.......
Guest meaks Posted April 25, 2003 Report Posted April 25, 2003 Just checked on sky's website and sky+ is £200 for the box and £10 per month subscription fee. I could watch one program and record another. But i never like recording footy and watching it later!
Guest Vector Posted April 25, 2003 Report Posted April 25, 2003 No, i never like recording footie either, i have a tivo, similar to sky+ but you can't record one sky channel and watch another ;)
Guest srandrews Posted April 25, 2003 Report Posted April 25, 2003 The main reason I'd get Sky+ is for the movies in Dolby Digital 5.1 I'd watch way to much TV then!!
Guest SirGaz Posted April 25, 2003 Report Posted April 25, 2003 Definately an extra £10 a month cos I've had sky+ for about a year and they keep taking the money!!!
Guest akarno Posted April 25, 2003 Report Posted April 25, 2003 I've also had Sky + for about a year. It is an extra £10 a month. I think it is probably much better than Tivo as you record direct from the digital signal rather than decoding first then re-encoding as you have to on Tivo. The reason you can only watch one channel at a time is that although the box as 2 receivers, it only has one mpeg decoder, hence only one singal is viewable at a time. The one feature it is missing is recording 2 channels at a time. There is nothing techincally that stops it, infact you do it if you live pause while recording another cannel. Dolby Digtial 5.1 on movies widescreen is great. As good as watching a DVD. I now can't imagine life without Sky+. It just makes viewing so flexible.
Guest Paul [MVP] Posted April 25, 2003 Report Posted April 25, 2003 I've got a TiVo which I think is better than sky plus, i've modded mine so I can schedule stuff over the web, heh! Anyway, the real killer is even more money per month to Sky, at least with TiVo you can get a lifetime subscription! P
Guest SirGaz Posted April 26, 2003 Report Posted April 26, 2003 akarno You can record 2 sky channels at once, just not on the sky+ box. You have to record one and tune in the decoder to the other channel, then use a normal video recorder to record the tv signal. Not brilliant but it's worth it the odd couple of times you need to video two things on sky at the same time.
Guest akarno Posted April 27, 2003 Report Posted April 27, 2003 akarno You can record 2 sky channels at once, just not on the sky+ box. You have to record one and tune in the decoder to the other channel, then use a normal video recorder to record the tv signal. Not brilliant but it's worth it the odd couple of times you need to video two things on sky at the same time. You can, but I'm a bit of a purist. The picture quality from VHS is just not up to it any more. I still have a video recorder connect, but only for when other people ask me to record something for them. I then record it on Sky+ then copy it to tape later. I've not really seen Tivo up and running but the picture quality cannot be as good as Sky+ . It is true to say there really is no difference between a live picture and a recorded one on Sky+.
Guest meaks Posted April 27, 2003 Report Posted April 27, 2003 Sky+ records onto the hard drive - so is there a way that I can connect up that hard drive to my pc so that I could then burn my recordings onto dvd?
Guest akarno Posted April 27, 2003 Report Posted April 27, 2003 Sky+ records onto the hard drive - so is there a way that I can connect up that hard drive to my pc so that I could then burn my recordings onto dvd? Problem is it's all propritory hardware and software. Unlike Tivo which is a Linux box.
Guest Paul [MVP] Posted April 27, 2003 Report Posted April 27, 2003 Tivo Rocks, the different quality levels allow you to have quality as good as the input, or low quality for stuff like soaps where it doesn't matter. You can set it on a per recording basis (or per season pass basis), and it's also Variable Bit Rate (animation compresses really well!) P
Guest meaks Posted April 27, 2003 Report Posted April 27, 2003 Well the thing I want to know is can I get direct access to the recordings(presume they are mpeg files?) or do I have to hook it up via s-video and watch the recording again whilst recording on the pc? Can you get direct access with either tivo or sky+ ?
Guest Paul [MVP] Posted April 27, 2003 Report Posted April 27, 2003 You can just about do it with Tivo (not out of the box tho). You install the network card (called TURBONET), and use an app called TivoApp to extract the MPEG streams... You can't do it on SKY+. P
Guest meaks Posted April 27, 2003 Report Posted April 27, 2003 you mean you can just about do it with tivo?
Guest meaks Posted April 27, 2003 Report Posted April 27, 2003 I take it you've done this Paul? Is it hard?
Guest akarno Posted April 28, 2003 Report Posted April 28, 2003 "]Tivo Rocks, the different quality levels allow you to have quality as good as the input, or low quality for stuff like soaps where it doesn't matter. You can set it on a per recording basis (or per season pass basis), and it's also Variable Bit Rate (animation compresses really well!) P Paul, can it really do as good as input. Surely what is happening is you are decoding an mpeg2 stream to analogue video then re-encoding back as mpeg2, probably at a different bit rate, either higher or lower, then decoding again back to analogue to view. There must be some loss from this process.
Guest Paul [MVP] Posted April 28, 2003 Report Posted April 28, 2003 Well, I have a 36" TV, and I can't see any degredation... Don't forget Sky streams are generally not that great anyway ;) P
Guest Vector Posted April 28, 2003 Report Posted April 28, 2003 Yeh Tivo quality is great ;) .We were going to get Sky + but there was a huge waiting time for installation so we ended up with a Tivo, a blessing in disguise perhaps :)
Guest Paul [MVP] Posted April 28, 2003 Report Posted April 28, 2003 Yeah... Best thing about TiVo? You can use TiVoApp to extract the stream of a recording, then in no time at all use TMPGenc to encode it for PocketTV ;) P
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