SkyTV+ Recorder or separate TV recorder?

D.K.

I'm thinking of subscribing to Sky TV as I'm fed up with Top-Up.I still have the Top-Up recorder but I don't think I can use it on an external source.(?)

The Sky recorder package is £159.00+10.00/month which seems expensive.
I was wondering if it was possible to buy a separate recorder which could do all the pause, rewind, etc. stuff instead.

Also, can you get Freeview with a Sky box?

Anyone help with any of this please.

nickmack

D.K. wrote:

The Sky recorder package is £159.00+10.00/month which seems expensive.

The £10 is waived if you subscribe to any premium channels.

I was wondering if it was possible to buy a separate recorder which could do all the pause, rewind, etc. stuff instead.

You can buy a seperate box for recording, but you won't get all of the functionality of being integrated with the Sky+ box.

Also, can you get Freeview with a Sky box?

You can get Free to Air channels which is a subset of Freeview.

Moneymaker

In case any techie is interested, you can buy a card that will turn an ordinary Sky Digibox (£20 off eBay) into a PVR that connects to your PC.
See http://www.cielplus.com

waster_2

Moneymaker wrote:

In case any techie is interested, you can buy a card that will turn an ordinary Sky Digibox (£20 off eBay) into a PVR that connects to your PC.
See http://www.cielplus.com

I'm not sure you're correct. It turns your PC into the PVR and uses your Sky digibox to receive the digital TV feed via a USB2 connection.

It says it only supports certain Amstrad and Pace digiboxes so you need to be sure what make and model you have prior to buying. Additionally, it is not clear whether you can view via your TV or only through the PC. I suppose if your TV has an HDMI connection you should get a good picture via that. However, in any case the PC would need to be adjacent to the TV and would not be able to be used for much else when recording and playingback recorded info. It also costs £99 and you then need to get into your PC to install the card.

In my view you would probably be better off buying a DVD/HDD Recorder with freeview and twin tuners. This allows you to do all that a Sky+ box does in terms of recording, pausing live TV, watching one channel whilst recording another, etc. These HDD recorders are coming down in price and you can pick them up for under £200. The only downside compared to Sky+ is that you would not have the EPG to use to set and record programmes from. But you just set it manually or via videoplus like was the case on your old VHS.

I've got Sky+ and wouldn't be without it, but then I subscribe to Sky as it's the only way you're going to see live domestic footie in the UK legally (FA Cup excepted).

D.K.

Thanks everyone.
I miss the old days when the only question was "Does it get BBC2?"

Moneymaker

waster wrote:

It says it only supports certain Amstrad and Pace digiboxes so you need to be sure what make and model you have prior to buying.

Hence my "buy off ebay" suggestion. Obviously you buy another Digibox that's compatible.

waster wrote:

Additionally, it is not clear whether you can view via your TV

You can view the recordings via the PC monitor (or burn them to DVD).
You can view the programmes from both Sky Digiboxes via Scart on your TV (not both simultaneously).