News - Sky launches 1TB Sky+HD receiver

[Terbinator]

They're kak because there in 720p. But if you wasn't too be bothered about 720p or have a 720p set (atleast) then why would you even have a Sky HD(+) box ?

On the other hand, is it not possible to use your own sized HDD or attach a external USB HDD ?

[Blackmage]

It's 1080i people.

[Saracen]

They're kak because there in 720p. But if you wasn't too be bothered about 720p or have a 720p set (atleast) then why would you even have a Sky HD(+) box ?

Except that research done by the BBC, and the report from the B/TQE (Television Quality Evolution project group of the European Broadcasting Union) suggests that for screen sizes up to 50", 720p saturates the eye's ability to absorb detail at that screen size and at the median 2.7m viewing distance, and only closer than that or above 50" is there a perceived improvement.

Also, currently (and as far as I know, for the foreseeable future) HD transmissions will be 1080i or 720p, and there seem to be no plans to go to 1080p transmissions, partly on the basis of keeping compression levels down, and partly on the basis of spectrum efficiency which, of course, is at least in part, a way of saying the same thing.

So, if you have an 1080p source like BluRay, and if you view a large screen close-up, then you may get perceived benefit, but that doesn't impact on what standards a Sky (or Freeview/Freesat) box should support (currently) because it won't be getting 1080p source material anyway.

And if we go from 720p to 1080i, then you get into all sorts of complications about the efficiency of receiver-based interlacing and de-interlacing, and about motion-compensation, etc.

At the end of it all, there's plenty of people that are quite happy with 720p from a transmitted signal, and research to back it up, especially for smaller (sub-50") sets or at most typical home viewing distances. So, IMHO, "kak" is over-stating it a bit.

[Terbinator]

As you mentioned it comes down to peoples perception. I just don't see why you would have up to 1TB (or more) of programs anyway, surely once you've seen your episode of Corrie there's no need to archive it.

[Brewster0101]

As you mentioned it comes down to peoples perception. I just don't see why you would have up to 1TB (or more) of programs anyway, surely once you've seen your episode of Corrie there's no need to archive it.

Does the Sky on demand service work very well? I wonder if this is Sky's answer to on demand offered by Virgin and BT. I hear that when it comes to downloadable content Sky is behind. So maybe sky is compensating for this by offering larger storage space to hold programs for longer where as with BT ad Virgin, there is no need to store so much as you can just watch on demand when you want to... (for a period of time anyhow)

[Terbinator]

I don't have Sky myself so I couldn't tell you.

[jim]

Does the Sky on demand service work very well? I wonder if this is Sky's answer to on demand offered by Virgin and BT. I hear that when it comes to downloadable content Sky is behind. So maybe sky is compensating for this by offering larger storage space to hold programs for longer where as with BT ad Virgin, there is no need to store so much as you can just watch on demand when you want to... (for a period of time anyhow)

Sky Anytime? Useless in my opinion.

They pick 2 programmes a day (more or less IIRC) and then automatically download them to your hard drive to watch later, although I never once saw something recorded on it that I might want to watch. I'm more than capable of picking my own programmes to watch at a later date... don't need somebody to do it for me.

That's the main problems really - it's just a random selection of a few very odd shows, and the odd big coup like a football match or a film, which have all been shown on Sky at a certain point, so you can achieve exactly the same thing yourself. It's only purpose in my eyes was if there was sod all on, and it happened to record something I would consider watching, although the chances of that, it seemed, were around 1 in 50.

I disabled it because it meant the box would start spinning up the hard drive whilst I was trying to sleep, and it never gave me any benefit.

[Brewster0101]

Sky Anytime? Useless in my opinion.

They pick 2 programmes a day (more or less IIRC) and then automatically download them to your hard drive to watch later, although I never once saw something recorded on it that I might want to watch. I'm more than capable of picking my own programmes to watch at a later date... don't need somebody to do it for me.

That's the main problems really - it's just a random selection of a few very odd shows, and the odd big coup like a football match or a film, which have all been shown on Sky at a certain point, so you can achieve exactly the same thing yourself. It's only purpose in my eyes was if there was sod all on, and it happened to record something I would consider watching, although the chances of that, it seemed, were around 1 in 50.

I disabled it because it meant the box would start spinning up the hard drive whilst I was trying to sleep, and it never gave me any benefit.

So this new 1TB drive is likely a PR stunt more than practical hardware to keep a little light on sky while BT and Virgin storm on with on demand content. On demand is the way forward - I've had BT vision and it works very well. Cancelled for now as the TV shows were too dated and not alot of modern shows.

When BT get some big shows like Battlestar, Leverage etc then they will win more support, but showing years old shows does not appeal. The replay though services are brilliant.

[jim]

So this new 1TB drive is likely a PR stunt more than practical hardware to keep a little light on sky while BT and Virgin storm on with on demand content. On demand is the way forward - I've had BT vision and it works very well. Cancelled for now as the TV shows were too dated and not alot of modern shows.

When BT get some big shows like Battlestar, Leverage etc then they will win more support, but showing years old shows does not appeal. The replay though services are brilliant.

I imagine that they'll still section off the same-sized partition for Anytime as they did with the smaller drive, and just give you loads more space for your custom recordings.

As before though, short of archiving TV series on your Sky box, I can't see why anyone would need more capacity.

[cjs150]

Of course if Sky (and Virgin) actually had boxs that (a) work for more than 6 months at a time (b) allowed you to download from the set top box to another computer (or server) much of this would be irrelevant.

Or best of all, come up with a simple card that allows an HTPC to act as a set top box

[Brewster0101]

.

Or best of all, come up with a simple card that allows an HTPC to act as a set top box

You can do this - see here

http://www.radioandtelly.co.uk/satellitetvonapc.html

Google 'Sky TV on PC' and lots of tips pop up over various forums.

[cjs150]

Brewster: none of those work without your set top box (assuming you are watching Sky or Virgin), sure you can get Free-to-air decoder and presumably Freeview HD decoder cards for your PC but what you cannot do (at least in UK) is watch an encrypted channel such as Sky Sports or Sky movies without your sky set top box.

Now if I have an HTPC I would prefer to ditch the set top box and use proper software that is useful and quick and hardware that does not break down every 6 months

[burble]

Too right. If you need that much space to store TV recordings then you have either a serious lack of life away from a TV or have no friends - or both.

Or you could work abroad a lot during the week, like I do, and find that 160Gb of storage available for recordings is nowhere near enough.

Do I have a life away from the TV? Aye. Do I have friends? Aye.

It's about time Sky did this. I long ago replaced the drive in my HD box with a 1Tb drive. I still lose 140Gb or so to Anytime (which is disabled) but at least I have plenty of extra storage space.

[Saracen]

As you mentioned it comes down to peoples perception. I just don't see why you would have up to 1TB (or more) of programs anyway, surely once you've seen your episode of Corrie there's no need to archive it.

As burble said, one reason is people away for periods, be it for work or just holiday. Another is for people like me. I go for days at a time without watching much more than TV news and maybe newsnight. But periodically, I've have a lazy "catchup" day. Also, I don't like watching a series over the course of several months, so I record a set of programs, then watch them in one sitting, or several lengthy ones. For instance, I watch all four (or five, whatever it was) series of The Wire by watching 3 or 4 per night, most nights. Right now, doing anything like that means burning them to CD until I'm ready, and then when I'm done, I've a load of useless CDs.

A 1TB drive might not completely eliminate that, but it'd sure cut it down. For instance, we recorded Silent Witness and the three-part Above Suspicion" recently, and the latter sat there for several weeks until the wife and I were both available and in the mood to watch it. Above Suspicion alone took about 10% of available drive space, and it's only three parts.

If you just watch Corrie and Eastenders, and keep fairly up to date, then current drive sizes are probably OK. But if you keep a few documentaries, and a series or two, and a handful of thrillers, all until the weekend or a suitable time, you can run out easily.


Oh, and with the current machine, I don't like letting free space get below about 30% at worst, because that seems to be when problems requiring a reset (deleting all content) start to appear. So, I start with 160GB (standard Sky + box, but the 320GB HD have the same issue, just not as badly) of HDD. 80GB is reserved for "Anytime", despite disabling it. That leaves 80GB for me to use. Of that 80GB, I don't want to drop below about 70% use, meaning I actually have something like 55-60GB for programs.

Not much, is it?

With the HD boxes, about 140GB is reserved, leaving 180GB, leaving you about 125GB of usable space if you keep 30% free ... and HD recordings take more space anyway.

[philipsmith]

I have this box already.
The EGP Is very fast.

[philipsmith]

Anyone else notice this?