Sky Plus 111 Remote Control

As Sky Plus has began to be a key part of my life I'm now starting to adore the control just as much as the overall service. Coming in a primarily gray colour with a black back and trim (including most of the buttons), the device is well laid out and simple to navigate.

At the top are the On/Off button, the Sky Button and the TV button (allowing you to control the TV with the remote instead of needing both a TV remote and a Sky remote ...
...it is on the old Sky remotes allowing you to scroll between programs and channels with ease of just using your thumb to see whats on now and whats on next. The simplicity of sticking a reminder on the programs later the same day is done by pressing select as is changing channel via the scroll menu's an incredibly simple way of navigating a vast number of channels swiftly. The volume control is on the left and the channel change (up and down) is on ... more

As Sky Plus has began to be a key part of my life I'm now starting to adore the control just as much as the overall service. Coming in a primarily gray colour with a black back and trim (including most of the buttons), the device is well laid out and simple to navigate.

At the top are the On/Off button, the Sky Button and the TV button (allowing you to control the TV with the remote instead of needing both a TV remote and a Sky remote lying about the place). Below that are the direct menu buttons to the TV guide, Box Office, Services and Interactive, of these the TV guide button will be the one that gets the vast work out, with Box Office getting the occasional use just prior to major boxing contests for myself.

Below that is the navigation buttons and the control/program up downs and select button. They include the mute button and the program information button. This is the same as it is on the old Sky remotes allowing you to scroll between programs and channels with ease of just using your thumb to see whats on now and whats on next. The simplicity of sticking a reminder on the programs later the same day is done by pressing select as is changing channel via the scroll menu's an incredibly simple way of navigating a vast number of channels swiftly. The volume control is on the left and the channel change (up and down) is on the right for those who want to quickly changing from 1 channel to the next.

Below them are the text, back up and help buttons, more used for many and subtitles than anything else, though to be honest I've hardly had need to use them at any point.

Below them are the Sky Plus controls including a play/pause button, record, stop and fast forward/rewind buttons. These act like you would expect them two allowing you to make full use of the Sky Plus functions with ease. Using either the TV guide or the scroll button to find a show you wish to record you can then click the record button to record the show instead of putting a reminder for it. Whilst using the menu it's possible to set up a series link so that the the whole series will be recorded automatically by the box.

The colour buttons are directly below, red, green, yellow and blue that all seem to be used more in the menu screens that normal TV. The Green button seems to be used to set up series links whilst red button allows you to to access services like the BBC interactive services or extended adverts (I don't know why...)

At the bottom of the remote are the typical number buttons that we are used to seeing on remotes allowing the user to swiftly key in the channel they want to watch instead of going through the menus. Though this actually seems to be the least used part of the remote in this house (as none of us seem about to remember the numbers for the channels above 106-Sky 1) it would be by far the best if we did have a better memory.

The remotes on the whole seem pretty robust with us throwing it at each other with out anything breaking off, though it appears my brother has tried to eat the bottom of it as the bottom has teeth marks in it. Despite the fact the rubber has become rough where the tooth marks are the rest of it is smooth and really easy to hold, all the buttons are easy to use from holding the remote in a rather natural way. Despite some not being fans of Sky the remote is really simple and easy to use and when compared to the Virgin TV remotes they are far easier to navigate.

The remote came free with the service though, though we often seem to hear they cost a fortune (£60 was said) to replace after a quick look in the Argos catalogue it would appear the actual price is £22.49 with the simple Sky remote costing £13.79. Yes it may seem pricey but unless you're likely to lose it you'll never have to buy a second one. The control is needed to make the most of Sky+ and is easy to use, so overall a perfect control that's easy to use and durable. Perfect for the job of which it is needed. 

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