I enjoy writing about all sorts really. I love travel and am pregnant at the moment so expect a lot ...
I enjoy writing about all sorts really. I love travel and am pregnant at the moment so expect a lot of baby reviews to come. I also post on Dooyoo under the name Whizz11
Member since:07.09.2007
Reviews:391
Members who trust:42
If you love TV then you probably love your Sky + box and if you haven't already got one you really really need to get one. For me this box is definitely a Plus with one little Minus but I will get to that later.
Sky + is a personal video recorder that allows the user to record, pause and instantly rewind live TV. It works in conjunction with a Sky television subscription. It was launched in September 2001 and in February 2008 Sky announced that over 3 million households now have a Sky + box.
Sky + is such a benefit to have. You access all the features of the recorder through your Sky + remote.
Recording - Sky + allows you to record any programme
that you like. It is very simple to do. You do not have to set any timers or set up any video tapes, etc, the show is saved as hardware on the Sky+ box. Basically you search through the onscreen TV show listings. Once you find the program you want to record you highlight it and then press the little record button on the remote, as simple as that. An absolutely wonderful feature when it comes to recording in my opinion is the series link function. Once you have decided upon the program you want to record and have pressed the record button you can then press the series link program and it will set to record all the shows in that series so you do not have to go back each day/week to keep on recording. This is great if you are the type of person to forget things as you could end up missing parts of a series but with series link you don't!
Sky + allows you to record two things at once if the TV is switched off but you cannot then watch a third channel when two things are recording.
Watching - once you have recorded your shows they are very simple to watch. You go to your recordings page and scroll through to see what you have. When you find the show you want you press play and enjoy it. The recording allows you to pause, rewind or fast forward at any time too so very handy if you want to miss all the adverts. Sky + also allows you to pause live TV as well which is a great benefit. Say you are watching something and the phone goes, you can just quickly pause the show, take your phone call and then resume the live TV where you stopped it.
Sky + allows you to store up to 40 hours of TV which is quite a lot in my opinion. It does tell you the amount of storage space you have left so if you are getting a bit low you can always delete the shows you've already seen to make some space.
Now, onto my minus for Sky+. The box can be a bit temperamental. Ours stopped working over Christmas (I know, shock horror) just because of a simple power cut which blew the box and is apparently quite common with Sky+ boxes. This meant that not only could we not access any Sky services we lost all of our recorded shows too. Annoying in itself but even more annoying is Sky customer service. To get an engineer out to look at the box will cost you £60. All they will then do is tell you that the box is broken and that you need another one (yes, I knew this already, the power light does not come on so obviously it's broken!!) and then when they do offer you a new box it's another £199!!
We took the step of ordering a Sky +HD box as we wanted to upgrade anyway but it was quite annoying. I've heard of lots of people who have had to replace their boxes after only having one for about 2 years. On the internet a Sky+ box is £99, however this is not for existing customers (you would think they would want to keep their existing customers happy!). All this and they did not have an engineer free until one month in the future, one month!!!! I've been finding it really hard to survive without my Sky plus
For me Sky + television is great because you get such a wide range of channels and shows. Sky offers a number of different price packages depending on what you enjoy watching. For example, a sports subscription costs £39.50 a month, a movie subscription costs £37.50 a month and a basic multi room package costs £26.25.
It's a bit costly and sometimes you find that there really is nothing to see but in my opinion Sky+ is a much better service than Virgin or Freeview and well worth the money and putting up with the customer non-service department.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
We really want Sky+ but because we are already Sky customers it’s more messing about than it’s worth for us to try and get a box. I think it’s disgusting that loyal customers don’t automatically get one after so long!
arnoldhenryrufus 15.01.2009 21:47
We decided to stay with Virgin in the end, nice review - lyn x
DixieChick10 14.01.2009 20:02
This is the best thing we've ever brought, one thing I'm really going to miss when I go to uni is my sky + box. Kirsty. x
Advantages: I have clearer tv than the terrestrial signal Disadvantages: I pay over the odds and now believe I would have gotten a better deal going through virgins tv box
biglocksyo 04.08.2009 ·
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: somewhat helpful
Review of Sky + (Plus)
Advantages: Can record that programme that you really want to watch but there's something else good on the other side Disadvantages: Big outlay and monthly subscription
claireydeacon 31.07.2001 ·
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Sky
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