i'll never leave the house again (Sky Digital)

Member Name: nwheatstone

Product:	Sky Digital
Date:	01/09/01 (272 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: huge choice, clear picture, remote control

Disadvantages: Trouble installing dish

WHY
I am a very recent convert to Sky Digital and so far am very impressed with what I've got. Having been with Birmingham Cable (now Telewest) for five years I was sick of the constant price increases. Having the top package was costing £47 a month so I decided to look around. The Sky Digital package, which included everything Cable had and a LOT more was £34 per month. Who am I to argue. Cable tried to switch me to their digital service for free but there was little that was new or extra and the costs were only nominally cheaper. I also got a special Sky deal where installation was £25 and the dish and box were free.

HOW
I ordered my dish etc. through Sky.com and found it extremely straight forward and simple to use and would recommend this method. I had a couple of queries and phoned the helpline (08702 404040)and found the phone answered straight away and my questions dealt with with great efficiency.
Sadly the engineer service wasn't so good. The engineer has clearly overworked and quickly decided that there was no where for the dish to go except on the chimney, which they couldn't do. I then had to rebook the whole thing through Vision On , a local company (who deserve five stars), who came out and immediately attached the dish to the back wall. Alledgedly sky engineers often say jobs can't be done as they simply can't cope with the amount of work they are given.

WHAT YOU GET
There is a small dish and box and also a phone line is needed for the system to download stuff but this does not affect your current phone line as an adaptor was supplied to plug both phone lines in. Since intallment I have had hours of fun playing with Skys greatest achievement - the special remote control. With it you have an instant guide to what is on now or in the next few hours and with programmes being split into sections such as entertainment, movies, kids it is easy to go striaght to what you are looking for, with the ad
ded bonus of seeing what is on every kids channel / movie channel etc. There is also a cute little 'i' button that gives you a summary of what the programme is about once you've chosen it. And did I mention the reminder service which pops up on screen reminding you that a programme you selected earlier is about to start. Great for me who has been known to suffer from the very occasional(of course) airhead moment. The remote also controls the interactive options - shopping, e-mail etc. which I haven't had a go at yet.

CONTENT
So much more than noraml cable - there are around nine movie channels, an interactive sports channel on top of the rest, a wider choice of disney channels (my daughters favourite) , and many documentary channels. It is hard to know where to start and it would be best to go to the website to check out what you require. Sky do a number of different packages starting from a basic £10 and there are a number of stand alone premium channels such as FilmFour and MUTV (for those few supporters who for some reason can't get to a game? lol) which can be paid for on top of the package you choose.
Overall, top entertainment - I have been a complete couch potato but have watched more different channels in the last few days than I have in months. I feel I am now ready to hibernate during the cold winter months.

Summary: