Sky TV Guide - one thing they got right (sky.com)

Member Name: Pharmtastic

Product:	sky.com
Date:	12/01/09 (235 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Remote recording

Disadvantages: none

Sky.com is the website for Sky: the TV people who have moved into phone and broadband services, too. The website is pretty huge, with sections on news, entertainment, gossip, and - of course - plenty of pages offering you the latest deals on Sky packages.

I have no intention on reviewing the whole site, just the TV listing section. I did, in fact, ask dooyoo to add the TV listing section as a separate entry, but I got a reply to say that the "Product was already there". Apologies, therefore, to anyone who was looking for an overview on the whole of Sky [!], but I did try.

The TV listing page can be found at:

http://tv.sky.com/tvlistings

When you visit the site, there is a delay of about 5 to 10 seconds when nothing seems to happen, and then a grid appears which shows the first 14 or so channels and what's on TV for the next 3 hours. You can use a mouse to move forward to see further ahead, or click on tabs to change the date.

So far, this is not that much different to the Sky Planner with which customers will be familiar from Sky's onscreen guide.

However, on the top right of the grid is a search box. This allows you search to a programme by name, without needing to know when it's on, or even which channel is showing it.

Entering part of a TV programme name will bring any programmes that match that. You then choose the one you're interested in by clicking on it: this then brings up all showings for that programme in the next week. I used this, for example, when Sky+ didn't record the second part of Silent Witness. I was able to see that there was a repeat showing on BBC1 London at about 3.00 am, and so didn't have to miss the rest of the story.

Just as you think it can't possibly get better than that, there is also a remote record facility. If you log into your Sky account while looking at a programme, you can click on a box in the programme description which says "remote record". This allows you to send a signal to your Sky+ box to tell it to record that particular programme while you're still at you computer. Before I get accusations of being too lazy to walk to my living room, I would say that I find this useful when the kids are watching something else and I don't want the hassle of disturbing them [I have also used it when staying with friends - there is no need for the computer to be in the same house.]

This about as close as I seem to have got to the House of The Future that I used to see on Tomorrow's World when a boy!

also on ciao

Summary: Easier than the listings on the TV