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Sky TV Link
by alyson29
Please note that Dooyoo advised that I post my review in this category, which is for a Philips product. However, the item I am reviewing is manufactured by Universal Electronics and not Philips.
When we moved into our current home almost three years ago one of the priorities on hubby's list was to connect Sky to our bedroom ... television and no, we do not subscribe to THOSE channels! Whilst I was quite happy to patiently wait for my bedtime viewing hubby was desperate for it to be sorted straight away! Fortunately, my priorities lay elsewhere, such as making our home as cosy as I possibly could.
The day after our house move the Sky engineer visited and rigged up our satellite dish, which provided us with a multitude of channels on our living room television; the majority of which I don't even watch! However, due to the excessive quotes received from both Sky and a local aerial company we did not go ahead with connecting the upstairs television.
Consequently, hubby set about carrying the work himself and subsequently connected the coaxial cabling to our bedroom television. However, the only way of changing the channel was to run downstairs to operate the Sky remote control, which had to be operated in the living room. It was quite ridiculous when I think back, particularly as hubby generally spends about an hour each day channel surfing and in fact, his antics led to quite a few arguments, as I was fed up with the constant flick, flick, flick of the array of television pictures!
He soon tired of this, but his quest continued where he purchased a couple of devices and once again, became extremely frustrated that neither would work! His latest purchase was one that he discovered approximately twelve months ago and is manufactured by Universal Electronics. The product is named Sky One For All TV Link and is a small black sturdy plastic device with a magic eye. We learned that if hubby could correctly fit this new device we would be able to operate the bedroom television from the actual room by way of a second remote control. What bliss this would be for me if this would actually work, particularly as I would no longer have to endure his huffing and puffing whilst he ran up and down the stairs!
Consequently, the new challenge began. In the TV Link set, in addition to the tvLink IR as described above, we were provided with a male and female connector and a tvLink connector, which fits into the rear of our bedroom television.
As hubby had already completed some of the required tasks prior to discovering this purchase, it was not necessary for him to follow all of the instructions, but I can advise that it was an extremely quick and easy process. Whilst I do not wish to use this review to provide step-by-step details, I can advise that it took him approximately half an hour from start to finish. It was simply a case of fitting a coaxial cable from the main television to our bedroom television and fitting the male and female connectors into the appropriate slots. It was also necessary for us to purchase a second Sky remote control, which can be purchased from stores such as Argos and Currys for around £10.
The tvLink eye is an extremely clever little device, but you have to ensure that it is placed somewhere visible and in the correct position to enable it to receive the signals from your Sky remote control. Hubby had initially blu-tacked it on the upper left hand side of the television frame, but I found this somewhat distracting, particularly as I would end up watching the device as opposed to my programme. Consequently, I relocated the device to sit neatly in front of the television.
I have to admit that it is extremely handy, particularly as we enjoy watching television from our warm comfy bed during the cold winter months. I would point out that this is not a device that will allow you to watch an alternative channel to your main television and is solely a product that will allow you to watch the same programme in another room.
I recommended this product to a friend a few months ago and she was delighted with her new purchase. However, one evening she was snuggling into bed whilst her young teenage son was supposed to be doing his homework downstairs and decided to watch a little television and was shocked when she switched it on only to discover a number of naked wobbly bits bouncing around the television screen! Her quiet teenage son was oblivious to the fact that his mother could see everything and was now fully aware of his curiosity for porn!
The tvLink IR is extremely lightweight and measures only 4 cm in length and 3 cm in width and I was pleasantly surprised to discover that it is so effective. We have had the device connected for the 12 months since our initial purchase and have never experienced any problems whatsoever. My sister recently requested a local aerial company provide the same service for her and she was charged in excess of £100, which in my opinion is ridiculous for a length of coaxial cable and a similar unit.
I cannot recommend the One For All TV Link highly enough and I would advise that it is currently available from Amazon. You can choose to purchase the device together with a second Sky remote control from £15.20 plus P+P or just the unit from £9.99 plus P+P. However, please be aware that the Sky remote Amazon is selling is for the basic Sky box as opposed to Sky+ or Sky+HD.
As this is such a superb device it receives a full 5 out of 5 stars from me, together with a huge recommendation.
I hope you found my review useful and would thank you for reading.
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Sky TV Link
by tenkilos
The Philips Sky TV Link is a great & cheap way of allowing you to watch Sky in any room within your house without the need for Sky Multiroom or any extra Sky boxes.
The principle is fairly straight-forward as you effectively have to connect the eye to an standard aerial cable that will then need to be routed to the back of ... your sky box. If you have an aerial cable fed through already and you understand the way all the cables interconnect, you could split all your wires in the loft to avoid having to drill your walls, put extra cabling around the house and all the associated mess.
We have used the Eye for a good 3 years and it still works as well as the day we first got it. We are able to watch our Sky TV in the kitchen as well as the Lounge which makes life considerably better than being resigned to the standard freeview channels. Performance-wise, you do not notice a difference from operating the Sky box directly.
There are two minor downsides to using this product, neither of which I consider a proper negative. The first is the fact that you can still only watch the same channel on both TVs as long as you only have one Sky box. The other is that you have to purchase an additional Sky remote. This, of course is optional, but makes life easier.
All in all, I couldn't recommend the Eye any more. It is an excellent product that works a treat at a very affordable price!
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Philips SRU9600
by davomrmac
Having too many remote controls is a royal pain in the neck. Over the years I have tried many of these universal or all-in-one remotes. From the £200 Marantz touch screen, to one of the one4all remotes that I now use, this one from Philips came somewhere in between my testing and I will let you know what lets it down.
It is ... not all bad though. The remote is very nicely made, feels nice in the hand and has a nice simple interface. The top half of the remote has a touch panel, which lights up to reveal various touch sensitive buttons. The bottom half has proper keys for volume, channel changing, menu, guide etc. as well as a scrolling wheel, with four way clicker in the middle and an OK button.
Adding a device is easy, just go to the set up menu, scroll to add device, select the type of device (TV for example), then follow the on-screen prompts. There is a built-in database of devices and it seemed to cover all the equipment I have. Once a device is added, you get either one bank or two banks of buttons on the top half of the remote. It is nice in the way that the touch part only shows the buttons (by lighting them up) that you need. It is very responsive and controls everything from the one device.
£50 to £60 is not cheap, so although it does the job it does have one major flaw. Batteries... three AA cells run the device and with medium amount of use they only last about 4-5 days. What use is that. OK, so you can use rechargeable batteries, but a device like this needs a charging docking station if it is going to eat batteries that quickly. If it had a charger, for the same price, it would be ready for use all the time.
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