 |
Amstrad DRX890 500 GB SKY HD BOX
by MiserableMonkey
Recently moved into my new house, and got a Sky HD box before quickly taking out a Sky HD subscription. I've never seen appeal of high definition previously, but thought that with my recently purchased HD TV, I should take the dive and try it all out.
Now, whilst I do enjoy watching programs via my Sky HD box, I don't quite ... see the point in HD. Therefore, many of my gripes will probably be due to this. Firstly, the cost of continually having a product such as this is astronomical. Each monthly cost, whilst different each customer, is quite high for what you're getting. And then each package on top of that, such as Sky Movies or channels for the kids, bump the price up a bit more.
The box has its good points of course, such as the quality of the picture. But I don't think that justifies the price, as I'll quite happily revert back to standard. Other little gimmicks make it good as well, such as the menu screens, which look considerably smarter - they're easy to use as well. Also, setting the box up in the first place was much easier than I thought it would be. For us, Sky sent someone out to do it for us, which was a bonus.
In our house, we have lots of remotes. Remotes for things we don't even use or know the whereabouts of anymore! However, the remote for this box is completely different to previous Sky box remotes, which is pretty helpful. Other quick point relates to the games available, such as Bingo and Fantasy Football and all the shopping channels, such as Bid TV etc.
With the box, you can easily connect to the internet via your router, giving you access to Sky+, BBC iPlayer, ITVPlayer and YouTube (including 4OD Player). The Sky Anything + option is particularly useful, as it remembers your favourite programs and recommends them for your viewing pleasure. For those that like to spend their time more proactively, you probably won't like this feature as it will see you watching far more television than you should!
I haven't had any issues so far with the box, and would happily recommend it to anyone. Do note though, that some (if not all) Sky contracts will see you receive the box for free, so check that out first if you're new to Sky.
Read the complete review |
|
|
Virgin Media TiVo
by chrisc92
So, what is TiVo? TiVo is a Digital Video Recorder (DVR) with the ability to record up to 3 channels at a time. TiVo allows users to schedule recordings and find shows that might interest them. Other features TiVo offers include movie and television show downloads, searches, photo viewing, music and online scheduling. Our Virgin TiVo ... box is black, a little over a foot wide, about 9 inches deep and about 2 inches high with numerous buttons on the top and coloured lights on the front.
TiVo has a completely redesigned menu system (compared to the V+ box) which Virgin in their infinite wisdom think we want. They don't seem to be concerned that the V+ menu design was actually more practical (and understandable). It comes with a relatively sturdy remote which you can program to control some basic tv functions such as volume control and putting your tv in standby which you can learn about from the help menus provided on screen. The 4 main function buttons are HOME, My shows, Guide and Info (about 45 in total including numbers, volume and channel changing).
HOME - Main Menu where you can access the following:
TV Guide (Full tv guide, My Favorites, HD, movies, sport, kids, music, new, lifestyle, documentary and shopping channels)
Catch Up & On Demand - Catch Up TV, TV for XL, TV for L, TV for M+, Movies, Sports, Pay Per View (My Rentals) - these include access to HD and 3D (If you have 3D tv and glasses)
My Favourites
Search & Browse - All TV, Browse TV & Collection, Search Catch Up On Demand, My Wishlists, Search Music On Demand and YouTube
My Shows & Recordings - My Shows, My Planned Recordings, Manage My Series Links, Recording Hiccups, Manual Recording
Apps & Games - Featured Apps, All Apps & Games, TV & Entertainment, Social & Lifestyle, Music & Games (which are All Apps & Games split into their related categories)
My Shows
Recordings (including recently deleted and separate folder for HD Recordings)
Getting the most out of TiVo
YouTube
Guide - Full TV Guide
Info
From TV Guide - information on show, record option, series link and explore shows upcoming, episode guide, cast bonus features, if you like this... and cast option allows you to create wish lists
From Programme - what programme is about, subtitles, audio description, what's up next
Two other buttons that you need to VERY aware of are the red hand down and green up buttons. If you like or hate a programme you can rate it with up to 3 red hands down or 3 red hands up but beware - if you record anything the more hands up the more it records! In fact, when we first had our TiVo box we recorded BBC News 24 because there was a story we wanted to record and as we accidentally rated it with 3 green hands up started recording the next 6 hours of news before we realised. What we've also found is programmes like Match of the Day recorded Saturday night, Sunday morning and later in the week (until we made some adjustments) and we recorded a particular series which then decided that we liked a completely different one (that we hated) and said guess what I think you like!
What I do like on TiVo are the apps - 35 of them on our box: BBC iPlayer, BBC Sport, BBC News, HTC One, YouTube, Spotify (free version with ads after 3 months of premium use), Media Shorts (Vote Now!), Music Search, Live The Dream, Cinema Trailers, Hangman, Deal With It, Football Quiz, Holidays, Quiz, String 'em in, Star trek, Maze Game, PBS America, Scooby Game, Family Fortunes, Pick and Nick, Out Patients, Mixtures, Cartoon Network (More from CN), Nat Geo, Millionaire, eBay, CNBC, Twitter, Weather, Celebrity, Photo Gallery, Sky Sports (On this month) and Sky Movies (on this month). Many of these apps and games are chargeable and normally taken as part of your next direct debit payment.
My favourite app is Star Trek which is provided by CBS Action where you can see:
Interviews with William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, George Takei, Nichelle Nichols and Jonathan Frakes
Quiz - updated monthly
Events - Fed con 2012, Collectormania, LFCC, The Fans, Comic Con, Love Your Fanside which all link to video clips
Videos On Demand - a selection of episodes from the original series (currently 4)
Specials - animated episodes
Supertreks - brief snippits about your favourite Star Trek characters from original Star Trek characters
While we were on our holiday to Florida early in August 2012 Virgin again in its infinite wisdom decided to install a massive upgrade to its TiVo boxes that crashed our box and has also removed the ability to set reminders and instead replaced with Record and Remind, well I ask you why do you want to record something if all you are interested in is knowing when the program is on!
In just under 5 months our TiVo box has crashed a minimum of 5 times (while the V+ has crashed a maximum of 0 times). I admit I love the additional functionality of the apps and the ability of recording 3 channels but I really don't like TiVo - it's too irritating, crashes too frequently and despite having a third channel you can't record all 3 if you plan to watch another programme and.... it doesn't have a clock! If the additional functionality had been made available to V+ we would have loved it but alas Virgin have scrapped V+ and will not repair any of their V+ boxes instead replacing with the standard one without recording capabilities. TiVo menus are confusing and the boxes from what we've seen so far are still in the experimental stage so I can see pros and cons for changing over to this system. I certainly couldn't give you my recommendation at this point in time.
Read the complete review |
