Go on Sky+ it (Sky Plus (Sky+))

Member Name: playmate

Product:	Sky Plus (Sky+)
Date:	11/11/08 (158 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Watch TV when it suits you by recording the programmes that you want to watch

Disadvantages: none for me

Sky + is one of those revelations that came out a few years ago now, and is one that when you have it you can't live without it.

~~~~Description~~~~

Sky + is a digital receiver that has a built in hard drive, which means that you can pause live T.V and a lot more functions which I will explain later. There were a few versions of this released depending on when you purchased it. The first box was known as PVR1, this has 20 hours of recording. Then there was a PVR2 box and this had 40 hours of recording, and then there was a PVR3 box which is the newest one and this also has 40 hours of recording but has the added extra of Sky Anytime, which I will highlight later. To receive the correct services for Sky + you need to have a sky dish and a Sky+ subscription.

~~~~Price~~~~

The price of the Sky+ box depends on what package you take it with.

If you are just taking the Sky+ box on its own then you will pay £150

Take it with Sky broadband and Sky talk and you will pay £99 for the box

If you already have a box in the house, no matter if it is a standard box or another Sky+ or HD box this is classed as multi room and you are then entitled to have the box for £99 also.

~~~~Functions~~~~

Sky+ has a lot of great functions these include:

Pause- this allows you to pause live television and resume when you are finished what you had to do.

Rewind - this allows you to rewind live T.V after it has been paused.

Record - this allows you to record any programme at the touch of a button, in the record function when you are watching back the programme then you can use the pause, rewind and fast forward buttons.

Series link - this is used when you want to record a full series for instance Prison Break, when you record the first episode that you want then you press the green button in the planner and it will then link them all together, and you don't have to select the rest to record.

You can also record 2 programmes at the same time as long as you are watching one of them, or you can watch one channel while recording the other.

Or if you are recording two programmes at the same time and don't want to watch any of them then you can play back a recording.

It is advised that you don't switch the box off at the power socket after every use as this means that the hard drive has to restart every time and this can cause damages, which results in the box needing to be replaced. This is the most common cause of replacement boxes.

~~~~Sky Anytime~~~~

Sky Anytime is a facility that is free to any customer that has the new PVR3 boxes, (which if you come to sky as a brand new customer now you will receive). The facility is recorded to you box everyday and it allows you to have up to another week to watch the more sought after programmes that you may have missed. All the boxes are meant to get the same content but it can vary slightly if the box hasn't received the download on that day, as it only tries three times in one day for each bit of content. It then deletes it self out after the allocated time. You can however move the content from the anytime planner to your own planner by pressing the record button when in the anytime planner. The box is split into two hard drives one solely for the use of anytime and one for your own recordings.

~~~~Ease of use~~~~

The Sky + box is really easy to use and even my techno phobic father can operate it. There is instructions that come with it, but you won't really need to use it, just play around with it and you will find it will come naturally, its just like using a video recorder for the Sky + functions.

I would recommend this box to anyone that wants to have the ease of being able to plan your recordings and being able to watch TV when you say not when your schedule lets you.

Summary: .