Sky+

[Jammy-R6]

Right I'm going to order sky today as I'm fed up with freeview and want to watch the racing and re runs of eastenders from the 90's. Do I go for Sky+ box? The one that records TV onto the harddrive? Sounds like a great idea, but can you transfer the recordings from the box onto a PC? If you can its sold !

[Silver]

Not that I'm aware of.

I got it because it was the same price (installation) at the time and since I have all the packages it doesn't cost any more. Never really thought I'd use it, but I do (as does the missus with Stargate, Charmed, Invasion and any other bloody SciFi thing that's on...).

[fast_tzr]

Wrong forum but oh well, I've got sky plus, its worth every penny, fantastic, I dont know if you can get them on a PC, I should think so though because when you select something you record there is an option to "copy" I think thats to copy onto a videotape, but I'm sure you can get em on a PC one way or another. If someone knows what I should be looking for on the sky box, like a USB port or something, let me know and I'll go have look

[Jammy-R6]

Oh yeah was meant to go in the off topic bit. Will get the + box then, couch potato here I come !

[Biker101]

We had sky for 4.5 years then last august we got sky+ and it has totally changed everything. It really is a useful thing, you cant believe how much you will use it until you get it.

TIP-when the installer calls you up to arrange a time on the installation date ask him nicely to save you a box that aint amstrad (pace preferably if available).

[Jammy-R6]

[Kwaks]

There is a deal just now that someone who already has sky + can recommend you so that you get the box free. Correct that if you have full package the £10 sky + subs are scrapped. The person talking about the amstrad etc is recommending you get a pace box rather than some of the less reliable boxes(the installer decides which one to give you and they are given so many of each)

Sky + does not have a usb port,only Din plugs,Scart plugs and an optical connecter.

You would copy onto tape from scart/din plugs and I'm sure if you hook up a camcorder you will find it easy enough to relay to pc.

The most important feature after the harddrive is actually the dts sound feature.All movies on Sky movies 1,2&3 are broadcast in dts to a sky+ box,which if connected to a suitable home theatre kit through the optical cable (not supplied and not all theatre kits have this socket) you will get the full sound effect in dts.

[Biker101]

If you look on av realated forums you will see that the amstrads can be noisy and dont seem to be made aswell as the pace ones and realiability can be poor.

For eg, the box might crash all the time, fail recordings or fail to recieve signals.

I have had a Grundid and an Amstrad sky box and they both kept failing but my panny sky and pace sky+ have never failed.

[Villers]

We have four amstrad sky plus boxes, I have two at my house and my girlfriend has 2 at her house. The concept of sky+ is great, and when it works its excellent. The trouble is, all four of the boxes do the same things. Im guessing this is what the other post is referring to.

They do the following....

Forget to record programmes or remove them from series link

Don't record programmes and give a bogus error

Lock up

Refuse to live pause/rewind/playback

All of the above can only be rectified by powering down and resetting. They have all, on at least one occasion, paused themselves during playback and locked up - then when you press backup it goes back to the planner and randomly changes programmes from recorded/viewed to 'failed'. They even manage to record one programme and fail another that was due to record at the same time, with the message 'lost signal'.

In short they are rubbish. Sky dismissed my gf with 'its a software issue we are trying to rectify it' but I need to speak with them myself. Sky are a bunch of arseholes to deal with too, took them three weeks just to get the right installation date out of them. Ended up with a 'special care' engineer and a free months subscription (which is now 54 quid a month ).
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[owdamer]

I've nerver used sky+, but I have heaps of hdd recorder experience. I repair them for a living. I have a hdd from a philips hdd recorder at work thats full of films so I brought it home to see if I could copy the films.
I plugged it into my pc as a slave drive, but it doesn't recognise the file system so you cant copy the recordings. I imagine sky+ will be the same.
The philips hdd recorders sound just the same as villers experience with amstrad. The guide plus resets itself, changes settings & ignores what you program in. and the dvd recorder blows an internal ic & renders the entire unit useless...
Philips. making life simple............

[HerbalDayZ]

[veeeffarr]

No experience with Sky+, but I presume that there is a proprietary filesystem in place to prohibit this type of copying.

Maybe if you're lucky you can remove the drive and slave it (As already mentioned) and POSSIBLY find some drivers that will read the filesystem of the disk.

[veeeffarr]

Here's your answer

[HerbalDayZ]

Just to prove im not chatting shit about USB port on my box ive taken a couple of snaps
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my sepllnig is bad i udnretsand taht so i aolpisge.
dys?lex?i?a (A learning disorder marked by impairment of the ability to recognize and comprehend written words.dyslexia (impaired ability to learn to read)

[MarkyPancake]

We got Sky+ Multiroom because at the time it was the same price as two regular boxes.

I don't watch a lot of TV, but the Sky+ feature has proved very useful, except when the programme guide hasn't been updated in time and you miss the end of a live broadcast, even with the 10 minute overrun on.

[Ric]

sky plus is great!!

at uni i have a pace box with 250Gb and a thomson with 80g

we have so much tv!!

well worth it

[iCraig]

I used to have Sky+ and I miss it immensely.

I only got rid of it due to monetary reasons. And I switched to NTL.

I had the Amstrad PVR, and it was a nice box, and never failed me in 18 months. And I sold it on ebay for £90 .