Re: Tivo / Sky+/pioneer dvr-5100hs

["Simon Coates" <ecolume@xxxxxxx>]

Rob,

I used Maxtor DiamondMax16 120Gb drives to upgrade my Sky+ boxes, although
you might struggle to get them now.  They are reasonably quiet, I hardly
ever hear them, they're only slightly louder than the original disk.  As
Ken
said, swapping the drive is easy, as long as you have a security torx
screwdriver set - the torx bits with a hole in the centre.
Regarding 'flaky' boxes - the first boxes were manufactured by Pace and
most
of the initial problems everyone was hearing about was due to software
bugs.
My two boxes have been OK for over a year now with no problems.  The new
Sky+ boxes are manufactured by Amstrad, and the faults with these seem to
be
due to hardware.
Sky+ is excellent - and with the hard disk upgrade it's even better.  Now
that Sky have dropped the £10 Sky+ fee I'm more pleased than ever!
One other thing to point out is that there's a new software update coming
soon that will allow recording of two channels at once.  You'll have the
choice of recording two programmes whilst watching one of the programmes or
recording two programmes whist watching a previously recorded program.  It
will also have the 'Tivo feature' to save the 'instant rewind' buffer to
disk for up to 1 hour.

Tivo does have a vastly superior user interface to the basic Sky+
interface.
The main problem with Sky+ was that the user interface had to match the
existing Sky interface, which looks very dated now.  However, the Sky+
interface is very easy to use and functional - and getting better all the
time!

Regards

Simon
PS my Tivo is still in its box
PPS this took ages to type with one hand :o(

----- Original Message -----
From: Rob Mouser <rmouser@xxxxxxx>
To: <ukha_d@xxxxxxx>
Sent: 27 October 2003 08:31
Subject: RE: [ukha_d] Tivo / Sky+/pioneer dvr-5100hs


>>My way I get the best of both worlds for less that the £600 you
have as a
>>budget and with the extra left I whacked a 120Gb drive in Sky+,
which is
>>quite literally a two minute job.

Any links to a how-to or FAQ on this K.? Also can it be done so that if
your
Sky+ box develops a fault you can whack the original drive back in before
the engineer arrives :-) Been a few posts on flaky Sky+ boxes and don't
fancy being lumbered with a £200 paper weight!

P.S. I'm stongly considering Sky+ for the same reason, picture quality.
Will
keep Tivo though as I just can't bare the though of the separation
<swoon>/.

Many thanks

Rob Mouser


-----Original Message-----
From: Kenneth Watt [mailto:kwatt@xxxxxxx]
Sent: 26 October 2003 23:08
To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
Subject: RE: [ukha_d] Tivo / Sky+/pioneer dvr-5100hs

> Dont forget, if you have a pair of premier channels such as both
sports,
> or both movies at least, then there is no £10/month charge.

Very true and one of the two things I'd say make Sky+ a worthwhile
endeavour. The other being picture quality.

> And Sky+ is light years faster to navigate and use than Tivo.

I'd disagree with that having used both extensively. The TiVo interface and
what it can do is simply superb at what it does and there are a lot of
other
things to be said for TiVo's OS as well that Sky+ simply cannot in any way,
shape or form match. For example, season passes that work and don't
automatically cancel at the slightest hiccup! Another shining example is,
you try finding something you know the name of in that rank bit of software
they use for searching! Oh and then there's the lack of guide data beyond
one week as well. :/

Sorry Gareth but the TiVo way is just soooo much better and I've got Sky+
and not TiVo now.

My solution was a bit different to the question, I use Sky+ and a Philips
DVDR880 for dumping anything to DVD that I want to do that with and it
works
well enough for me. I use Sky+ because I want the PQ, but not the OS if the
PQ wasn't so important to me I'd have stuck with TiVo without a doubt.

My way I get the best of both worlds for less that the £600 you have as a
budget and with the extra left I whacked a 120Gb drive in Sky+, which is
quite literally a two minute job.

HTH

K.



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