RE: [OT] Is Sky + as crap as I think it is ?

["Paul Gordon" <paul@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Speaking as one with a foot in each camp (I have sky+ downstairs, and Sky
& Tivo upstairs), I think they each have their good and bad points.
(And yes, IMHO, even the Tivo does have some bad points!

The Tivo interface is very good, but I've said it before, and I still
maintain, that the way the UI has been implemented with transparent
overlays sucks big-time - It makes the UI no longer a "10 foot"
UI... - I simply cannot use it from in bed, since I cannot see the White
text clearly enough to read. - Result: - I have to use the Sky UI for
channel selection, - that means I have to have Tivo in "Aux"
rather than "Live TV" mode, since the slight delay in
responsiveness when in Live TV mode is distracting and enfuriating (I end
up entering IR keypresses twice and so on...) - that means of course that
if Tivo wants to change channel to record something whilst I'm watching
something off-air in real time, I never get to see the polite message
asking for permission to change channel... - which invariably means that
right in the middle of watching something the channel suddenly changes
(very annoying). - And all this is because they didn't have the sense to
make the UI visible from a
cross the room... (and my bedroom is not particularly huge by the way...) -
Oh, and because I end up switching between Aux & Live a lot, it makes
it quite clear how the Tivo is degrading the picture quality... - the
colours are distictly and noticeably duller after passing through Tivo.

The Sky UI on the other hand is simplicity itself, and a joy to use. -
Granted it doesn't "do" a fraction of the things that Tivo can
do, but what it does do, it does clearly, and simply. I can see it, and
importantly, read it from my viewing position without any problems. -
Surely it's not rocket science to figure out that a solid blue background
with yellow text on it is a lot easier to see than white text on whatever
colour happens in the TV picture at the time (which is often white!) -
white text on a white background anyone????

The other major gripe for me is (as was mentioned) the channel-changing
malarkey... I have lost count (and I'm sick and tired of counting!) the
number of times over the years that Tivo has failed to change channel on
the sky box properly. - I have tried every alternative method that I know
of, - including the front blaster, the IR wand, and even the hardwired
thingy that goes into the RF2 on the sky box... - nothing has been 100%
reliable. - It may not happen that frequently, but it doesn't have to, -
once is annoying enough if it happens to be an episode of "Desperate
Housewives" that gets recorded instead of the penultimate episode of
"24" for example.

So, for my money, I'd like to see a Tivo, with integrated twin Sky tuners,
and a UI I can see from 10 feet away.... - not holding out much hope
though.... or how about TiVo licensing its software to Sky, so that Sky
could fit the Tivo functionality into a future Sky+ box....

Dream on.....

Paul G.





________________________________

From: ukha_d@xxxxxxx on behalf of Mark McCall
Sent: Mon 26/09/2005 12:41
To: UKHA_D Group
Subject: RE: [ukha_d] [OT] Is Sky + as crap as I think it is ?



> Personally I find the Tivo to be toffee.

No idea what that means but I assume its derogatory?

If it is I have to disagree strongly.  TiVo is one of the best products
I've
ever used.

M.