BSkyB, a company that is 39 percent owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, has surpassed the 2 million sales mark in the UK for its Sky+ PVR which puts the company ahead of its own personal target.
In fact it is Sky+ which is really making PVRs well known in the UK. While in the US many people refer to recording a show on a PVR as "TiVo-ing" a show, in the UK many people say "I Sky Plussed it".
Although the news saw a slight rise in BSkyB's share price, it has now dropped back down a little at £5.25 pence a share.
If you were lucky enough to receive a PVR-related product for Christmas, but you're finding difficulty figuring out how to use it, then here's some handy numbers and websites for you to try out before losing your marbles.
Sky+: The customer service number at Sky can vary in the waiting times, from as low as five minutes, to up to an hour. However, they tend to be quiet helpful and knowledgeable -- and if you're not getting satisfaction, insist on a engineer coming out to visit. But make sure you do have a fault, or you could end up being charged if you've done something stupid like taken the batteries out of your remote. Customer service ebsite: www.sky.com. Phone: 08705 800 800 for Sky+ support or 8702 43 5000 for other technical enquiries.
Telewest TVDrive: most people who have a Telewest/NTL product also have the telephone as part of the deal. If so, just dial 150 from your phone and follow the instructions to find the service helpdesk that you need. If you don't have the phone, try the FAQ section first or phone 0845 142 0000.
If you picked up a Humax PVR, try out their website first: www.humaxdigital.com/uk or phone 0208 744 5510. You can also email them on: sales-info@humax-digital.co.uk
If you received a Topfield PVR, try their website: www.topfield.co.uk/ or visit their forum, which has a small community of people ready to help out with any problems.
Most importantly, don't lose the plot if you're starting to get frustrated by a problem you can't resolve. I usually find that obsessing over it is often the best way to lose the affections of your closest family members -- while a simple process of taking a break and then methodically working your way through the issue usually brings about the best results.
If you're really, really stuck - just email us using the contact link here on the site (or comment on this entry) and we'll do our very best to help out or point you in the right direction.
Whatever you do, enjoy your holiday period and your PVR gift.
Back in May, I moved to a new house and picked up a new Sky+ deal with BSkyB, which came with the newer box with increased capacity (and improvements on the recent software updates). I managed to flog my old box on eBay for £50 and pretty much made back the installation costs at the same time.
However, within a month of the new installation, I started losing channels all over the place, and the only thing which could bring them back was a channel re-scan or a complete planner re-build and a forced software download. So, BSkyB sent out an engineer, who then replaced my Thomson box with a new one.
Over the past few months, the problem has repeated itself, and I've continually found myself bereft of channels, and having to go through the re-scan on a fairly regular basis. When I spoke to the technical support at BSkyB last month about the issue, they sent a stronger update signal to the box, which seemed to cure the problem.
However, the cure was temporary, and the problem resurfaced last week -- so I called up BSkyB and asked them to send out an engineer. The chap who arrived was a pleasant character, and offered to replace not only the box itself, but the LNB on the dish. He even dug out a Pace box from his van for me.
Unfortunately, the Pace box died as he was setting it up, and I had to make do with an Amstrad box. Unfortunately, it means that I've lost a bunch of recordings, some of which I was planning to write about on our siste website, TV Squad.
I'm hopeful that the problem will vanish for good now, but you never can tell. I'll keep everyone posted on the fate of the Amstrad unit, and I'll live in hope that one day a Pace Sky+ box will be mine.
1. Sky HD. If there's one present I'd really love someone to buy me this Christmas, it's BSkyB's news HD service. It's a Sky+ PVR with 160GB of storage capacity (around 80 hours) and it displays tons of Sky's content in glorious HD (presuming you have an HD capable TV. It'll cost you £299 for the box, £60 for installation and an extra £10 per month on top of your subscription, depending on the channels you already receive. More: www.sky.com/hd
2. Topfield TF5800PVR 160GB Freeview PVR. A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of ordering one of these top-notch Freeview PVRs for the purposes of my job. It's a twin-tuner unit with a 160GB hard drive and a fairly easy-to-use setup and EPG. The only drawbacks are a slow reaction time on the remote, but it also has the added bonus of a USB connection, which comes in handy for moving videos around on to portable devices. You should expect to pay around £250, but it's worth every penny. More: Amazon UK.
3. Telewest TV Drive. If you're an NTL or Telewest customer in the UK, and you don't yet have a PVR, but you're sick of their basic on-demand service, you should consider treating yourself this Christmas by upgrading to TV Drive. It has a twin tuner, 80 hour capacity, 8-day EPG and series link facility. Oh, and it does HD too. Subscriptions start at an additional £10 per month, with no connection fee. More: Telewest UK.
4. Humax PVR800T PVR. If the Topfield doesn't take your fancy, you might want to consider the Humax PVR800T. It has pretty much all the same function as the Topfield TF5800, but with a slightly smaller HDD (80GB) and can only record one Freeview channel at a time. Expect to pay around £130.
In one of those re-branding exercises which happened here in the UK to products like Snickers (previously Marathon) and Starburst (previously Opal Fruits), BSkyB has renamed its broadband video download service to Sky Anytime (previously Sky by Broadband).
We reviewed the service here a while ago on PVR Wire, and I have to be honest in telling you that I haven't used it since, so a change in name isn't likely to encourage me to delve back in and start downloading DRM-crippled movies or sports events.
Sure, it's an interesting move to drop the limiting label of 'broadband' in favour of something more generic, but what it really needs is less restrictions on its use -- and more importantly, the ability to connect the video-out from my PC graphics card directly to my Sky box, in order to be able to watch the downloads on my TV, or save them off for later consumption.
As it stands, I can't even output the Sky Anytime content from my PC directly to my telly in the way I can with any other non-Sky video download, all because of Rupert Murdoch and Microsoft's effortless ways of persuading people to hate their products.
Digital Spy's regular reviewer Dek Hogan set his Sky+ box to record the BBC's Watchdog show, a consumer affairs programme aimed at targeting rogue traders and such like.
However, the box failed to record the show.
Presenter Nicky Campbell cited the example of one unlucky user who had worked his way through 11 boxes (I'm currently on my second box, V2 box -- I went through two hard drives in a year on my V1 box).
As Dek says, it might be worth running your old Sky+ box in to the ground before upgrading to Sky+ HD and uncovering the world of bugs which still seem to be out there.
This post probably belongs on our sister blog, TV Squad (which I also write for) but there is a point to it.
On Sunday night here in the UK, a special one-off episode of an immensely popular BBC comedy show called The Royle Family was aired, following an absence of almost six years, and was watched by almost 8 million people.
To try and explain the premise of The Royle Family is pretty much pointless, because there isn't one. It's a comedy about absolutely nothing -- but not in the Seinfeld kind-of way -- it's more subtle than that. It's a comedy about a family of working-class people who sit around and watch television.
It's widely regarded as one of the best comedy shows ever to emerge from the UK, up there with The Office, Only Fools and Horses and Fawlty Towers, yet it's nothing like any of them (well, apart from The Office, maybe).
So what's the point of my post?
Well, apart from the fact that the special episode was both heartwarming and exceptionally funny, a character said something that gives me good reason to believe that a word (or rather, a phrase) has well and truly entered the British lexicon, with reference to PVRs, and Sky+ in particular. (Sky Digital was mentioned in a previous episode of the show, when the central character, Jim Royle, received a Sky DigiBox as a gift).
When one of the lead characters, Denise Royle, mentioned that she had some catching up to do (she meant missed television shows, rather than work), her husband remarked that she had "Sky plussed them."
So, there you have it -- from a classic BBC comedy show: 'Sky Plussed'; the British version of the verb "to TiVo", which can be used to describe the recording of a television show on a Sky+ PVR (or otherwise).
If you live in the UK, and you're contemplating getting yourself a PVR -- perhaps even a Sky+ box -- then you probably won't find a better reason than this for the next 12 months: Lost is moving from Channel Four to Sky One at the start of the next series.
To put our US-readers in the picture: Channel Four is the 'fourth' terrestrial TV channel in the UK. It's free to everyone with an aerial on the roof of their house, it appears on Freeview (as well as on digital platforms like cable TV and satellite) and exists as one of the major commercial competitors to the BBC.
However, BSkyB's crown jewel is their mainstream channel, Sky One. On Sky One, you tend to find shows like Eureka, 24, Enterprise and Battlestar Galactica - the prime-time US shows which would normally appear on terrestrial television first, before being snapped up by Rupert Murdoch's cash-flush broadcasting empire for twice the asking price.
Well, it's happened again. It started with Star Trek: The Next Generation, moved on to X-Files, The Simpsons and Buffy, and now the world's most popualar TV show, Lost, has been snatched from Channel Four, with series 3 set to appear on Sky One in the next few months. (I could have set things up nicely with a dumb headline like 'Channel Four loses Lost', but decided not to)
Oh, and Sky One is only available if you have a BSkyB sateliite TV reciever or digital cable.
And if you're planning on getting yourself a sattelite subscription, you'd be as well just getting Sky+ (or NTL's TVDrive, for that matter).
When I started here at PVR Wire over a year ago, one of the first things I wrote about was BT's forthcoming iPTV/PVR product, codenamed 'Nevis', now named 'Vision'.
BT promised customers that the product would be available for the Christmas 2005 market, then in October, the product was officially announced, touted for a Q4 2006 release.
Well, BT has finally started rolling the product out in a 'soft-launch' approach, perhaps to try and meet the promise of the product being available "by the end of the year", but it's more likely in response to media boredom at being sold the same pony over and over again by BT's over-zealous marketing men.
The combined Freeview/PVR/broadband/IPTV box is now being touted for a Spring 2007 public release, but I wouldn't hold my breath, for the simple reason that nothing has really changed since I reported this product over a year ago.
And, given the growth of stand-alone Freeview PVRs, BSkyB's Sky+ service -- combined with all the other PVRs and providers on the market -- BT are on to a losing start in any attempt to convince users to cough up roughly £100 for a box which requires a subscription to watch most of the content on offer anyway.
HDTVUK has posted a comment on Amstrad's recent finfnacial report, which indicates that Alan Sugar's successful eletronics firm is currently developing HD PVR boxes for BSkyB's Sky+ service.
Of course, this is nothing new; Amstad already makes the ordinary Sky satellite boxes for BSkyB, and apparently these new HD boxes won't be available until 2007 due to some development delays on Amstrad's part.
So, does this mean the boxes old Alan's company are making will be higher capacity than the current Thomson HD Sky+ boxes? Who knows...
One thing is for sure, they can only be better than the flaky Thomsons. I'm on my second Thomson box this year, and it started flaking out on me last week, although, Sky technical services now claim to have moved me on to a stronger bandwidth signal from the Astra satellite to try and improve things.
IWeve just being informed by CielPlus of its new PC-based SKY PVR solution. The device effectively turns your PC into a Sky PVR, allowing you to watch and record UK BSkyB channles on your PC.
The product works by converting the digital signal from your Sky Digibox to USB 2. This signal is then processed and displayed on your PC.
As far as I'm aware this is the only real solution for getting Sky on your PC in the UK.
The encryption of the Sky Digital signal is non-standard and is deciphered to video within the Sky Digibox itself. This means that the preferable option of an actual PCI Sky Tuner card is not available.
The downside of the CielPlus card is the lack of software support for this device. It's designed for use with UK Digital Sky Satellite receivers and works with TSREADER (an MPEG-2 transport stream decoder/recorder) from Coolstf and VLC Media Player.
VLC Media Player is not going to give you the user friendly TiVo, EyeTV or MCE interface you might like - or even the Sky+ PVr feel, which is a bit of a let down, but CielPlus are inviting others to design software to use with the card.
A word of warning: if Sky updates its software it could potentially stop the Cielplus card from working. Cielplus do not offer refunds if this happens.
The Cielplus Sky PC card has only been tested with a few Digiboxes, so make sure you check that yours is supported. The cost of the card is £149.99 and comes with a UHF Remote Control unit.
Shares of BSkyB (BSY.L) dropped .50 today. There's not a whole lot to report here except at $554 a share, I really wish I owned some.
Comcast (CMCSA or CMCSK) saw its shares continue to surge thanks to optimism that the cable industry will be able to challenge big telecom in the business services market. That's great and all but whatever happened to the Comcast and Tivo deal announced last year. Haven't heard a thing about it in while.
This week, Echostar (DISH) shares increased a bit after taking a beating with last weeks negative Tivo decision. Shares saw a marginal increase thanks to the stay of injuction and the recent agreement to offer Warner Brother's titles on EchoStar's Video on Demand, Dish On Demand, and Pay-Per-View services. Personally, I figured signing a distribution deal with the company responsible for Lady in the Water would cause shares to plummet, but what do I know?
DirecTV (DTV) saw a minor boost in share price thanks to the completed merger of DirecTV Brasil and Sky Brasil to create a single direct to home platform in Latin America.
In other news, DirecTV is allowing NFL Sunday Ticket subscribers the ability to track their 9 favorite players in a fantasy capacity directly on their television sets while watching games. Does this sound like a killer app to anyone else? Makes me wish I had DirecTV. I'm a huge fan of fantasy football.
The good news keeps pouring in for TiVo (TIVO). Last week they were awarded $90 Million from Echostar. This week they signed an exciting deal to offer Cox subscribers a downloadable version of TiVo software for their PVRs. At this rate TiVo will probably be issuing a press release next week stating doctors just discovered TiVo cures cancer. Be sure to go pick up some shares (and some cigarettes) while you can.
Since opening on the London Stock Exchange last Monday at 547.00, shares in BSkyB (BSY.L) have jumped to 551.50 in just under a week, having opened the day on 544.00.
The steady gain is largely due to the continuing news on Sky's ventures into the broadband market, along with rumours of a takeover of AOL UK, which are yet to come to any fruition.
Okay, if you've just joined us, here's my regular predictions here on PVR Wire: PVRs will kill ads and traditional scheduling, and the media center will become the hub of the wireless home. Oh, and most television in future will be delivered over the internet or by IP.
AV Review in the UK has summarised the situation regarding PVRs over on this side of the pond, covering Sky+, TVDrive, Freeview and stand-alone PVRs, but the ultimate conclusion of the item states a point quite clearly, which appears to support my theories:
"It's evolving rapidly into an online, on-demand world where TV programmes don't just come via the airwaves at a set time but along a cable precisely when you want. Digital recorders are getting easier to program but catch-up TV services could bypass the need to plan and record anything. This will have an impact on the economics of TV, as VoD is usually charged per programme like album tracks on iTunes. Research in the US suggests that viewers will even pay slightly more for VoD content if it comes without ads. None of this will replace the thrill of watching a live special event but for everything else, TV timeshifting is poised to become the future."
BSkyB has released a new Easy Grip remote control for Sky+, which is claims will be useful for older people or those with manual dexterity problems.
The remote is basically a simple modification of the existing Sky+ remote, with larger graphics on the buttons (the buttons also have raised contours) and increased colour contrast between buttons and remote body.
The 'Easy Grip' is available now at the BSkyB Customer Zone, for £19.99.
BSkyB, a company that is 39 percent owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, has surpassed the 2 million sales mark in the UK for its Sky+ PVR which puts the company ahead of its own personal target.
If you were lucky enough to receive a PVR-related product for Christmas, but you're finding difficulty figuring out how to use it, then here's some handy numbers and websites for you to try out before losing your marbles.
Back in May, I moved to a new house and picked up a new Sky+ deal with BSkyB, which came with the newer box with increased capacity (and improvements on the recent software updates). I managed to flog my old box on eBay for £50 and pretty much made back the installation costs at the same time.
1. Sky HD. If there's one present I'd really love someone to buy me this Christmas, it's BSkyB's news HD service. It's a Sky+ PVR with 160GB of storage capacity (around 80 hours) and it displays tons of Sky's content in glorious HD (presuming you have an HD capable TV. It'll cost you £299 for the box, £60 for installation and an extra £10 per month on top of your subscription, depending on the channels you already receive. More: 
Oh, and it does HD too. Subscriptions start at an additional £10 per month, with no connection fee. More: 
