Quote:
|
Originally Posted by themelon
Sky+ isnt market leading to me.........mainly because TiVO was there first, TiVO is not proprietry kit. Sky+ would require me to have Sky.
|
I know this wasn't addressed to me, but...
I have Tivo. There are two MAJOR areas where Sky + improves on an NTL + Tivo System.
1) Picture quality. Sky + does not decode/reencode the signal. With Tivo, the fact the the NTL box decodes the signal, then Tivo re-encodes it introduces a quality loss. With the Tivo on Best quality, it is acceptable, but there are compression artifacts noticable on some programs (particularly in areas that are very dark, but not quite black). This happens even with good quality cabling. With Sky +, because there is no decode/re-encoding, you don't get this problem.
2) Recording one channel and watching another. Unless I pay NTL an extra £15 a month (I think) and get another STB (which would make the wiring around my TV even more of a nightmare than it already is), I cannot watch one channel and record another. This, on top of the £15 a month Tivo charge would mean I am paying £30 a month to emulate a facilty that with Sky + would cost me half that.. That's assuming I don't want to record two programmes (which Sky+ with the new software can do out of the box)
anyway, back to the point. No, Sky were not the first to do a PVR (and in some ways, the Tivo is superior, season passes for example). They are the first company to do an entirely digital PVR (no conversion to analogue signals until the viewer watches a programme), the first to offer a PVR that can record one programme while watching another, and the first to offer a PVR that can record two programmes though. In that sense, they ARE the market leaders.