V+ vs SKY+

[LondonRoad]

Originally Posted by kirk1690

I have had both and vplus is better by a mile .

Me too and I fully agree. V+ is far superior.

[mentalis]

The V+ has some good points, such as three tv tuners, archive to DVD and watching another channel etc, but I have just switched to Sky+HD (and my mum has Sky+), and am impressed.

The box is slow to respond when coming out of standby, but not as slow as the V+. Sky+ seems to be the quickest. The Sky+HD, and Sky+, look much nicer than the V+ (has anyone ever tried to squeeze a V+ into a Sky+HD shell).

Channel changing is very quick on Sky+, slower on Sky+HD, and much slower on V+. Also, on a glass stand, the Sky+HD is silent, but the V+ isn't. On a wooden stand the Sky+ is silent.

I, personally, prefer the way that Sky+/Sky+HD go into standby with just a red light, rather that enough lighting to light up a dark room.

The V+ says it can rewind/fast forward at 32x, whereas Sky+ can only manage 30x. The Sky+ seems smoother at doing this, but this could be by design. Also the Sky+ stops quicker (sometimes my V+ just ignored me all together when I asked it to stop fast forwarding).

[don_1]

I've decided to go for the V+ STB. Engineer is coming tomorrow

Can you rewind a program even if you have not paused or recorded that program,channel?

Cheers all

[jamiefrost]

It does buffer live TV, not sure of the limits (obviously not before you changed channel) but I think there is an hours buffer or so in it.

JJ

[lemarsh]

Originally Posted by don_1

I've decided to go for the V+ STB. Engineer is coming tomorrow

Can you rewind a program even if you have not paused or recorded that program,channel?

Cheers all

Yes - think it is 2 hours. However, 2 thing that Sky+ does which V+ doesn't.

1) If the V+ box has not been used for a while (not sure how long - probably many hours) you cannot rewind. This may be cancelled out against Sky+ as it goes into stand-by at 1am each morning, so if V+ is over 24 hours then both the same.

2) You cannot rewind, and then record. eg if you are watching a film, you cannot rewind back to the start and record.

[don_1]

When was the first TV drive released?

And when did the Black V+ come out? .... anyone know?

Thanks

[Maverick1968]

Had Sky+ for three years, loved it.
Now got V+, and personally prefer it for the following reasons :-

1: More space for recordings (80 hours in Std Def)
2: Record two programs at same time, while watching a third
3: TV Planner is better
4: Virgin don't sting me £10 extra for the priviledge of having V+, unlike Sky +
5: If V+ packs up, Virgin own it so they'll fix/replace it free of charge
Oh, and finally, I get V+, XL TV, Broadband L (10MB) and phone for £36 a month.

[Tezcatlipoca]

1) Although Sky+ doesn't have the same amount of HDD space as a V+ box, Sky+HD does if you were to have got that instead (160GB, ~80 hours SD).

3) New Sky EPG due "imminently" (March apparently). Much improved over the old one.

4) You only have to pay £10 for Sky+ features if you do not subscribe to any Sky packages. If you have even just one mix, Sky+ features are free.

With the rise of Freesat & Freesat+, I would expect (hope) Sky to finally drop the Sky+ subscription completely - makes no sense when you can get a Freesat+ box & have PVR functions without having to pay any kind of subscription to anyone.

[Maverick1968]

Agree Sky should drop the £10 charge for Sky+ features, why pay them £10 extra for the priviledge of having live pause/rewind/record when you've paid for the box anyway.
And I think you only avoid paying if you take Sports or Movies, I had Sports so didn't pay. Prefer the fact that I don't own the Virgin V+ box, even though I had no issues with my Sky+ (often commented on the fact that it was the best gadget I'd ever purchased), in the back of my mind I knew that if it failed it was down to me to pay for repairs.

[Tezcatlipoca]

Yup, back when they were the only real option, they could get away with it.

But now you can easily get a Freesat+ box (or a Freeview+ box), I don't see how Sky can continue to justify charging* to use PVR functions...

*[those with no subscription]


As for the Sky+ fee itself though... yeah, it used to be the case that it was only free if you had a Premium channel (Sport/Movies), but they actually dropped that nearly two years ago & changed it so that Sky+ functions were free if you had *any* Sky subscription... even just basic Mixes.

Originally Posted by don_1

Whats the difference between the V+ and Sky+ boxes?

What are the advantages and disadvantages of both the boxes?

Assuming your talking about std Sky+ then the difference is astronomical

Sky+ via analogue scart will be barely watchable on H/Def TV

V+ via upscaled digital HDMI is best possible SD picture you're likely to see

.

---------- Post added at 20:30 ---------- Previous post was at 20:28 ----------

Originally Posted by djmagnifique

Sky+ only records 1 channel while watching another, V+ records 2 channels.

albeit you forgot to mention Sky+ can record also two channels at same time just like V+

.

---------- Post added at 20:39 ---------- Previous post was at 20:30 ----------

Originally Posted by jamiefrost

It does buffer live TV, not sure of the limits (obviously not before you changed channel) but I think there is an hours buffer or so in it.

Actually you've dropped on V+ massive boo-boo/bug

Whilst you can rewind TV, unlike any other PVR you cant record the programme???????

V+ only record/save from when you actually press 'record'

Irony is it actually has the whole programme recorded in the buffer (so you can rewind) but it just "dumps" it

A chimpansee could fix it but VM can't be bothered

.

[don_1]

How many minutes can you rewind when watching a channel/programme on V+, if you don't record it?

And how long can you pause a programme?

Thanks

You can rewind for 90 mins - but like i say - unlike other PVRs you can not save/record this portion - V+ just dumps it

[don_1]

Originally Posted by JethroUK

You can rewind for 90 mins - but like i say - unlike other PVRs you can not save/record this portion - V+ just dumps it

And how long can you pause a programme then?

90 mins - the same

I rarely pause for more than few minutes - because of the bug you'd better to just press record