Sky to phase in new Sky+ HD electronic programme guide
Sky is finally to begin rolling out its new HD electronic programme guide (EPG) from tomorrow (March 10th).
We first saw the new Sky+ HD EPG last June, when we had a hands-on preview, but its implementation – originally due last autumn – was delayed while further research was undertaken.
The new Sky+ HD Guide is designed to make it easier for HD customers to find, watch and record the programmes they want to watch live, on-demand via Sky's Anytime service or at a later date.
The first batch of Sky customers will get the update on March 10th, and it will then be rolled out across the rest of Sky's customer base during the next few weeks.
Gerry O'Sullivan, Sky's Director of Strategic Product Development, says: "The launch of our new on-screen guide means Sky+ HD customers will now find it even easier to search, record and watch the thousands of hours of high-definition programmes that only Sky+ HD delivers".
Benefits of the new Sky+ HD Guide include:
* New Mini TV: Viewers can now browse and watch TV at the same time so they never have to miss a minute of their favourite show again.
* Improved Now, Next and Later banner: Viewers can now view programme information for all programmes across all channels, up to 12 hours ahead without interrupting their current TV viewing.
* Improved Record and Series Link: Viewers can now record and Series Link at the touch of a button straight from the TV listings without having to go back to their planner.
If the programme they'd like to record is part of a series, the new Series Link prompt will ask them if they would like to record it once or record the whole series. Series Link can also be set from the TV Guide, or the Now, Next and Later banner, even while watching a programme.
* New Series Stack: The new Series Stack feature helps viewers better manage their recordings in their planner by grouping all the episodes from a series together in the same place under the programme name.
* Improved Search: Viewers will be able to search for their favourite shows and discover new ones up to seven days ahead by programme title, genre or subgenre, such as 'Movies: Comedy'.
To find out more about the new Sky+ HD EPG, check out our blog.
Comments
had sky hd since day one, still waiting for my update, expect better for nearly £70 a month, very poor service!
Well i cant wait for the new epg will make a change from the current one. Lets hope its soon as after all this is my 8th sky hd box since august 08 and the current New amstrad box is really good also got sky to knock off 25 % off my subscription for all the problems. I guess someone is sky is listening to there customer after all i have been with sky for almost 15years.
Think this is not being sent to Pace boxes yet, as there's a recall in progress on Pace boxes. AFAIK, the new EPG is only available for Thomson boxes so far.
This looks great but there is a problem for the all the HD customers who wish to take advantage of all the new whistles and bells that the new EPG is supposed to offer – storage.
I'd like to know when they are going to make use of the ESATA and USB ports at the back ?! I love SKY HD but the onboard storage is a joke, you can only record roughly 8 HD films. Some sort of external storage attachment you be great! - a nice 1Tb Sky branded external drive using the ESATA would be the icing on the cake for SKY HD, although i expect that SKY would charge he earth for such a device....... still would be nice though to be able to record a whole bunch of movies and programs in HD and not have to sacrifice all the storage to do so!
Please SKY, the HD service is great but the onboard storage is woefully inadequate.
It is an automatic update. Got mine. It is good. Much better than before but no better than a good freeview PVR EPG. Ridiculous wait for a service I am forking out £70 a month for.
Assume it's an automatic firmware update.
Had my update last night. But only on one of my HD boxes? Who knows how Sky works?
Anyway the new EPG looks really good and will make stuff alot easier to find.....Eventually.
Does anyone know how the sky-hd box is updated with the new GUI? Does a sky engineer have to come round or is the firmware update done over landline. Basically do we have to do anything??
wow, its actually gonna happen this time!
Thats where the money goes LOL
Hurrah, at last!