Sky introduces 2TB set-top box and catch-up TV service
This week sees the launch of a bigger 2TB Sky+HD set-top box and a new seven-day Sky Catch-Up TV service for programmes on Sky, ITV Player and Demand 5.
BBC iPlayer will be added this autumn, with 4oD following in early 2013.
The new 2TB personal video recorder can store up to 350 hours of high-definition content, offering double the capacity of Virgin Media's 1TB TiVo box.
Sky Anytime+ is rebranded as Sky On Demand, and will include access to box sets such as Mad Men, An Idiot Abroad and Mad Dogs, available at no extra charge.
In addition, the new Sky+ app for iPad is now live. Through the app, customers can change channels by swiping the iPad screen, browse their Sky+ planner, and add and delete shows without interrupting their TV viewing.
Further enhancements mean users can interact more fully with Sky content. They can follow and contribute to online chat via a built-in Twitter feed, and gain access to a extra information about the show they are watching.
There's also an immersive second-screen function, powered by augmented TV specialists Zeebox. Sky's Champions League football and Ryder Cup golf coverage will both benefit from updates to the Sky Sports for iPad update, too.
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Comments
To all the people talking about lack of wifi I find a homeplug powerline adapter much more reliable than wifi. I have one with 3 Ethernet sockets so my blu ray, sky hd box and Apple TV can all share the same adapter without all the interference that you can get with competing wifi devices.
Or you could just run a standard ethernet cable to the box and get it that way.
I spoke to Sky engineer the other day who stated that Sky were only in the early stages of making a box that had wifi built in. Crazy, blu-ray players and tvs have it.
I was told I could buy a wifi unit to obtain the on demand service which is huge and costs £60.
Luckly it's going down to a £10 soon to compete with Virgin.
That is really bizarre. Can't understand it!?
Yes. The only box that will do that is the single tuner Digibox aimed at multiroom customers. http://www.whathifi.com/news/sky-releases-smaller-hd-box-for-multiroom-customers
Is it definately confirmed the new box won't pass 5.1 sound over hdmi? I'd be amazed if Sky didn't update the box to be able to do this. It seems the norm nowadays and I can't see any benefit having to do this with a separate lead over optical!
I found you just store more and more that you never watch.
I also resent paying money to news corp with all their tatty goings on and most of the money is poured into football.
Well it isn't put into football just the players who put nothing into the game , spend it on their aspirational girlfriends and their ridiculous celebrity status.
Since the olympics put the footballers and the sports entertainment that is football in a very poor light and I have been losing interest for the past four or five years but finally had enough.
I don't directly have sky but virgin and hugely resent having to pay the whole sports package just to feed my F1 habit.
Have decided to get you view at christmas and get rid of the sky elements, my only concern is that I will have shifted allegiance from Branson to Sugar, oh well !!
Apologies for some poor english,can't seem to edit, sorry for the minor rant too !
What we really want need is a 3 tuner box & cheaper prices!
Makes an absolute mockery of todays feature Recession Britian in The Sun. News Corp/International being Sky's biggest shareholder.
After all you don't need 2 TV Licences for multiroom & theres still the HD Charge.
@ psurquhart, because it isn't a new box, it's the same H/W (with the same long in the tooth chipsets) just with a larger HDD fitted.
It's about time they revised the H/W on Sky+HD boxes, and started using the newer chipsets, like they use in the single tuner/non-PVR 'SkyHD' box (DRX595) which do output DD5.1 over HDMI.
Instead of turning a HDD supply issue into a marketing opportunity.
Not sending DD via HDMI is daft, they've had plenty of time to add what could almost be seen as minimum requirement technology these days.
They should also have been selling wireless enabled boxes by now too, consumers have plenty of tiny and cheap devices that already do it!
I wonder why the manufacturers keep sticking with optical ? Seems like the only negative to the new boxes. Anyone care to comment ?
Still, its good that they are upping their game.
Any news on launch dates or prices please ?
As is often typical of Sky, they are being very misleading about this '2TB' box!!!
They started fitting 2TB drives to the DRX895 (1TB box) instead of the 1.5TB (1TB for recording, the other 500GB reserved for Sky use) they were fitting because of the price/availabilty issues due the floods in Thailand.
These boxes are not new and you only get 1.5TB of recording space, the other 500GB being reserved for Sky use
Nope!
Just checked with Sky: the answer is no, you'll still need the optical connection.
Will this version be able to send a Dolby Digital signal via HDMI?