First look: Sky gives glimpse into its new EPG

[Isitme]

Don't VM just 'loan' their devices to their customers. Unlike Sky who sell the devices which then become the users property.

[seawright]

Sky's marketing model is effectively hire purchase. While I have nothing against this their billing should be more transparent and show cost of box plus interest and how much is still owing on each monthly bill. then, once the box is paid for, the subscription should be reduced to the true cost of providing the service.
This would also enable those who wished to pay for the box up front to pay a flat subscription from day one.

At the same time Sky Protect should be brought in house. It could still be underwritten by Domestic & General Insurance PLC but should be administered by Sky and show up on the Sky bill for those wishing to avail themselves of the service.

[Koala5]

I had this with my Mum last year! She has been with Sky for 12 years and had the very first Sky+ box when Sky+ first came out which was knackered noisy fans noisy hard drive that kept crashing and knackered remote. She wanted to switch her phone to Sky for the free international calls. When I rang Sky to order I said as part of the deal i.e. taking extra services I want the Sky+ box replaced with a new or refurb one! They were insistent they couldn't do that and it would be £250 for a new box unless she took the HD subscription, which I new was no good for my Mum as she is as blind as a bat and can't see the difference between HD and SD! After 4 hours on the phone and threatening a move to Virgin, they eventually said she would have to take the HD subscription to get the new box but that they would credit her account with £120 to cover the HD subscription for the first year, then I could cancel the HD subs after 12 months and keep the box! What a ball ache to sort out. The move to Virgin would have happened if my Mum hadn't been so insistent she didn't want new cables run round the house!

[Scubbie]

Mmmm... Purchase a Sky STB in a similar way to the purchase of a Mobile phone...

Lets look at that for one moment. This is what you currently get with O2:

iPhone 5c.

Purchase price from £0.00 to £529.99

Once you pick your tariff, you are then asked how much you wish to pay towards the phone (£0.00, £90 or £529.99). You now pay an additional fee of either £20.00, £15.00 or £0.00 per month for the next 24 months.

Of course if things go wrong, you should expect them to repair or replace the phone for free. At least this is what Vodafone do.

[James_Mitchell]

Just ignore O2, they do have have a stupidly expensive and complicated system though unlike all the other networks.

[NickS]

There is a good chance the new EPG will not apply to the older boxes, Pace, Samsung and the old Amstrad. I don't think the boxes are powerful enough for the new features. Look out for Sky offering to replace the old boxes free or at a discount.

We can but hope! Exactly what I thought when I was offered a free new router. I've got one of the early Pace boxes and can only record 30 hours HD so keep hoping for a cheap upgrade. Incidentally it is one of the boxes they tried to replace (with a refurb) about 4 years ago. Still going strong!

[dgmckenzie]

Well, I've paid ~ £250 for each of the boxes I got from Sky; Analog, Digital then Sky+HD. All I got a discount on what the install and the last one was crap.

My Samsung usual dies when they send out an update, I came back from Christmas holidays and nothing had recorded as the box must have died around 8th December. No Doctor Who :-(

[Scubbie]

Among all the other issues I have heard, I hadn't heard of the Samsung STB completely locking up after the update.

Is the STB's hard drive pretty full?

As for Dr Who...

The Mini Episode (The Night of the Doctor) is still available on BBC iPlayer. Sadly The 50th Anniversay episode The Day of The Doctor and Christmas special are not available.

[dgmckenzie]

The only recording on it was the 50th Anniversary Doctor Who and I had cleared out the deleted programs to get ready for Christmas.

The box is now sitting at 66% which is around 16hrs worth of HD, it gets full at around 30hrs approx.

[Scubbie]

I've just checked Amazon and it looks like the last Christmas special is available on Blu-ray or DVD. £9.99 for the DVD or £16.75 for the Blu-ray.

The alternatives are to wait until the repeat (often around Easter) or to download the torrent.