Re: Sky+ HD - Lower Hardware Price

[Geoff H <yahoo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Paul,

It was really interesting reading your review of 'living with sky'. I
have never had sky (so I am the kind of person they really want) because
whoever I speak to, who has it, will mention something like 'I have to
pay an extra £10/month to get such and such' because sky have
reorganised packages, or generally increased charges, or brought out
some new hardware that is free to new subscribers but not existing ones.

Sky has to recoup the money they have paid out for sports coverage, so
regardless of whether you subscribe to sports or not, everyone is paying
for it. I would love to just get HD, but instead I will have to pay for
a load of rubbish that I don't need and more importantly don't want just
to view HD programs.

So I shall be waiting for FreeSat to mature a bit before jumping on the
HD bandwagon.

Geoff

Paul Gordon wrote:
> I do have movies in my package, so I've (fortunately) never been
stiffed for the £10 premium for sky+, although, as Mark said, that was
dropped a while back.
>
> I pay:
>
> My package sub (entertainment + movies), - not sure what that comes
to, about £38-ish I think
> Multiroom sub - £10 extra
> HD sub - £10 extra
> HD sub for 2nd room - £10 extra
>
> The total per month for that is a whopping £68... - this is far
too much, and I'd like to stop giving $ky so much money for old rope all
the time...
>
> Sky have actually done themselves in IMHO.... I was previously
"content" to keep paying them somewhere round this amount, but
they kept getting greedier & greedier. At one point a year or two ago,
I actually had to start cancelling channels out of my package to keep to
the same overall sub, - I used to have the sports package as well, but that
went when I learned I'd have to pay TWO lots of HD subs..
>
> Plus, I don't think they've done themselves any favours with the state
of the HD boxes... - we're several years in from the original product
launch, and they STILL haven't sorted out some of the basic functionality
of the PVR (FFWD & REW speeds spring to mind). Add to that the boxes
themselves seem to be notoriously flaky & unreliable with far too many
failed boxes, failed recordings, and just really weird, annoying, and plain
stupid behaviour, like:
>
>  - go into live pause, then the box refuses to unpause. Only way out
is turn box into standby & on again, - thus losing the buffer of what
you've paused.
>  - Series links will disappear at the drop of a hat. Seems to be
possibly related to gaps in the schedule maybe? - I've had plenty of
occasions of missed programmes because a series link I'd setup at the
beginning of a series has disappeared some way through the series.
>  - Descriptions in the planner have been known to get mixed up. - I
recorded one of the Star Wars films over christmas, I'm fairly sure the
description was right originally, but several weeks later when I went to
watch it, the recording description was for an episode of Only Fools &
Horses...
> - Recordings will often start playback with no sound. Only fix is once
again to go into standby & turn on again, whereafter playback is
usually OK.
>  - Failed recordings are far too common. I've experienced loads. Some
of them have even said the recording failed *before* it was even
broadcast!! (go figure). Other times it says failed due to power failure
(my arse! - comfort would go into alarm if there is a power failure, and my
boxes are not on X10 modules). I now habitually schedule all my recordings
on both my boxes, in the hope that at least one of them will get it...
>  - The boxes are also seemingly prone to die after approximately 1
year & 1 day (i.e. just after warranty expiry). Sky want to charge
£60 for an engineer call out to repair/replace in this situation. (I
told them where to go, & threatened to cancel the lot unless they
replaced it for free, - which, funnily enough, they did). Replacements are
usually refurbished/repaired boxes though..
>
> All in all, that's a p1ss poor showing for what is supposed to be
their *premium* product & service. I'm pretty much just waiting for one
of my boxes to die again, or freesat HD to launch a decent PVR box (a TiVo
one would be fabulous!) in order to start moving away from Sky. One thing
is for certain; - I'm absolutely not going to pay them £60 to
repair/replace a failed box - not unless it goes for about 5 years that
is.... Also, Freesat aren't getting any of my money unless & until they
drop their stupid restrictive practises regarding dish installation...
(like you *have* to have installation, even if you already have a perfectly
suitable dish installed)...
>
> I live in a Virgin Media cabled area, so switching over to a cable
service is also an option for me, and since I already have phone &
broadband from them, I reckon I could get a fairly competitive bundle deal.
>
> Gosh, perhaps I should go to that pub that was on the news last night
& have a go on their grumble soapbox!
>
> Paul G.
>
>
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: ukha_d@xxxxxxx [mailto:ukha_d@xxxxxxx] On Behalf
>> Of John Murray
>> Sent: 02 July 2008 14:05
>> To: UKHA Group
>> Subject: RE: [ukha_d] Sky+ HD - Lower Hardware Price
>>
>> If you don't have movies or sport in your package, you have to pay
£10
>> to use Sky +, so is that:
>> Basic Ents sub £18 + £10 to use skyplus + £10 for
multi room + £10 for
>> HD room1 + £10 for HD room2 = £58/month for FTA
equivalent package
>> which is erm £0/month
>>
>> Or worse, do you have to pay an further tenner for the 2nd Sky+
>> facility?
>>
>> From: ukha_d@xxxxxxx [mailto:ukha_d@xxxxxxx] On Behalf
>> Of Paul Gordon
>> Sent: 02 July 2008 13:41
>> To: UKHA Group
>> Subject: RE: [ukha_d] Sky+ HD - Lower Hardware Price
>>
>>
>> It's even worse if you have multiroom & a 2nd HD box... - then
you have
>> to pay TWO £10/month HD subs... - complete ***ing rip-off!!
>>
>> *seriously* considering cancelling at least one of my $ky subs
&
>> getting a freesat HD box when they bring out a decent PVR one...
>>
>> Paul G.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>>
>>
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