All posts by Graham Stone
Below are all of Graham Stone's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Kieran: You can also use a TIVO (Series 1) to control and record from a Sky, FreeSat, Freeview or Cable TV box. TIVO has it's own EPG and User Interface both of which are far superior and easier to use than anything you will have seen on SKY+.
You will need a secondhand TIVO with a 'lifetime' subscription, you can pick these up off ebay, or one of the sites offering Tivo spares, upgrades and advice such as TivoHeaven or TivoLand. Original TiVos had 40gb Drives, good for 11 Hours at Best Quality, but with upgrades to the hardware and software much bigger drives and near DVD quality (referred to in TiVo speak as 'Mode 0')are possible. My Tivos use a mix of 250GB and 500GB drives and will store hundreds of hours of recordings, I have two controlling 2 old SKY Boxes, and 2 controlling FreeSAT HD boxes.
So my suggestion would be to get another satellite box, hook it up to the redundant seconf feed intoo your Sky+ box, and let Tivo use that one - allowing you to watch Sky FreeToAir on the Sky+ box, while Tivo records from the other.
Graham
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Briantist: Thanks, I've re-read it and I now realise that it will be switched over to Digital, Not just Off, which is great;
follow on question is that as i can barely get an analogue signal with my loft mounted arial, will I get anything at all when it goes Digital and power is reduced t0 20% of current power ?
Graham
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Briantist: I agree it would be easier, yes, but he said he didn't want to buy a FreeSat recorder, easiest of all would be to not cancel the Sky+ Subscription.
The Integrated recorders (Sky+, Freesat+, Freeview+) are more expensive, more complicated to use, and depending on what else you might want to do less flexible :- Archive to PC or DVD, Edit, convert to other formats, control/schedule remotely - from your phone perhaps?, view remotely, etc, etc;
Oh, and I think they are also less reliable - Does Sky+, FreeSat+, Freeview+ actually record and let you watch everything you set it to record - I haven't seen one yet that does...
And, the seaason passes aren't really, they do one run of a series (if you follow an obscure sitcom or drama, you'll have to wait till the new season starts to schedule a 'new'; season pass, which sort of defeats the object) they don't automatically reschedule clashes to pick up repeats and re-runs, and the programme guide data is poor.
The only advantage to having Sky+HD or a FreeSat HD Recorder is the HD part - soon to be fixed by Virgin Medias licensing agreement with Tivo and the introduction of the latest generation HD Tivo systems; But as most of Skys HD content - other than sport (which Keiran isn't paying for - isn't recorded in HD anyway, only upscaled for broadcast, that is questionable. The BBC / ITV / C4 HD stuff - which is filmed in HD - is quite acceptable when recorded and viewed in Tivos (default when upgraded) Mode 0.
sorry to be so scathing, but Tivo invented the PVR, and while it was originally endorsed and sold by SKY, they ultimately tried to copy it but failed.
Now Tivo are re-entering the UK market - with Virgin for now - and I expect a lot of Sky+ customers will want to switch.
Graham
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location ST13 8LQ - Leek.
Hi since the Digital switchover, while I can receive a signal I have been having a problem getting it to all rooms in my house.
situation is this:
I still have a loft aerial - I know I need one on the roof but that will have to waiot a while.
The cable from the aerial comes into my Living room and goes through a signal amplifier - shouldn't be needed but it also acts as a splitter.
one output goes to the main TV, which works fine. another output goes back into the wall into the loft and is then split to feed kitchen and bedroom.
Two Problems:
1. TVs in these other two rooms will not find all channels, and will not 'lock on' to allow you to watch those they have found. Is the answer to split the signal in the loft or might it just be bad cabling somewhere - though there was never a problem with analogue.
2. I have 3 TIVOs in the living room, they have RF out which allowed them to be viewed in Kitchen/bedroom by putting 'in line' with analogue TV signal - all use SCART to main TV. doing this with the Digital signal caused interference on analoge and loss of digital channels. RF channels were: 39, 60, 63. the 'Free RF' link indicateds that only 64,65 and 66 are 'free' on our transmitter, which if I change to these causes interference between all 3 ! Does Freeview really use up all other available channels ?
Any help/advice much appreciated - I WILL get a rooftop aerial, honest !
Graham
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Monday 10 January 2011 1:35PM
Leek
Hi, I'm in Leek - ST13 8LQ, right down on the Macclesfield road end of Kiln Lane. I currently get all of my TV from a Quad satellite seytup, as the 4 Terrestial channels we can receive are so poor quality.
But of course I have HD Digital TVs and would like to take advantage of the different programme mix (and future FTA HD) available on FreeView.
Can anyone tell me whether the Leek Transmitter will be upgraded to Digital, and so provide thse services, or will it simply be switched off, leaving us to try and pick up a signal from Biddulph or Nacclesfield... (Sutton Coldfield & Fenton being on the other side of the 60ft + hill thats behind my house).
Thanks,
Graham