Sky completely changed TV in this country,
offering tons of channels via a satellite dish years before Virgin Media
(originally, a selection of competing cable companies), Freeview or Freesat
even had a look-in.
While it’s changed a lot over the years,
the delivery method of TV has stayed the same: you get everything through your
satellite dish. That means no fancy cable network as for Virgin Media, or a TV
platform designed with the internet in mind, as with YouView. However, in
recent months the company has made leaps and bounds in what it can deliver
through its Sky+ HD box, offering a wide selection of apps and catch-up
services, while retaining what made the service so attractive in the first
place: top-quality content.
Interface and remote
Sky+ HD has been an evolving work, going
through a series of changes to introduce new features and bring high definition
to the UK. Sky was the first company in the UK to make a real success out of a
hard-disk recorder, with its adverts simply showing people that could pause and
rewind live TV.
Sky's
EPG shows a thumbnail of the current program, so you can watch TV while using
it
The latest iteration of the EPG means that
Sky+ HD has one of the best interfaces. Everything is geared around TV, making
the most of the HD output. Jumping to the EPG keeps a thumbnail of the current
channel or recording you’re playing, in the top-right of the screen, so you can
keep an eye on the action while you work out what you want to watch next or
simply sort out your recordings.
The focus on live channels is on HD
content, and the EPG has been reorganized so that the HD channels appear first.
In terms of organization, Sky is brilliant, with tabs for different genres,
such as Entertainment, Sports and HD. Selecting a genre then lets you select
the type of content you want Live TV, Planner (your recordings) and On Demand.
You can also search for content using the built-in menus.
Sky's
planner is incredibly well organized, bundling TV shows into folders
The Sky remote is comfortable and well laid
out. It has evolved over the years to introduce new features, such as playback
controls, but it means that anyone who’s ever used Sky will be familiar with it
immediately.
The remote’s colored buttons are used for
shortcuts throughout the system. Press green, for example, and you jump
straight to the planner. All the shortcuts are marked clearly on screen, making
navigation easy.
Recording is a matter of finding a show in
the EPG and hitting the Record button on the remote. Sky prompts you to see if
you want to record a single episode or everything, using the Series link. It
will also warn you if there’s a clash with other programs you want to record.
With dual tuners, you can record two programs, so clashes should be rare.
Recordings are managed through the Planner.
Episodes of the same show are organized into folders, so your view doesn‘t get
too cluttered. From here you can remove the series link on shows, play back
recordings and delete anything you've finished with. A neat touch, recently
added, is that deleted recordings aren’t actually deleted, but just marked that
way; you can go to Deleted Recordings to recover a program you accidentally
wiped up to the point where the hard disk space it’s using is deleted.
Sky
Movies HD
We also like the way that when you start a
program, you can choose the point you want to jump to, such as 89 minutes. It’s
a great way of catching up with something topical, such as a goal in a football
match, if you know roughly when it occurred.
Live content
Sky has the widest range of channels and
the most HD channels. The company is keen to make a fuss of its content, and
exclusives are often found on its channels. You can get the vast majority of
this content on Virgin Media, although it’s still the only place you can watch
Sky Atlantic. This shows the best new shows from the US, including hits such as
Boardwalk Empire and Game of Thrones.
Throw in more HD sports channels and Sky F1
HD, and there’s popular content here that you simply can’t get from other
providers. It’s also the only UK TV provider to have a 3D channel, although
given the dearth of content, this isn’t anything to get excited about.
