SKY+ - Future upgrade schedule

Continuing reports from Digital Spy's Alan Jay at the Sky Active press launch

Talking to the folk behind SKY+, it appears that their strategy calls for up to three updates to the SKY+ software over the next four months - the first of which will be in the next couple of weeks, to fix some of the bugs reported in the Digital Spy Forums (which Sky informally seem to monitor). Other things we can expect to see over the next four months are likely to include:-

• First selection of bug fixes (by the end of October)


• New 30x Fast Forward


• End of programmes will give you a screen prompt rather than "pause".


• Delete function will tell you on planner screen that it is deleting. As some users were confused by the delay on long programmes.


• A VCR style timer with repeating recording capabilities to allow for recordings of multiple programmes that don't have series links (obviously without the ability to shift times due to schedule changes). More on series links below.


• Recording TWO programmes at the same time on different channels (no more clashes - expected early next year with luck).

Sky are trying to educate channels to the benefits of the series link function with the consequence that Flextech (UK TV), Discovery and several other channels will be launching series links next month. According to Sky, there are already over 500 links in place.

C4 are unlikely to have links until sometime next year as their current system doesn't accommodate the facility and will require some extensive changes to their systems to acheive.

Other things coming will be Dolby Digital 5.1 before the end of the year for soundtracks on the Wide Screen Movie channels. For more details on this, see here.

When I asked about the way that it appears that SKY+ does not use the hard disk to cache any information (for example - the EPG), a technical representative said that that would require a major rewrite of the operating system and could lead to all sorts of issues such as checking what data was up-to-date, etc. and so was unlikely to happen. This is because the PVR functionality is a super set of the standard digibox operating system and so it keeps Sky with a single environment to work with and expand.

Overall, Sky are very positive about SKY+, but understand how hard it will be to sell via high street retailers. Most products in retailers stored can be explained to a consumer in one sentence the PVR is not nearly that easy.

Educating the consumer is going to be the hardest part of sales process.

One final note is that, as reported in the Digital Spy Forums, the hard disk in SKY+ is delivered empty and is just a standard FAT32. This means that technically there is nothing within the SKY+ environment that limits the disk to 40Gb and certainly when price points permit you should expect a move to 60Gb drives. This also means that an individual could upgrade the disk without having to worry about the contents of the drive (assuming you want to start with a new clean install). As has been pointed out there are some electrical, timing and power issues but those aside the upgrades should be technically possible.

When asked why the hard disk was used like this Sky pointed out that to play back the content of the disk you require the SKY+ box, subscription and on board card and encryption. So it was felt that there was no advantage to making life complex when more than enough security was provided within the hardware.

In the next couple of weeks we will see if Sky deliver the first set of updates and may have a better idea about how their schedule is lining up for the next few months. I for one will be very happy when the manual timer function is available, as at present finding programmes with series links from the main BBC and Sky channels is very hard. This is supposed to change over the next few months but I still feel their is a place for this old fashioned approach to setting the timer.

Report by Alan Jay