iPlayer is coming to your Sky+ box, as well as catch-up TV and an undelete option. So no more earbashings after 'accidentally' wiping The Only Way is Essex.
Undelete retrieves something you've recorded and then deleted. So if you accidentally erase an episode of your favourite show, you can get it back without any fuss. Or if you've erased something that you feel was good enough to share with your family, friends, lodgers or passers-by, you can conjure it back from the limbo of deletion and enjoy it again.
Your planner, the section of Sky+ where your recorded shows are listed, now has a Deleted tab. That's where your discarded shows are stored, as a buffer before they vanish forever. To make sure your hard drive doesn't get cluttered with deleted shows, the stuff that's been there longest will automatically disappear as new things fill up the planner -- and this time, it's permanent.
Virgin Media offers a similar function, with a Deleted items folder storing erased episodes. As with Sky+, it allows you to change your mind about things you've ditched, or reverse an accidental binning. Deleted shows don't count towards the percentage total showing how full your hard drive is.
Sky has also renamed Sky Anytime and Anytime+ as On Demand, making it clearer what that part of the service actually does. It's getting into the catch-up game so you can watch shows you missed in the past week from Sky channels, as well as ITV Player and Demand 5. And BBC catch-up service iPlayer is coming to your Sky+ box "shortly".
The new features will appear as if by magic, with updates beamed into your box overnight. The first machines to benefit are the latest Sky+HD DRX890 box and the Sky+HD 1TB box. No concrete date for the update has been confirmed, with the new features promised "soon".
What do you think of Sky's new features? Which do you prefer: Sky+, Virgin Media, Freeview or another TV service? Tell me your telly thoughts in the comments or on our Facebook page.
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Jake- 7 September, 2012 15:53
With virgin media, always will be, its cheap - service is great and tbh i think sky is pretty much copying here. I understand they need to keep up with virgin + youview and even smart TV's. Wheres sky's new ideas? seen has they have been leading the market for many years now.
anonymous 7 September, 2012 16:36
Virgins HD is very poor quality compared to skys HD
anonymous 7 September, 2012 23:18
Virgin is good but their superhub for broadband was a living hell. I had 3 of them and each one crashed several times a week - requiring the tv stand to be pulled out to get to the plug to switch it off and on.
Since sky the routers been plugged in behind a WASHING MACHINE so has never been turned off. Never once a problem.
Much prefer my sky stuff. Never freezes
anonymous 8 September, 2012 03:05
Virgin Media's main selling point for me is that they have had a massive and comprehensive 'on demand' service for years. Incorporating BBC's iPlayer and 4oD amongst many others since before Sky even had Sky Anytime makes it infinitely more appealing in my opinion.
Sky genuinely is playing a daunting game of catch up here. The only products (as a consumer) that I can see as selling points are their billion-pound sports/movie channels (available on Virgin Media) and Sky Go - which actually is an exciting use of technology.
Other than that, Virgin Media is incredibly cheaper, and offers a truck-load more features that STILL cannot be found on Sky's service; such as On Demand, HD Channels as part of your bundle, and a far more comprehensive box. Our new Virgin Media box outputs to either a HDMI or SCART connection and offers HD channels as part of the XL TV package we have.
By the way, we were paying £80+ a month for slower internet, no HD channels and less selection and now we are paying £35 for the first 6 months and £70 thereafter and we get 60Mbit internet.
Yeah, I'm ecstatic we moved.... :)
Double mattress 21 September, 2012 10:17
so good. I like this idea so much.double mattress
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