Sky has expanded its Sky+HD receiver lineup with a new box featuring a massive 1TB drive. Available now, priced at £249 (installation costs £30 for newcomers and £60 for the rest of us), the new model can store up to 240 hours of hi-def, or 740 hours of standard definition TV.
As with other Sky+ PVRs, part of the hard drive is partitioned off for Sky Anytime Push content. The new box has a proportionally larger area for this, able to hold 160 hours of miscellaneous HD.
The extra storage capacity answers a criticism of the existing box, which users (well, me) typically find runs out of space far too easily, effectively restricting the number of shows that can be timeshifted/watched from the broadcaster’s extensive 37 HD channel lineup.
As part of its ongoing push to HD and 3D, Sky has also confirmed that it’s now in the process of phasing out its standard def Sky+ box altogether, offering new subscribers the regular Sky+HD receiver as standard, regardless of whether they opt for the hi-def service.
Sky currently has 9.7 million subscribers, of which 2 million are using Sky+HD. 
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In the latest Home Cinema Choice:
HDMI output
Alan Smithee - 29 January 2010 - 10:25amDoes audio AND video now come over the HDMI cable?
SKY HD
Alan Smithee - 29 January 2010 - 12:54pmLooks nice and shiny but it's like polishing a turd. These Sky boxes don't last very long and they need to sort out the reliability first before launching new products. The HD guide is still very slow and unresponsive. What are Sky doing about this? Nothing.
^&*^*&ds. They couldn't
cerebros - 29 January 2010 - 1:37pm^&*^*&ds. They couldn't have released this before Christmas when I upgraded to HD?
Even coming from one of the earlier Sky+ boxes (think mine was 40GB) I wasn't seeing much benefit in the larger user HDD space on my Sky HD with a combination of movies and shows in HD with stuff that's still SD.
Now I'm going to have to go through the rigmarole of installing a new HDD in my current Sky HD box once it's out of warranty.
They couldn't
Alan Smithee - 29 January 2010 - 2:37pmI'm really surprised they didn't contact you.
tuner
Alan Smithee - 29 January 2010 - 8:35pmI think it's a wasted opportunity that they have not added three tuners to this one.After all one of there rivals have three
Lack of design effort
Alan Smithee - 29 January 2010 - 10:30pmI don't how they've managed it but this box is even uglier than its predecessor.
Sky 1TB - avoiding the issue
Alan Smithee - 30 January 2010 - 9:04amOf course, if Sky just allowed us to easily copy (and I don't mean real-time via SCART, or by taking the box apart)recorded material to another device/format, then we wouldn't need massive hard disks would we?
I've had 5 boxes in the last few years - all had to be replaced while under warranty - and with them went all our recordings.
Fancy not being able to keep your own recordings. I'm amazed people put up with it.
They couldn't
Alan Smithee - 1 February 2010 - 2:16pmSo surprised they couldn't be bothered to contact you (and the rest of the world) with details of their intentions.
missed opportunity
Alan Smithee - 2 February 2010 - 9:06pmSince Sky gave PVRs to the masses with Sky+ they have really been left behind with the newest and latest Freeview PVRs like the Fetch TV and Sagem which allow you to edit your recordings to remove the rubbish ( adverts etc, ) then export to a device via USB. Some like Fetch even have on demand features like BBC iplayer built in. I expect the new Freeview HD boxes to have huge HDD, on demand features plus editing and exporting features.
Sky are idiots
Alan Smithee - 3 February 2010 - 11:25amAll of their equipment costs a fortune because of the huge mark up they place on it. The equipment is very dated, unreliable at best and the EPG is slower than a dead snail most of the time. I have lost count of how many times i have had to pull out the power cable to silence the fans that have gone into overdrive or deleted a pregram because the EPG has stopped responding to remote inputs only to decide 30 seconds later that it ought to carry out all the button presses from the last 30 seconds...
The ONLY reason they have such a large user base is because they have a monopoly on content. Remove this barrier and they would have to build better equipment or fail as a company.
They need to be in it for the customer AND the money, not just the money. They need to innovate and not screw the customer over for every penny at every opportunity. Want all of your channels from your viewing package on all your boxes? Thats fine because i am paying for the subscription. Want HD in more room than one? that will be an extra £10 for a second subscription to HD please! ... Hang on havent i already paid for the HD channels just like i have already paid for the normal channels?
Thieves!
same here for me too.
Alan Smithee - 5 February 2010 - 1:53pmI upgraded just before christmas where they were giving away the HD boxes for free if you sign up for movies. Of course we now know it's because they were trying to shift as many of the old stockpiled HD boxes as they could!
typical Sky behaviour in my experience.
You think theirs is slow,
Alan Smithee - 8 February 2010 - 3:03pmYou think theirs is slow, try an Ntl (Virgin Media), regular set top box (non hard disk recorder type), with one day guide and horrendously slow interface/guide. The only plus that it has is that you can get iplayer via the set top box without using the broadband.
See the box in action
Alan Smithee - 9 February 2010 - 12:30pmhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWC3mAYdJzc
New Sky box with 1TB
Alan Smithee - 13 February 2010 - 1:58pmSounds great but i left Sky for Freesat because i had 3 new Sky HD boxes in two years and all the recordings where lost. Bigger capacity just means bigger losses to me!!
New Sky HD Box
Alan Smithee - 13 February 2010 - 3:15pmI cant believe the remote control is still not illuminated
replacements for the old sky+ box
Alan Smithee - 16 February 2010 - 7:08pmif my old sky+ (non hd) breaks will they replace it with a HD box? its used as my multiroom box