sbiddle: I don't see why people rely on a STB and recorder combination to record shows. If you want to record Sky go with a fully integrated DVB-S2 tuner PC based card reader or a 3rd party STB and avoid all the issues that go with having multiple devices.
Remember the dreaded 17xx card problem still exists. I have that, over a year ago my STB suddenly died after around 9 years of service and seemed to take out the smart card with it, the Sky tech came around and replaced it with the small silver STB that I asked for, and another 17xx card .... Sure I could get a Sky PVR to force a card change but I'm already paying too much for Sky (plan to cancel it sometime soon was mostly waiting for F1 to finish which it has now). Plus there's always the risk the cam solutions will suddenly break as I believed happened with Foxtel in Australia last year (and from my read is still unresolved) so you ideally at least want the option to fall back to STB+blaster+recorder. (There is even the slight risk that cards used in cams will suddenly start dying as I believed has happened in Europe. I don't personally think that level of anti cams is likely here but it still it highlights the fact tuner+soft cam solutions carry their own risks and problems.)
In any case, as others have highlighted if you do want an Igloo box/Sky lite, STB+blaster+recorder looks to be the only option for a long while.
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