New Sky set top box

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#2540713 14-Aug-2020 09:26

Dingbatt:

I would assume dish/LNB problems would become the responsibility of the subscriber as well.

They maintain that they own all of the Dishes/LNB equipment, so I'd be pushing for that to still be their responsibility...

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evilengineer

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#2540726 14-Aug-2020 09:41

maxzzz:

It's simply an Nvidia Shield TV with a shortcut on the remote to get to their app instead of Netflix on the original device.

https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/shield/shield-tv/

I have been using the Nvidia Shield TV for a while and its quite a good device with AI 4k upscaling and fast cpu in general. It will be interesting to see how much they will be selling these in NZ and also if they will force customers to get a subscription to their services.

Funny how they're still calling it a "box" when it's actually a tube. 😃

Something is a bit out of weird, though. How do you fit a 1TB drive and sat tuner inside the standard Shield tube form factor?

Is it a custom oversized version or what?

I would imagine a lot of people would still like their STB to box shaped, though.

It could be a real pain rebooting the thing if it's supposed to be hidden behind the TV.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure $199 is the subsidised on-contract cost for a device with comes with a tuner and 1TB of storage.

I'd only be interested if it could be used off-contract to get freeview channels in HD over a sat dish given my less than stellar rural broadband speed.

JimmyH

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#2540750 14-Aug-2020 09:57

Maybe, but the devil is in the detail.

I'm guessing that it drops the analog outputs, which isn't an issue for the TV that I have the STB connected to currently, but is an issue for the stsrem I use to distribute video around the rest of the house currently, and to offload storage when the (fairly tiny) hard drive gets full. So I would presumably have to add a splitter, HDCP stripper and HDMI-Analog converter back into the mix, all of which I have in a box in the garage, but it would still be a pain and pretty fugly in the living room.

Things I would be looking for would be:

The ability to expand storage using the USB ports - 1TB isn't that much nowadays, with HD content etc.
A DLNA server is on the box, or able to be installed, so that I can use it to view recordings in other rooms.
The ability to plug in a wireless keyboard for searching etc.
The ability to reassign the Sky button to do other things.
The ability to stream recorded content over my network to my Rokus.
Optical out.

The things that would be a turn off for me would be:

Restrictions on the apps I can install.
A locked down box with crippling DRM, and no ability to also install Plex/Kodi etc.
No cost saving compared to Sky now (if I pay for and own the decoder there shouldn't be a $15/month fee for recording ability etc)

At this point, I'm planning the next steps to modernise my home entertainment setup this Christmas, and the offer will need to be pretty good for Sky to remain in the mix of things I'm paying for.

OldGeek

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#2540800 14-Aug-2020 10:49

I completed the survey. In summary the reason I have Sky is because of the Sport channels and their exclusive content. A close second is the PVR capability that is integrated with the EPG.

So this new device is not a game-changer but a technology update to more modern hardware. There is no new hardware technology. Accordingly I made it clear that I would accept only a free upgrade. If Sky were to lose exclusive sports contents rights in the future, this hardware would lift the technology bar for Sky competitors with sport programming, assuming their Sport programming on the new box comes in 4K.

All the new features are nice-to-haves.

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#2540812 14-Aug-2020 10:55

@evilengineer Funny how you’re calling it a ‘tube’ when it’s actually a cylinder. 😃😃

Sometimes I just sit and think. Other times I just sit.

Handsomedan

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#2540870 14-Aug-2020 11:11

eracode:

@evilengineer Funny how you’re calling it a ‘tube’ when it’s actually a cylinder. 😃😃

I'll call it a box. I don't care what shape it is.

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tdgeek

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#2540878 14-Aug-2020 11:19

I work for telco, or as per the survey Telecommunications, so it sent me to the thank you page so I didnt do the survey, why would they do that?

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Lias

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#2540922 14-Aug-2020 11:57

I'm normally the first one to bag on Sky, but on the surface this actually looks really good.

I have no doubt it would have it's foibles, but if it is basically a rebadged Shield that supports Sky + all the Android TV apps then I'd almost certainly buy one. Right now we have a T-Box for Sky/Freeview and Roku for Plex/Youtube, getting all of that into one box would be huge win for me.

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#2540926 14-Aug-2020 12:05

OldGeek:

I completed the survey. In summary the reason I have Sky is because of the Sport channels and their exclusive content. A close second is the PVR capability that is integrated with the EPG.

So this new device is not a game-changer but a technology update to more modern hardware. There is no new hardware technology. Accordingly I made it clear that I would accept only a free upgrade. If Sky were to lose exclusive sports contents rights in the future, this hardware would lift the technology bar for Sky competitors with sport programming, assuming their Sport programming on the new box comes in 4K.

All the new features are nice-to-haves.

i said much the same thing in the survey, but i was worried there was no mention of how many channels you could record at the same time , which is a must when you can have 3-4 live sports happening at once and you want to watch all of them.

Common sense is not as common as you think.

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#2540943 14-Aug-2020 12:20

I'm interested.

I'm enjoying 4k netflicks.
Also I find the glacial speed of my current box ?9 years old very annoying.

Looks like the device i was surveyed about 2 or 3 years back that was cancelled.
I wonder if this is a decision of new ceo.

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#2540962 14-Aug-2020 12:53

Cancellation of the IP STB was canned by Martin Stewart because he wanted apps instead. Now it seems they want to merge both together. I have no issue with it. Also interested to see how they handle the tuner parts. Dual would be fine. Single would be annoying, would stop me from upgrading.

I expect it it to be relatively locked down understandably, so they can control the experience and assist with troubleshooting for the bunny users. Not a fan of the new remote, I want number buttons.

Handsomedan

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#2541009 14-Aug-2020 14:00

tdgeek:

I work for telco, or as per the survey Telecommunications, so it sent me to the thank you page so I didnt do the survey, why would they do that?

Because they hate telcos.

Maybe they want to market a new Sky ISP service to respondents and they don't want to do that to the competition.

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#2541010 14-Aug-2020 14:04

networkn:

Not a fan of the new remote, I want number buttons.

I didn't see that. Gah how annoying!!!

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networkn

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#2541011 14-Aug-2020 14:06

Handsomedan:

networkn:

Not a fan of the new remote, I want number buttons.

I didn't see that. Gah how annoying!!!

I'll be using my smartphone to control it anyways, but it's annoying for the kids/wife/inlaws...

DjShadow

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#2541095 14-Aug-2020 14:59

I got the same survey and looks like a positive move forward. I did add a note saying if people can buy the unit out-right then include the option to open-term plans or even better do it on a prepaid basis like Vodafone TV (gen 2) currently does

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