[Joel's dad]

so I subscribe to the sky plus subscription I can watch bbc iplayer but I cant watch any of the other channels like demand five or itv player. is this right?

I feel slightly mis sold because before I subscribed to the sky plus features it told me I must have a sky plus subscription, now its saying I need to phone sky and upgrade my package even further?

[sjp]

Originally Posted by Joel's dad

so I subscribe to the sky plus subscription I can watch bbc iplayer but I cant watch any of the other channels like demand five or itv player. is this right?

I feel slightly mis sold because before I subscribed to the sky plus features it told me I must have a sky plus subscription, now its saying I need to phone sky and upgrade my package even further?

what, albeit little, use of the other on demand services went as well as the iPlayer. can;t say it was a full blown test but they all worked whn i plumbed my box in a month or so back.

tried a reboot?

[Dazinho]

Considering that it is free on the web, XBox, Freesat and various TVs, I think it is wrong to charge for it at all.

[Nigel Goodwin]

Originally Posted by Dazinho

Considering that it is free on the web, XBox, Freesat and various TVs, I think it is wrong to charge for it at all.

They don't charge for it - but the superior way on demand works on a Sky box requires the box to be able to record, which needs a subscription.

The crazy thing here is paying the Sky+ subscription, just buy a Freesat PVR.

[sodafountain]

I believe it clearly states on the Sky website for Catch Up, athat BBC is the only service available without a SKy TV subscription.

Who told you otherwise and misold it to you, or did you just assume?

[Restorer]

Originally Posted by Nigel Goodwin

They don't charge for it - but the superior way on demand works on a Sky box requires the box to be able to record, which needs a subscription.

The crazy thing here is paying the Sky+ subscription, just buy a Freesat PVR.

Ah, but then you would not be getting the "superior" product you describe. With a Freesat box you will just get bog-standard streaming with inferior PQ. Iplayer is not bad but some of the others look pretty ropey on a big screen.

[BKM]

Originally Posted by Restorer

Ah, but then you would not be getting the "superior" product you describe. With a Freesat box you will just get bog-standard streaming with inferior PQ. Iplayer is not bad but some of the others look pretty ropey on a big screen.

And, even with a pretty solid 5Mbps connection, the streaming iPlayer on my PC and IPad have both been known to have the occasional "stall" due to network gremlins!

Something the Sky implementation should avoid!

[Nigel Goodwin]

Originally Posted by Restorer

Ah, but then you would not be getting the "superior" product you describe. With a Freesat box you will just get bog-standard streaming with inferior PQ. Iplayer is not bad but some of the others look pretty ropey on a big screen.

You can't have it all ways

[Restorer]

Originally Posted by Nigel Goodwin

You can't have it all ways

Indeed not. And although I am personally a bit of a stickler over PQ, I am not sure I would be forking out an extra £10-odd a month to Sky just for broadcast quality iPlayer - though of course anyone in the position of having to do that would also get the full PVR functionality for the free channels and PPV so on second thoughts maybe it would be worth it to some.

[*MikeB*]

Originally Posted by Nigel Goodwin

They don't charge for it - but the superior way on demand works on a Sky box requires the box to be able to record, which needs a subscription.

The crazy thing here is paying the Sky+ subscription, just buy a Freesat PVR.

iPlayer is good on BT Vision and works without a subscription. BT have content delivery systems in the exchange which ensures QoS, I think the HD streams on BT Vision iPlayer look great.

[Nigel Goodwin]

Originally Posted by *MikeB*

iPlayer is good on BT Vision and works without a subscription. BT have content delivery systems in the exchange which ensures QoS, I think the HD streams on BT Vision iPlayer look great.

But presumably BT Vision doesn't buffer to an HDD (as Sky boxes do), thus making the delivery highly dependent on your ADSL speed as with most others.

Certainly all dealers I've spoken to in the past who have had dealings with BT Vision have said they get nothing but complaints about it.

[Dazinho]

Originally Posted by Restorer

Ah, but then you would not be getting the "superior" product you describe. With a Freesat box you will just get bog-standard streaming with inferior PQ. Iplayer is not bad but some of the others look pretty ropey on a big screen.

Given the choice, I would sooner take the inferior product. Nobody else charges, and the BBC makes an effort to support all platforms so why should I pay (again). Perhaps the BBC should only support platforms that are not going to make a profit from them when it comes to the iPlayer.

[Restorer]

Originally Posted by Dazinho

Given the choice, I would sooner take the inferior product. Nobody else charges, and the BBC makes an effort to support all platforms so why should I pay (again). Perhaps the BBC should only support platforms that are not going to make a profit from them when it comes to the iPlayer.

Oh dear! Another of the the something-for-nothing brigade strayed into the wrong forum!

Nobody here begrudges you getting your streamed version of iPlayer for no more than the cost of your licence fee. It is after all a very fine product.

What bugs you so much that we get a (slightly) better quality iPlayer from our Pay-TV provider via a delivery system which they have payed to develop?

There is no possible mechanism by which the BBC could deliver anything like the Sky version via Freesat or Freeview boxes and you can rest assured the BBC has come out big winners financially in their deal with Sky so what exactly is your problem?

[Dazinho]

Originally Posted by Restorer

Oh dear! Another of the the something-for-nothing brigade strayed into the wrong forum!

Nobody here begrudges you getting your streamed version of iPlayer for no more than the cost of your licence fee. It is after all a very fine product.

What bugs you so much that we get a (slightly) better quality iPlayer from our Pay-TV provider via a delivery system which they have payed to develop?

There is no possible mechanism by which the BBC could deliver anything like the Sky version via Freesat or Freeview boxes and you can rest assured the BBC has come out big winners financially in their deal with Sky so what exactly is your problem?

Please re-read my post and try not to assume you can read my thoughts. I said I was happy to receive an inferior version of the iPlayer via my Sky+ box. It does not bug me that others get a better version just that I own the box yet cannot get what someone who owns Xbox etc can receive. As I said, I am happy with a standard version.

As you do not know me, do not insult me by assuming I am a something for nothing person.

[ktla5]

Originally Posted by Dazinho

Given the choice, I would sooner take the inferior product. Nobody else charges, and the BBC makes an effort to support all platforms so why should I pay (again). Perhaps the BBC should only support platforms that are not going to make a profit from them when it comes to the iPlayer.

No one else charges as they all have the bog standard stream only version of Iplayer, but Sky have modified it / improved it so that it records to the HDD of the Sky+ box, used it for the first time a couple of weeks ago, the other half missed 'The Duchess' so logged into Iplayer via Sky, it did take an age to download I have to say, but the picture quality when we went to watch was very goo indeed.
Also have Iplaer on my Sony Blu Ray player, that has been on there ever since I bought it, used it once, and thought..won't bother with that again in a hurry, ,low pq and lots of buffering, so you may need a sub for the Iplayer enhancements, but it seems worth it

[Nigel Goodwin]

Originally Posted by ktla5

Also have Iplaer on my Sony Blu Ray player, that has been on there ever since I bought it, used it once, and thought..won't bother with that again in a hurry, ,low pq and lots of buffering, so you may need a sub for the Iplayer enhancements, but it seems worth it

Exactly - it's a superior product because it works in a far better way - a way that unfortunately requires you to have a Sky subscription, but if you want totally free iPlayer then go elsewhere, and suffer poor performance.

We get MASSES of complaints about poor/unusable iPlayer on TV's - and none at all about iPlayer on Sky.

If you get massively fast, reliable, and consistent broadband then fair enough - but millions of people don't.

[XxBlaKOuTZxX]

I never used to use BBC iPlayer because of the inferior PQ but Sky changed all that and now we use it all the time. Well done Sky

[swills]

I have Iplayer on the TV (LG) it's OK, but very low in PQ, and like ktla it's like a train with lots of buffers! Even the other half is impressed with the Sky/BBC Iplayer!

[Marti S]

I blame the nanny state, people want things spelling out to them rather than, dare I say it, doing a bit of work for them self finding out.