I'm going to sound really technical here but I just wanted to point something out
and that was to point out that it seemed quicker to boot, also as i own an internet provider and have similar set top boxes i know how sky's software is engineered and rolled out.
The software isn't cached by the box it is flashed to a seperate rom on the motherboard and once its passes a checksum is then copied to main rom, so once newer firmware is available it gets overwritten, rollback is done when main rom fails and backup rom passes checksum,
sorry for the boring technical chat above but like to make sure that people fully understand how the upgrade software is rolled out
and for those wishing to know how sky are doing the anytime+, its simple, its torrents just as you all know them, just that its announcement server is sky's own so all boxes with downloaded content on will then act as servers for sky, so lets say you downloaded quantum of solace to your box, once its complete, as well as you being able to watch it, it will also then be available for other boxes using sky's announcement server to then grab it from your box as well as any others who have that program complete on thier box.
I can see this as a potential bandwidth nightmare and could make a few problems for some people who don't realize that their box is torrenting and especially when they have a
bandwidth limit
and how many people who arn't computer minded and have broadband are going to know firstly about torrenting and secondly what their limits of thier broadband are without getting phone calls from thier ISP after thier sky box incurs massive bills for the users without them knowing
rant over sorry if i've annoyed anybody
:eek: what kind of crack are u taking man we have einstein on crack here lol:D
:D And I smell the possiblity of the same Kontiki that was using bandwidth ( upsteam activity while the pc was on idle ) and CPU on my pc when I first installed Sky Player. Couldn't understand why my pc was slowing up at odd times of the day until I realised that my downloaded programmes were being shared, via p2p, with other people.
"· The Sky Player Software uses secure peer-2-peer technology, which means that your computer will automatically share programmes you've downloaded with other Sky Player users. This is done by software called Kontiki (including KService and KHost) as part of the installation.."
I got rid of Sky Player. Is there reason to believe that Anytime+ will operate differently?:rolleyes:
:D And I smell the possiblity of the same Kontiki that was using bandwidth ( upsteam activity while the pc was on idle ) and CPU on my pc when I first installed Sky Player. Couldn't understand why my pc was slowing up at odd times of the day until I realised that my downloaded programmes were being shared, via p2p, with other people.
"· The Sky Player Software uses secure peer-2-peer technology, which means that your computer will automatically share programmes you've downloaded with other Sky Player users. This is done by software called Kontiki (including KService and KHost) as part of the installation.."
I got rid of Sky Player. Is there reason to believe that Anytime+ will operate differently?:rolleyes:
If it turns out to be true it looks like it'll be time to block some more ports on my firewall.
Yes it seems that some blocking in the Routers firewall should fix that problem.
I think it would be a bit of a nerve for Sky to sell "upto" 20mbs broadband, supply less than half of that to the vast majority of uses and then steal the little bit of upload bandwidth they have to run Sky's service for them! (And not fully advertise that fact)
Upload bandwidth is already only a fraction of download speed (which is bad enough anyway) but to eat it up helping Sky run their service is taking the pee!
What next? Are Sky going to update the router's firmware so that the port to Sky can't be blocked?
Yes it seems that some blocking in the Routers firewall should fix that problem.
I think it would be a bit of a nerve for Sky to sell "upto" 20mbs broadband, supply less than half of that to the vast majority of uses and then steal the little bit of upload bandwidth they have to run Sky's service for them! (And not fully advertise that fact)
Upload bandwidth is already only a fraction of download speed (which is bad enough anyway) but to eat it up helping Sky run their service is taking the pee!
What next? Are Sky going to update the router's firmware so that the port to Sky can't be blocked?
don't give them idea's, we know who to blame if they do then :P lol
Simple solution is to just unplug when not in use and set up downloads at night while you sleep, i would like to have the option to throttle uploads and downloads on the box though.
Darwin is actually the base Linux operating system that Mac OSX is written on top of. Darwin can be downloaded freely (google it), and is basically a Linux OS.
Just to correct a point here, Darwin is nothing to do with Linux, it's actually a Unix based OS and Unix is not Linux.
My Pace (v9F3003) updated to EPG version 38.2.1.2 overnight on Wednesday.
It popped up a message telling me it had done this, and enabled the broadband connection.
I use the box with "HD Resolution Output" set to Automatic, so that it will automatically switch between 16:9 or 4:3 mode. This has always meant that when watching a standard definition programme, the EPG has only been shown in standard definition - being very noticeably much softer. When watching a hi-def channel, the EPG is totally sharp and clean.
With the new update, it was immediatly obvious that something major has changed with the SD picture quality - the EPG, in SD mode is now not as soft, but very jagged.
When watching an actual SD tv programme, it is obvious that the PQ has changed - sharper, and less fuzzy, but digital artefacts are much more visible. This is NOT an improvement in my opinion. The EPG, and any onscreen graphics on an SD broadcast look simply awful.
Obviously, changing the "HD Resolution Output" setting to 1080i corrects the EPG to showing in HD - it looks as it should. I think that the then upscaled SD programmes look better in this mode. Sadly, this mode is useless to me, as the HDMI connection no longer switches between 4:3 or 16:9, stretching all 4:3 programmes to fill the screen.
I was contemplating buying a Humax freesat recorder, as the majority of programming we watch is from BBC HD, or the main 5 channels. I really can't justify the cost of a standard Sky HD package. Sadly, having to cope with such poor picture quality if I want to watch 4:3 material, and have it automatically switch ratio is probably the last straw...
I'd be interested if other people have noticed this dramatic change in PQ when the box is not set to upscale SD material, with the new version of software.
I really don't understand why Sky can't support aspect ratio switching over HDMI, when their box is set to output HD. Every other device I own manages to do this.
The only good thing about the update is the fixing of the shown time bug on pausing, as others have already noted.
The broadband Anytime+ will be of no use to me until Sky allow it's use through other broadband providers (O2). I tried Sky's broadband and phone package, but had to move away because of the lamentable outsourced customer services (and hiking of 0845/0870 number charges, combined with the removal of 1280 routing). I resent this added attempt to get more customers to switch their broadband to Sky... I understand that they say they are testing with other providers, but will believe it when I see it... In the meantime, it's almost certainly going to slow their broadband network down further, by adding vast amounts of extra traffic... Glad I'm no longer on it!
It seems more and more boxes are getting the update but i don't get why no one can download yet, surely it makes more sense for them to see how it handles as users come online, when will it activate this month or next?
Just to correct a point here, Darwin is nothing to do with Linux, it's actually a Unix based OS and Unix is not Linux.
And just to correct a point here.
Darwin is based on Linux, which is an open source Unix clone, and was originally developed by Linus Torvalds in 1991 and released under the GNU Public License. See link here.
Darwin 1.15 is based on Linux-2.6.18.8 and all the changes made by NDS/Sky have been release as required by the GPL and can be downloaded from the link above.
lots of you are getting confused by a few idiots, let me be clear . the sky hd box will not run any peer2peer software, it will not upload any content to anyone. its a direct pull vod download from sky much the same way sky player on pc and xbox 360 runs hence why they are using sky broadband only as they would not have to pay any extra bandwidth cost or worry about congestion as all content is on skys own network.
they are using sky broadband only as they would not have to pay any extra bandwidth cost or worry about congestion as all content is on skys own network.
Well, If I was relying on Sky's (non-fibre) broadband network, I'd be VERY worried about where my service was going with all the extra Sky Broadband only congestion. Remember that you share your broadband line with 50 other users (33 on Sky Max). Those lines are going to be pretty busy once the 49 other users in your area start downloading entire series to their sky boxes...
It seems more and more boxes are getting the update but i don't get why no one can download yet, surely it makes more sense for them to see how it handles as users come online, when will it activate this month or next?
No. It makes far more sense to roll the software out to their own timetable. Forced download remains a safety net - a way to provide users with a way to back out the change if it causes them problems.
Remember that you share your broadband line with 50 other users (33 on Sky Max).
I'm not sure where you get those figures from but if it's the contention ratio then I have a couple of points.
1.I doubt its accurate.
When ISPs stopped selling speed limited services (ie;implemented 'up to' packages) contention ratios pretty much went out of the window. These days ISPs just upgrade as/where/when they need to.
2. 50:1 does not mean fifty users using one 'pipe'.
It's just a ratio. It can mean 500 users sharing 10 pipes. Or 5000 sharing 100 pipes. Furthermore 'your area' for ADSL means everyone on your exchange using that ISP. It therefore only becomes a problem if several hundred people start to use the service at the same time.
If we assume 50:1 is valid then for an exchange serving 2,000 Sky customers averaging 4Mb/s the pipe being shared would be 160Mb/s. But I think they'd go for 200Mb/s. For LLU possibly straight to 1Gb/s - especially if it's part of a chain of exchanges which is common.
3. QoS to the rescue
Sky will have implemented QoS. Since the Sky box will use a specific protocol they can implement throttling to protect the rest of their network. I'd be surprised if they didn't.
Comments
:eek:
From http://skyplayer.sky.com/aboutskyplayer/download-tv-player.html,
"· The Sky Player Software uses secure peer-2-peer technology, which means that your computer will automatically share programmes you've downloaded with other Sky Player users. This is done by software called Kontiki (including KService and KHost) as part of the installation.."
I got rid of Sky Player. Is there reason to believe that Anytime+ will operate differently?:rolleyes:
Actually no, as pointed out above Kontiki is peer2peer software - so technically he is correct.
If it turns out to be true it looks like it'll be time to block some more ports on my firewall.
It seems that it is only you on crack, the rest of us do know about peer2peer services.
I think it would be a bit of a nerve for Sky to sell "upto" 20mbs broadband, supply less than half of that to the vast majority of uses and then steal the little bit of upload bandwidth they have to run Sky's service for them! (And not fully advertise that fact)
Upload bandwidth is already only a fraction of download speed (which is bad enough anyway) but to eat it up helping Sky run their service is taking the pee!
What next? Are Sky going to update the router's firmware so that the port to Sky can't be blocked?
don't give them idea's, we know who to blame if they do then
Ah but then people will just use 3rd party routers instead of Sky's as some already do now.
Then Sky will write into their routers software that they send Sky servers a secret message every so often or they disconnect you!
It's cat and mouse time!
thats very true lol
Just to correct a point here, Darwin is nothing to do with Linux, it's actually a Unix based OS and Unix is not Linux.
It popped up a message telling me it had done this, and enabled the broadband connection.
I use the box with "HD Resolution Output" set to Automatic, so that it will automatically switch between 16:9 or 4:3 mode. This has always meant that when watching a standard definition programme, the EPG has only been shown in standard definition - being very noticeably much softer. When watching a hi-def channel, the EPG is totally sharp and clean.
With the new update, it was immediatly obvious that something major has changed with the SD picture quality - the EPG, in SD mode is now not as soft, but very jagged.
When watching an actual SD tv programme, it is obvious that the PQ has changed - sharper, and less fuzzy, but digital artefacts are much more visible. This is NOT an improvement in my opinion. The EPG, and any onscreen graphics on an SD broadcast look simply awful.
Obviously, changing the "HD Resolution Output" setting to 1080i corrects the EPG to showing in HD - it looks as it should. I think that the then upscaled SD programmes look better in this mode. Sadly, this mode is useless to me, as the HDMI connection no longer switches between 4:3 or 16:9, stretching all 4:3 programmes to fill the screen.
I was contemplating buying a Humax freesat recorder, as the majority of programming we watch is from BBC HD, or the main 5 channels. I really can't justify the cost of a standard Sky HD package. Sadly, having to cope with such poor picture quality if I want to watch 4:3 material, and have it automatically switch ratio is probably the last straw...
I'd be interested if other people have noticed this dramatic change in PQ when the box is not set to upscale SD material, with the new version of software.
I really don't understand why Sky can't support aspect ratio switching over HDMI, when their box is set to output HD. Every other device I own manages to do this.
The only good thing about the update is the fixing of the shown time bug on pausing, as others have already noted.
The broadband Anytime+ will be of no use to me until Sky allow it's use through other broadband providers (O2). I tried Sky's broadband and phone package, but had to move away because of the lamentable outsourced customer services (and hiking of 0845/0870 number charges, combined with the removal of 1280 routing). I resent this added attempt to get more customers to switch their broadband to Sky... I understand that they say they are testing with other providers, but will believe it when I see it... In the meantime, it's almost certainly going to slow their broadband network down further, by adding vast amounts of extra traffic... Glad I'm no longer on it!
And just to correct a point here.
Darwin is based on Linux, which is an open source Unix clone, and was originally developed by Linus Torvalds in 1991 and released under the GNU Public License. See link here.
Darwin 1.15 is based on Linux-2.6.18.8 and all the changes made by NDS/Sky have been release as required by the GPL and can be downloaded from the link above.
I've had my box plugged into my router longer than most and if I don't get it, I'll throw a tantrum!
That's told 'em!
And those who've had the update - are there any menu or function changes? How can one tell when the update has been applied?
Ian.
That'll be the day - aren't Thomson boxes stuck on v8.3.2? (at least, mine is)?
We'll probably be last.
Well, If I was relying on Sky's (non-fibre) broadband network, I'd be VERY worried about where my service was going with all the extra Sky Broadband only congestion. Remember that you share your broadband line with 50 other users (33 on Sky Max). Those lines are going to be pretty busy once the 49 other users in your area start downloading entire series to their sky boxes...
I must be an idiot, for no longer subscribing to Sky Broadband...
(Or maybe just an idiot for Troll feeding)
1.I doubt its accurate.
When ISPs stopped selling speed limited services (ie;implemented 'up to' packages) contention ratios pretty much went out of the window. These days ISPs just upgrade as/where/when they need to.
2. 50:1 does not mean fifty users using one 'pipe'.
It's just a ratio. It can mean 500 users sharing 10 pipes. Or 5000 sharing 100 pipes. Furthermore 'your area' for ADSL means everyone on your exchange using that ISP. It therefore only becomes a problem if several hundred people start to use the service at the same time.
If we assume 50:1 is valid then for an exchange serving 2,000 Sky customers averaging 4Mb/s the pipe being shared would be 160Mb/s. But I think they'd go for 200Mb/s. For LLU possibly straight to 1Gb/s - especially if it's part of a chain of exchanges which is common.
3. QoS to the rescue
Sky will have implemented QoS. Since the Sky box will use a specific protocol they can implement throttling to protect the rest of their network. I'd be surprised if they didn't.