Well, call me a 40 year old sycophant but, as someone who remembers Amstrad products from the year they started and who loved to fiddle on a wide variety of their products (computers/word processors in particular - the word processor model (senility has set in and I can't remember the model number ) was particularly well built and well designed, I would like to thank Sir Alan for coming on here (it can get quite heated) and being civil and helpfully explaining the position re; this new Sky+ box. I hope it does well for you.
People can get quite snooty when it comes to branding but your box looks as good as the Pace and I am sure it will go down a storm. The take up of Sky+ is picking up strongly and it makes good sense for Sky to bring on another Sky+ box manufacturer.
Tin: SRX-200 you must be watching the German channels then, Ah the Pen Pad we were simply years ahead of our time, we invented the PDA and the likes of Palm and Compaq realy made the killing. We were simply 5-7 years too early. We should not have given up.
Originally posted by alan sugar BSKYB detrmine the size of the HDD we fit in the product . The product spec is defined by them. There are no recognised larger HDD's at the moment and it is our view that simply fitting any larger size HDD will result in failures. Not wishing to go into a big debate on this, the matching of the HDD spec to the SKY+ is a strict science and the drive maker has to comply with things they may not concern themselves about for use in computers.
The drive in our SKY+ is not the same as that in the Pace units and the firmware is also not the same.
Ventilation is by way of the slots and vents as well as a fan that may kick in from time to time .
Interesting.....bearing all that in mind, why has the next Sky plus box got an 80 gig drive?
Originally posted by alan sugar Tin: SRX-200 you must be watching the German channels then, Ah the Pen Pad we were simply years ahead of our time, we invented the PDA and the likes of Palm and Compaq realy made the killing. We were simply 5-7 years too early. We should not have given up.
Id just like to give credit where credit is due to Alan for activly making the effort to come on this forum and giving us feedback on his perspective on things. Good luck with your Sky+ model.
Like brixtonbiker, I made the right decision to ditch NTL and move over to Sky+ and im sure he will have plenty of feedback as well as other Sky+ users here who get the new Amstrad units.
I find it amusing that people are falling over themselves to purchase an Amstrad product. It's akin to fighting over a Lada motor car, quite quite bizarre.
Going back to an earlier post in this thread - did we establish who are making the Sky+ boxes for Pace....? An intereting one that, could it be a cottage industry in the foothills of Kurdistan or some other far off place?
FAUST: As I told you once before the average man in the street sees the SKY+ box as a "SKY" box, not AMSTRAD and not PACE.
May I suggest that if your box ever conks out,or you love it so much you want a second one in another room, you get an Amstrad one. I will send you a SONY or PIONEER logo to stick on the front so you dont disgrace yourself in front of your pals. It will be our little secret.
BEXTECH: Exhaust - Love it - Ha Ha
MACWOMBLE: 80 MB HDD
Cant say too much on this , but let me repeat again that the HDD used in the SKY+ box is matched. Dont ask me how as I am not a technical person, save to say that we need so many grunfuttocks per milli second to address another load of grunfulltocks. Trust me ! we and Pace need to match them.
Trust me also when I say that if you take any old 120 mb drive and chuck it in. There is a big chance that it may not work fully. It is true to say that some of the forum people have put in larger drives and seem to have had good results. But trust me again when I say, if we ran it through all of our test, you will find that on a wet and windly Friday night in Portsmouth, with your left leg stuck out of the window, while tuning to Jonathan Ross ,wearing a bright red suit. The thing will CRASH.
Any larger size drives that may or may not apear in future generations of SKY+ boxes will be approved for use by BSKYB, and I am pretrty sure that un authorised use of any other drives will still be a no no and invalidate the warranty.
my first box over 15 years or go was an amstrad, i made my dad by one. I am a big folower of people like Alan Sugar and Sir Clive Sinclair.
I must strees though, people want bigger drives, especially when u have kids .. all that teletubbies, max and rubys .. fantastic when u need it. But if I hand't upgraded, i would be able to use it for us.
YES, i have had some problems since the dual record facility, but hey, the sarcrafice for 3 times the capacity is a must if we were to use it as a family.
And it wasssss so easy to do.
So hey "Alan" go for it break the mold, like u used to do, and like Sinclair used to be ... come on and get sky to be less anal about things, and offer upgrades.
I know there is a new super box ont he way with 4/5 tuners etc, these thing will evolve to full home multimedia systems. Let us the British do it first, before Microsoft & Son y get the next gen boxes under our tvs with broadbadn vod, vcr capabilities .. then it will be over again ... We are on the right track .. lets move quicker ...
I am pationate about this, worked in Video on demand company for years, and see how BT shite pricing has destroyed the concept ... but Sky+ is a compromise .. lets Capatilse on it ...
Thats my rant over with Alan ... Be more innovative ...
Come on ...
Originally posted by Faust I find it amusing that people are falling over themselves to purchase an Amstrad product. It's akin to fighting over a Lada motor car, quite quite bizarre.
If you had a choice of a Ferrari which had a faulty engine, doors that are falling off and a foul smell inside, or a Lada with a bullett proof, starts every time engine, with all parts firmly fixed and no smells, what would you drive to work in??
The reason people are wanting the Amstrad is that they've had so many problems with the Pace, anything else would be an improvement.
Right, now i do not know if this chap is in fact the true alan sugar...........but if he is and i do hope so as he deserves a ruddy great big pat on the back! I say to you all! Forget digital forget sky +....go analouge.............in the very early days there was only amstrad. That event made sat tv available to the massess! I was into the field as a hobby........a very expensive hobby before SKy and amstrad came along with the wonderful 100 16 chanel box! A new world was upon us. ALL companiess have bum moments even the big boys such as philips (just look at the 880 and 890 dvd recorders). Amstrad may have had problems in the past but now things have changed, i have had countless amstrad products , crikey i recently gave away a hi-fi 4 channel mixing dj deck i bought in 1983 which still works to this day i still have a fully working bnever a single fault orig amstrad digibox. The amstrad pcw gave cheap computing to the massess.....that sums this company up......more people have gained a foot into top end products cheaplythrough amstrad. And to round it off its a bristish company! Long may it reign so!
Please excuse any typo's.i'm not thick i just have a full cast on my right arm!
Keep up the good work Alan. Not many ceo come on these boards even if it is to push the sky + wish more would!
Originally posted by sunderlandafclad Right, now i do not know if this chap is in fact the true alan sugar...........but if he is and i do hope so as he deserves a ruddy great big pat on the back! I say to you all! Forget digital forget sky +....go analouge.............in the very early days there was only amstrad. That event made sat tv available to the massess! I was into the field as a hobby........a very expensive hobby before SKy and amstrad came along with the wonderful 100 16 chanel box! A new world was upon us. ALL companiess have bum moments even the big boys such as philips (just look at the 880 and 890 dvd recorders). Amstrad may have had problems in the past but now things have changed, i have had countless amstrad products , crikey i recently gave away a hi-fi 4 channel mixing dj deck i bought in 1983 which still works to this day i still have a fully working bnever a single fault orig amstrad digibox. The amstrad pcw gave cheap computing to the massess.....that sums this company up......more people have gained a foot into top end products cheaplythrough amstrad. And to round it off its a bristish company! Long may it reign so!
Please excuse any typo's.i'm not thick i just have a full cast on my right arm!
Keep up the good work Alan. Not many ceo come on these boards even if it is to push the sky + wish more would!
What reason on earth would anyone want to imitate me.
For those doubters why dont you come up with a suggestion to prove who I am.
Ask the digital spy testers who contacted me in December if I put them on to the right staff at Amstrad.
By the way we do have email at Amstrad.
Not that I want to be flooded . I will answer all questions on Amstrad Boxes and Amstrad emailers in this forum, but if you would like to appoint a tried and trusted sceptic that you all love and admire, request he can email me at
Comments
my srx200 still works
... and so does my penpad!!!!
... and my new VW Golf isn't very good quality!
(sorry for the now irrelavent post!)
People can get quite snooty when it comes to branding but your box looks as good as the Pace and I am sure it will go down a storm. The take up of Sky+ is picking up strongly and it makes good sense for Sky to bring on another Sky+ box manufacturer.
Good luck for the future.
PaulClissold.
Thanks your good wishes.
BTW - Hats off to you.....for coming on here and defending your company.
My TT has been to the garage AGAIN today!!!
The only bits of AV that I've ever had to send back are 1 Sony TV and 2 Sony Videos
Ok, it might seem irrelevant, but goes to show that branding doesn't really mean anything these days.
Interesting.....bearing all that in mind, why has the next Sky plus box got an 80 gig drive?
<cough> Psion Organiser? </cough>
Like brixtonbiker, I made the right decision to ditch NTL and move over to Sky+ and im sure he will have plenty of feedback as well as other Sky+ users here who get the new Amstrad units.
Regards
Dan
I'll even lend them a disk if they want to try it! (if they are local to me!)
Dave
May I suggest that if your box ever conks out,or you love it so much you want a second one in another room, you get an Amstrad one. I will send you a SONY or PIONEER logo to stick on the front so you dont disgrace yourself in front of your pals. It will be our little secret.
BEXTECH: Exhaust - Love it - Ha Ha
MACWOMBLE: 80 MB HDD
Cant say too much on this , but let me repeat again that the HDD used in the SKY+ box is matched. Dont ask me how as I am not a technical person, save to say that we need so many grunfuttocks per milli second to address another load of grunfulltocks. Trust me ! we and Pace need to match them.
Trust me also when I say that if you take any old 120 mb drive and chuck it in. There is a big chance that it may not work fully. It is true to say that some of the forum people have put in larger drives and seem to have had good results. But trust me again when I say, if we ran it through all of our test, you will find that on a wet and windly Friday night in Portsmouth, with your left leg stuck out of the window, while tuning to Jonathan Ross ,wearing a bright red suit. The thing will CRASH.
Any larger size drives that may or may not apear in future generations of SKY+ boxes will be approved for use by BSKYB, and I am pretrty sure that un authorised use of any other drives will still be a no no and invalidate the warranty.
I must strees though, people want bigger drives, especially when u have kids .. all that teletubbies, max and rubys .. fantastic when u need it. But if I hand't upgraded, i would be able to use it for us.
YES, i have had some problems since the dual record facility, but hey, the sarcrafice for 3 times the capacity is a must if we were to use it as a family.
And it wasssss so easy to do.
So hey "Alan" go for it break the mold, like u used to do, and like Sinclair used to be ... come on and get sky to be less anal about things, and offer upgrades.
I know there is a new super box ont he way with 4/5 tuners etc, these thing will evolve to full home multimedia systems. Let us the British do it first, before Microsoft & Son y get the next gen boxes under our tvs with broadbadn vod, vcr capabilities .. then it will be over again ... We are on the right track .. lets move quicker ...
I am pationate about this, worked in Video on demand company for years, and see how BT shite pricing has destroyed the concept ... but Sky+ is a compromise .. lets Capatilse on it ...
Thats my rant over with Alan ... Be more innovative ...
Come on ...
By the way, I'm really Rupert Murdoch, thanks for your millions of pounds....
Oh, and I'm a Tottenham supporter - if it's really Alan Sugar then I DON'T want to talk to him.....
He needs help.....
:eek:
£10 a night.... etc etc
The reason people are wanting the Amstrad is that they've had so many problems with the Pace, anything else would be an improvement.
Phil
Please excuse any typo's.i'm not thick i just have a full cast on my right arm!
Keep up the good work Alan. Not many ceo come on these boards even if it is to push the sky + wish more would!
For those doubters why dont you come up with a suggestion to prove who I am.
Ask the digital spy testers who contacted me in December if I put them on to the right staff at Amstrad.
By the way we do have email at Amstrad.
Not that I want to be flooded . I will answer all questions on Amstrad Boxes and Amstrad emailers in this forum, but if you would like to appoint a tried and trusted sceptic that you all love and admire, request he can email me at
asugar@amstrad.com not hard to work out that email is it.
I guess I will be acused then of replicating a Amstrad a mail server.