Sky have recently launched Supertelly, a seemingly all-encompassing term for their existing service. Things have been simplified. Now everyone gets a Sky+HD box on subscribing and things are, erm, Super. The old Sky+ box is gone, apparently and the standard digibox is only available as part of a multiroom package. Sky are to be applauded for simplifying matters and consolidating their offerings. However, there are some things they could do better.

I've been a sky subscriber for many years but only recently took the plunge with Sky+HD. It's an excellent technology platform. Sky+ in particular is indeed revolutionary, bringing PVR functionality to the masses in a reasonably user-friendly way. It's changed forever the way we use television in our house. However, it's not half what it could be.

For a long time, I've tinkered with building a reliable, user-friendly whole house video system. The closest I've gotten was a PC server with a couple of  DTV S2 tuner cards and SageTV software. The concept is great: a single pc running sage server software and satellite tuner cards can be set up to feed channels throughout the house to SageTV STBs or client spftware running on PCs. Full PVR functionality is provided, users in different rooms can watch different channels and the system supports more than just TV: video files, DVDs, music can all be shared and web functionality is built in providing access to YouTube and similar services right on your TV.

There are downsides. It's an American system and has little in-built support for European channels. Getting EPG data for even FreeSat channels is an involved process that relies on a chain of third-party hacks and utilities. In addition, there is no direct support for encrypted channels like those on the Sky platform. The system became so tiresome to maintain that I disassembled it and brought in Sky+HD. A good move in terms of usability and WAF but there are some features of a truly integrated system like SageTV that I sorely miss and wish Sky could include.

Network, Network, Network

With Sky and a multiroom subscription (additional stb), it's possible to watch different programming in different rooms. Sky+ allows for recording of programmes to hard drive for live pause or later viewing. It's not possible, however, to view material recorded on one box from a different location. Why not? Why can't I start watching a recording on the living room TV, move to the bedroom and finishing watching it there? Why can't I watch on my Mac something I've pre-recorded while the kids watch live tv in the living room?

Multiple Sky boxes should have network capabilities and be network aware. I should be able to watch anything recorded on one box anywhere else in the house. In fact, the boxes should behave almost like a peer-to-peer network, transparently integrating recordings and the EPG allowing full, (and simultaneous) access to content as required.

Wasted Sapce

 The Sky Anytime feature i borderline useful but has one annoying quirk: it insists on downloading programming that I cannot watch because I'm not subscribed to the channel it's on. Now I know why it does this - it's an attempt to show me what I'm missing in the hope that I will subscribe. If the feature is going to behave like this, at least give me an option to switch it off and allow me access only anytime downloads that I can actually watch!

 Multmedia Aware

The other thing that irks me about my Sky box is that it only does TV. Why can't it access my server and allow me play back movie files, music files or anything else it finds? My Xbox can do it (more or less) but I really want a single-system, networked, expandable system that  feeds all my digital content and live tv to any room I want it in.

It is possible. SageTV does it but misses out on providing support for the encrypted channels. Come on Sky. Get that ethernet port I have on my Sky+HD box activated and make it do wonderful things. Make my telly really super.