The time when set-top boxes and satellite TV - digital transmission, in general are steadily becoming a common affair. Today, we have tested a device that could bring the good old days of TV recording back - the Tata Sky Plus. It’s a set-top box that also doubles up as a Personal Video Recorder (PVR). Let’s Review.

Features:

Pause and Rewind Live TV.

Record two programmes simultaneously or watch one while recording the other.

Series Link feature.

Runs on MPEG4 technology.

The ‘Pause and Rewind’ feature works Whenever you tune in to a channel, an internal buffer in the device starts storing the content, irrespective of whether you are recording or not. But when you jump to another channel, the buffer of the previous channel is erased and it starts recording the new channel into it. Thus, the rewind feature will only work on one channel from the time you’ve tuned in to it.

The Tata Sky Plus device stores the videos in its internal 160 GB hard disk, which translates up to 45 hours of video recording. It can record two programmes at a time, thanks to the two tuners built into the device.

The older Tata Sky box worked on the MPEG2 compression standard. The Sky Plus box supports the latest MPEG4. Realistically speaking, this does not translate into any better quality than what we already get (not to say that what we’re getting is bad). It’s just a modern-day compression technology.

User Interface

The User Interface is the same as the earlier Tata Sky one. It is visually appealing and quite user-friendly. Scheduling recordings is pretty simple thanks to the Electronic Programming Guide (EPG); wherein you get the schedule of programmes running on all channels for the next four days.

Thus, recording something is as simple as navigating to that programme on the EPG and pressing the ‘R’ button on the remote.

Quality of Sound and video:

The quality of audio and video was almost the same like previos Tata Sky set top box. Rather to put it straight away, some users have found the quality decresed. Earlier it was 128-133 kbps which is equal to cd quality but now it has decreased to 55-65 kpbs. However, users have experienced this only for a few channels and therefor it would be little difficult to make any state about it at this point of time.

What users and experts say?
Overall,  It works just as it is stated in the advertisements. While replaying recorded content, I did not notice any loss in quality.
However, on the negative side, UI of the Sky Plus was on a slower side as compared to that of the regular Tata Sky. This becomes significant when two simultaneous recordings were being made.
Coming to the price, the Tata Sky Plus costs around Rs. 10,000 (inclusive of the device, installation and activation). There’s also a Tata Sky Plus usage fee. As part of the launch offer, they are giving a lifetime waiver on this fee till 31st March 2009; thus hinting that people who buy it after that will be charged at Rs. 50 per month.

With respect to the existing Tata Sky subscribers, they are offering an exchange offer where you can get the new PVR set-top box for Rs. 5000 to Rs. 6000 (depending upon the kind of Annual pack you have subscribed to).

The pricing seems to be around 4 times that of a standard set-top box from any satellite TV provider.
Conclusion:

The product is good in quality and functional with an ease,  It is probably one of the easiest ways to record and view TV. Also, it will probably be a good idea to buy the device before 31st March next year, in order to avoid the usage charge every month.

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