MAN UTD v CHELSEA - HOW TO PUT THE PLUS INTO SKY+
SKY Television is celebrating the seventh anniversary of its amazing Sky+ programme recording system with a major new ad campaign shot by leading filmmaker Nick Broomfield.
Incredibly, 12 million viewers now use it to organise their viewing and Wednesday night's Champions League final between Man Utd and Chelsea is the perfect example of a good reason why so many people now have it,
Did you know that Sky+ enables you to record, pause and instantly rewind live TV?
It's so simple even grandparents instinctively know how to use it so... gone are the days when they would have to fumble around on their knees looking for an old video tape.
You can also automatically record every episode of a series thanks to Series Link so you can keep right up to date with Coronation Street or EastEnders.
And you can even use a mobile phone or go on line at sky.com to tell your system what to do - even if you are on the other side of the world and are desperate to make sure you record something for when you get back.
Sky+ is available from just £99 to all Sky TV customers, no matter what package level you're on.
And there's no longer any extra monthly charge so you really can have your TV cake and eat it.
But, and this is a big BUT, there's a secret way of getting even more out of it than you might think at first glance.
Keep on reading and I'll tell you more about a horror story of mine which made me change my ways for ever....
UNLIKE conventional video, the real beauty of Sky+ is that you can start watching a programme while it's still going out.
This means I never need to start watching a live 7.45pm football match until I've finally put our three children to bed.
More often than not, I'll be settling down to watch a game from around 9pm to 9.30pm.
If it's not very good, I can then use fast forward speeds of up to 30x faster every time the ball goes out of play etc or when a player falls over as if he's been shot.
Rarely do any of my matches last longer than an hour because Sky+ puts me in control of my own life.
Now, this is all well and good... until something extraordinary happens.
Like Liverpool's comeback in the Champions League final against AC Milan.
There I was watching the game as live when the recording stopped dead... right at the beginning of extra time.
Imagine my horror as I tried every which way to get it going again, only to realise I would just have to switch to real-time. And fast.
I feared the worst and expected to see the trophy being paraded around the ground.
Luckily, the game had gone to penalties and, while I knew I'd missed a key part of extra-time, at least I saw the decisive moment.
It was at this point that I realised the error of my ways.
Like all machines, until real life catches up with science fiction, Sky+ can only do what it's told to do by you.
Which means that if a programme is set to finish at a certain time, then the chances are it won't be able to stay on duty.
The way round this is simple.
Press the 'Services' button on the top of your remote, then go to number seven, Manual Recording.
This enables you to set a specific recording to last as long as you want it to.
For example, with Wednesday night's Champions League Final between Manchester United and Chelsea you might want to catch the whole show from 6pm on Sky Sports 1 or Sky HD.
But the end is even more important.
To ensure you capture every last spit (filthy footballers) and cough, programme the recording to last until at least 11.30pm our time.
This should take into account every possible delay, from crowd congestion to extra time and penalties.
The same goes if you prefer to watch ITV1 which will also have the kick off from 7.45pm.
Me? I'll start watching the match at around 9pm from the kick-off, which means the game will already be into its second half by then in real time.
Knowing how tight these big matches always are, you can also have some extra fun by going backwards and forwards through some of the key moments (if the TV replays aren't enough for you) while the system continues to record the match on your behalf.
Strange but true... there's something rather exciting - and, at the same time relaxing - about watching a big match this way.
Especially if you are non-partisan and know for sure that you've used the Manual Recording option to take account of any over-running of the schedule.
It's almost like being the referee, only without the abuse or the ability to influence the result.
Enjoy!
Sky+. GReat product? Maybe. But, for Champions League final it stopped recording in the middle of teh penalty shoot out. On my TV AND my friends TV down the road. So for everyone? So I missed the exciting finale of the match after watching it for 2+ hours. Sky are not popular in my household at all right now.
Oh dear what a nightmare.
I did try to warn viewers earlier in the week!
It's a big lesson. With any programme that can overrun, the Manual Recording option via Services is a must for Sky+ users.
Sky could do more to alert viewers to this technique since you'll now be feeling it's even important than knowing how to switch the entire system on!
With Euro 2008 coming up there's bound to be a great penalty shoot-out somewhere along the line, even though England are not involved. So start practising now is my advice.
It would be interesting to learn how many others have had this problem and how they felt at the time etc...