How To Add ITV HD to your Sky+ HD box [UPDATED 2014]

January 12th, 2014

UPDATE: For many, ITV HD is now available via the normal EPG, but viewers in Scotland have to wait until April 2014 for STV HD to be added.

It is not possible to add STV HD via this method – STV HD is broadcast on a DVB-S2 transponder and can’t be added due to limitations of the Sky box – and as of March 2014, ITV HD is also no longer available in this way. However, if it’s HD football (like Champions League games) you are after the final option is to add UTV HD (Ulster Television). Here’s how:

1. Press the Services button on your remote.
2. From the middle menu scroll to Add Channels and hit Select.
3. Enter the following information and press the yellow button:

Frequency: 11.053
Polarisation: H
Symbol Rate: 22.0
FEC: 5/6

4. You should be presented with list of channels found, including UTV HD. Press the yellow button to select the channel and Select to store.
5. The channel will now be available via the Other Channels menu.

Note: With “Other Channels” there’s no program information and you can’t pause or record.

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New Sky+ HD EPG

July 11th, 2012
sky-epg-new

Sky are in the process of rolling out updates to the Sky+ HD EPG, initially just available for the Amstrad DRX890 and DRX895 box. All other boxes are scheduled to get the update later in the yar, apart from Thomson DSI8215 for which there are no plans.

Key features:

  • Fresh new look – same layout but brighter colours and more channels per page
  • Genre tabs added to the planner
  • New quick links in the TV Guide – icons to jump to  Channels, Recordings, On Demand, Rentals and Search

Video and more info

Yet more info

* that’s not my hand in the picture by the way……… my hand is much hairier! [evil laugh]

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Sky Anytime+ Set To Be Rolled Out To Everyone

January 30th, 2012

Sky have announced that from Easter 2012 their Sky Anytime+ service will be available to all subscribers with an Anytime+ capable HD box, regardless of who supplies their broadband. Up until now customers were required to have the Sky Broadband package.

Sky Anytime+ comes at no extra charge and already provides access to a wide range of on-demand content including movies, entertainment, documentaries and drama ‘box sets’.

Sky will also be adding BBC iPlayer and ITV Player content to the Anytime+ service, after reaching agreement with BBC and ITV.

Sky Anytime+ goes from strength to strength with more content and increased reach [sky.com]

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Watch ESPN For Free

January 29th, 2012

All Sky customers will be able to watch ESPN free from 6am Friday 3rd February until 6am Monday 6th February. This includes ESPN, ESPN HD, ESPN America and ESPN America HD.

Fri 3rd Feb:
19:30 – LIVE Bundesliga: Nuremberg v Dortmund

Sat 4th Feb:
01:00 – LIVE NBA New York @ Boston
16.30 – LIVE Barclays Premier League: Manchester City v Fulham
19:45 – LIVE Serie A: Roma v Inter

Sun 6th Feb:
03:00 – LIVE UFC 143 St Pierre v Diaz
11:30 – LIVE Serie A: Genoa v Lazio
13:45 – LIVE Serie A: Fiorentina v Udinese
16:45 – LIVE Bundesliga: Kaiserslauern v Cologne
19:15 – LIVE Serie A: AC Milan v Napoli

subject to change



Upcoming after this weekend:

Tues 8th Feb:
19:30 – FA Cup 4th round replay.

Sat 11th Feb:
11:15: SPL – Dunfermline v Rangers
14:00: APR – Gloucester v Northampton
16:30: BPL – Spurs v Newcastle
19:45: Serie A

Sun 12th Feb:
12:30: APR – Wasps v Saracens
16:15: Bundesliga – Cologne v Hamburg

Wed 15th & Thurs 16th Feb:
UEFA Europa League (1x Wed, 2 x Thurs)

Sat 18th & Sun 19th Feb:
FA Cup 5th Round fixtures x 2
Assorted Serie A, Bundelsiga, APR ,Top 14, NBA games

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Panasonic NV-HS 860 VCR (Z-Mech) Loading Issues

January 9th, 2012

I decided it was time to transfer all my VHS videos to digital format. I found a great resource at digitalfaq.com – VCR Buying Guide (S-VHS, D-VHS, Professional) for restoring video. It includes a list of recommended “pro-sumer” video recorders with advanced features like TBC (Time Base Correction), which are essential for digital transfer.

After a bit of searching I managed to get Panasonic NV-HS 860 off eBay for a decent price. Unfortunately it didn’t appear to survive the journey well. After inserting a cassette the motors whirred for a second or two and then the unit powered off. Powering it on again caused the tape to eject.

After removing the lid I could see it was failing to move the tape guides to load the tape from the cassette.

Here’s a couple videos showing it in action:

On closer inspection of the mechanism noticed the tension band had lifted off the supply spindle. I replaced the tension band but it didn’t help.

I removed the mechanism for inspection and found one of the teeth from the small white loading gear, broken and sitting in grease on the adjoining metal rail. Although not good I didn’t think this would be the problem as it was from quite far round and the cog wasn’t even getting that far.

At this point I was pretty stuck, so posted some info on a couple of forums and vicboduk on vintage-radio.net came good. He posted this picture and suggested that it might be a split worm gear:

Panasonic NV-HS 860 Split Worm Gear

Closer inspection confirmed this as the fault:
Panasonic NV-HS 860 Split Worm Gear #2

As a quick fix I removed the gear and super-glued it. This did the trick and the VCR was able to load and play tapes properly.

The cheapest I could find a replacement for this tiny piece of plastic was £6.15 with delivery from sparedparts.com. I decided instead to try and find another Panasonic VCR which used the same Z-mechanism – that way I would get a load of spare parts in case anything else goes wrong. In the end I picked up a Panasonic NV-HD 640 for £8 including delivery and salvaged the part from there.

Now I can get round to transferring those VHS tapes.

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