25-01-2024, 08:43 PM
I agree with criticism over the lack of recording.
As others have speculated, it was probably at least partly because making small & relatively cheap boxes available was part of the brief, so they only contain a small amount of flash storage and not a full-sized SSD, but it is what viewers expect and is a glaring omission.
Other, more niche, features that are not available on Stream/Glass, such as Manual Tuning, would probably be much less of an issue for most (and they would therefore be able to get away with not having them) but recording is a dealbreaker for too many, in my view.
Sky Stream seems heavily designed around the ability to add the STB seamlessly to a wall-mounted TV, concealing it in the void behind the TV, as the remote works over Bluetooth and the box itself is very small. Additionally, they seemed keen to make sure the box (including packaging) could be posted through a standard letterbox. So maybe these design limitations meant a proper SSD didn’t fit.
But I really think assuming that catch-up will fill the void is a miscalculation on Sky’s part, and they will eventually have to bring recording in.
Cloud recording could work, but broadcasters may not like it and I do wonder if they might insist on restricting the ability to fast-forward adverts in the same way they do for VoD content without the ad-skip addon.
It would also require Sky to make considerable server space available for all the recorded files, but this could be shared across the userbase (so a recording of a given programme would only need to be saved on their servers once, and different subscribers who had opted to “record” it would be served up the same file).
As others have speculated, it was probably at least partly because making small & relatively cheap boxes available was part of the brief, so they only contain a small amount of flash storage and not a full-sized SSD, but it is what viewers expect and is a glaring omission.
Other, more niche, features that are not available on Stream/Glass, such as Manual Tuning, would probably be much less of an issue for most (and they would therefore be able to get away with not having them) but recording is a dealbreaker for too many, in my view.
Sky Stream seems heavily designed around the ability to add the STB seamlessly to a wall-mounted TV, concealing it in the void behind the TV, as the remote works over Bluetooth and the box itself is very small. Additionally, they seemed keen to make sure the box (including packaging) could be posted through a standard letterbox. So maybe these design limitations meant a proper SSD didn’t fit.
But I really think assuming that catch-up will fill the void is a miscalculation on Sky’s part, and they will eventually have to bring recording in.
Cloud recording could work, but broadcasters may not like it and I do wonder if they might insist on restricting the ability to fast-forward adverts in the same way they do for VoD content without the ad-skip addon.
It would also require Sky to make considerable server space available for all the recorded files, but this could be shared across the userbase (so a recording of a given programme would only need to be saved on their servers once, and different subscribers who had opted to “record” it would be served up the same file).