Very insightful video Ash! I actually remember having the box at 26:30 as it was mainly sold to customers through Sky Multiroom, used to have it installed in my bedroom (as having Sky in your bedroom was almost sort of a "commodity") in my old house. Definitely helped those days where I was sick off school and needed a Cartoon Network or Disney XD fix to put my mind off the pain/sickness I was feeling. I completely forgot they built these boxes without a HDD, which explains why they weren't as heavy as the +HD boxes and could be easily installed by anyone. Although they definitely still packaged a +HD remote with these boxes, despite not having the PVR features included. I don't think it had the capability for On Demand either, as again, it wasn't able to save to a hard drive, I could entirely be wrong though as my memory with this box is a little fuzzy. Nowadays, it's nice that Sky boxes now don't require a HDD and the main Q box can be used for storage, allowing the boxes to intertwine with each other. Although, in our experience, the Mini box we have does not like to play ball often. We've only had to replace the main box once though. Hopefully, when I get a Mini box installed in my current bedroom, it won't have the same issues.
18:04 yes that is a 2004-2005 one. I remember it as my parents had it, when I was growing up. Born in 96. Grew up with Sky. However, I have not had it for over 12 years now. Sadly, not as good as it used to be.
My first digibox was the Panasonic TU-DSB31 (11'09"). I wanted the Sony, as I had a Sony analogue receiver for Sky at the time. But in hindsight, I was glad to have the Panny as I believe it had the fastest UI of all the digiboxes at the time.
Great video Ash! If you do a video about the old Sky analogue service then that would be appreciated. Maybe even something about satellite dishes too. 😊
Hi Ash, great video by the way. Could you make a history lookback video for NTL/Telewest/Virgin Media digital set-top boxes soon please? But only when you find any of them.
Re: quality of the old Amstrad boxes; I believe they were actually built by Samsung. It would be nice to get some kind of teardown and see what the technical architecture is. At least one of them I think was an ARM-based device, although not as cool as some of the Acorn RISC PC-based set top boxes which were really a general purpose computer with a nice desktop and everything.
the USB ports on the earlier +HD boxes were used for the wireless connector mini wifi adapter it was given free to HD customers who didn't have all of their boxes online in the mid 2010's
Which box has the fastest start up. For example if I complete shut the sky box off and put it back on which comes on first(on actual sky). Please someone tell me. Thanks
Very insightful video Ash!
I actually remember having the box at 26:30 as it was mainly sold to customers through Sky Multiroom, used to have it installed in my bedroom (as having Sky in your bedroom was almost sort of a "commodity") in my old house. Definitely helped those days where I was sick off school and needed a Cartoon Network or Disney XD fix to put my mind off the pain/sickness I was feeling. I completely forgot they built these boxes without a HDD, which explains why they weren't as heavy as the +HD boxes and could be easily installed by anyone. Although they definitely still packaged a +HD remote with these boxes, despite not having the PVR features included. I don't think it had the capability for On Demand either, as again, it wasn't able to save to a hard drive, I could entirely be wrong though as my memory with this box is a little fuzzy.
Nowadays, it's nice that Sky boxes now don't require a HDD and the main Q box can be used for storage, allowing the boxes to intertwine with each other. Although, in our experience, the Mini box we have does not like to play ball often. We've only had to replace the main box once though. Hopefully, when I get a Mini box installed in my current bedroom, it won't have the same issues.
18:04 yes that is a 2004-2005 one. I remember it as my parents had it, when I was growing up. Born in 96. Grew up with Sky. However, I have not had it for over 12 years now. Sadly, not as good as it used to be.
12:25 i had that box and ive got the flowline,two hd boxes [black n silver] and ive got a panasonic/amstrad one
Great video Ash, thank you
My first digibox was the Panasonic TU-DSB31 (11'09"). I wanted the Sony, as I had a Sony analogue receiver for Sky at the time. But in hindsight, I was glad to have the Panny as I believe it had the fastest UI of all the digiboxes at the time.
The analogue Sony was the SAT-503, a very smart looking piece of kit
The lights on the panel on the white Sky+ boxes were green, not blue!
Great video Ash! If you do a video about the old Sky analogue service then that would be appreciated. Maybe even something about satellite dishes too. 😊
Great suggestion!
The keyboard remote is called the Sky Navigator.
Great video man. do you have any Sky analogue boxes.?
Yes a couple actually... Watch this space.
@@ONhistoryplus i cant wart 🙂
Also, the Q on the Sky Q box makes the remote beep to find it. Nice touch
That's good point!
Hi Ash, great video by the way. Could you make a history lookback video for NTL/Telewest/Virgin Media digital set-top boxes soon please? But only when you find any of them.
Thanks for the idea!
@@ONhistoryplus You're welcome 👍
Re: quality of the old Amstrad boxes; I believe they were actually built by Samsung. It would be nice to get some kind of teardown and see what the technical architecture is. At least one of them I think was an ARM-based device, although not as cool as some of the Acorn RISC PC-based set top boxes which were really a general purpose computer with a nice desktop and everything.
I had the 1st skybox until 2018
the USB ports on the earlier +HD boxes were used for the wireless connector mini wifi adapter it was given free to HD customers who didn't have all of their boxes online in the mid 2010's
No, that's not correct. The Wi-Fi adapter used the Ethernet socket.
1998 is when it started, not 1999 on the description
Thanks for spotting the typo!
@@ONhistoryplus 👍
Great
Hi Ash just got your message and now am watching this ha ha
Which box has the fastest start up. For example if I complete shut the sky box off and put it back on which comes on first(on actual sky). Please someone tell me. Thanks
oh and i had a sky+ box too
When I was born I my family had Directv because there was no cable in the area until 2008. But Sky would have been in the same family as Directv.
Sky+ was invented by a scouser😂me.