Sky Player is Sky's attempt to give its subscribers added value by providing an online on-demand service for both PC and Mac owners.
Users can stream or download shows from channels they already receive as part of their TV subscription package and rent or buy selected shows and films.
For those with Sky Broadband Max or multiroom there's the bonus of live streaming of Sky channels aided by an EPG.
A non-subscriber can still buy or rent shows or watch shows on demand on a monthly subscription basis; £15 a month gets you the eight-channel Entertainment Pack which, sadly, doesn't include Sky1. Sky Sports channels can be added from £26 a month.
After registering you must install two small programs – the Sky Player application and Microsoft Silverlight, which allows for playback of the service's DRM-protected content.
Super-slick interface
The excellent Sky Player interface acts like a super-slick webpage. If you have access to live TV streaming you're presented with an EPG displaying a grid of programme information. This can be browsed day by day and used to schedule remote recordings to your Sky+.
A Windows Media-style player (used here for all video playback) in the top right-hand corner displays the selected channel, which can also be viewed in a small pop-up window and enlarged to full-screen. There are three streaming qualities – low, medium and (best for full-screen) high.
On-demand offerings come from channels including Sky 1, Sky Arts, Sky Travel, Sky Sports 1-3 and Xtra, Sky Movies, Sky Box Office, Eurosport, ESPN, Sky News, National Geographic, Nickelodeon, Disney Channel, Bio, and History. Hopefully, the likes of Discovery and FX will be added soon.
iPlayer integration
Sky has cheekily 'included' BBC channels as part of the service but what's offered is just web links to BBC iPlayer. Content is organised first by genre, then channel and there's a search option and a recommendation feature.
Of the Sky-owned channels, the most recent episodes of shows are free usually to view. Older episodes are rent or buy only. If free, you can stream them (again in a popup player) or download them to the recording library, where they can be kept and watched for up to 7 days.
Otherwise, TV shows cost from 98p to rent or £1.96 to buy and rentals can be kept for up to seven days but watched repeatedly for up to 48 hours after first viewing. The same applies to Sky Box Office films, which cost £3.43 to rent. Films from Sky Movies are kept for 29 days and can also be watched repeatedly.
Download speed
The peer-to-peer Kontiki system is used for downloads and you can pause them or close the application while still downloading. A 40-minute TV show takes up between 380MB-400MB and a 90-minute movie between 700MB and 900MB.
Download times for recent episodes of Lost using a 10MB cable connection running at near full capability ranged from 15 minutes in the afternoon to 45 in the evening. Saw IV (900MB) took an hour.
Streaming is an impressively smooth experience with shows starting straight away. Picture quality – as is also true of downloads – suffers minor artefacting but it's only noticeable in full-screen.
Verdict
Sky Player is a well thought-out, very user-friendly service – if in need of a few more channels especially for non-Sky subscribers. Also currently missing is support for streaming around the homes and HD downloads.
But if you are a Sky subscriber with internet access you're essentially getting an additional Sky catch-up service for nought. The question is, how long before Sky adds Sky Player to its receivers?
Your comments (4) Click to add a new comment
dvdscutt
November 3rd 2010
4. This is a good product (user interface) but the actual content is appalling. £15 per month gets you a handful of channels one of them being G.O.L.D which shows constant Last of the Summer wine repeats. and Sky News, which is free on normal TV.
Although Sky One, is a good channel, most of the good shows are not downloadable or streamable like the Simpsons which is on (or not on) most of the evening.
The Movies package is the biggest con going, you pay £5 on top per month, and yet again most of the movies are non downloadable.
Personally my money is better spent on renting tv series'. As I would be spending £20 per month just to watch BBC programmes I have already paid for, "Modern Family" and "An Idiot Abroad".
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peter123123123
October 4th 2010
3. I'm sorry but this review is inaccurate and misses vital flaws in the service. You aren't able to get most programmes. You want to watch The Simpsons, Futurama? Nope, they don't want you to. The only shows they do let you watch are either 10+ years old or the kind of programme you get free on other free online tv services. And no chance of a refund either. They don't even let you contact them (not surprisingly). Only satellite tv payers have the privilege of that. The only good thing about this service is that it's pay monthly, so you don't lose a lot of money, still, I'd quite like my £15 back.
Take a look at the "selection" (yes, that's not ALL the programmes they don't let you see) here http://OMURL.com/ad43k6
I don't have the sky satellite, so I don't know if this is normal for sky, but there is a heck of a lot of ads on this, for something that you pay for.
So if you're thinking of subscribing to this, DON'T! Stick with top notch free services like BBC iPlayer, Channel 4's 4oD and ITV's one (I forget the name).
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bencorbet
February 10th 2010
2. If you leave a movie to fully buffer before watching it it also freezes. Frustrating, disappointing and flawed.
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bencorbet
February 10th 2010
1. I'm running a brand new Mac pro 10.6.
There is currently no sky tv software for the mac and the picture freezes every 20 mins or so.
"Computers will be automatically registered with Sky Player the first time you watch, until you reach the 4 computer limit. Registration when using Sky Player Software or an Xbox 360 console takes place on first sign in."
If you want to add a second computer be aware that they are not automatically registered the first time you watch. If you try to watch tv with a second computer it will just say 'error, please refresh'. I have no idea how to set up sky tv player on a second computer and there is no help.
The search function is vary basic. There are loads of films on sky player but you cannot search by genre. This means that most of the time you have to dig through the A-Z list to find a film you want to see which (due to its the site's laborious loading time), is very frustrating.
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