Comments on: Sky Player on Xbox 360: Hands-on photos and first impressions

By: Amy | Xbox 360

Amy | Xbox 360 — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 11:36:16 +0000

My main issue is that if you already have Sky (which I believe that most people who want to have Sky already have it) then there’s no point to it. And with Sky being available in HD now, the capacity of the Xbox 360 (or more specifically, most people’s broadband connections) won’t allow for HD streaming, you’d have to download and then play. I’m not convinced until this is sorted. Brilliant concept, but it needs to be done right.

By: Trevorton

Trevorton — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 10:13:55 +0000

With Netflix a movie subscription is less than a fiver and provides access to current DVD releases where possible but DVD post out where not. This service lets you buy a restricted menu of tv episodes for £1 but you have to subscribe to get access to films.

How does this compare? Inferior service at superior cost exactly what this country expects from sky.

And being in mind this is available to xbox 360 owners who tend to be in to futuristic video games missing off the Sci-fi channel was a stroke of absolute genius!

If you are already a slave to Sky this adds a useful facility. If you just want to rent the occasional film when there is nothing on freesat, freeview or your pvr this was a completely missed opportunity.

I’m kinda glad about that as it means I will continue to not add anything to the coffers of sky

By: James Holland

James Holland — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 13:16:36 +0000

It’s SD. It doesn’t look too bad, and the load times are very short. However, it’s not as spangly as a full on HD download.

By: james

james — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 17:25:58 +0000

Pretty cool. Wonder how the quality compares to netflix though?

By: Daniel Essex

Daniel Essex — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 11:35:42 +0000

Emm nope – i’ve been using Sky Player for about 6 months now on my friends (and former housemates) Sky Account. We had neither multi-room nor unlimited broadband – neither is required to get Sky Player for free

By: Yakkity

Yakkity — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 23:08:18 +0000

“Sky Player subscriptions come free for satellite customers, and start at £15 per month for those without a dish.
…
Essentially, what Sky is offering here is a second subscription for use anywhere you like, or a second set-top box for those wanting movies and sports in their bedroom.”

Anyone wanting a ’2nd subscription’ or the equivalent of a 2nd set-top box needs multi-room or unlimited broadband – something not made clear in your hands-on.

By: James Holland

James Holland — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 17:20:23 +0000

Err, no Yakkity. Direct from the mouth of Sky: “Existing Sky customers with Xbox Live Gold membership will be able to access Sky Player’s on-demand content in line with the channels they are able to access through their core Sky TV subscription. Customers with Sky Multiroom or Sky Broadband Unlimited subscriptions are additionally able to access live channels for no extra charge.”

By: Ivan

Ivan — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:04:49 +0000

Well for me Sky Player on their website has been working? absolutely fine since 11.30 am, thats for over 3 hours now, but the same doesnt apply to x360.

But hey, what do you expect from Microsoft and its new partner (SKY) who is a known UK thief, despite that you have a Xbox Live Gold Account, you still have to pay to have any sky content.

MS says that you have to have a gold account just for this rubish?

After I installed sky player, it also wont connect, as it doesnt for any Xbox Gold Live Members, and now MS purposely removed SKY PLAYER from the Menu, to keep everyone’s mouth shut.

What a bunch of Wankers!

By: Yakkity

Yakkity — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 12:21:03 +0000

“Sky Player subscriptions come free for satellite customers”

Actually, no. It is free if you already pay £9.75 a month fort Sky multi-room or £9.75 for Sky Broadband unlimited. If you don’t have either of these it’ll cost you an extra £9.75 a month.

Thanks, but I’ll stick to the free BBC iPlayer on my PS3…