Once the habits drifted toward more engaging content on Sky, the analog conversion from the older style skyboxes tended to get in the way, so we upgraded to the new HD box with Sky. This meant an upgrade to the media center to be able to handle HDMI input, but that still limited us to one channel at a time – with no chance of background recording. After a little time with this setup, I gave in and upgraded to MySky which allowed us to record in the background and timeshift – on an always-on, always-connected box (no need to remember to boot the lounge computer to make a recording!).

Enter Vodafone TV. Where MySky was a big shift in convenience 5 years ago (and particularly more recently with the decoder firmware upgrades), it’s still based on older technology. Vodafone TV (or at least the concept) seems to be the way forward. It makes everyday TV that extra bit more convenient and if they can work out the kinks, or the (somewhat less likely) possibility of Sky using this as a pilot and building something similar (I imagine there’s several hundred non-compete clauses stepping in the way of that - but could happend depending on the friendliness of the two companies). It’s definitely a contender for one of the more recent technologies I’ve actually been impressed with (even if the ‘streaming will kill TV’ naysayers cluck their repetitive tune).

A worthy contender, but perhaps only once the issues are ironed out. If there is commercial interest to do so and Vodafone / Sky execute it properly, it might just entice me to swap over.

Might.
Quaid J. Leckey