Sky+ Digital Box

[7013]

Just noticed on my Sky+ box there is a USB port next to where you put the viewing card in, I have looked through the book but cannot find out what it is for, any ideas? I do not want to just plug something in, in case I mess things up!

[f#m]

I don't have sky plus but some folk I know do and it does nothing according to them, you can charge stuff off it thats it.

[antrobuscp]

I was interested in the use of the usb port. We've an hd box and the book simply says something about "future functionality". Nothing about current uses.

 

Colin

[spamcan61]

I don't have sky plus but some folk I know do and it does nothing according to them, you can charge stuff off it thats it.

 

Yep, that's about the only use for the USB port on a Sky+ box.

[David Rickard]

There's quite a few random ports on some Sky+ and SkyHD boxes.

 

The USB ports have been mooted to be for the ability to add additional storage to the box, so you can record more on it. Similarly, the SkyHD boxes have USB, eSATA and ethernet ports, the former two expected to be used for additional storage, the latter for a video-on-demand service Sky may one day launch.

 

All these ports are, officially, for future use, so don't do a thing. I've plugged the ethernet port of my SkyHD box in, just for poops and giggles, and it really does nothing except come up. I don't think it even does anything on Layer 2.

 

Thing is, the boxes themselves are pretty much standard designs from Thomson (blech!), Pace, Samsung, Amstrad, et al. Sky get some minor modifications thrown in, but on the whole is a standard design, so Sky just whack their own middleware on it (i.e. the software drawing the EPG and whatnot) and disable stuff they don't want to use.

 

My guess is the USB and eSATA ports will never see use. Sky are very pro-DRM, so the only thing you'd be able to copy onto an external USB drive would probably be free-to-air stuff, so the premium stuff you might want to record to take with you elsewhere to watch would be stuck on the box still, which defeats the purpose a little. Plus with services like iPlayer/4OD/Sky Player and the upcoming Canvas, you can just watch stuff online anyway. The ethernet port I see getting use, as Sky are being beat severely by Virgin with their video-on-demand, or lack thereof. Sky Anytime is good, but it's not great as it's very limited. James Murdoch has made various announcements about VOD coming to Sky in some form, so I think it's only a matter of time.

 

Similarly, Sky have removed ports. First generation Sky HD boxes had component video, for backwards compatibility with early HD TVs. Later Samsung and Pace boxes don't have those ports. Component video doesn't (AFAIK) have the ability to carry any sort of content protection, so it's a very nice easy way to pirate things...