Tata Sky Plus --- The definitive review. Review on Tata Play

Here is all that you need to know about Tata Sky Plus. I have decided to present it like a useful FAQ set because apart from the usual advertised mumbo jumbo there is not really much useful information available on their website.

These are the questions I wanted to ask someone before buying Tata Sky Plus- Note: I would not go into details of the basic features of tata sky. I would assume that you are aware or are an existing owner of tata sky just like I was before deciding to swap it for tata sky plus. So read on....Is it worth buying a tata sky plus?Well, no one can give you a yes or no answer for this one. It depends on what are you looking for. Tata Sky plus is a digital video recorder in addition to a set top box.

Tata sky basic on the other hand if simply a set top box or digicomp. In terms of basic features, both are the same. However, if you want total control over your tv viewing, want to record content from your tv, pause and rewind tv, then go for tata sky plus.Is there any difference in the picture and sound quality of tata sky and tata sky plus?On paper, yes there is.

Tata sky runs on MPEG 2 format whereas Tata Sky Plus runs on MPEG 4 format. The reality is that these are merely two different encompression technologies. You will not notice any difference between the picture and sound quality of the two. So if you have a basic tata sky and a good HD LCD TV, then there is nothing more than you can get in terms of clarity from Tata Sky plus.Do the record, rewind, pause features work exactly how they have been advertised or is the actual experience short of expectations?Good news. The features work exactly the way you would expect.

You can pause live TV anytime you like and resume it from where you left. One important feature you need to know about the rewind feature is that you can rewind a channel for a maximum duration of 90 minutes or one and a half hour. You cannot rewind any further than that. Also, the amount of time you will be able to rewind depends upon the time you have already spent watching that channel. Tata sky plus has an internal buffer that starts storing channels on the internal buffer as you watch them .

For example, you have tuned into Star World 5 minutes back, if you want to rewind, you can only go back upto 5 mins. Hope that makes sense.How does the record feature work?The record feature is very simple to use. You can either record a channel while watching by pressing the "R" button or schedule a recording from the TV guide. So if there is a really good movie on Star Movies at 11PM in the night and you can't stay up as you need to head to the office early, you can schedule a recording using the Plan option. Tata Sky Plus will record your movie for you.

NOTE: Your set top box must be on while recording. You can however switch off your TV as it will not affect the recording. How many programmes can I record at one time?Tata sky Plus has 2 TV tuner cards in it which means that you can at the max record 2 programmes side by side. When you are recording 2 programmes side by side, you can only watch either one of the 2 channels being recorded. You cannot for example record 2 programmes together on Sony and Zee and tune into HBO at the same time.

So ideally, you should record only one programme at a time which allows you to watch any other channel normally as the other tv tuner card will be free. Tata sky comes with an inbuilt 160 GB Hard disk which can store upto 45 hours of videos. You cannot remove the hard disk, burn the recorded videos to a disc or transfer them to your PC etc. Another interesting feature is the Series Link feature which will allow you to schedule a recording option for all episodes of a series. So for example you want to record "Friends" on Star World every day at 5 PM, you need to schedule a series link record option only once. Tata sky plus will record all episodes of friends every day at 5PM.

Any difference in the quality of recorded programmes?It's the same as live TV. You will not notice any difference in quality.Slow motion?Yes, you have an option of pausing live TV at any time and play the scene on slow motion. They dont advertise this feature and I agree lot of people would not probably use it but I use it a lot specially with the ongoing IPL, I can rewind any shot and watch it in slow mo. It's so much fun. Other things you might be interested to know:- - The box itself looks great. Really sleek looking. It's bigger than the original box in width but is much sleeker.A lot of ports in the box like the USB port, Lan wire Port etc do not work currently. Tata Sky has kept them for future use. Overall I would recommend it to anyone who is ready to shell out some extra cash. It's worth it and you will have loads of fun with it.