Sky+ is cool, I've had a box for a couple of years nearly now. It got even cooler when they added the ability to record two channels while you are watching a another recording last month.

However, it is not like TiVo really. It has pretty much zero intelligence. It is a bit more like a very clever VCR that can record two things at once while it is playing back a third.

You choose something from a channel to record, Sky+ records it. You select a recording and add a series link, as long as the broadcaster tells the box what the next programme in the series its AND it is within 14 days then it will record it.

That is the limit of it's TiVo-ness. It doesn't have all the nice "record everthing with X" in and "record any instance of Buffy that I haven't got forever". Series links only match a single channel. If there is a clash it won't keep searching for a repeat of the show. There is little hope that we will ever be able to get the unencrypted MPEG streams off of the box.

So if you get one you will love it, but probably not so much if you have actually lived with TiVo. Thankfully I have never lived with TiVo, so I can pretend to myself that all the TiVo features I would love don't exist