Andy you well know that I'm about as low tech. as it comes on this BBS, but if they've told me that they're scheduling a network connection, won't it do that?

Ignoring the practical side of things for a moment. It seems very unlikely that given the functionality of the boxes is tightly controlled by Sky (the broadcaster of much of the material) that we will ever be allowed to archive off digital, unencrypted, copies of the programmes we have recorded. They would get them in so much trouble with the rights owners.

If we ignore the commerical channels, even the BBC would have major problems with people doing that.

With Sky+ you can't even view a recorded programme if there is no satellite signal. It is the raw encrypted MPEG stream that is saved to the disk and your viewing card and a satellite signal both have to be present to watch non free-to-air material.

I guess it all depends on what the network functionality would do. If it just allowed you to swap recordings between different Sky+ boxes, but you still needed a card and signal to view them then they would be in the clear. I really can see you being able to do what you can do with TiVo or ReplayTV boxes (i.e. record a show and send it to someone who hasn't paid to be able to view that show).

I'm not sure it is practical with the current hardware to provide this functionality. There is some sort of PCMCIA card slot on the box, so I perhaps they could plug something in there.

Who is the "they" that you talk about ? Is it operators in the Sky+ call centre ? If so they are woefully inaccurate in the info that they give out.