TV Plus review

Damien McFerran

We review TV Plus, an iPhone application that allows you to record programmes on your Sky+ box

Published on Sep 4, 2009

We’ve all experienced that terrible moment when you’re out of the house and you realise there’s something you desperately wanted to watch on telly. Although the introduction of ‘watch again’ services such as the BBC iPlayer have softened the blow of this very modern dilemma, it’s still annoying to know that a slice of televisual gold has slipped through your fingers.

TV Plus is an application that attempts to remedy this issue. It communicates with your Sky+ box and allows you to record programs even when you’re not in the comfort of your home. It also doubles as a comprehensive TV guide with over 400 different channels covered.

Naturally such technical witchcraft if reliant on you actually owning a Sky+ package and in addition to this you’ll have to register a My Sky Remote Record account. TV Plus prompts you for this vital information when you first fire it up.

Once you’re logged in you can select your region to ensure you get the correct channels. This is of utmost importance because the TV schedule differs between each area in the country.

TV Plus puts the channels into various categories such as Sport, Entertainment and News, amongst others. Once you’ve made a selection you’re faced with the separate channels, such as BBC1, ITV, Channel 5, etc. Pick a station and you’re given the current day’s program list. There’s also the option to see what’s on the goggle-box over the next six days, too.

Now for the really clever part. Selecting a TV program presents you with yet another screen which features a brief synopsis of the show in question. It also contains other salient information such as the time it commences and its duration.

Stabbing at the big red button that says ‘Record’ at the bottom of the screen does just what you would expect it to – it instantly tells your trusty Sky+ box to record the program when it starts. It’s quick, painless and incredibly easy to get your head around.

There have been some teething issues with TV Plus since it made its debut back in October 2008 but the developer appears to be dealing with feedback in a timely fashion. We did notice a few missed recording requests, which is naturally very frustrating and is something that will need urgent attention in the next update.

Another fact to consider before making a purchase is that Sky has recently released its own application for exactly this sort of thing, and what’s more it’s available free of charge. It’s slightly less intuitive though and we have to admit we prefer the way TV Plus operates.

If the developer can continue to work on ironing out the occasional bugs still present in TV Plus then we’d have no problem in being a little more enthusiastic with our recommendation. As it stands, the free Sky+ app is the smarter choice at present – despite the fact that it’s less pleasurable to actually use.