My very first sky digital digibox in 2021! Amstrad DRX100

Way back when i subscribed to sky digital. This is likely the same model as the one i originally had, the drx 100 from amstrad or alan sugar trading.
I was feeling a bit nostalgic so couldnt resist buying another from ebay for £8.
Does it work in 2021. Well kind of. It depends on what you want out of it!
Note to copyright holders, any EPG music ive added in is to try and support the nostalgia of this box and sky digital in general from its early days. Just something nice for my viewers
Sky discontinued the music around 2018 sadly.

[@brandonlee7382]

I had my parents old sky box for my bedroom just over 10 years ago. This menu brings back memories. I really like the colour scheme. My sky box was silver. My mum got the Sky + box and that's why I had the old one. I had the purple remote too. Really cool design the remotes were for sky.

[@ChelmsfordIT]

Nice! EPG software 3.5.3 was released sometime around late-2006, and definitely isn't the latest version for it (3.8.8 is). I have one of these Amstrads on the old 1998-style EPG too.

[@paulisthebest3uk]

This box sadly isn't running the 1998 epg unfortunately. At some point it went for the update. If you still have it would love a video of it running with original epg in 2021

[@Dean256]

Beehive bedlam is available on sky q now also the reason behind the aerial input and output was because back in the day some tv’s didn’t support scart so this was a way to plug it into the TV using aerial input socket and then manually tuning it in through local analogue signals in the same way as the old PS1. Great video.

[@heggy_69]

I still have my PS3 connected that way lol

[@dw_2005]

To elaborate on that point, you are aboslutely correct. Its an analogue RF modulator like you got for VCRs and Games consoles before scart and other video inputs were available on tvs, it puts the video signal of the box on a blank analogue tv channel. but it isnt just for getting a image on TVs that have only Aerial in. (maybe not in the case of this specific box but definitely in later years) The aerial Inputs/outputs were there primarily for the Sky Multiroom feature. Nowadays with Sky Q this is done with a Wifi based link back to the main Box. Before Q they used aerial connections. Basically the idea was that you plug in the output from your main roof aerial into the "RF In" then put the 'RF Out 1/2' into the primary aerial wiring for your house so that tvs in other rooms can display the image from the main box using nothing more than just an aerial connection (people likely to already have aerial wiring in each room throughout the house rather than a dedicated scart cable going to each room with a TV). to control the box from another room, Sky provided what they call a "Magic Eye" (a remote control receiver) that plugged in before the aerial connection to every other tv in the house and that let you control the box from another room (Drawback being the Aerial output just mirrors the main box screen so if you changed the channel from another room it would affect whoever was watching directly on the main box). This was the system used for Multiroom before Sky Q, this is what i used when i still had a Sky HD subscription before upgrading.

[@Dean256]

@@dw_2005 yes on the multi room feature using the 3rd aerial output my old sky Panasonic box had I used to run it from my living room to my bedroom and then use the magic eye for the remote to work. Picture wasn’t the best but for the late 90’s early 2000’s it was revolutionary…

[@dw_2005]

@@Dean256 Must have been revolutionary, because it was used until as recent as 2016 with Sky+HD on the latest version of the Sky HD box (despite the fact it was only SD with Multiroom) as it was the only supported multiroom standard until they figured out how to make cut down versions of the main box and link it over Wifi. The old mutitoom system was more reliable in my experience. Wifi link is too prone to dropouts and limited range

[@Cheeseburgerandfries2006]

Shocking enough you actually recorded the footage of the digibox on the day of the red bee fire incident that affected channel 4 and channel 5 and almost all of the tv channels

[@ultimatesquidgaming4782]

Awesome video; a hotel that I stayed in 2022 was still using Sky Boxes for transmitting various channels to each rooms as one of the channels was BBC Four and it just broadcasted the EPG now and next banner before BBC Four starts showing programmes! Also the press red and press green for adding a programme to the planner also were shown!

[@CommanderTartar]

and at the end of the month the old box will only be good for sky news and any other free SD channels due to the BBC dropping their SD channels

[@nxx99]

Forgot about ITV, Channel 4, channel 5, and literally every non-bbc channel

[@neo-vontr52x40]

3:30 R.I.P Sky One

[@Richiecandylover]

Back in the day most TVs used an old aerial cable with Sky, and the ARIEL in was connected to the roof top aerial as Sky didn't have rights to ITV Channels as it was in direct competition to On/ITV Digital, a message would pop up to say "Press TV and then 3 to watch ITV"

[@AnthonyChopra]

my uncle had analog sky too oddly i was told on 2003ish that u could get foreign tv channels via that odd dish my family had but as i was so young i forgot to look back at info about it as i wonder what other free satellites are still used for old analog sky or a foreign channels. i mean i wonder now if analog sky box could possibly still pick some other countries freetoair channels that uses analog or even digital stations. this is bringing back memories of when i even opened up the old box to take a look if it still works maybe its better to have this for freeairchannels like freesat if theres some good music channels tbh freeview is all old repeats that are boring.

[@castle6742]

i still have this box in my room

[@glassowlie]

Won't be now as you need HD satellite equipment.

[@smerdagoesbrrrr]

greedy ass company but i love sky so much

[@bradleyhifi8155]

sd channels on sky being phase out bbc sd feed has cloed

[@SuperHitman55]

What's the process of pairing your card to this box? I couldn't get mine to pair. It just says "this is the wrong viewing card"

[@RedoStone35]

A holiday home I stayed in had a Sky box that looked like this as recent as June 2021.

[@alfiehanrattysbackup492]

the channel 4 and channel 5 channels were off air due to a fire at the red bee media transmission centre in london.

[@Nitrooooooogen]

oh no

[@mattwebb6056]

I had one of those. The power supplies used to fail all the time!

[@fathersunglasses6085]

Used to use this box up until 2016! Had it from 1999 - 2016. Used to play Bumble Tumble on it, as well as Playjam. If anyone remembers Bumble Tumble give me a shout

[@RobertHellier]

wow it lasted well

[@fathersunglasses6085]

@@RobertHellier it still worked even when we got rid and upgraded to SkyHD in 2016. Don't make them like that anymore. Same can be said for all electronics. You

[@S-1_24-25]

I used to have one of these back in like 2010-2015. I probably had it even longer before 2010 I can’t remember

[@markgenner1747]

Saturday 25th September 2021.

[@exposingfreaks5733]

Do they still work with the pay channels now or not?

[@markgenner1747]

The Old Sky Digital Box.

[@DEADCHANNEL361]

7:39 I’m not that surprised that the red button prompts on that cable box still work lol

[@asterickjones]

They are obviously still broadcasting the EPG music on satellite that no one usually hears for that to still work in 2021! Wonder if it's free to air and I could find it with DVB Viewer and my USB satellite Hauppauge device. Have to say I prefer the uncluttered simple blue and white EPG display of these older boxes, for a short while it was this scheme on Sky+ HD and that was great, but then changed to the design they've used ever since then. I've stuck an old Sky+ box in the bedroom and am limited obviously to the SD only channels, so no GB News, Talk TV, Freesports and now even QVC has gone HD only! Looks like you've not got it to output 16:9, I also find widescreen switching no longer works watching it via a HD Sony TV, so if turning to say classic coronation street on ITV3 you've got to manually set the aspect ratio to 4:3 on your TV.

[@half-dusted]

wait what was that about EPG music

[@powder3d]

you can watch sky without a viewing card???? can you watch sky with no satelite cable? (i heard that some sky boxes support freeview) i wanna make a a 2010s home cinema setup

[@paulisthebest3uk]

you can watch freesat channels but now they must be with a newer generation of box. If you have an ancient drx100 like my video, most of the bbc channels are gone due to the shutoff of bbc SD

[@half-dusted]

4:22 I'm assuming that's the speed it was originally too?

[@paulisthebest3uk]

Yeah it was a slow box, one of the first boxes released for the new at the time sky digital platform. Later boxes such as pace models the software was much faster

[@half-dusted]

@@paulisthebest3uk thank you for the response. 🙂

[@RobertHellier]

Cor I used to install these boxes the older hardware lasted longer too I had the 2nd generation Pace box loved it i had it from 1999 gave it to my friend as a freesat box.

[@toweringsequoias1590]

nice

[@BobBarnes2005]

Can i ask. What is your overall review of Sky Q?

[@paulisthebest3uk]

Sky Q is great, how it works especially multiscreen, you don't even need a dish input into the second box. However one thing i don't like about sky Q (mainly the multiscreen) is everyone shares the same planner, in the household. It would be nice if you could log in like a username, and then have your programmes separate on each box, so you don't accidently delete other peoples programmes lol But the technology is outstanding for what it is. I have no idea how it gets the amazing picture on the second box wireless without even being connected to the dish (only the main box has to be connected to the dish)

[@BobBarnes2005]

@@paulisthebest3uk Thank you for responding! Yes the technology is great and is revolutionary. I agree with you on the planner argument and think that it would be better if the main box didn’t have to on for the multiroom to work.

[@julesb5469]

I have the second box in the main bedroom I was told it boosts the internet reception around the place also?