Sky plus recordings on certain channels often impaired - recordings "jump" making viewing and listening difficult

That really depends if you have been with sky.Contact sky and they will sort it out for you.You should get freesat of them i had multi rooms i cancelled them and got freesat and sky sorted all that all they need is the sky viewing number

You must connect up the TV to the SKY box, via Audio Visual cables too, in order to watch, recorded programs. You need to hook, up, Component, HDMI, or Composite, You select it by an EXTERNAL channel.
Connect the cable running from the wall into the "In" port on the Sky Box HD receiver. This cable brings in the signal to your receiver. Make sure the cable is securely fastened to the receiver, otherwise you might experience image and audio issues.
Attach an HDMI cable into the HDMI port on the Sky Box HDTV receiver. The HDMI is a single cable that provides both HD audio and video signals.
Plug the other end of the HDMI cable into an available HDMI port on the HDTV.
Power on the HDTV and the Sky Box HDTV receiver. Press the "HDMI" button on the TV's remote control. This will display the cable contents of the HD receiver onto the television.

If you have a blueray or HD DVD player I would connect using a gold plated HDMI cable from the TV to the DVD, make sure that you buy the correct HDMI version for your TV. If you don't have a HS DVD player recorder then use a HQ SCART as below.

Most SKY+ boxes still have a SCART connection I suggest that you buy a HQ gold plated ribbon connector to connect the SKY to one of your AV (audio visual) channels. The benefit of using SCART is that it will autoselect the AV channel when SKY is taken out of standby.

You will not need to connect using co-axial cables these are pretty much redundant now as you can get all your channels through your SKY dish.

Also if you live in a poor reception area and your TV has freeview built in SKY is your better option.

I think you need to get Sky because it will give you 100% coverage of all terrestrial channels. You may need to retune the television otherwise just get sky

Is there anything mentioned about cable accessible via the remote ... assuming you have one that works for the unit?

The method is the same as for TV channels; select the input (i.e. view the desired channel), then press the record button. AV1 and AV2 usually are at the end of the channel list, and can be found by pressing the channel UP or DOWN buttons.

Hi there! Sorry but you can't unless you have My Sky/HD recorder. The sky decoder is simply a one channel watch decoder. You can only record a sky channel and watch the channels normally provided via your VHF and UHF aerials connected to the decoder or vice versa.
My Sky fixes that although you cannot record to a dvd disc on this thing and the privilege comes at a price of course!

You’re dvd/vcr only has analogue tuner so the only way to record is by using the Phillips tv but as said tv will need to be switched on.you would need a sky or cable box or a free view box separate to the tv to record with tv off.the vcr will recieve only on the av channel av1 when connected to tv.a sky box or cable can be connected to av2 on sharp using a second scart lead and box

No analog acn't be programmed

scart from the sky to the dvd recorder. then a scart from each to the tv. Job done.