Digital TV

Indeed the launch equipment had the Sky egg logo on the boxes and the remote. I thought it was the Pace box only that had this, but it appears the Amstrad models also had the egg logo also.

That picture's reminded be of the period in the 00s where TVs, digital boxes, DVD players and the likes went silver. Then by the end of the decade they were back to being black again.

The black Amstrad box is the one that we had from launch. It was quite a step up from Sky analogue!

Yes my cousins had Sky Digital and the smartcard had the egg logo design on it (their card didn’t get changed/replaced for years)

Silver was the design trend for most of the decade of the noughties… I remember excitement over Telewest’s TVDrive being silver, as the infamous Pace box was in that late ’90s grey. Of course, soon after, glossy black replaced silver as the trend, so the rebadged V+ Boxes were painted black instead.

I don't think the design of the Sky EPG ever changed either, apart from the logo in the corner, for SD boxes (are any of those still in use?). It was only with HD boxes they came up with a new design. So that design hung around for 15-odd years.

Indeed, the Sky+ box that was bought in September 2007, we had in the dining room until July 2013 and had the same EPG design used for the last fifteen years.

I think we had a Amstrad when it was first installed but it kept freezing so we got given a Panasonic box.

I think it’s a shame they stopped getting other companies to make Sky boxes, whilst Amstrad were the go to manufacturers for Sky (before absorbing them outright), its proof other companies could make the equipment if they wanted to.

Its hard to believe but event Sony made a Sky Digibox, would be interesting to see how many of them were offered to customers over Amstrad models for instance.

I think in Alan Sugar’s autobiography, he says that Amstrad were starting to get shut out of talks about producing the then-new Sky+ HD boxes, as a result of Sugar taking his eye off the ball by working on the E-mailer. Buying Amstrad was basically Murdoch returning the favour for Sugar supporting him and producing the original equipment at Sky’s 1989 launch.

Such a bizarre design. It doesn't even feel like a Sky box. Although, it is Sony we're talking about and they're known for their weird and trippy designs (ex: The prototype PS3 controller that doesn't even look like a PlayStation controller)

They also made an OnDigital box too, neither were very widespread

I didn’t know Sony made an On Digital box, certainly not their finest hour. I liked the Philips and silver Pioneer boxes for OD/ITVD.