System requirements
Probably the first question you should ask yourself - assuming this whole thing takes your fancy, and you are a Sky Premium subscriber - is what sort of PC spec do I need? To make life easy, here are Sky's suggested minimum requirements.
Minimum spec+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Sky by broadband minimum requirements
Before registering for and installing Sky by broadband, please check that you can meet the following requirements or recommendations.
Don't have the minimum spec PC?
Find
out more about upgrading your PC with Intel
About you:
- You are a Sky digital customer and you subscribe to a
package which includes Sky Sports 1 & 2 and/or Sky Movies 1
& 2
- You are based in the UK or Republic of Ireland
- You are the named Sky digital account holder
- You have not already downloaded Sky by broadband to another PC (you
can only download Sky by broadband to one PC in your household)
Your PC has...
- Windows XP (Home or Professional)
- Administrator privileges (to enable you to download the application)
- A broadband internet connection of at least 512KB (1MB is recommended)
- Minimum 250MB free disk space for the installation
- Minimum 3GB free disk space for the media file storage (recommended
10GB)
- Recommended screen resolution of 1024x768, plus 16-bit colour display
- Recommended 512MB memory (RAM), or minimum 256MB memory
- Windows Media Player 10 or higher (if you don't already have it, the
installation process will help you)
The following applications will be installed along with Sky by broadband:
- Microsoft.net Framework 1.1
- Flash Player 7
- Kontiki v51102.0 (KService/KHost)
If you meet the requirements above and you are having problems installing or using Sky by broadband, please read the FAQs for help.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++As you can see, the required spec isn't especially fearsome - with nothing at all being said about processor speed or hardware-accelerated graphics cards or even graphics card RAM. That's because the files that are being downloaded are of fairly low resolution - 540 x 432 pixels and use the venerable WMV3 Codec - so your PC, hopefully, isn't going to get stressed out or require upgrading to state-of-the-art hardware.