To HD Or Not HD

Energize said:
Eye test for those that can't see the difference.

resolution_chart.png
Click to expand...

That is what I have always said. Notice that you need to be sat 5 foot away from a 40" tv to "see" the HD quality.

I have friends who say "look how awesome HD is" etc yet they are sat 12 foor away from a 40" tv :rolleyes:

You try and explain that their eyes can't deferentiate the extra detail at thet distance but it falls on deaf ears.
 
What swings it for me is not so much the image,which is a great improvement on SD, but the sound quality.
I don't think that TV speakers would make a lot of difference but I run my 42" Panasonic plasma through a HiFi setup and HD (and of course blu-ray) is amazing.

My setup isn't particularly incredible, Onkyo 606 amp, QAccoustic speakers (x5) and a sub.

It really does make a difference to HD content.
 
Knubje said:
Is it worth £10 a month? Well, depends if £10 isn't really a big deal to you and you want the best quality viewing. If you watch a lot of TV and you have a decent TV then I'd say it's worth it.
Click to expand...

It's not just the £10 a month. It is the rest of the investment that is needed to get the most benefit out of HD.

Don't get me wrong I am not saying HD is worth it because it is especially if you enjoy watching films. However the farce over HD then Full HD has probably left a foul taste in consumers mouths.

Before flat panel TV's the average life span of a TV was 11 years. TV manufacturers would much prefer this to be more life the lifespan of a laptop computer.

Anyway 3D is the next way they will try to get us to part with our cash.
 
It's not that bad now Splodge.

I picked up a TV for my eldery aunt and the only TVs to choose from were HD. It was only a little bit more to go for HD freeview built in (I didn't go for it).

With Sky/Virgin you need the HD service.

What else do you need?
 
LordSplodge said:
It's not just the £10 a month. It is the rest of the investment that is needed to get the most benefit out of HD.
.
Click to expand...

If you already have the equipment ready and you just have to start £10 a month then its fair game.

Most of my HD comes through a media server but I also have VM on a friends & family deal so I get it all for negligible cost and I didn't even have to pay install fees.

If you are are going for the perspective of nothing and initial outlay to get it all then yeah it's quite a big step. You can do it in bits though.

If its a case of having everything and paying £10 to switch it on every month then I'd do it.


I know what you mean in terms of "real HD" and certain channels not putting out. Either that or you get a slight upscaled but you don't have the real thing. Sky will do its best to milk people for it though. And no doubt 3D is the next FAD they will try and jump on. I don't buy into 3D, It never seems to fulfill its expectation. The one time it has for me was Avatar, and that was in the cinema, with a huge HD projector, insane sound and all the gubbins you get from cinema experience. You can never recreate that.
 
Last edited:
Personally I think HD is worth the money.
We have Sky - Channels plus movies, no sport.
To be honest I'd say that 90% of my viewing, if not more is in HD now (especially now we have BBC1 HD rather than just BBC HD).

There are the odd programs that appear on non-HD channels, but they are few and far between.
Watch all the movie channels in HD - already have a PS3 for Blu-Ray.

I now find it difficult to watch non-HD sources, it really does look terrible compared to what I am now used to.
 
I can't help thinking HD is like watching terrestrial channels before they were compressed when Freeview became the norm. If I watch BBC 1 on the analogue signal it's much much clearer than if I watch it on my Freeview box or on the Humax.
 
kip02 said:
I've got a Sky HD box but don't subscribe to the HD pack meaning I don't pay the extra £10 a month, still get the plus features, recording live pause etc and get all the FTV HD channels (BBC, ITV, Channel 4, FIVE etc HD channels) but not the HD channels that you pay for normally Sky1 HD, ITV2 HD.

Its defiantly worth it if the source program is in HD, but would never pay the extra as I don't really watch any other channels than the main five and channels that aren't in HD anyway. If you already have a sky dish and cabling and stuff and not bothered about the additional channels see about getting a second hand HD box.
Click to expand...

so do you think I could get this box from them for free? (existing sky customer)

my personal stance is it is £10 too much if they removed this charge I'd take it

does anyone have sky hd without paying £10 for the hd pack?
 
UFC on ESPN HD is awesome, would never go back to SD. I asked my parents to record UFC 120 for me as I was actually at the O2 arena to watch it in the flesh and they recorded the SD version, I was mortified as I couldn't make myself out in the crowd, I'm sure I could have on HD.
 
psd99 said:
so do you think I could get this box from them for free? (existing sky customer)

my personal stance is it is £10 too much if they removed this charge I'd take it

does anyone have sky hd without paying £10 for the hd pack?
Click to expand...

The £10 HD charge is a major cash-cow for Sky and not one they are going to give up lightly.
They only stopped the £10 Plus charge when their HD subscriptions started bringing in the cash.
Once 3D gets popular and people start subscribing to that I can see the £10 dropping, but not for a while yet.
 
psd99 said:
so do you think I could get this box from them for free? (existing sky customer)

my personal stance is it is £10 too much if they removed this charge I'd take it

does anyone have sky hd without paying £10 for the hd pack?
Click to expand...

They'll chuck it is as a retention deal I'm quite sure. They'll more likely add it to a package than stop charging you for it.
 
I'm used to be firmly in the 'not much difference' category and kept meaning to cancel my HD subscription. However i recently replaced my old Samsung 40 inch LCD for a 46 inch LCD and now I can really see a huge difference. Add to which F1 is now HD so I'm definitely keeping it.

However the only thing that concerns me with the F1 is that HD is always a few seconds behind the SD feed, which in turn was a second or two behind the online F1 live timing. I worry the timing is going to be pretty much unuseable unless they implement a cache/delay feature.
 
nydryl said:
HD definitely makes a difference for football on my parents 40" LED.
Click to expand...

You mean LCD, LED tvs arn't available in that size :p

I won't go back, looks cracking on my Kuro. Films, sports, discovery/nature, documentaries, tv shows.

And with a 1TB HDD upgrade an awful lot can be stored on the HD box.
 
The Halk said:
What else do you need?
Click to expand...

Blu-ray player? Set-top box, Apple TV or whatever you need to get the HD source into your TV.

A decent sound output source. No point investing in HD to have SD sound and TV speakers suck.

Ongoing costs of subscription in addition to the HD option.

Jonny69 said:
I can't help thinking HD is like watching terrestrial channels before they were compressed when Freeview became the norm. If I watch BBC 1 on the analogue signal it's much much clearer than if I watch it on my Freeview box or on the Humax.
Click to expand...

Agreed. The picture quality on the old analogue TV signal viewed on a nice CRT display was very, very good. Not technically HD but still very good.

peterattheboro said:
I've just subscribed to Sports & Movies HD on Virgin Media and it's awesome. £37 a month just for those channels though! :eek:
Click to expand...

This is my major problem with HD (actually subscription TV in general) is that you pay so much for so many repeats. A LoverFilm or whatever subscription with Blu-Rays would be a lot cheaper.

Hell renting movies from iTunes would even be cheaper... :D
 
-Ad- said:
You mean LCD, LED tvs arn't available in that size :p

I won't go back, looks cracking on my Kuro. Films, sports, discovery/nature, documentaries, tv shows.

And with a 1TB HDD upgrade an awful lot can be stored on the HD box.
Click to expand...

Well here is one of many 40" LED televisions available:

http://www.robertwhyteltd.co.uk/40pfl7605-c-10-p-1528

What makes you think you can't get 40" LED TV's?
 
LordSplodge said:
This is my major problem with HD (actually subscription TV in general) is that you pay so much for so many repeats. A LoverFilm or whatever subscription with Blu-Rays would be a lot cheaper.

Hell renting movies from iTunes would even be cheaper... :D
Click to expand...

Live football + Champions League though?

That's what swayed me :)

It was actually £20 just for Sky Sports and £30 for Sports & Movies. So I figured I may aswell pay the extra. Plus the HD sub of £7 too :(
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom