Sky HD?

V4NT0M

V4NT0M

V4NT0M

Soldato
Joined
18 Jan 2007
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Land of the Scots
Anyone got it? Any good? There's about 6 channels I would watch, and i'm sure more will come later.

I only ask as I have noticed you can grab HD boxes for arounf £150 on the bay, and was going to get sky+ in another room already. surely an extra £50 and £10? a month isnt too bad a deal?

Will everything look better? Older shows maybe look crap? Thanks for any opinions, not sure if I've put this in the right forum.
 
my brother has just had it, picture quality is marginally better then his old Sky+ box but nothing huge, certainly not worth paying £10 a month extra for
 
Picture quality marginally better on all channels, picture quality can be stunning on some of the HD channels. Box better than the PVR3 (latest) sky+ boxes with better connectivity options. Picture quality differences not so great on normal sized tv sets though, i use mine through a projector and a very large screen.

For a tenner a month its an upgrade that you might as well have for the sake of it if nothing else.
 
We have it and have had it for about a year now.

The actual HD choice is limited but with the right program it really does make a difference. Planet Earth for example is absolutely stunning in HD as was the Top Gear special tonight.

However, I am not sure if it is worth the extra £10 at the moment unless you watch a lot of Sky One as pretty much all their new stuff is in HD.
 
We've had it for 2 months now.

Some stuff looks great in HD in comparison to SD, but with other stuff I struggle to see a big difference.

Eg, the difference in SD and HD cricket is huge, the PQ in HD is miles better, very crisp and sharp. Haven't seen any HD footy yet, will have to wait for the new season to start to comment on that.

Compare this to some Sky One programmes (I very rarely watch Sky One, so my comments are based upon what I've seen whilst flicking between channels). I sometimes struggle to see the difference in SD and HD with Sky One, though I think this is more down to the fact that the original SD picture is pretty good, rather than the HD being poor. (Or maybe I have shocking eyesight)

Also, being able to see a difference in PQ obviously depends on how far you sit from your TV.
 
The reason a lot of sky one stuff looks almost the same is that a lot of sky one HD's content is just scaled up SD from normal sky one. Its only the very latest shows which are starting to come through in true HD.
 
I would have said it wasn't worth the money, but since the introduction of Sky Anytime HD, I've found it to be a fantastic service. It seems to update daily, and there's always an HD film on there I facny watching. No adverts/no waits. It's there when you want to watch it.

Excellent for live sports too, and you'll find yourself watching in amazement the BBC's planet earth documentaries on BBC HD.
 
del_piero said:
We've had it for 2 months now.

Some stuff looks great in HD in comparison to SD, but with other stuff I struggle to see a big difference.

Eg, the difference in SD and HD cricket is huge, the PQ in HD is miles better, very crisp and sharp. Haven't seen any HD footy yet, will have to wait for the new season to start to comment on that.

Compare this to some Sky One programmes (I very rarely watch Sky One, so my comments are based upon what I've seen whilst flicking between channels). I sometimes struggle to see the difference in SD and HD with Sky One, though I think this is more down to the fact that the original SD picture is pretty good, rather than the HD being poor. (Or maybe I have shocking eyesight)

Also, being able to see a difference in PQ obviously depends on how far you sit from your TV.
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I take it you realise that not all the programmes broadcast on Sky One HD are actually HD. Sky One HD is a clone of the normal Sky One. All that happens is when a programme is available in HD, it will be broadcast in HD on the Sky One HD channel. The 4 main programmes I watch on Sky One HD are Lost, 24, SG1 and Nip Tuck. All look absolutely stunning in HD and are clearaly superior to the normal Sky One channel.
 
Had it on two different tele's for a year now.

Sports in HD is miles better than standard, documentaries and tv series looking stunning too in HD. Other channels, there may be a little improvement but not much.

I reckon it's worth it if you have a good enough tv (we have two HD's), although sometimes you get frustrated when some footy games aren't broadcasted in HD e.g. itv champions league.

EDIT: Infact I'm going to watch topgear and heroes in HD now :p HDSky+ F T W
 
Tommy B said:
I take it you realise that not all the programmes broadcast on Sky One HD are actually HD. Sky One HD is a clone of the normal Sky One. All that happens is when a programme is available in HD, it will be broadcast in HD on the Sky One HD channel. The 4 main programmes I watch on Sky One HD are Lost, 24, SG1 and Nip Tuck. All look absolutely stunning in HD and are clearaly superior to the normal Sky One channel.
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My mistake then! I'm not really interested in any of the programmes shown on Sky One. Have been saying that I'm gonna start watching 24 for the past 18 months, since I got series 1 and 2, but havent bothered yet, so figured that watching whatever series was on now wouldn't be a wise idea.

I'm waiting for the new series of Prison Break to start on Sky One, in all its HD goodness.
 
We've got it. Agree with Rotty, its marginally better (parents can't tell the difference though) but its not worth the extra £10 per month. TBH the only reason we got it was because my bro's theory is that if we're going to spend £1,000's on a new tv then we may as well go the whole way and get Sky HD too.
 
del_piero said:
I'm waiting for the new series of Prison Break to start on Sky One, in all its HD goodness.
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I have watched 720p versions of PB on my Panasonic th42px60 and it was little better than normal
 
You definitely need a big telly to appreciate HD. I can't see how anyone can say it's only marginally better because it's a completely different league. On my 26"" lcd the difference between SD and HD is noticeable, but on my dad's 43"" Pioneer HD stuff is clearly superior to the point where watching stuff in SD becomes annoying.
 
it really does depend on the TV you have(obviously). At work we tried it out on one of the old samsung models and it looked S*** tbh. Not that much better with the bravia. However at dads he's got it on his 43" pioneer and its absolutely stunning, even he agrees and he previuously argued that there was absolutely no difference with HD from what he had seen in shops.

definately worth it just for the films IMO.

with regards to the number of channels available I had a geezer from sky come into work to train us and i was asking him about this. He told me that Astra(i think),the company who owns the satellites for sky, are soon changing one which is currently serving UK and Europe and devoting it entirely for the UK. Which means that it will have the bandwith for 40+ HD channels. I also had a customer come in who worked for sky who suggested the notion that the increased bandwith will result in possible 1080p, but thats just speculation.
 
joeconway said:
you can choose whether you view stuff in 720p or 1080i in the system settings
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its not broadcast in 1080i afaik, I don't even think it is as good as 720p

I think a lot is 540p
 
Looking at the HD in the shops, sky sports, I don't think it's much better than our CRT TV.

And the standard channels look pap, they had all the music channels on and I could barely believe how bad the picture quality was.
 
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