Sky HD Review Thread

Mic2904

Hi,

thought I would open a thread, for many people to help making up their mind about Sky HD? Even though many people were able to get Sky HD for free, its still a payable service, although only after 12 months.

What do you think about HD? What do you like, what do you dislike? Maybe even in connection to your TV-Set. Would you pay for it? Do you like the new Box? How is the new EPG?

Just hoping this would really help people thinking of using HD, instead of reading Sky and TV webpages as we are all more or less ordinary people and no Tech Freaks etc...

I got my HD set installed yesterday and the HD Box goes nicely with my Toshiba 32' Regza Its a HDready, so no full HD, but that shouldnt matter, with 32'.

Installation went smoothly as anything, got the call 15 mins before the Tech arrived and disconnected my Sky+ Box already myself.

SW download went through nae bother and the box was up and running after about 15 mins.

The amount of Channels is ok-ish, since HD is still not standart and I do not have the Film PAckage. That brings the HD Channels down to about 30, though thats plenty to choose.

I was flicking through the HD Channels straight away and must admit that is really looks nice. There was some kind of Docu about an Italian City and the Helicopter CamShots looked awesome. Last night I watch some footie on SKy and ESPN HD and need to admit again: It defo looks nicer and you can see a difference, but....

... I am not sure yet, if I'd pay £10 for it extra. Maybe if Sky really manages to broadcast about 50 Channels towards the End of the year.

Next thing I am looking forward to, is the F1 on BBC HD:j and of course some football in the summer in HD, although I wont be back from Florida until the Quarterfinal (Should be early enough for my German Fellows ).

The new EPG is pretty straight forward and easy to use, takes you maybe a couple of mins, but once you know how to navigate, you are fine. I even managed to add ITV HD in a matter of seconds...

The other picture quality is ok. I was reading that some Freaks were complaining about non HD Channels having blur and stuff... I honestly cant see anything. I would go the opposite and say that the pics looks a bit nicer. Though I didnt figure out, how to get Sky SPorts news back to 4:3, if anyone can help....

My overall score for Sky HD is: 7 out of 10 due to my hope of more Channels...

I would love to see ESPN America in HD...

What do you think about HD?

Markus

Phantom_Flan_Flinger

It doesn't matter that your TV isn't full HD, Sky doesn't broadcast in Full HD anyway.

This was the BBC response about F1 in HD -

We will not be able to provide F1 coverage in high definition this year. The BBC relies on Formula 1 Management (FOM) for the provision of all of its live pictures and as such the broadcasting of high definition pictures is dependent upon whether FOM uses HD cameras or not

My wife didn't really see much difference when we went to HD on our old 32" TV. She does notice the difference more on our newer 40" though.

We have an Amstrad box and since it had the new EPG it's actually been more stable. We've had to reset it twice and that was only becausethe EPG was missing from some channels a few days ahead.

Pokerlad

FOM does film in HD however it never leaves the F1 compound. For whatever reason FOM are not convinced by HD yet.

As for saying sky dont broadcast in full hd. Yes they do however its 1080i not 1080p (the term full hd relates to the number of pixals displayed not the i or p). So with a fullhd tv 1:1 pixal mapping is possible instead of the tv or sky box needing to downscale the picture for 720 hd ready sets.

Millionaire

Got the Sky+HD Box fitted today. It's the Samsung box, some good points, some not so. Connected to a 40" Full HD Sony LCD.

HD

The Proper HD content does look amazing, some of the shots are jaw droppingly good. Shame more content/channels aren't in HD.

Would I pay £10 for it? No, Just not enough channels/content to justify £10 a month extra.

SD

OP you mentioned about the 'freaks' complaining about the SD picture, I must be one:o because the picture is more blurry.

This is where I am really disappointed. I previously had a Pace Sky+ box and the standard Def picture was very good on it on most channels. However I have noticed on the HD box that it is not as good.

Some of the worst channels for picture quality on the Pace box are worse on this.

Also some of the very good channels on the Pace box I have noticed are more 'blurry' on this.

This is a bit of a downer as my previous box gave such good SD picture. I am considering ringing them up to see if there is a solution.

Call me cynical but maybe they purposely degraded the picture to make the HD look even better.

Reason being I saw a demo at a store for SkyHD and they did a split screen demo between SD and HD and I remember thinking at the time that my SD was not that 'blurry'.

EPG

One of the big plus points for me, much more intuitive to use.

Being able to check information for other programs, not just the one your watching.:T
Being able to scroll to the end of the day to check programs whilst watching a program instead of 'further information is not available' after about 6pm.:T
The in-screen picture, in the planner.:T
The search option to find when a program is on/repeated again for the whole week. Excellent if you miss something and want to know when a repeat is on.:T
The 'series link' option when you press 'record' for the program:T

Just what I have spotted so far that are better, Just wish the SD picture was up to scratch.

littlemissbossy

Mic2904 wrote: »

The new EPG is pretty straight forward and easy to use, takes you maybe a couple of mins, but once you know how to navigate, you are fine. I even managed to add ITV HD in a matter of seconds...

Is this something you could easily explain to me.

Thanks

Mic2904

littlemissbossy wrote: »

Is this something you could easily explain to me.

Thanks

Sure, although the Web is partially blocked at work, I found the link. I can not access it here at work, but it worked at home.

Its an easy step by step guide. Click HERE

Pokerlad

littlemissbossy wrote: »

Is this something you could easily explain to me.

Thanks

I wouldnt worry about doing it now as it launches on the EPG on 2nd April.

suki1

I had a new Samsung HD box installed last week and so far no problems. I must say, HD programs on my 40" full HD Sony do look fantastic. I watched Mamma Mia recently and was absolutely blown away by the bright, crisp colours; nearly wanted to dive into that bright blue water myself! I also watched a program on Italy recently and the bright, crispy colours of the Italian landscapes looked amazing! All the HD programs look very good, the nature progams look great, as well as 24 and Lost. However, although looking very good and crisp, Bones, House, etc are hardly jaw-dropping in HD. I think for the HD to be worth it, you need to have the Sky movies or sports packs. I wouldnt want to pay the subscription fee if I didnt have the movies.

My SD channels are actually looking much better with the new HD box. And I also previously had a pace Sky+ box. Only gripe I have though, is that the sound on the HD channels is quite low so its a scramble to turn the volume down when switching to SD channels.

The new EPG took some getting used to, but once you have worked it out, it really is much better and as previously mentioned; the search facilities are much better and I like that you can still watch your current program in the corner of the screen whilst looking through the TV guide and programming stuff into your planner etc.

So all in all I am very happy that we upgraded to HD

Millionaire

Spotted something else today which is a bonus.;)

EPG

If you have multiple recordings in planner then it combines the recordings together into a clickable drop down. So now you don't have to search through the planner for the same program recordings or change view to A-Z to get them together.:cool:

Froglet

I endorse everything that Suki says about all the channels looking much better ,even when not in HD.The extras that come with the HD planner are really well thought out and enhance the recording ability even more.I shall not mind paying £10 per month after a year is up.One real bonus is being able to get HD channels that i couldn't get before because i don't have all the packages.Sky Arts in HD is brill,Status Quo in concert in HD is fantastic!!

~daisy~_2

is anyone else finding it really really quiet ??

we normally watch tv at 17/20 but having to turn it up to 30 now !!

also we use a cable and a magic eye to watch sky in our bedroom and its a little blurred upstairs
the engineer told us to try a different setting - we are on 68 but to try 21 or 55 - cant remeber what this setting is or how to get to it
he said it was on the installers menu ?
anyone any idea ? ta xxx