TV Sky HD

[caLLous]

Is it, y'know... worth it? I'm just in the process of "going HD", awaiting delivery of the TV and am umming and ahhing about Sky HD's services. With the package I have right now it would be Sports, News & Events, Variety and Knowledge that get the HD channels. It seems that the HD pack is a flat £10.25 a month regardless of which channel packs you subscribe to?

I see that BBC One HD has just launched, although the majority of it's content seems to be upscaled for now (I was wondering what Jake Humphries was talking about earlier).

I know I get a few channels free, I'm thinking Sports (and Knowledge tbh) alone would make it worth it, but opinions and experiences?

 

[throdgrain]

HD looks really good, I like it

 

[Rubber Bullets]

What size telly, and what viewing distance?

I only went for a 32" TV and watch it at around 3.5 - 4m so I decided that £10 a month wasn't worth it. Bigger TV and/or shorter distance probably is.

RB

 

[ford prefect]

If you don't mind Sky's truely horrendous bills and you have a decent TV, then yeah. I dread to think how much I pay sky.

 

[caLLous]

Yeah, it's turning into £600+ a year with the HD pack. :\ Shocking when you think about it.

And it's a Samsung UE55C6000 (55"), viewing distance probably 4-6m.

 

[ford prefect]

It's expensive, but probably the best HD service, especially if you are in a none cable area.

 

[Gumbo]

If you can afford it, then it's a no brainer. HD sport is awesome, films are more how they were meant to be seen and even your regular series are soooo much better in HD.

It's expensive, nay overpriced, but if you have the cash spare then go for it.

 

[Aada]

So worth it after a while you will absolutetly hate watching anything that isnt hd.

 

[ford prefect]

I read somewhere that sky are adding some online demand functionality to the HD box via its ethernet port or sky's own wifi solution (at extra cost) soon too so you can download content to the drive. Edit: bit like you can on virgins V+box or apple tv.

 

[old.user4556]

The only way to get shit hot HD content is to go Sky.

My finger hovers over the 'fuck it' button on Sky because terrestrial HD is fucking turd (as in, the number of channels). I'm very impressed by the picture quality of Sky HD, and if you're into sports and movies then it makes sense. You've got the right size TV, so I'd go for it.

Like you, I always stumble at the "£50 per month for TV???" and I talk myself out of it.

 

[Edmond]

I have a 40" LCD and SKY HD, i had a few problems trying to get it sorted as i had been away from them for less than a year. I had calls being cut off and rude sales people, in the end i thought 'fuck it, i wont bother', then they called me asking how thier service was , as i had called then recently

I had a right go at the guy, who to be fair was very apologetic and polite, i managed to get a free box and a years subsciption for £19, i had to pay £60 for the install, but a week later i recieved £50 in M&S vouchers

My sub is for the entertainment pack and one other, i dont pay the £10 HD fee as they mucked me about, but in answer to you question, yes, its worth it. The Walking Dead on FXHD last night was awsome

 

[Ch3tan]

If you want HD, then yes, sky is a must. It is bloody expensive though.

 

[leviathane]

sky sports hd is awesome.

 

[ford prefect]

I have a 40" LCD and SKY HD, i had a few problems trying to get it sorted as i had been away from them for less than a year. I had calls being cut off and rude sales people, in the end i thought .....

Yeah, It has to be said some of the worst customer support experiences I have had have been with sky which is saying something. They are terrible for that kind of thing, and the broadband arm of the business manages to take it to a whole new level of bad.

As long as nothing ever goes wrong with the box and you aren't too fussy on broadband speeds being anything like advertised, you should be fine. You can change packages ect through their website, but if you need to call them book the morning off work. Don't do it at weekend, because nothing will get resolved if you do.

 

[leviathane]

ye true takes them ages to sort out faulty boxes, but then again virgin's customer service is appalling aswell.

 

[Edmond]

They said they would install between 9.00 & 5.00, the engineer called at 8.45 to say he would be with me between 3.00 & 6.00

He arrived at 5.59!!

I don't have anything else with them, just the TV. I have BT to bang my head against the wall when it comes to broadband.

Well, better the devil you know......

 

[throdgrain]

I have Virgin HD, it's fine, and there's lots more channels popping up all the time.

Some channels look better than others though, but in general films look great, nearly as good as blu-ray.

 

[Zenith.UK]

Short answer: Get HD.

Longer answer:
You've got the TV for it, so make use of it.
The £10 premium may seem steep but if you already have the movies then you get most of them in HD as well. Once you get HD, you *WILL* choose the HD channel over the SD channel every single time.

My advice is to set your TV to "Exact Scan" or whatever it is to show 1920x1080. Set the Sky box to output everything at 1080i over HDMI. That way there is the minimum of image processing going on with HD content, and the Sky box takes care of upscaling SD. All your TV needs to do is display the 1080i image all the time.

 

[Tom]

I haven't watched my television since the general election. I even cancelled my TV licence. That prompted some pretty eyeraising letters from the licence lot, which I binned. Then one of their, lets call them, "twats", came knocking at my door threatening to call the police. He wasn't best pleased by my nonplussed attitude, I think he realised how stupid he sounded.

 

[adams901]

I think Sky HD is excellent.

I held off getting it for ages, but eventually got myself a 32" LED LG TV, and then signed up for the HD channels.

Everyone that has seen it (who doesnt have HD) has commented on how clear and sharp it looks, so much so that I have even stopped downloading my fave shows and have instead set the series link to record them so i can see them in HD goodness.

I only tend to look at the tv listings for HD channels now.

 

[Raven]

While it is a little pricey it is very good, my only quibble is that I can't delete the standard channels and replace them with the HD ones. 101 for example is BBC1 but there is a new BBC1 HD channel, I would like it to simply replace the standard one.

 

[Calaen]

It's worth it if you can afford it. Still waiting for our new shiny interactive options despite them putting everyones bill up a couple of months ago.

If you have the option of Virgin I would recommend going with them Their interactive shit is light years ahead of Sky anytime (Anytime being some shit program they think you might want to watch!!!!)

 

[Furr]

I hate Virgin's EPG... personally think its completely inferior to Sky's, as it their remote control for the V+ too.

 

[ford prefect]

I hate Virgin's EPG... personally think its completely inferior to Sky's, as it their remote control for the V+ too.

Yeah it does look a bit crap in comparison. My father-in-law has it. I have never understood why they havn't updated their epg a bit just to make it look a bit more flash, I mean how hard can that be?

 

[caLLous]

...I have even stopped downloading my fave shows and have instead set the series link to record them so i can see them in HD goodness.

Does Sky+ record them in their full HD goodness? What sort of bitrates are we talking about with Sky HD anyway? Are the recorded programmes massive on the hard drive?

I'm sold tbh, will leave movies alone for now and see how it goes.

 

[Raven]

When we got it there was only really sports and movies in HD but tbh we rarely watch any of the movies anyway as we have a love film subscription, just haven't got around to cancelling the movie channels.

I also agree, I download a hell of a lot less programs now, companies giving the customer what they want = less piracy

 

[ford prefect]

Does Sky+ record them in their full HD goodness? What sort of bitrates are we talking about with Sky HD anyway? Are the recorded programmes massive on the hard drive?

I'm sold tbh, will leave movies alone for now and see how it goes.

Unsure on the bit-rates, but yeah you have the choice to record in HD as long as their is a HD channel available for the content. The newer boxes have a bigger drive - 1tb I believe, but I think you can upgrade the boxes drive to a 2tb drive, but that is the limit thanks to firmware (I suspect at some point sky will want to sell an added capacity addon). I think 20% of the drive is given over to "anytime" content, which are bits that sky have decided that you might want to watch, like the latest episode of whatever is big on sky 1 or that weeks premier movies ect.

 

[Ch3tan]

While it is a little pricey it is very good, my only quibble is that I can't delete the standard channels and replace them with the HD ones. 101 for example is BBC1 but there is a new BBC1 HD channel, I would like it to simply replace the standard one.

Play with your box more - favourites will help you here. Just set all the HD channels as favourites in order. Blue button the scrolls through them. Also you can go to TV guide and just view the HD channels.

 

[Zenith.UK]

Does Sky+ record them in their full HD goodness? What sort of bitrates are we talking about with Sky HD anyway? Are the recorded programmes massive on the hard drive?

I'm sold tbh, will leave movies alone for now and see how it goes.

The Sky+ records the unencrypted MPEG stream coming down so yeah, it's in it's full HD goodness. The bitrate is dependent on the channel.
e.g. BBC1 has a decent quality bitrate with good image quality, while Horror channel uses a lower bitrate and suffers poorer image quality. HD channels also use different bitrates but the premium channels tend to have enough bits thrown at them to maintain excellent image quality.

What this means is that a 1hr programme on Horror takes up slightly less space on the HDD than 1hr of BBC1 recording. HD channels use much more space (2x-4x more). An original 300GB box can record about 80hrs of SD, 20hrs of HD.

I found that the original 300GB HDD in my Thomson HD box wasn't enough for the series that I record, so I've upgraded to 500GB and that's a lot more like it. Anytime reserve 140GB for showcasing programmes and movies that they want to highlight. The 140GB is the same regardless of what HDD you use so you get proportionally more recording time with a larger HDD. Copy+ is an app you can use to move recordings from an old HDD to a new larger HDD (it's free as well).
Copy+, the free Sky & XTV disk copier software

 

[Calaen]

I hate Virgin's EPG... personally think its completely inferior to Sky's, as it their remote control for the V+ too.

Recording 2 while watching a 3rd, massive music on demand package, full series of tv shows to watch, large catalogue of movies on demand.

A remote is a remote, I hardly look at the thing.

Far more value for money with Virgin simply because of the on demand features.

When the weather is bad, Sky can be effected.


I have sky, I have the HD packages. I would prefer to have Virgin because I believe it offers better value for money than Sky.