GOLDMAN 555

After two months of using the sky high definition I have to advise everyone on here not to waste your money. There really is precious little difference between normal Sky Digital and sky High Definition. In fact there are no different channels apart from the BBC preview which is free. However sky charge you £10(£120 per year) for the high-definition service!!!!! This is ridiculous!

Now this may change with new channels coming out in the future but for the moment do not waste your money.

Brendan Hughes

ssshh, don't tell my wife

davegtt

The movies and football is supposed to being broadcast in HD isnt it? Must say though this is the sort of reception I expected HD to receive.

cw42

iTrader: (1)

Did you not realise that at the begining? I'm still running a version 1 sky box, which is fine on my 32" panasonic crt tv.
I'm usually up there with the best of them getting the latest and greatest thing, but hd/lcd/plasma is just one big consumer joke. It's not better than crt at the moment, when it is, that's when I'll spend my hard earned.
Bet you're locked into a 12 month contract too?

TopBanana

I'm normally amongst the first to buy new gadgets, but I'm going to wait for a couple of years before I go HDTV. The content just isn't there, and the TV's are bound to improve over the next couple of years

Kuro

Agreed 100%

Drop the insane additional tenner - give me a sky box that lasts more than a year - and show me some half decent HD channels

then, I'll spend the cash.

AudiLover

^^ co-sign

King RA

3rd 'ed

messiah

I was watching some HD broadcasts in the Sony centre a couple of weeks ago - the only time I could notice an mprovement in picture quality was when the scoreboard graphics came on screen (cricket was on).

I really want a HDTV, but I'd rather wait for 1080p to get more available.

lozgti

I couldn't tell the difference.

Emperor's new clothes job

Alas

I'm watching on a 28" CRT, using a Sky box thats 4 years old, and don't have a subscription.



Who said cheap git

Abdabz

My 3yr old Panasonic Quintrix dolby pro logic 32" crt picture was/is not in the same league as my Sharp Aquos 32" LCD pic.... No gimmicks there, just a clearly defined gulf in class, with the CRT being far clearer and defined
As for the HD aspect, based on the number of channels available alone, I wouldn't be spending £10 a month on it... On top of that, every person who has, has said it has been an erroneous decision... Anyway having just upgraded to the awesome sky plus (which has totally changed the way I watch tele) I have 8months left before I could upgrade again and from the content on this thread I'm in no rush

valley commando

iTrader: (1)

you forgot to mention that you got to pay them 300 bucks for the box aswell
just bought a 56" jvc you can notice the difference on that but not 300 bucks worth tho
but it does come into its own when the xbox 360 is on

hail-hail

I've got Sky HD and ther is a HUGE difference between the HD channels and others. Football is awesome, the player and crowd definition is outstanding. The documnetary channels are almost 3D and Planet Earth in HD nearly blew me away.

I also noticed a massive improvement in the normal broadcast quality of all channels through the HD box.

Agree that the content is not great but what is there is fantastic.

I think it may be down to the telly i have but I am really surprised that the quality of HD is getting slated.

GOLDMAN 555

50 inch plasma and is definitely not the quality of the monitor. I'm not saying there is an improvement I'm just saying it's not much better. Football is a bit more interesting the World Cup was okay. The point in trying to make is that it's not worth the £300 for the box and £120 extra subscription for the year on top of the subscriptions. My monthly bill is now £50 odd thats £600 a year for television services. For that amount of outlay I was expecting smelly vision

Leslie

I have to say that the HD shown in dealers doesn't seem that impressive to me. I bought a plasma last summer at 1/2 price because it was not HD ready. The picture quality is particularly good, maybe because I can see the television mast from my garage roof. The analogue signal is actually slightly better that the Sky satellite channels, maybe because they have less bahdwidth for the transmission. It will be a shame when analogue goes I think. Certainly don't regret not bothering with HD yet anyway.

Les

hail-hail

I've got an LCD not a plasma tv, seems like the people with a Plasma don;t get the full benefit of HD, could this be the reason?????

davegtt

why would that be the reason? On a person level I think a plasma gives a far better picture over an LCD. Colours seem too bright and fake IMO.

oobster

Cheers for the heads-up there Goldman, was considering signing up for HD (I've got Sky+ just now and the box isn't very stable) but now I think i'll wait 6 months or a year to see if they scrub the tenner a month charge

TopBanana

What box do you have? The Pace ones are supposed to be the best.

hail-hail

I'm the only one here who thinks that HD is MUCH better than normal. I am just trying to work out why nobody else thinks the way I do.

It can only think it must be down to the type / quality of the TV. Just because someone buys a HD ready Plasma or LCD, doesn;t mean they have purchased a telly that is capable of giving the full benefit of HD.

The 'I bought a 42" plasma/LCD for <£1000' brigade won't see the true benefit of HD, you get what you pay for.

davegtt

Maybe the picture quality on an LCD is so cr@p that when you get HD it improves it to plasma quality lol Im just say

TopBanana

I think it looks much better - especially 1080i and p.

DannyBoy007

iTrader: (7)

A couple of friends have Hd LCD's and Sky HD, have to say the picture is awesome, football looks so much better, switching over during the tennis between BBC and HD bbc really showed the difference

I heard a rumor that Sky will be getting rid of all the different kind of boxes and just using the HD one in the future, next year mind you, after they have flogged the dead horse over Xmas

I've a HD LCD but not bothering with the sky service yet as I'm not a sports fan and don't bother with the movies as I seen them all on dvd or in the cinema.

I'll wait for a few more normal channels to come out in HD and for sky to drop the £10 extra which will happen as it has with sky plus

oobster

A pishy Amstrad. Thats the 2nd Sky+ box i'm on now, and they only agreed to replace the 1st faulty one after I went through the "put me thru to cancellations department" routine.

2nd one was fine for about 9 or 10 months but hangs a lot now. I've done the forced reset thing and that helped it for about 6 weeks.

Think I might go buy a Pace box from simplydigital when I have some spare dosh.

TopBanana

Mine is a crappy Amstrad too. You can buy Pace ones on ebay for about 80 quid, your amstrad might fetch 50 or so... that's my plan anyway.

New_scooby_04

iTrader: (4)

Here, here. Same with the next gen consoles, what till it's established, the you have a good range of quality products available for it some of which will be going considerably cheaper than when new.

Ns04

leonpoole

But the extra £10 a month gets you the sky plus features too, so really your paying no more for it than you would for sky plus

hail-hail

Not sure how all the pricing works, but I am paying £60 a month for the full package of channels, Sky HD in the living room and Sky+ in the bedroom, so I can record 4 things at the same time if needed, however there is rarely one decent thing on, never mid 4