An experienced user of all things to do with technology and entertainment, yet one to try out all ne...
An experienced user of all things to do with technology and entertainment, yet one to try out all new things in the name of fun!
Member since:24.09.2005
Reviews:12
Well, HD is here, widely reported to be the greatest advance in broadcasting quality since black and white progressed to colour. The question on everyone's lips is simply, "Is it?".
Well, with the Sky HD box (and a requisite HD ready TV don't forget), the answer from here is simply, yes!
First things first - the HD box is simply a Sky+ box with the ability to receive HD signals and send them through to your HD TV via a HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface) cable (digital SCART to all intents and purposes). For normal stations, which are still the vast vast majority, this allows a process called upscaling to be performed by your TV which just makes the Standard Definition (SD) broadcast a bit better on the screen than it otherwise would be. In addition, there is the 160Gb hard drive to record your programmes on, which gives about 160 hours of recording time for SD programmes.
All in all, this isn't bad, but for £300, you'd probably expect a fair bit more? Yep - its called High Definition TV. If you have not seen it, well, it is pretty much all that it is cracked up to be. To give an idea of the quality of picture you can expect, on a standard definition broadcast, the picture transmits 576 lines of data - this comes up to 1080 lines for HD. In essence, you are getting somewhere in the region of 4-5 much times of picture data being broadcast to the TV.
The result of this is a far sharper, clearer picture with much deeper colours. Sport is in its element. With football, every player on the pitch is perfectly sharp, even players on the other side of the pitch from the camera. The faces in the crowd can all be seen individually. Grass has texture. Super slow mo comes into a world of its own with the actual texture of the ball able to be identified. The same is true of the rugby that is broadcast in HD as well - the only downside is that there is not more sport in HD, although that is coming (Rugby League next year!).
Wildlife documentaries are amazing - the quality of the picture makes you feel as if you are actually there and the TV is merely a window to look out of! Underwater documentaries look like the TV is a window to an aquarium - the quality really is that good!
So, aside from life-like broadcasts and beautiful wildlife documentaries in HD, what else do you get for your additional £10 per month? Well, 2 movie channels showing cinema how it should be at home. 2 Pay Per View movie channels as well are thrown in for good measure. Sky One has its premium programmes in HD, a library of which is growing all the time. Then there is the BBC HD Trial, showcasing the best of the BBC in glorious HD - a catalogue of film, drama, comedy and nature in HD growing almost weekly. So, bearing in mind, we are at the very early stages of HD, then there is a good choice of HD available - the good news is that it is growing!
So, in conclusion, is it worth £300? Well, it depends what you are after. If it is just the facility of Sky+ being future proofed with HD then no. If it is to experience on your HD ready set the future of television as moving pictures were meant to be experienced, then without a doubt yes! The box has had its teething problems, but after 6 months or so of existence, Sky's premium service is everything the hype said it would be, and a bit more to boot!
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Good review mate, i've got a 720pi set so i dont know whether its worth upgrading from Sky+. Also, does the HD box perform the upscaling or is it your TV set doing it?
Advantages: Beautiful colours, very dark black colours, works well with standard SKY+ and HD Upscalers Disadvantages: Sometimes blurry on fast-paced action movies or older films. MoviePlus isn't all that great.
eeyore220376 09.01.2008 ·
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
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