The answer is..... probably, and only then if you own a HD tv.
The immediate concern when buying the Sky HD box is the price, £299, then there is the extra £10 per month for the HD service. This becomes more so apparent when you realise that not all the channels are HD, and the ones that are HD don't always broadcast HD programmes, a major example of this is Sky One HD which shows exactly what is on Sky One.
My partner is a Sky Engineer and the amount of houses he has been to where the customer has been mis-sold the product by electronic chain store salesman is unbelievable, especially elderly people who believe every channel is going to be in glorious HD.
Anyway enough of the downside, the positives can out way the negatives, depending on your viewing tastes.
In our house we watch a lot of sport and movies, and sport (namely football) in HD is phenomenal, the picture is superb. The movies are not so drastic a change from standard definition unless you are really REALLY looking
for the differences, except when it is an animation/cartoon film. Robots, for example, looks great in HD and you can clearly tell the difference between the SD and HD versions.
The other HD channels are: - (as of 30/01/07)
BBC HD - mainly a preview channel, but does show the likes of Robin Hood and any football the BBC has now-a-days in HD.
Sky One HD - Shows exactly what is on Sky One but shows like 24 and Battlestar Galactica are shown in HD.
Artsworld HD - Never really watched this channel, but looking at the Sky Planner shows that not all the programmes are HD.
Sky Movies 9 & 10 HD - Show exactly what is on Sky Movies 9 & 10, but upscale old films to HD quality (apparently) and new films in HD.
Sky Sports HD1 & 2 - Again not every programme is in HD, but Golf and Football really do make this impressive to watch.
Prem Plus HD - Self explanitory really, and all the games shown on here are HD.
Discovery HD - If you are into anything to do with DIY, Fishing or aviation then this channel will be your main stay.
National Geographic HD - This was the first channel on the Sky system to be fully HD and was the one we watched most when first getting the system. We've never been in to wildlife programmes, but when you see a Cheetah chasing down another animal, then eating it in HD you find yourself strangely engrossed in it.
History HD - This is the HD version of the History Channel. Again I have never watched this, but looking through Sky's Planner all the programmes seem to be full HD.
And finally there are the 2 Sky Box Office HD channels.
The box comes with a split hard drive, 160GB for the customers use to record programmes, the rest is being saved for Sky's future projects, mainly video on demand, which will become available in the third/fourth quarter of the year. Originally it will be a customer selected VoD system where you choose what you want on the partioned part of the hard drive, but eventually Sky will be doing what Telewest (or Virgin Media if you prefer) are doing and selecting programmes to be sent to your hard drive based on your viewing preferences, which you can accept and have stored on your hard drive or reject to keep the space.
The box itself, made exclusively by Thomson to start with, is a lovely black finish with a flash of silver through the middle where the PVR buttons are kept. The Select, Back Up, TV Guide, Info and Power buttons are housed on the top of the box, which was a ploy by Sky to get customers to stop putting other devices on top of the box to help stop over heating.
The PVR in use indicator on this box is, primarily, exactly the same as on the Sky+ box, the major change being that the dial illuminates blue instead of green, which for a cosmetic change only does seem to suit the system better.
The box comes with a HDMI cable so HDMI is the preferred connection for Sky, but if your TV is DVI then the engineer will set it up with a HDMI to DVI adaptor, but audio cables will be needed or if you put your audio through an amp then digital optical cable will give you 5.1 surround sound, especially essential for the movies.
After complaints from customers about the noise made by the Sky+ box when it was recording, they came up with the ground breaking idea of putting a soft plush square outline under the HD box to cushion it from the vibrations of the hard drive recording/playing back.
The remote control for the HD box is the same as the Sky+ remote, just cosmetically different. It seems better thought out and more comfortable than the Sky+ remote, and the battery compartment is easier to access too.
So overall the HD box is a great step forward in Sky's plan for world domination. It is better than the Virgin Media version and has more content in HD being used than it's competitor has at the moment and the future looks good for it too, with the VoD coming via the ethernet connection at the back of the box, this will be the future of TV....... at least until they bring a the new box out!
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
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 ·
Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Samsung LE-40F86BD
Jan 30th, 2007
very helpful by (100%):
