tDR Posted November 7, 2008 Share Posted November 7, 2008 Just got my Sky HD Box (thanks for the staff offer code Todd ) and the picture is great an all but how naff is this...... it doesn't do dolby digital over HDMI!!! So now off to buy an optical cable to pipe the DD into my amp that way. Really annoying - my X Box 360 Elite does DD over HDMI so why can't Sky do the same?!? A really bad oversight IMO. Also slightly disappointing to see no 1080p picture option, only 1080i. Cheers, Brian. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdzC Posted November 7, 2008 Share Posted November 7, 2008 I have been considering upgrading from Sky+ to HD but I also have a TV capable of 1080p and would like that to ne used. Interesting to hear what your findings of it are and whether it is worth the extra money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveK Posted November 7, 2008 Share Posted November 7, 2008 I found the same thing when I got mine and thought it was equally stupid. I don't know if you'll also find this - but I was disappointed with the SD picture quality over HDMI. My old Sky+ box seemed to give a clearer picture with less background noise. I now use S-Video and HDMI from the Sky box, and switch between the two depending on whether I'm watching a film or normal SD TV. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobbeh Posted November 7, 2008 Share Posted November 7, 2008 Also slightly disappointing to see no 1080p picture option, only 1080i. Cheers, Brian. Extra bandwidth for perceived little interest/benfit probably doesn't suit the extra cost for SKY in delivering it. Might be easier on cable.. but that wouldn't surprise me if they didn't offer 1080p either! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snooze Posted November 7, 2008 Share Posted November 7, 2008 1080p needs twice the bandwidth of 1080i. It will be a long, long time before we see 1080p on satellite or terestrial broadcast television IMO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tricky-Ricky Posted November 7, 2008 Share Posted November 7, 2008 Yeah i find mine a bit disappointing, and after two years, i hardly watch HD, the misses does, which is why we still have it, i will add that if you run the Dolby digital though a decent amp via optical, it is pretty good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beefyblx Posted November 7, 2008 Share Posted November 7, 2008 How do you know its 1080i? I asked the sky engineer and i swear he told me its 720p? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snooze Posted November 7, 2008 Share Posted November 7, 2008 How do you know its 1080i? I asked the sky engineer and i swear he told me its 720p? I think I see what you did wrong there! To be honest, I'm not sure it matters, anyway, as a 1080p TV will be de-interlacing a 1080i signal to display a 1080 pixel image anyway. Just means you're getting 25fps rather than 50fps. That's my understanding, anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobbeh Posted November 7, 2008 Share Posted November 7, 2008 1080p needs twice the bandwidth of 1080i. It will be a long, long time before we see 1080p on satellite or terestrial broadcast television IMO. Not sure if they have it already in the US, I'll check in a couple of weeks when Im over there again. How do you know its 1080i? I asked the sky engineer and i swear he told me its 720p? Different shows are broadcast in different resolutions/definitions.. sport/fast moving stuff 720p, documentaries/slow moving 1080i. (typically) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tDR Posted November 7, 2008 Author Share Posted November 7, 2008 It's in the picture setup menu - you can leave it on auto or set it to 576, 720p, 1080i or automatic. SD channels look slightly better if anything. HD channels look vastly better so in that respect it's worth it. The £10 a month extra for HD annoys me but hopefully they'll drop that since everything is going HD. An added nicety is the 160GB hard drive - twice the size of the latest generation Sky+ boxes and if you've got the original 40GB Sky+ box that doesn't get Sky Anytime then it's another reason to go for it. Got my optical cable so now going to have to do Sky HD -> TV (Panasonic Viera Plasma 50") via HDMI for the picture, then Sky HD -> Amp (Onkyo SR-605) via optical for the sound. That way I can assign the current CBL/SAT output stream the Optical input rather than HDMI1 (can't do both at once to feed picture and DD sound through the amp) to get the DD sound with the HD picture. It's not all bad though - the amp only has 2x HDMI inputs so this now leaves me one free since the Sky HD box is using 1 of the 2x HDMI inputs on the TV (other TV one is used for the amp) - the other one is used by my X-Box 360 Elite. So if I decide to get a Blu-Ray player or PS3 I can hook that into the amp via HDMI. Anyone know if the PS3 does DD sound over HDMI? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beefyblx Posted November 7, 2008 Share Posted November 7, 2008 The ps3 does do DD in hdmi, I haven't tried it but the option is there Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SatSport Posted November 7, 2008 Share Posted November 7, 2008 A lot of Sky HD material is just upscaled 576 sd content, what you need is studio or live events to appreciate HD. The best picture quality i`ve seen on satellite so far is the german channel ORF HD, interestingly it`s output is 720p. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wrenlea Posted November 7, 2008 Share Posted November 7, 2008 Programmes like Planet Earth fed into a decent 1920 x 1080 tv look amazing! A really cool "upgrade" is to take out the 300GB drive (160 of which is usable by the user) and replace it with a Terrabyte one. I now have over 100 programmes and still have 76 per cent left Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobbeh Posted November 7, 2008 Share Posted November 7, 2008 I should upgrade my PS3, still only 40 gig and running outta space! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Shane_ Posted November 7, 2008 Share Posted November 7, 2008 have one of them in my room, nice bit of kit got it for free not bad, perks of workin for sky ireland Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gaz1 Posted November 7, 2008 Share Posted November 7, 2008 if you have been with sky for more than 2 years and you want hd, then ring them and ask to cancel sky as you have been offered a deal through virgin, i bet you will get the sky hd box for £50 max and £10 a month, i rate it:d Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tDR Posted November 8, 2008 Author Share Posted November 8, 2008 if you have been with sky for more than 2 years and you want hd, then ring them and ask to cancel sky as you have been offered a deal through virgin, i bet you will get the sky hd box for £50 max and £10 a month, i rate it:d The staff offer Todd advertised was the box for £49, then the usual £10 / month extra for HD channels on top of an existing sub. I feel ripped off since I'm paying them top package + £10 / month extra for multi-room (Sky+ in bedroom) + £10 / month extra for HD. Unfortunately Sky have the monopoly in my area since Cable haven't been allowed to deploy (despite cable running right through Bathgate) due to some competition ruling or other preventing them since they have a large chunk of the market in neighbouring Livingston - which leaves me with no real alternative choice. I did try Tiscali TV in my old house, whilst it was great conceptually (VOD over ADSL broadband) the service didn't work great with terrible reliability. BT have a similar offering with BT Vision but Tiscali TV put me off. Neither of those services have an HD offering So I pay my expensive sub to Sky and carry on... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Please sign in to comment
You will be able to leave a comment after signing in
Sign In Now