Sky/equivalent HD TV output

[slowwww]

Finally upgraded our 10 year old tv and have bought a new HDR enabled OLED tv. To date we've only had Freeview rather than Sky, Netflix or equivalent, as when the kids were small we were keen to limit the amount of TV available to them.

The Freeview HD output is great, but on the non-HD feeds the picture is disappointing and so we're looking at alternatives.

With the TV we get free one month subscriptions to Netflix and Amazon Prime, both of which are very sharp, but neither has the ITV 2,3,4, E4, Dave etc. channels that seem to occupy much of my family's viewing time.

As we have fibre broadband availability in our road, I've looked at a bundled Sky Fibre broadband/TV package that has many of these channels in HD, but can't find a reliable review source to get an understanding of how good the HD picture is. I'm not really fussed about Sky Sports etc. as if there's an event of note on I'd rather watch it at the pub, and it looks like films will probably be taken care of by Netflix/Amazon.

Can anybody opine regarding the quality of the Sky HD output, or recommend an alternate quality source? I'm a hitherto luddite, and so words one of one syllable would be appreciated!

 

[cyberknight]

If your kids are anything like mine they will be plugged into you tube rather than tv

 

[slowwww]

If your kids are anything like mine they will be plugged into you tube rather than tv

Yup, they're on that too!

 

[KneesUp]

We have Virgin because they're the on;ly ones that can do fibre to our house. The HD is HD, but we rarely watch anything that isn't on either BBC or Channel 4. We have a NowTV box for the odd football match (it's pay per 24hrs / 7 days / 1 month) and that is also HD and sharp enough - but the sound is quite badly comnpressed in my opinion so the crowd sounds awful. We also use the Now box for iPlayer, 4OD or whatever it's called now and ITV player. BBC and C4 are HD - don't use ITV much but I think the quality depends on how many viewers they get, and not every programme is on it - when it gets to TdF time there always seems to be one stage they don't bother with.

So yeah, where was I? Virgin is ok but we don't use it much because we watch most things on the Now box via iPlayer, which is also HD.

 

[midlife]

As above, now TV box or fire stick HD running off your internet.

 

[ColinJ]

[QUOTE 5166366, member: 259"]If you're disappointed with the quality of the SD picture from Freeview for those channels, you're always going to be disappointed if you get them any other way as well (ie. over satellite with a Sky or a Freesat box). Or am I misunderstanding what you want?

Persononally I wouldn't sign up with Sky, but I might consider Now TV and paying for the occasional thing as others have mentioned.[/QUOTE]
I thought that too, but I just checked and Sky do have an HD option for ITV2, 3, 4, Film4, E4, Dave etc.

Having said that, a lot of old TV shows and films are SD/pretty poor picture quality anyway.

I have just lost Ch4 HD because Ch4 and Freesat have fallen out over fees. I'm peeved because Ch4 HD was one of my favourites.

 

[Slick]

I have Sky and a fire stick, I also have BT sports which is actually quite good for Scottish football. I do watch a good bit of the cycling on Eurosport, but other than that it's the usual BBC and Itv in my house.

 

[captain nemo1701]

Finally upgraded our 10 year old tv and have bought a new HDR enabled OLED tv. To date we've only had Freeview rather than Sky, Netflix or equivalent, as when the kids were small we were keen to limit the amount of TV available to them.

The Freeview HD output is great, but on the non-HD feeds the picture is disappointing and so we're looking at alternatives.

With the TV we get free one month subscriptions to Netflix and Amazon Prime, both of which are very sharp, but neither has the ITV 2,3,4, E4, Dave etc. channels that seem to occupy much of my family's viewing time.

As we have fibre broadband availability in our road, I've looked at a bundled Sky Fibre broadband/TV package that has many of these channels in HD, but can't find a reliable review source to get an understanding of how good the HD picture is. I'm not really fussed about Sky Sports etc. as if there's an event of note on I'd rather watch it at the pub, and it looks like films will probably be taken care of by Netflix/Amazon.

Can anybody opine regarding the quality of the Sky HD output, or recommend an alternate quality source? I'm a hitherto luddite, and so words one of one syllable would be appreciated!

As long as it's in 1080p, it'll look like a blu-ray. I was amazed at the difference when I got a Virgin HD telly box. Couldn't stop switching between BBC 1 on 101 and BBC 1 HD on 108. Have noticed that the sound level drops a bit on HD channels.

 

[tobykenobi]

Have a similar set up to you. Freeview HD looks v good on our 55" TV; the SD channels are quite poor.

We also have Netflix and Amazon (1080p: very good quality - although the latter is prone to pixelation for the first few minutes). Not sure how you were intending to get the Sky HD - via satellite or internet. I also have a NowTV box which streams in 720p. This looks a loot better than SD and - to be fair - only a little worse then the full HD streams. It is rumoured that NowTV will move to 1080 full HD sometime this year. Hope this helps.

 

[ColinJ]

[QUOTE 5166391, member: 259"]It's a real shame. You can still see it and record it as a non-Freesat channel, but obvioulsy no access via the guide, so it's a bit of a pain. I've been recording stuff on the computer and casting it to the TV.[/QUOTE]
I can still get the Ch4 SD channel through the guide.

There was no apparent reason for Ch4 to take All 4 off Freesat because the fees for that service had NOT been increased by Freesat.

 

[raleighnut]

BT Vision here, we went from being the only house on our street with a satellite dish to now the only house without a dish due to Sky and a disagreement.

 

[Pale Rider]

I'm no techie, but would be wary of Sky from a picture quality point of view because they are notorious for 'sweating the asset'.

In other words, they sign up lots of people for a given broadband capacity on the assumption not everyone will be online at the same time.

No doubt they shovel as many channels as possible onto the fibre line/over the satellite with a possible impact on quality.

I have Sky broadband and satellite and am quite happy with it, but I haven't bought a swanky new telly and I am not that fussed about picture quality.

 

[mjr]

I'm no techie, but would be wary of Sky from a picture quality point of view because they are notorious for 'sweating the asset'. [...]
No doubt they shovel as many channels as possible onto the fibre line/over the satellite with a possible impact on quality.

Sky mainly control the EPG used by their boxes, like Freesat. In many cases, transmission is by another provider... but checking www.lyngsat.com makes me think Sky control more than they used to.

Satellite SD channels used to be higher bitrates than Freeview (particularly noticeable on cycling and cricket) and a satellite reciever's decoder may be better at SD than the TV's.

 

[ColinJ]

Is anybody having Freesat reception problems tonight? I had a few glitches earlier and now it has gone off altogether. I'm hoping it isn't my dish/cable/receiver ...

PS Weather conditions here are okay.

 

[ColinJ]

I rebooted the Freesat box and the signal returned. That could be due to a receiver problem which was sorted by the reboot or I just happen to have done it while Freesat were sorting a problem out themselves.