Sky+HD

[Shaun]

I've finally given in to tempatation and orderd a Sky+HD box.

What are other people's experiences of both the boxes, and the HD quality?

I quite like the look of the new program guide too, especially the ability to get program info for other channels without having to select the channel first (something that has always frustrated me about the Sky+ box) - any other neat bits to the guide?

Cheers,
Shaun

 

[Coco]

I got an HD box a couple of months ago and have been mostly happy with it. The box I have still has the old EPG, I think that type of box (can't remember just now) is due for an upgrade in April. I had Tivo previously and the current EPG isn't a patch on that. Hopefully the new EPG will be better.
HD programs do look significantly better, but sound can sometimes go out of synch. Not had any problems when feeding to my amp though.

 

[marinyork]

HD box. It's fine apart from the irritating blue light. The new EPG is so much better than the previous one in looks, I think they should have put more information on the screen. It's a shame that for sky when their EPG was so much snappier than the direct competition in previous years the HD EPG seems to get a bit slower over time and people need to reboot their boxes whilst the reverse has happened elsewhere.

HD picture quality:- Most channels pretty good. It's such a shame that BBC HD quality has gone so backwards. Not too impressed with Sky Premiere HD, Bio and Nat Geo Wild. Other than that the pq of most of the other channels is fairly good.

Really good scoop for sky getting Five HD, bad for everyone else. I'm sure some of the other HD channels on the way or probably on the way to sky soon like Living, Hallmark, Sky News, Film4 etc will make things a lot more mainstream.

A lot of the new customers are going to do better as the original boxes are no way generous enough even if 2nd/3rd gen codecs as so much space was pissed away on anytime.

 

[redjedi]

Sky HD is very good, even the CD channels seem to look a bit better, but that could just be me. I love watching sports on the HD channels.

The one thing that really annoys me is the blue button. This is as always the favourites button, but now it acts as a last channel button. Both very good features but not on the same button e.g. If you were watching BBC1 on channel 101 then start scanning through your favourites for something to watch. You flick onto a channel about half way through your favs, say 401 for some sports, but then want to continue flicking. Press the blue button again and the process starts from channel 101 again

Even more annoying if after doing that you take your attention away from the TV and the EPG goes away and you have to start again.

 

[ChrisKH]

Ask Sky for 12 months free subscription to HD plus a free box as incentive; that's what I negotiated when they rang me up to see if i was interested a month ago. Thy're already doing the free box but will if pushed offer the 12 months. Say your mate got it and you will do the same if you get it.

 

[Coco]

HD box. It's fine apart from the irritating blue light.

Can't you turn your's off? My (Amstrad) box has that option in the Sky+ Settings.

 

[Bay Runner]

I have a VIRGIN V+ Box, and I am very please with it. The SD (Standard Definition) picture is excellent. The numbers of HD channels are increasing every month.

Another great plus is that it has three tuners,(unlike SKY which only has two) you can record two channels and watch a third.

The VOD is another great feature – BBC I Player ITV Player etc direct to your TV.

Oh! and its not affected by the weather.

There has been great debate on other forums, SKY + versus V+ ,but I have to say I am a Virgin man!

 

[beancounter]

Another great plus is that it has three tuners,(unlike SKY which only has two) you can record two channels and watch a third.

Crikey! I can hardly ever find one channel worth watching, never mind three at the same time!

bc

 

[Chrisc]

I've been HD for about 18 months now and I was on a trip when it was installed. Relieved to be able to see a difference in picture quality when I got home and that it wasn't a case of the Emperors New Clothes!
Like being able to record one channel and watch another or record two and watch anytime or a recorded prog.
Still not sure about this new EPG tho, getting used to it slowly but I think the old one was easier.
As for Virgin, well, no cable here so no option!

How the hell did we manage with videos?

 

[marinyork]

Crikey! I can hardly ever find one channel worth watching, never mind three at the same time!

bc

It depends what you watch. With a sky+ HD boxes if people have different viewing habits there are gigantic clashes and there's none of the VOD on virgin even with all the +1 channels. In those circumstances the third tuner would be useful or even a lot of the vod stuff that isn't available on sky. The 3rd tuner is a big deal but then again on a sky box you can easily upgrade the hard drive whereas on virgin media you've stuck with the tiny one because it's not your property. Virgin are still stuck on MPEG-2 so recording HD when compared to sky is not economical at all, it's almost a total waste of time as it fills up the box immediately.

 

[Shaun]

I've been reading about upgrading the HDD to a 1TB drive - anyone done it on a Sky HD box with Copy+ - and did it go smoothly?

Any drive recommendations?

Cheers,
Shaun

 

[marinyork]

What size are you ending up with as a new customer (silly Q I know)?

 

[marinyork]

You watched any Eurosport HD yet User? Quite pleased how it looks on virgin, even the upscaled stuff.

 

[Shaun]

What size are you ending up with as a new customer (silly Q I know)?

AFAIK the standard drive is 300GB - 160GB personal recording space, with 140GB set aside for Anytime items.

Cheers,
Shaun

 

[marinyork]

AFAIK the standard drive is 300GB - 160GB personal recording space, with 140GB set aside for Anytime items.

Cheers,
Shaun

The PVR4 is that, that is correct but there's also the PVR5 and 6 which are somewhat larger but not being a sky customer I don't know their exact policy about who they dish them out to which was why I was interested what you were getting/opted for/begged for.

Copy + works fine btw, as there are 2 million of you guys out there there is plenty of info on it.