the_lhc:AEJim:
the_lhc:Well all I can say is I had my HD box set to 1080i for a couple of weeks after I got the TV (KRP-500a) and always felt the SD stuff looked dreadful, so I set it to auto and it was like someone had wiped a smear of mud off of the screen it was so much better.
Would be interesting (or geeky, depending on point of view) to check the manufacturer of our HDMI boxes, from memory Sky used two or three vendors.Sadly I haven't the faintest idea. The effect I had was the exact opposite of yours oddly enough.As you suggested with your comments about the WHF review of your TV I suspect it says more about the TVs than the Sky boxes.
Oh I know the TV scaler could well be abysmal, but the reason I wondered about the Sky boxes themselves is that mine looks great on SD on the 1080i setting whereas others seem to be highly critical of it - I can't really see how it could be any better to be honest! I get no posterisation or pixellation, colours are good, noise is minimal even on the 50" screen etc.
Does anyone know how many variants of Sky HD box there are, or have any experience of the differences in manufacture over the last few years (if indeed there are still multiple suppliers)?
*Edit - checked Wikipedia (as reliable as it is):
"The first generation of Sky+ HD Digibox were produced by
Thomson. Sky have since added Samsung, Pace and Amstrad as manufacturers. The Thomson box has been discontinued and is no longer available as an A-grade/refurbished item due to its inclusion of YPbPr component video. A manufacturing fault led to a batch of up to 90,000 units manufactured by Pace / Sky starting to replace boxes, commencing in February 2009 and still ongoing in spring 2009."
So these may all have different components of differing quality, might be something to consider...