A few initial thoughts on Sky HD

[mikey2008]

Got it installed today. Mostly it looks great - got a Sony kdl-40w4500. I would say that SD is only reasonable (for the most part - some channels are better than others). On HD, BBC is fine, Sky Sports is absolutely excellent, which is what I was praying for. I find that the difference between SD and 1080i is vast, Also, the difference between 1080p and 1080i through Sky HD is smaller than I thought. The former through blu-ray is obviously superior although it's not as vast as the difference between SD and 1080i. Also, the settings on the w4500 requires quite a bit of toying with before you get a perfect picture and the settings are quite different between different channels, which means it's it's pointless to post a set of generic perfect settings. Have had the TV for 6 weeks and was greatly relieved that Sky HD provides a pretty decent picture.

 

[Dave_]

mikey2008: Also, the difference between 1080p and 1080i through Sky HD is smaller than I thought.A little confused by this, as sky HD has a max resolution of 1080i

 

[mikey2008]

Sorry, meant the difference between 1080p (through blu-ray) and 1080i (through Sky HD) is a smaller difference than SD and 1080i (both through Sky HD). This might seem obvious, but I haven't read about it before.

 

[Dave_]

ah, get you now

 

[Dan.m]

Does this mean that pound for pound yor are better off with a HD ready set e.g. pana px 80, rahter than a full HD pana for £300ish more!

 

[mikey2008]

Not sure about Full HD relative to HD ready with Sky HD. I've got Sky+ with CRT in another room, which looks a lot better through SD, but the difference between certain HD channels through full 1080 HD TV and SD Sky+ through CRT TV is marked. Is this getting confusing?

 

[mikey2008]

Just another thing to note (which again may be obvious to most) is that there's a whopping amount of SD programmes broadcast on the HD channels through Sky. They should be renamed Sky Sports Partially HD etc...

 

[Anonymous]

yes i noticed that also i just upgraded to sky sports and all they have 80% of the time is SD programmes on sky sports HD, i mean whats the point of having HD channels if there gonna show rubbish SD all the time on it..Well i will be getting rid of the sports as its not worth it