Sky HD recording quality

[tvmog]

Is anybody else noticing an increasing disparity between the quality of Sky HD programmes viewed "live" and those that are recorded and watched later. When watching the BBC HD programme about the Northern lights on Sunday I was very impressed by the sharpness and clarity of the picture. Unfortunately I was interupted by a phone call and had to use the "pause live TV" option. When I returned to the programme there was a very obvious degradation in picture quality. Further testing with a variety of clips has seemed to confirm this drop in quality, although it is quite hard to judge as you can only view the "live" picture once.

 

[Andy TW]

I suspect it is more to do with the Sky HD box struggling when it has to both read and write HD content to the hard drive at the same time.
i.e. when you use the "pause live TV" option or if you watch an HD program while it is being recorded or watch recorded HD while recording another HD channel.

If you record an HD program it is recorded at the same quality as the original transmission and if you watch it after recording has finished it should play back at the same quality of the original transmission.

Personally I've found that turning off instant replay sorted a lot of the issues I was having with my Sky HD box, but if you use the feature regularly that is not really an option.