SKY+ vs SKY HD - is it worth the jump yet, upscaling etc?

[admin_exported]

Hey guys, I'm shortly going to purchase a Sony Bravia KDL-40W2000 when we move house.

Currently I have SKY+, but am considering the upgrade to SKY HD. Most of the time will be spent watching non HD channels due to little actual HD content currently available (not a sports fan, so this just leaves the movies). Is it worth the upgrade currently?

My limited understanding is that the HD box will do some level of upscaling SD & therefore improve the picture slightly - or is this something the LCD will be able to achieve through RGB connection from my current SKY+ box?

As always, your help is greatly appreciated

Matt

 

[Clare Newsome]

HI Matt,

I'd say go Sky HD, for the following reasons:

1) You're an existing Sky customer, and they're doing discount deals for the move to HD.

2) There is more than just sports and movies. The drama - from Lost to 24 to tons of sci-fi - on Sky One HD looks and sounds awesome, while Sky Arts HD shows some great concerts. And when BBC HD gets its act together, you've got everything from Spooks to The Proms to Planet Earth in HD, too. You also get HD versions of the History Channel, National Geographic and Discovery Channel, too - documentary-tastic!

3) It offers an HDMI connection, plus upscaling. Yes, your TV will upscale, too, but you're not getting the benefits of the all-digital connection.

4) Loads more disc-space, even allowing for the bigger HD content: allows you to make more of Sky Anytime, downloading lots of lovely HD movies as/when you want.

5) Not sure if they're still doing it, but there was a Sky/Sony tie-up that got you money-off Bravia TVs when you moved to Sky HD.

Hope this helps!

 

[Anonymous]

Clare,

Thanks for the response - appreciate your views; I think you have put my fears to rest that it wouldn't be worthwhile; was also not aware that Sky Anytime did HD movies.

Being a gadget freak I loved the idea of having it, but with the upcoming house move had to justify its position in the ranking of must haves ;-) £100 off the HD box for being with them for 6 years always eases the pain too!

Its now firmly there on the list & makes sense given the expenditure on the TV & your recent award winning speaker set - Monitor Audio R90 AV-12 (arrived saturday......and wow is all I can say; not even run in yet but already impressive!)

Have found the Sony for about £920 but will look to see if the other deal is still active / better.

Many thanks

Matt

 

[Anonymous]

Found this thread really interesting. A recent visit to a friend who has Sky HD made me decide to finally take the Home Cinema plunge. It made my old set up look like Black and White.

I'm just building an extension and looking to put new kit in. Only small issue is that my wife hates visible speakers - I hope I may have found a way around the problem by building most of them into and TV cabinet that can also hopefully hold all the kit and keep both of us happy!! I must admit to also being confused about how far back you need to get from a 50 and opposed to 42 screen - there seems to be little concensus. I will have about 320cm....

I plan to also use this for music via a Sonos input and will add my PS3 and DVD player to the Skybox mix.

Have been buying the mag and was planning the following -

Pioneer PDP 508XD (or 42)

Onkyo TX SR 875

REL Quake

B&W CWM 6260 Front and centre built in

B&W M1 Rear speakers

Should I also upgrade on cabling - if so any thoughts?

I'm a complete Rookie so any advice would be gratefully received!!

 

[Anonymous]

Hello finnotto,

It would be a complete sin if you were not to upgrade your cabling, especially with what you have listed as future purchasing. There is some serious kit mentioned there and with decent upgraded cables they are going to sound even more serious. The apparent rule of thumb is to budget at least 10% of what your total kit costs for the cables. I don't want to personally suggest any cables, as it is down to individual choice but get your kit, then ask for proffessional advice. Perhaps give "audiovisual online" a call. They advertise in what hifi and appear to be very reasonable prices.

As for sky HD, I'm still undecided at the moment, it's a lot of money to initially outlay plus the £10 monthly subscription charge for very little channels in "HD", the jury's out for me on this one. If every channel was "HD", then I'd have one yesterday, so I'm going to wait until there's more choice. Surely it won't be that long to wait, otherwise HD Ready tv sales wouldn't be as high, you can't tell me that people want to spend that much money just to watch HD DVDs!!

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks Maverick, I'll follow your advice. I agree that the move to increased HD will hopefully turn from the current levels to something more reasonable soon. Even when trying to buy Bluray DVDs I find myself frustrated by the very limited choice available - I guess that's why Sky HD has started to appeal.

 

[Anonymous]

Let me know how you get on with your cables and your new kit and if you decide on sky HD, I'd be interested to know what you think.

Regards.

 

[Anonymous]

Don't go through sky to get the HD box, you can get them off e bay with all the bits you'll need for less than £180 delivered. If you've had sky + in the past then it's a simple matter of swapping the boxes/cables over, insert the card and let sky know that you need your card pairing with the new hd box.

I had a new install of sky yesterday, i went for the cheapest install ie bog standard sky box, no frills

I bought the hd box off e bay with the quad LNB (needed for the recording side of things) for £180. I asked the sky installer to fit the LNB and run the extra cable (which he charged me £5 for doing).

So all in, it cost me £190 (including postage) and all it took was a call to sky to upgrade my access. So now i can watch the football on Wednesday in glorious HD on BBCHD

Plus, if you want to take up the HD subscription for £10 a month, you can. But doing it this way you won't be contracted for 12 months as you would have been if you took up the £300 box through sky...

 

[D.J.KRIME]

[quote user="mousietrfc"]

Plus, if you want to take up the HD subscription for £10 a month, you can.
But doing it this way you won't be contracted for 12 months as you would have
been if you took up the £300 box through sky...

[/quote]

I think you may just find that all new Sky instalations have a 12 month subscription tie in, how else can they afford to give you the box for free??? And unless you are ready to pay the extra £10 a month for the HD channels (BBC HD is not free) what is the piont of getting the HD box?

 

[Gerrardasnails]

Matt.

Check out www.soundandvisiononline.com I bought my w2000 from there. I paid £1225 a few months ago! Although that was a good price then. They are selling for £885 at the moment!!! The tv is superb by the way. As for Sky HD. GO FOR IT!!! I bought a new box on ebay for £175 and just connected it up with some QED SR hdmi and it is on a different planet. All I had to do was call Sky, tell them I wanted to uprade and that was it. £10 a month extra but well worth it. The sound will amaze you as much as the picture.

 

[FoxJA]

I'd take the easy route and get it from Sky, at least you'll know it will be repaired if it breaks down within the year. I've had no trouble with my HD box so far but did previously go through 5 Sky+ boxes. If it breaks down outside the warranty just threaten to leave Sky and they'll send an engineer round.

If your an existing customer you'll get a discount on the box, if your not then get a friend to introduce you (or I can do it) and you'll both get M & S vouchers (keep the wife happy).

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for that Gerrard - better than I had found through searches!

Fox - already a customer so taking advantage of the loyalty deal

Think it might now be a done deal

Matt

 

[Anonymous]

D.J Crime,

I think you may find that if you read the post, i wasn't disputing that sky will give a 12 month contract for new subscribers. What I am saying is that you won't need to be tied in with a 12 month hd contract by going about it this way

And the point of getting the HD box is that BBCHD is free, unless i imagined watching the England game on it this week

Do a search on google, loads of people are going about it this way. I refuse to pay £300 to sky for a box which is available to independent sky engineers for a fraction of the price. If an independent can sell it for £150 and still make a profit then i think that says it all.

We live in rip off Britain, but that doesn't mean we have to be ripped off...