when is Sky HD going 1080p?

[sheehanjuk]

currently i believe you can either get 720p or 1080i is this correct? so when is Sky going 1080p as standard?

plus does anyone know when/if Sky are ever gonna stop their £10pm levy for simply receiving a HD signal rather than SD??

personally i dont see the point of getting a new HD lounge set until these.. what id call min requirements are in place.. and yes Ive got Bluray and a HD set elsewhere in the house.

the current Sky HD offer seems abit limp to me, my only other hope would be IPTV with MS early next year coz BT will finally have their fibre network up and running by then.

finally does anyone know if lovefilm are going to be a similiar service like netflix so you can stream their movies etc?

 

[nads]

From the answers given to similar questions, Never.

 

[The_Lhc]

sheehanjuk:currently i believe you can either get 720p or 1080i is this correct? so when is Sky going 1080p as standard?

Almost certainly never, there simply isn't the bandwidth available on the satellite to allow it, unless they drop half the channels, which isn't going to happen.

plus does anyone know when/if Sky are ever gonna stop their £10pm levy for simply receiving a HD signal rather than SD??

It'll happen sooner or later, same as it did with the Sky+ charge.

personally i dont see the point of getting a new HD lounge set until these.. what id call min requirements are in place.. and yes Ive got Bluray and a HD set elsewhere in the house.

I'd say you're wrong, especially as you already have HD elsewhere in the house, which seems like a completely backwards set of priorities to me but it's your choice.

the current Sky HD offer seems a bit limp to me,

In what respect? You won't get any more HD channels through anyone else.

my only other hope would be IPTV with MS early next year coz BT will finally have their fibre network up and running by then.

MS? I guess the BT fibre network will depend on where you live, it certainly won't be anywhere near me next year.

finally does anyone know if lovefilm are going to be a similiar service like netflix so you can stream their movies etc?

They already are if you have a suitably equipped TV, there's at least one in the current magazine I believe.

 

[daveh75]

sheehanjuk:
currently i believe you can either get 720p or 1080i is this correct? so when is Sky going 1080p as standard?All HD broadcasts on Sky are 1080i. It wont go1080p. It would need significantly more bandwidth/capacity and would be too costly.

plus does anyone know when/if Sky are ever gonna stop their £10pm levy for simply receiving a HD signal rather than SD??The HD charge may be absorbed or replaced by another service charge,but unlikely it will be dropped altogether.

 

[sheehanjuk]

You all seem to be content with 720p/1080i and being charged £70+pm for the privilege, i just dont see it.

'idc' BT went into partnership for IPTV i think in 2007, the aim was for full(BT) rollout by early 2010, my area for example is due to be completed by June this year, a year over-due so maybe it will happened in your area, just delayed. if you call BT they will give you an update roll-out-date, anyways back to the point, IPTV seems to be to be a true poss rival to Sky, the lack of competition in HD broadcasts is pathetic.

people on these forums always go on about how to get the most out of their equipment.. be it by main cables, screen-type and which hdmi.. to ignore the source seems so odd to me, why are people so content for 720p?!

 

[professorhat]

sheehanjuk:people on these forums always go on about get the nost out of their equipment.. be by main cables, screen and hdmi.. to ignore the source in this case seems so odd to me, why are people so content for 720p and at the same time be charged a extra £10pm for it, again I dont see it.. call me mad!

Well, in a certain sense, the only way to get the best broadcast TV in the UK at the moment is to get Sky HD - no other service has anywhere near the choice of HD channels. And the increase in quality on these channels is pretty substantial over their SD equivalents - it's not just about resolution size, but the increase in bitrate on the HD channels also goes a long way to improving the picture. So by subscribing to Sky HD, you currently are getting the best possible TV picture money can buy.

But if you think it's too expensive, you certainly don't have to. I also think Sky is too expensive for what you get and so I choose not to subscribe. I've recently purchased a Freeview HD box which lets me get the BBC HD, ITV1 HD and Channel 4 HD channels without subscription - and jolly good they look to!

 

[The_Lhc]

sheehanjuk: You all seem to be content with 720p/1080i and being charged £70+pm for the privilege, im just dont see it.

I wouldn't say I'm content or uncontent, I subscribe to Sky because I want to watch the Sports channels, I don't really care whether it's in HD or not, but if it is, I'm happy. Fact is there is no realistic alternative to Sky right now, 1080i is the best you will get and either way, at the moment the majority of programming is still in SD anyway, so it doesn't make an awful lot of difference.

'idc'

Is that a joke?

BT went into partnership for IPTV i think in 2007, the aim was for full(BT) rollout by early 2010, my area for example is due to be complete by June this year, a year late so maybe it will happened in your area too just delayed. if you call BT they will give you an update roll out date, anyways back to the point, IPTV seems to be to be a true rival to Sky, the lack of competition in HD offering is pathetic.

Are you talking about BT Vision by any chance? You know that BT Vision is only 720p/1080i as well don't you?

people on these forums always go on about get the nost out of their equipment.. be by main cables, screen and hdmi.. to ignore the source in this case seems so odd to me, why are people so content for 720p and at the same time be charged a extra £10pm for it, again I dont see it.. call me mad!

If you know a way of getting 1080p broadcasts feel free to let us poor fools know won't you...

 

[sheehanjuk]

the_lhc
typo b4 no joke just me rushing sorry.

IPTV is a partnership between BT and Microsoft, it is not BT vision something completely different. Vision signal source via aerial, IPTV is broadband. I think MS needed a min 12 mb connection to work so nothing has really happened until BT network has been upgraded. 1080p is possible on IPTV with a 12MB connection supposely.

side point/question wouldn't you be better off getting a 720p Plasma if signal source is only gonna be 720p source for the next few years then rather than a 1080p screen upscaling??

i looked into Freesat HD. shame you cant seem to buy a monthly movie channel or it would def be worth it.

 

[professorhat]

sheehanjuk:side point/question wouldn't you be better off getting a 720p Plasma if signal source is only gonna be 720p source for the next few years then rather than a 1080p screen upscaling??

From my viewpoint no, since I use the same TV for Blu-Rays and HD gaming. And also, it's a fantastic TV and even upscaling to 1080p probably gives a better TV picture than most 720p TVs. I say again, resolution isn't everything - many different factors go into making a good picture.

Don't forget also that most broadcasts are in 1080i, not 720p.

sheehanjuk:i looked into Freesat HD. shame you cant seem to buy a monthly movie channel or it would def be worth it.

Have you looked into Virgin Media? They've recently dropped their extra charge for HD channels.

 

[Anonymous]

BT and SKY BB are a joke, but better than virgin capping my broadband if I download too much.

I live 3 miles from the capital city centre in cardiff, and 2km from my exchange, and no plans in my area for SKY/ BT fibre optic.

But then again I get a solid 12mb anyway, so not too bad, but would like to see more considering we live in 2010 and everything is done by computers.

 

[The_Lhc]

sheehanjuk:IPTV is a partnership between BT and Microsoft, it is not BT vision something completely different. Vision signal source via aerial,

It also allows you to watch HD films via download.

IPTV is broadband. I think MS needed a min 12 mb connection to work so nothing has really happened until BT network has been upgraded.

From what I'm reading BT hope to have the fibre network rolled out to 10 million households (40%) by 2012, so not this year or next year. And not in my neighbourhood either, I can pretty much guarantee that...

1080p is possible on IPTV with a 12MB connection supposely.

That doesn't mean they'll do it!

side point/question wouldn't you be better off getting a 720p Plasma if signal source is only gonna be 720p source for the next few years then rather than a 1080p screen upscaling??

No, because I want to watch blu-rays at 1080p. And do in fact.

i looked into Freesat HD. shame you cant seem to buy a monthly movie channel or it would def be worth it.

And then I still wouldn't be able to watch sport.

 

[Tom Moreno]

the_lhc:
sheehanjuk: 1080p is possible on IPTV with a 12MB connection supposely.

That doesn't mean they'll do it!

At this time I'm not aware of any broadcasters that broadcast a 1080p feed of their channels, so even if Sky had the capacity to offer the bandwidth their wouldn't be any broadcasters with the need to take it up. This is the same internationally as well. The only country that might have 1080p channels being broadcast would be Japan. In the US there was a startup of a satellite broadcaster (I believe it was named XtremeHD) that had 1080p movie channels but it failed.