Which Sky HD box should I use ?

[psurquhart]

Apologies if this has been covered before and maybe daveh75 could give me an answer?

I have been waiting for the Sky epg update on my Sky box downstairs for ages now but the one in my bedroom has already been updated. This got me thinking.

Are the boxes all fairly similar when it comes to picture quality / performance ?

Would I be better swapping the boxes around ?

I am waiting to sign up to on demand services using a wired set up and was waiting for the downstairs box to update before setting up / registering but am quite confident to swap the boxes over if their are any gains to be made.

I do not use multi room, and only use the box upstairs via a Sky freesat card I bought ages ago. This means I would either lose all the ability to watch my harddrive planner stuff or would have to do some serious viewing of the planner before I swop them over (although I could live with that as theirs nothing I am archiving on it).

Checking Skys - http://www.sky.com/helpcentre/tv/sky-plus-hd/tv-guide/faqs/#

My box downstairs is the Pace box - 9df3002 - which Sky says should be updated by the end of this month / November.

My upstairs box is an Amstrad DRX780 - 4f30a3 - which has updated already.

So to cut through all the above waffle - which box is best in pure performance / picture quality terms and is one more reliable than the other ?

My tv is a Panasonic GT30 42" and it is all put through a Sony DA5400es av amp.

Any Sky HD box experts out there please ?

 

[bigboss]

All new boxes are manufactured by Sky under the Amstrad name. No one else makes them.

My Sky+ HD box got the new EPG only last week. So it will happen very soon.

 

[psurquhart]

All new boxes are manufactured by Sky under the Amstrad name. No one else makes them.

My Sky+ HD box got the new EPG only last week. So it will happen very soon.

Thanks for the info bigboss, I was aware of this but it does not answer my question.

I have one of the slightly older Sky boxes made by Pace and one of the newer Amstrad boxes (but not the newest 2gb/1.5gb one).

Even if these are both made by Sky and as you are well aware - not all products are sonically the same hence the question.

Theirs probably hardly anything in it but it did get me thinking if their was any difference (other than a brand name) in my two boxes.

 

[bigboss]

As far as I'm aware, Thomson boxes were not very good. There was no discernible performance difference between Pace & Amstrad.

 

[daveh75]

They're all cheap tat at the end of the day, you won't notice much if any difference in PQ