Why are we still paying extra money for HD?

[admin_exported]

Hi all,

I have a nice set up which includes a 40" full HD Sony tv.

But i refuse to pay an extra £9.75 per month when some of the channels are free anyway.

Will this ever change? I think its about time dont you?

 

[Anonymous]

In time market forces will bring the price down.

But

a) Recent tech requiring big investment that needs recouping.

b) Rupert has the monopoly- freesat doesn't evan begin to compare and V is a bit pov in comparison. Not to say thats right or wrong, just how the free market works.

c) FWIW, other countries with sub TV services charge more for HD over SD.

I really don't understand why there's so much resentment about it actually. Blu-ray discs cost 2-3 times standard DVD's but no-one seems to rant about them. Good restuarants charge more. Tesco "finest" ham costs more than "value" stuff. A merc ML costs more than a ssanyong. etc etc etc.

If you've spent several grand on your rig then it seems a bit of a cop out not to have HD TV, bit like buying a lambo and running it on 2 star, or buying a serious hifi get-up and playing your old cassette tapes cos you think CD's are too dear. No offence, heh, just my 2 bobs'.

 

[Anonymous]

the £9.75 sub for sky is good value ,when you look at freesat so called freeview
having paid £150 then £299 for hd pvr, and still only bbc repeats and limited itv hd on freesat,
i would have had nearly 4 yrs sky sub paid in advance if i did not buy into freesat first,
having only reciently subscribed to sky hd i wish i had done this first as it is by far
a better service the hd subscription should start to drop soon imo i dont think freesat
will survive when freeview hd is launched soon ..

 

[Anonymous]

Why not buy a AV amp that upgrades everything to 1080P?

Monthly cost zero!

Job done

 

[Anonymous]

HI ALL AND THANKS TO EVERYONE FOR YOUR INPUT.

I understand what you are saying about the cost you pay for what you get i am a big believer in that.

buying another AV amp is not really a practical solution for me-too much expense.

i may well weaken about the cost as i have heard the sports are immense.

I love my bluray player-its just a different league.

Any other advice would be welcomed

 

[D.J.KRIME]

trevor79:Why not buy a AV amp that upgrades everything to 1080P? Monthly cost zero! Job done

While I see your point, a SD image upscaled to 1080 does not come close to a true HD image in terms of detail and colour.

A HD TV without a HD source is just a TV!

 

[Anonymous]

Unconditional,

Blu rays are extortionate and people do complain about it. I only ever buy them online (at 2-3 times the dvd) rarely and certainly not in store for 5-6 times their cost. I know they look great but Ironman £30 and Spiderman Trilogy £60 against £6 and £10 respectively is such a rip off (having said that I got both online for £17 and £30 - still a fair bit, 3 times the price as you say).

So I'm prepared to pay for it sometimes, but buy mainly dvds still.

 

[Anonymous]

hmtb:
Unconditional,

Blu rays are extortionate and people do complain about it. I only ever buy them online (at 2-3 times the dvd) rarely and certainly not in store for 5-6 times their cost. I know they look great but Ironman £30 and Spiderman Trilogy £60 against £6 and £10 respectively is such a rip off (having said that I got both online for £17 and £30 - still a fair bit, 3 times the price as you say).

So I'm prepared to pay for it sometimes, but buy mainly dvds still.

Blu-ray pricings odd to say the least, apart from the comical gap between "retail" and what the onlines will knock them out for, you have bizzarre inconsistencies- cult classic movies like the kill bills, usual suspects- movies people will really want & WILL PAY good dough for day in day out- being banged out at £10 or less a pop, then you have movies universally seen as "weak" that you'd expect see in bargain bins up £18 or so.

Personally I'm not too dismayed at the price I've bought most of mine for, bought too many CD's "back in the day" for ~£15 when that was what you had to pay, that being able to buy most blu rays for less 10-15 years down the line doesn't seem too bad.

 

[professorhat]

unconditional:Personally I'm not too dismayed at the price I've bought most of mine for, bought too many CD's "back in the day" for ~£15 when that was what you had to pay, that being able to buy most blu rays for less 10-15 years down the line doesn't seem too bad.

Totally agree with this - the increase in quality of the Blu-Ray over the DVD make the little bit extra in price worthwhile to me, thus I never buy DVDs any more. And if I don't think it's worth the extra over the DVD, I either wait and buy it when it comes into one of the bargain offers on the likes of Amazon, Play, HMV etc, or I think about it and find I actually don't really want the film that much anyway.

 

[Alec]

The price difference between the formats isnt small, its quite big. And we all know, as, to be fair, you hint at, that the quality isnt always that much better, if better at all.

im going to have a stab at why people resent paying extra for HD.

Could it be because, back in the day, we all had the same progs via tha same signal and we all watched CRTs? In other words, nowadays, its all "have you got full hd or hd ready?"/"Sky, virgiin, freesat...Do you even have the HD subscription with that?"/"BDP...?"

People may just be fed up that they cant keep up. With the bank manager, technolgy, the joneses...

I dont necassarily agree, but its a thought.

 

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't pay the difference between DVD and BluRay. Fortunately I don't have to because I rent movies and Love Film charges the same.

I would be prepared to pay a small subscription to get more HD channels on FreeSat (it would have to be renamed CheapSat then), but Murdoch won't be getting any of my money.

 

[zientific]

smithdom:

I wouldn't pay the difference between DVD and BluRay. Fortunately I don't have to because I rent movies and Love Film charges the same.

I would be prepared to pay a small subscription to get more HD channels on FreeSat (it would have to be renamed CheapSat then), but Murdoch won't be getting any of my money.

Ditto, Love film enables me to watch a BluRay film of my choosing when I want and I don't have to subscribe to the costly service offered by Sky! (But I don't watch much sport)

 

[pwiles1968]

Still hanging back on this one purely because I got rid of sky about a year ago and am finding plenty to watch and if there is nothing on it gives me a chance to listen to some music

, I will in all likley hood get Sky HD in the next year or so even if it is still a subscription service.

Having said that I was in Tesco Yesterday and was disgusted by the misleading advertising, I was watching a BIG TV hooked up with a Sky Demo (Recording) and it did a split screen of the same piece of footage one side was allegedly Freeview and the other side Sky HD, the Freeview picture was horrible and looked like it had been deliberately blurred and looked nothing like what I have experienced from Freeview, Given the right material Freeview can be excellent (South Pacific For Example).

Anyway rant over even given the misleading advertising I am sure Sky HD is a pretty worthwhile upgrade and will probably upgrade some time in the future after I sort out a few things round the house.

 

[pete321]

professorhat:the increase in quality of the Blu-Ray over the DVD make the little bit extra in price worthwhile to me, thus I never buy DVDs any more. And if I don't think it's worth the extra over the DVD, I either wait and buy it when it comes into one of the bargain offers on the likes of Amazon, Play, HMV etc, or I think about it and find I actually don't really want the film that much anyway.

I was the same, my DVD's just sat in the cupboard unloved and gathering dust, then they were reborn thanks to Anchor Bay. By far the best of the upscalers I've come across. It'd be intresting to see what it can do with SD Sky or Virgin broadcasts. I know the Yamaha Z7 AV amp uses it.

Trouble is, for Virgin anyway, even if you had an AV amp with Anchor Bay, the V+ won't let you send a 576i signal via HDMI, so it's already had some sort of scaling before a better upscaler could do it's work.