Sky HD TV Is Upon us

Published by Gonzo Pete December 29th, 2005 in Gadgets, Entertainment, Home, Digital TV, PVR.

Those of you who don’t just throw your Sky TV Guide straight in the bin may have seen the advert for the new Sky HD TV box. With the launch of the UK’s first High Definition service upon us we highlight the key features offered from Sky.

Sky HD

The box itself has been stylishly re-designed in black and silver tones, includes the basic control functions and LED’s on the front, coupled with the interactive card slot. The remote shows little sign of change. Anyway i’m sure your more interested in functionality than looks.

When the service launches (early 2006) broadcast content will be in one of two formats.
720/P/50 for progressively scanned picture or 1080/I/25 for interlaced picture.
The end format seen by the viewer will depend on the broadcasters requirments.

The Sky HD box will be manufactered by Thompson and will boast Sky+PVR.
To enable maximum compliance with customers TV’s the box will output video via standard component (anolouge) connections as well as the DVI and HDMI connections. So while you won’t have to have a HD ready TV you will not fully benefit without one.

Upon activation Sky is offering the service as a premium package and among the first channels viewable in HD are Sky Sports, Sky One, Sky movies and various Box Office screenings.

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17 Responses to “Sky HD TV Is Upon us”

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1 Chris on Jan 2nd, 2006 at 2:54 pm

Not actually true Telewest are allready trialling their HD-TV drive in London, and it has 3 tuners, they expect to roll out before Sky

http://www.telewest.co.uk/html/tv_drive/New_Tabs/
2 rambler on Jan 3rd, 2006 at 1:51 pm

Well not really chris, the telewest box is “hd ready” TELEWEST THEMSELVES WILL NOT BE BROADCASTING HD PROGRAMMING AS OF YET.
whereas sky WILL be providing a full hd service, i.e. the box, and the programs to watch on it!
the telewest box is more of an companion to their tv over ip service, teleport.
Bt is also rolling out a huge tv over ip service! with tv video conferencing etc.
3 gary on Feb 20th, 2006 at 8:22 pm

Ok, we all know what the next question is, HOW MUCH!
4 Peter on Feb 26th, 2006 at 10:30 am

Does anybody know if there will be any improvement watching hd tv through a non hd plasma.
5 Rob on Apr 22nd, 2006 at 11:08 am

I have a Sky box and i can clearly see compression artefacts on all channels on my 42″ plasma TV. The DVD input is lovely. Will this extra resolution actually give a reduction in compression ratio? Sky talk about being able to see blades of grass on a football pitch. On terrestrial analogue I used to be able to see stripes in the grass, now I just see blocks, with a haze around players.
6 Mike on May 5th, 2006 at 4:27 pm

Anyone know the size of the HDD in the sky HD box?
7 Budda on May 5th, 2006 at 8:19 pm

The Sky HD box comes with 300 GB drive, of which 160 GB is available to the user.

It has been speculated that the 140 GB left will be used by Sky for video on demand services.
8 Martin on May 11th, 2006 at 1:33 pm

Is this just not another rip off gimmick like widescreen. I forked out 500 quid on a widescreen TV and less than half of the programmes shown are not filmed in widescreen so what’s the point? How long do you think it will take for everything to be made in HD?
9 John on May 11th, 2006 at 6:28 pm

MARTIN YOUR NOT REALLY CLEVER ARE YOU? WHY DID YOU WASTE YOUR MONEY ON A WIDESCREEN THERE OLD NOW PLASMA TELLIES ARE THE FUTURE MATE.
AND THE SKY HD BOX COSTS Â£299 A Â£10 SUBSCRIPTION.
10 Martin on May 12th, 2006 at 1:40 pm

John, you’re missing my point - why pay for expensive TV’s when around 70% of the programmes are still filmed in the old format (4:3) and not widescreen - not to mention HD!!!! and just for the record I have a Chemistry Degree so I’m probably cleverer than you.
11 NOT HAPPY on May 18th, 2006 at 2:15 pm

WHY WHY WHY ….I RECENTLY GOT SKY THEN TRIED TO CANCEL MOVIES TO SAVE SOME WASTED CASH ONLY TO BE TOLD ID THEN HAVE TO PAY Â£10 TO KEEP SKY SERVICE …WHY
I THEN WENT ONTO TO BUY A HD TV THINKIN A GOOD SKY DEAL WOULD FOLLOW …WRONG AGAIN THEY WANT ANOTHER Â£299 FOR ANOTHER BOX AND YET ANOTHER Â£10 SUBSCRIPTION FOR HOW MANY CHANNELS IN HD????? NOT MANY SKY SHOULD GIVE LOYAL CUSTOMERS SOME PERKS INSTEAD OF OFFERING NEW CUSTOMERS FREE MONTHS TO JOIN OR CHEAP SUBS FOR 3MONTHS …..SKY BELIEVE ME AS SOON AS CABLE COMES TO MY AREA UR DUMPED
12 Dave on May 31st, 2006 at 3:53 pm

Does anybody know what the HD dish configuration looks like. Is it the same as the old one or a new fit.
13 Neilzo on Jun 1st, 2006 at 9:34 am

Martin, although you make a good point in your arguement, perhaps you should have done English Language instead of Chemistry as a subject. I don’t have a Degree. I didn’t do A Levels. I never went to college or university, however, I do know that “Iâ€™m probably cleverer than you” is very poor grammar. You should have wrote “Iâ€™m probably more clever than you”. It just goes to show, that just because you’re good at one thing, doesn’t automatically mean you are better than anyone else, or indeed, more intellectual. The fact that you had to lower yourself to responded to John’s unncessary dig at you shows a lack of intellegence, so, no you probably aren’t cleverer than him but probably about as clever.
14 dave on Jun 2nd, 2006 at 8:05 pm

dave, the dish is exactly the same as a standard minidish mate, the hd box requires 2 feeds from the dish, so the lnb will most probably be changed at install
15 Amused on Jun 8th, 2006 at 3:37 pm

Martin, What with you obviously being a genius have you thought of putting your skills in to practice by trying some experiments. Exp 1 Have you actually set your sky box to widescreen - that tends to help quite a lot. Exp 2 - Is your sky box connected via a scart - may also help Exp 3 Have you attemted to watch any modern programmes (post 1968) I’ve had a widescreen TV for years and these days struggle to find programmes that are’t filmed in widescrteen but then I imagine as a genius you spend your time watching back issues of mastermind and university challenge and blockbusters and stuff.
Alternatively put the TV back in it’s box and go and play with your chemistry set.
16 Thick on Jun 20th, 2006 at 10:43 pm

Hey untill someone invents a truly 3D, just like looking into a mirror, TV my old colour TV will do, as I have bills to pay and cannot be bothered with teles that cost more then a very good holiday (without any true beneifts).
And now that these very clever Technos can now build invisible structures to hide tanks and stuff in, then surely, it may not be to long before we are on the 3D band wangan. So till then I will hold me horses.