Sky HD - stunning
Discussion
Not a blatent plug given my new owner, but I was lucky enough to have a demo of Sky HD on a HD projector. I also got to play with a HD box on a 48" Sony Plasma.
You have never seen anything like it in your life. The quality, the colours and more importantly the total immersement you get with 5.1 dolby along with it is astonishing. There is no way to explain it - you just have to make sure you see it.
It's going to be a revolution for people who have been used to "normal" TV, plus I can very quickly see the rise of the HD camcorder for "normal" people to achieve similar quality for their home moves.
A 8Mbps per second though, it's going to put a massive strain on the computing and storage space needed for people's PCs.
Anyone want a 2 year old HP xw4000 workstation - I can see the need to upgrade very soon now!
J
You have never seen anything like it in your life. The quality, the colours and more importantly the total immersement you get with 5.1 dolby along with it is astonishing. There is no way to explain it - you just have to make sure you see it.
It's going to be a revolution for people who have been used to "normal" TV, plus I can very quickly see the rise of the HD camcorder for "normal" people to achieve similar quality for their home moves.
A 8Mbps per second though, it's going to put a massive strain on the computing and storage space needed for people's PCs.
Anyone want a 2 year old HP xw4000 workstation - I can see the need to upgrade very soon now!
J
I wish I hadn't read this. Been deliberating for a couple of months now on whether to upgrade my Panasonic Series 6 Plasma to an HD compatible model.
Do you know what channels Sky will broadcast in HD, how much the box will be, and whether there will be an additional subscription for HD?
Do you know what channels Sky will broadcast in HD, how much the box will be, and whether there will be an additional subscription for HD?
At a recent press demo a Sky spoksperson said:
"...declined to give any details on pricing, saying only that the service will launch early in the new year with four satellite channels.
He added that HD broadcasts will offer a picture quality five times better than conventional television and the sort of surround sound currently found in cinemas.
The package will include Premiership football, rugby, cricket, movies and US dramas such as 24 and Bones. It may also include the BBC's coverage from next summer's football World Cup finals."
And also said:
"...Although the major details - a firm launch date and pricing - are still to be confirmed, the broadcaster has announced more specifics on what to expect from the HD channel lineup.
Sky Sports HD will be spearheaded by HD coverage of live Premiership football games and Premiership rugby union and will also include Live Test and One-Day international matches played in England.
Sky Movies HD will comprise two channels dedicated to films broadcast in HD. Confirmed movies on the launch slate include Kill Bill: Vol 1, Spider-Man 2 and Big Fish. In addition, "up to ten extra movies a week" will be available in HD via Sky Box Office.
Sky One will be simulcast in HD on the service. Some programmes, mostly US imports, will air in HD where available while others may be upped from the SD format to improve picture quality. Series confirmed for HD include 24, Rescue Me, Bones, Over There, Stargate and Stargate Atlantis, as well as original show Final Chance To Save, which has just been commissioned for a second series.
Similarly, Artsworld will simulcast in HD from launch. Confirmed HD performances for 2006 include The Marriage of Figaro, Othello, The Who Live at the Isle of Wight, Jimi Hendrix Live at the Isle of Wight Festival and Anthony Minghella Directs Madam Butterfly.
Other broadcasters are expected to launch new channels as part of the service; among those planning HD offerings are Discovery, National Geographic and the BBC."
>> Edited by joust on Thursday 24th November 22:30
At a recent press demo a Sky spoksperson said:
a picture quality five times better than conventional television
Yippee, 5* picture quality of cr*p programmes! I can just imagine my wife loving Eastenders in HD
don't worry, I can see the advantages for certain progs, it's just that I'm not a TV nut!
>> Edited by cirks on Thursday 24th November 22:53
I'm not really into video or HD but I did a double-take when I walked past an HD plasma in a store. IIRC they had to run it from a PC, but it had the visual quality of a colour print - except moving! Very impressive.
Still, I shall wait for my 15y/o Sony 25" TV to go pop first, and it's still working as well as it did on Day One
Good job really seeing as all my toy money is allocated to things with 'Nikon' written on them!
Still, I shall wait for my 15y/o Sony 25" TV to go pop first, and it's still working as well as it did on Day One
Good job really seeing as all my toy money is allocated to things with 'Nikon' written on them!
_dobbo_ said:
Doesn't sky already claim to do 5.1?
Can't say i've ever noticed it watching films on the movie channel though...
Not sure about this bit thoughsky spokesman said:
picture quality five times better
Surely that's subjective? Or do they mean a resolution 5 times higher?
Sky transmit 5.1 on sky movies 1, 2 & 3. Plus a few more such as the disney channel I think.
You need a sky+ box to use it though.
As I understand it you will need an HD Ready TV and a new HD Sky box (or HD Sky+ box) to get the new Sky HD channels. Rumours are that HD Sky will cost another £10 on top of Sky World (currently £40 ish pcm so about £50 pcm) and you will get all the non-HD channels plus HD versions of about ten or so channels including Sky One, Sky Movies (1,2), Sky Sports 1 etc.
Clearly the new box from Sky will also cost money - rumours are as much as £500 but could be as little as £200. But that's absolute scuttlebutt - the Sky HD site has no details whatsoever on equipment costs.
I have recently purchased an HD Ready plasma with 1330x768 pixels of native resolution. IIRC our HD will have 720 "lines" (up from 500 or so) and these lines will be refreshed twice as often. I am hoping that with enough clever electronics the most can be made of the native resolution of the screen. Again AFAIK the big deal of HD isn't just 25% better resolution - its that rather than refresh half the image each cycle the whole image is refreshed so movement becomes significantly crisper - I'm sure the TV-techy-guys will be along to correct what I've said and turn it into real science rather than layman-speak!
The demo of the screen with an HD input (from a PC, I think) was absolutely stunning. I will be running my existing Sky+ box into it (so no HD there) but will also be plugging in a new Windows Media Center PC in via the VGA input - should get PC stuff in fab resolution. If I can download anything in HD and play it it will be very intersting to see how it does...
Clearly the new box from Sky will also cost money - rumours are as much as £500 but could be as little as £200. But that's absolute scuttlebutt - the Sky HD site has no details whatsoever on equipment costs.
I have recently purchased an HD Ready plasma with 1330x768 pixels of native resolution. IIRC our HD will have 720 "lines" (up from 500 or so) and these lines will be refreshed twice as often. I am hoping that with enough clever electronics the most can be made of the native resolution of the screen. Again AFAIK the big deal of HD isn't just 25% better resolution - its that rather than refresh half the image each cycle the whole image is refreshed so movement becomes significantly crisper - I'm sure the TV-techy-guys will be along to correct what I've said and turn it into real science rather than layman-speak!
The demo of the screen with an HD input (from a PC, I think) was absolutely stunning. I will be running my existing Sky+ box into it (so no HD there) but will also be plugging in a new Windows Media Center PC in via the VGA input - should get PC stuff in fab resolution. If I can download anything in HD and play it it will be very intersting to see how it does...
Here’s a quick round up of all Sky is saying about its HDTV service from the horse's mouth aka Sky's Director of Customer Products and Services, Brian Sullivan.
Reasons for the launch - Sky had originally planned to launch HD in 2008 but brought the debut forward because of the growing availability of both HD video cameras and flat screen TVs. The development of the MPEG4 video compression system also eased its bandwidth worries.
Launch date – To be announced in ‘the very near future’. We think that the hot money should be on spring 2006.
Pricing – Details to be announced in the new year. Sullivan did stress though it ‘will be affordable to the mass market from day one.’ Later in the Q and A sesh Sullivan added that there would be more than one programme package, but that Sky was very keen on keeping the pricing simple. We think that subscribers will pay an extra £10 a month over their existing Sky subscription costs for the service.
The box – It will be a Sky+ box. There are no details on the size of the hard disk, but the hot money is on 300 Gigabytes. It'll certainly have more storage than the current model which has a 160 Gigabyte hard disk. Users will be able to watch one HD channel while recording another too. The box will also feature an Ethernet connector to enable it to connect with, hazarding a guess, a Sky Easynet broadband box which will most likely launch next year. This could download HD video to the box, or be used for interactive services.
Sky’s channels – Sky Sports will feature the best of the action from Sky's four existing standard definition channels the vast majority of which will be in HD. The two movie channels will almost certainly be completely all HD, but the HD Sky One and the Artstworld channel may include some standard definition footage. Among the top HD shows for Sky One are 24, Stargate, Bones, and Over there.
Third party channels – Sullivan suggested that there will be two of these at launch. Here are a few suggestions.
World Cup – As Sullivan pointed out the BBC and ITV owns the rights to the live coverage and Sky would obviously love for one, or indeed both broadcasters to make HD football games available via free to air satellite. ‘We are prepared to give them the full depth of our technical resources,’ he quipped.
Reasons for the launch - Sky had originally planned to launch HD in 2008 but brought the debut forward because of the growing availability of both HD video cameras and flat screen TVs. The development of the MPEG4 video compression system also eased its bandwidth worries.
Launch date – To be announced in ‘the very near future’. We think that the hot money should be on spring 2006.
Pricing – Details to be announced in the new year. Sullivan did stress though it ‘will be affordable to the mass market from day one.’ Later in the Q and A sesh Sullivan added that there would be more than one programme package, but that Sky was very keen on keeping the pricing simple. We think that subscribers will pay an extra £10 a month over their existing Sky subscription costs for the service.
The box – It will be a Sky+ box. There are no details on the size of the hard disk, but the hot money is on 300 Gigabytes. It'll certainly have more storage than the current model which has a 160 Gigabyte hard disk. Users will be able to watch one HD channel while recording another too. The box will also feature an Ethernet connector to enable it to connect with, hazarding a guess, a Sky Easynet broadband box which will most likely launch next year. This could download HD video to the box, or be used for interactive services.
Sky’s channels – Sky Sports will feature the best of the action from Sky's four existing standard definition channels the vast majority of which will be in HD. The two movie channels will almost certainly be completely all HD, but the HD Sky One and the Artstworld channel may include some standard definition footage. Among the top HD shows for Sky One are 24, Stargate, Bones, and Over there.
Third party channels – Sullivan suggested that there will be two of these at launch. Here are a few suggestions.
World Cup – As Sullivan pointed out the BBC and ITV owns the rights to the live coverage and Sky would obviously love for one, or indeed both broadcasters to make HD football games available via free to air satellite. ‘We are prepared to give them the full depth of our technical resources,’ he quipped.
Don said:Plenty of HD downloads on the Microsoft site. These are the ones the shops are showing typically:
...If I can download anything in HD and play it it will be very intersting to see how it does...
WMV HD Content Showcase
There's also some Xbox360 demos in HD here
HD is, indeed, the dog's proverbials. We have had it via cable in the US for a few years now. Any movie that I want to watch, I always switch over to the HD channel version. The HDMI connection brings in the high quality video plus, via either an optical or coax feed, true 5.1 surround sound.
The only holdup to consumer produced HD is the current Blu-Ray/HD-DVD war. Once that becomes standardized, then there will be a medium to view your family films. You can do it now as long as you don't want to edit. Both my Sony HDR-FX1 and HDR-HC1 have component video out so that you get HD on the televison. However, I like to edit and burn to a DVD. Currently I am recording everything as HD on these cameras but I am capturing on the PC at SD. When the aforementioned "war" settles down, I will recapture at HD and then reburn a "director's cut" in HD...
ErnestM
The only holdup to consumer produced HD is the current Blu-Ray/HD-DVD war. Once that becomes standardized, then there will be a medium to view your family films. You can do it now as long as you don't want to edit. Both my Sony HDR-FX1 and HDR-HC1 have component video out so that you get HD on the televison. However, I like to edit and burn to a DVD. Currently I am recording everything as HD on these cameras but I am capturing on the PC at SD. When the aforementioned "war" settles down, I will recapture at HD and then reburn a "director's cut" in HD...
ErnestM
I recommend downloading the stuff from that Microsoft HD WMV showcase if you do have an HD screen of some sort. I used my laptop to generate a native 1280x720*60Hz screen mode, then played these clips through my projector (Sanyo Z3) and the quality is amazing. Going back to "ordinary" DVD is just so naff by comparison.
Marshy said:
I recommend downloading the stuff from that Microsoft HD WMV showcase if you do have an HD screen of some sort. I used my laptop to generate a native 1280x720*60Hz screen mode, then played these clips through my projector (Sanyo Z3) and the quality is amazing. Going back to "ordinary" DVD is just so naff by comparison.
Its a shame we're currently buying screens - and the only thing to show on them is demos from a PC!
I'll be doing just this next week to check out the picture quality...but it will be a while until there's anything I can actually watch in that high quality. I'm sure that the minute HDDVD/Blu-Ray/Whatever is sorted out I will need a player! I doubt Peter Jackson et al will be late in bringing HD versions of LOTR etc to the party for us all to spunk our cash on next Christmas....
Don, I bought a progressive scan DVD with a DVI-D output which runs at 720p/1080i to fill the gap until proper HD DVD / BluRay arrives. Yes it upscales so it's not true Hi-Def but it's still stunning and really brings a new dimension to watching DVDs.
X-Box 360 will likely perform the same task if that's your thing, otherwise there's plenty of DVD players out there which will do the business. (FYI mine was an "OPPO" - not a brand i've heard of before or since, but scores very highly from a technical standpoint.)
X-Box 360 will likely perform the same task if that's your thing, otherwise there's plenty of DVD players out there which will do the business. (FYI mine was an "OPPO" - not a brand i've heard of before or since, but scores very highly from a technical standpoint.)
joust said:
Not a blatent plug given my new owner, but I was lucky enough to have a demo of Sky HD on a HD projector. I also got to play with a HD box on a 48" Sony Plasma.
You have never seen anything like it in your life. The quality, the colours and more importantly the total immersement you get with 5.1 dolby along with it is astonishing. There is no way to explain it - you just have to make sure you see it.
It's going to be a revolution for people who have been used to "normal" TV, plus I can very quickly see the rise of the HD camcorder for "normal" people to achieve similar quality for their home moves.
A 8Mbps per second though, it's going to put a massive strain on the computing and storage space needed for people's PCs.
Anyone want a 2 year old HP xw4000 workstation - I can see the need to upgrade very soon now!
J
A little OT,but,and its not just me,Sony Plasmas are CRAP.I'm a little bit anal retentitive with tv/dvd/hi-fi and have viewed several sony plasmas,all of which give an overly rich,false,'outlined' picture,it looks good dont get me wrong,but drift your eyes of the screen and look around,then look back at the screen,theres nothing natural or life like about it,which in my opinion is the holy grail of tv's!.
Take photos taken with a good lens,ie a prime L.veiw it on a 'good' monitor and the raw file is probably as opticially as good as it gets,but its very easy to up saturation,contrast,and most importantly,to sharpen it up which appears to make the 'photo' look nicer,but its less natural,where-in lies sonys problem.
I was 'allowed' a budget of 4k to spend on a tele,and ended up spending just 2k on a 57" rear projection,now don't laugh.ALL tele's look crap in dixons,currys etc.First thing I done when I got my tele delivered was dismantle it into bits,re-calibrate the 3 colours and adjusted the focus 'properly' across the screen ( Toshiba cant afford to have an engineer spend 6-8 hours setting up every tele ).Now when I watch progressive scan dvd's it is spot on.
Not to sure on the point I'm making,just be aware about spending thousands when you want optimum picture quality,when it is available for less.
_dobbo_ said:
Don, I bought a progressive scan DVD with a DVI-D output which runs at 720p/1080i to fill the gap until proper HD DVD / BluRay arrives. Yes it upscales so it's not true Hi-Def but it's still stunning and really brings a new dimension to watching DVDs.
I was hoping to do the same with the eBox...ish. Since the upscaling will therefore depend on software I'm hoping what comes with XPMC2005 will be good. If not I can always try more/different software!
_dobbo_ said:
X-Box 360 will likely perform the same task if that's your thing, otherwise there's plenty of DVD players out there which will do the business. (FYI mine was an "OPPO" - not a brand i've heard of before or since, but scores very highly from a technical standpoint.)
I've seen some DVD players with HDMI output - but not considered getting one. I'm waiting for a HD/BluRay player. But - if the eBox doesn't do the business on upscaling I may go down your route. We'll see.
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