Quck question about Sky HD upgrade

[fatboy b]

Anyone had this done from Sky SD? Are the aerial cables reused or replaced? Mine are buried under the carpet & hearth, so could just do with knowing.

Ta.

[Silverbullet767]

Sky HD requires 2 signal cables from your dish (and the appropriate LNB).

If you have ordinary sky, you will need another signal cable.

If you have sky+, its a straight swapover.

[Silver993tt]

Same cable as far as I know, just a different box and different tariff.

edited: oh well, what do I know?

Edited by Silver993tt on Wednesday 4th February 10:17

[MrV]

They kept the old one and ran another along side it for mine

[Harry Flashman]

Do you get non Sky HD channels for free with the SkyHD box, or is it the case that the £10 a month activates the box's HD capability for all channels?

[miniman]

As above, in theory it is a straight swap from Sky+ to SkyHD, but a non-Sky+ box to HD will require another feed from the LNB. If this is the case, I would recommend having it all re-cabled at once. The HD boxes seem to be very sensitive to cabling, the LNB and the dish itself.

[Frederick]

Harry Flashman said:

Do you get non Sky HD channels for free with the SkyHD box, or is it the case that the £10 a month activates the box's HD capability for all channels?

The box doesn't upscale SD to HD, your £10/month is just for non FTA HD stuff like Sky1HD, SkyArts HD, Discovery HD, History HD etc... you should get FTA HD stuff like C4 HD, Eurosport HD and BBCHD without paying the subs but I'm not 100% sure on that.

[215cu]

Can't speak as a former Sky SD customer but our house had the black oval dish fitted by the previous occupants.

The enginner turned up, replaced the component on the dish that the signal is taken from, the signal cable was checked and ok. New set-top box and they supply a HDMI cable for the box to the TV.

Sky HD is 720p so unless you want a Bluray DVD player, consider that in any future TV purchase.

All I can say is the Sky HD channels are really only worth the extra £10 if you take the movies but I think there are Box Office HD channels. Then again, BBC HD have been showing Planet Earth in HD which is superb. Channel 4 HD is a bit hit and miss unless you like Hollyoaks in HD.

Another option is the Freesat which I think do broadcast ITV, BBC & C4 HD, TV's like the Panasonic PZ81B have Freesat built in.

Edited by 215cu on Wednesday 4th February 10:49

[fatboy b]

Great - thanks everyone. Already have Sky+, so no new cables then.

[CooperS]

215cu said:

Sky HD is 720p so unless you want a Bluray DVD player, consider that in any future TV purchase.

Edited by 215cu on Wednesday 4th February 10:49

Thought it was 1080p?

[Plotloss]

CooperS said:

215cu said:

Sky HD is 720p so unless you want a Bluray DVD player, consider that in any future TV purchase.

Edited by 215cu on Wednesday 4th February 10:49

Thought it was 1080p?

No 720p/1080i

[GreigM]

fatboy b said:

Great - thanks everyone. Already have Sky+, so no new cables then.

if you want it quick then you can go buy the box from tesco or ebay then simply phone sky to pair your viewing card.....sky will charge for and schedule and "installation" which is simply getting someone to plug in the box....they'll also want a new contract with 1 year minimum and to have your telephone line plugged in...I chose to buy the box from tesco - it was more expensive than having sky do it, but I had it working in an afternoon, rather than the 6 weeks later that sky could give me an appointment...

[215cu]

CooperS said:

215cu said:

Sky HD is 720p so unless you want a Bluray DVD player, consider that in any future TV purchase.

Edited by 215cu on Wednesday 4th February 10:49

Thought it was 1080p?

Sorry, apologies, I got too far ahead on my train of thought than my fingers.

Some HD broadcasters do stick to 720p, some to 1080i, not sure which.

On the Sky HD box, Sky SD is upscaled to 720p, fine if broadcast in 720x576 but not great on channels broadcast at 544x576, Sky HD is broadcast in 1080i NOT p, that's 1920x1080 interlaced.

http://www.sky.com/portal/site/skycom/skyproducts/...

Here's the bookmark from Sky I kept which has the HD FAQs.

Edited by 215cu on Wednesday 4th February 11:14

[///MrSingh]

Harry Flashman said:

Do you get non Sky HD channels for free with the SkyHD box, or is it the case that the £10 a month activates the box's HD capability for all channels?

I've got a HD box but no Sky HD subscription (just a normal one) and I get BBC HD and CH4 HD (and another channel but i've forgotten which one) for free. All the others you need the £9.75 a month subscription. There's about 30 HD channels last time I checked.

[GT03ROB]

GreigM said:

fatboy b said:

Great - thanks everyone. Already have Sky+, so no new cables then.

if you want it quick then you can go buy the box from tesco or ebay then simply phone sky to pair your viewing card.....sky will charge for and schedule and "installation" which is simply getting someone to plug in the box....they'll also want a new contract with 1 year minimum and to have your telephone line plugged in...I chose to buy the box from tesco - it was more expensive than having sky do it, but I had it working in an afternoon, rather than the 6 weeks later that sky could give me an appointment...

If you want it quick you could also try Sky....I found it was a next working day install. Ordered last Friday afternoon,was installed by Monday lunchtime.

[fatboy b]

GT03ROB said:

GreigM said:

fatboy b said:

Great - thanks everyone. Already have Sky+, so no new cables then.

if you want it quick then you can go buy the box from tesco or ebay then simply phone sky to pair your viewing card.....sky will charge for and schedule and "installation" which is simply getting someone to plug in the box....they'll also want a new contract with 1 year minimum and to have your telephone line plugged in...I chose to buy the box from tesco - it was more expensive than having sky do it, but I had it working in an afternoon, rather than the 6 weeks later that sky could give me an appointment...

If you want it quick you could also try Sky....I found it was a next working day install. Ordered last Friday afternoon,was installed by Monday lunchtime.

Mine's coming next friday, so I'm OK with that. TBH.

[tamore]

if you like your sport and films, you'll never look back.

some people have said in other threads that they couldn't tell the difference, but all i can say is that they should have gone to a certain high street opticians!

my dad can really tell the difference through his fading 72 year old eyes.

[hornetrider]

tamore said:

if you like your sport and films, you'll never look back.

some people have said in other threads that they couldn't tell the difference, but all i can say is that they should have gone to a certain high street opticians!

my dad can really tell the difference through his fading 72 year old eyes.

Indeed. Everyone who comes round ours notices it big time. It might help that I flick back between SS1 and SS1HD a few times to show the difference!

[dickymint]

hornetrider said:

tamore said:

if you like your sport and films, you'll never look back.

some people have said in other threads that they couldn't tell the difference, but all i can say is that they should have gone to a certain high street opticians!

my dad can really tell the difference through his fading 72 year old eyes.

Indeed. Everyone who comes round ours notices it big time. It might help that I flick back between SS1 and SS1HD a few times to show the difference!

Agreed. Football on ITV last night was shocking quality - Great result though

[tamore]

anyone know if ITV are going to cave in and put their HD channel on SKY?