The HD bollox

[pikey]

I bought an early HD TV about 3 years ago. It's great - a Sharp Aquos that shows an HD picture in a quality level that's stunning. Very happy with both the performance and the form factor (neat speakers at the bottom rather than monsters on the outside)

It was on Sky, but I binned that as it was too expensive and we only watch terrestrial channels. Not a problem as FreeSat is on its way....

Turns out the only boxes you can get with FreeSat use HDMI only.. well, apart from one which has a Component output. So I bought that and it's all great, until you watch something on an HD feed, where you get a message saying the broadcaster has instructed this is not to be displayed on an analogue feed and then shuts off the component output.

So, someone please tell me just what one's supposed to do with a fantastic HD telly that doesn't have an HDMI feed? Stick it in the bin and buy another it would seem.

What a load of bks

[pikey]

B17NNS said:

The Sky HD box comes with and HDMI out anyway so how were you watching HD previously?

My Sky HD box has component out. I now know that this only applies to the early boxes (I was one of the first Sky HD customers).

[pikey]

mp3manager said:

I suppose the OP could buy a 'naughty box', which sits between the Freesat receiver and the display. It strips the HDCP DRM from the signal allowing the signal to be displayed.

http://hdfury2.co.uk/hdfury2-p-9.html

'Naughty boxes' were all the rage in 2002-ish, but they're very rare now and very expensive..probably better off buying a new display and retiring that one to the bedroom.

Wow, expensive for what it does (ie. allows me to continue watching what I did with the same equipment.

Does very much look as if I should retire this TV, but it's ridiculous as the TV is excellent.

[pikey]

Onz said:

Does the TV not have a DVI socket? If so then just go along with garycat's suggestion above.

Nope. Couple of SCARTS, S-VHS, Component, Coax, PC.

[pikey]

Right, I know what I'm going to do.

I'm going to go and buy that same FreeSat box again (they refunded it for me). The reason is the box will allow me to watch the main set of channels via the Component output, which the TV does some weird upscaling thing on to present an extremely good picture - far better than I've seen before.

Thinking about it, it's only the HD channels that it turns the Component off and this is the opposite to how the Sky HD box worked. That output via Component only on an HD channel, the remainder of the channels were via SCART.

So if I watch TV on this device connected via Component I will see the majority of the channels better quality than before and the only downside is no HD in HD quality. As there are still so few HD channels, it's not worth getting too bothered about at this stage.

There - logic has prevailed.

(I still think it's a load of bks though!)

[pikey]

dickymint said:

pikey said:

Onz said:

Does the TV not have a DVI socket? If so then just go along with garycat's suggestion above.

Nope. Couple of SCARTS, S-VHS, Component, Coax, PC.

Then you were miss sold as it is not HD ready. Bit puzzled really as I thought the Aquos had DVI.

You're making an assumption about when I bought it

I bought it way back when this was all fields, before the "HD READY" logo was being used and touted. It's an early Aquos - and on paper it's a decent performing 1080 panel.

I did a fair bit of research before getting it to ensure that I was buying compatible future technology. It was compatible... for a while

[pikey]

dickymint said:

Why don't you just keep on using the Sky HD box for freeview/freesat? through component. The free HD channels aren't encrypted are they.

1. You don't get all the channels you get on terrestrial. Ie. Dave, E4, Film 4, etc... are not included in the free service.
2. HD is disabled on the HD broadcast channels. (ie. you get them, but in SD)

[pikey]

Just to update this... I gave up, played the game and bought a new panel, and retired the old one to the bedroom (with a digibox attached).

Unnecessary! (..but at least I watch whatever is on HD every night just because it's so good!)