Famously this was one technology that I wasn't an early adopter for after Sky mucked up my pre-order and I quickly lost interest. Anyway, given the recent "price drop" where you can get a box from Indies for ?149 (something which Sky now seem to be following suit with) I decided to go for it. The monthly ?10 charge is still a bit annoying, but given that Lost, 24 and Rescue me are all in HD, along with the football, its not really that bad value for money. Of course, you could argue that with the football in particular, you're paying ?10 a month to fix some of the problems that Sky should be sorting out as part of their service.
Anyway, I ordered the box and a card for my plasma on Friday so everything showed up yesterday morning. Interestingly, the card for my plasma has also dropped in price, by about ?50, so all in I've saved a fair bit by hanging off.
I was up and running in about 10 minutes. Just swapped all the cables over from my Sky+ box and called up Sky to get them to pair the card with the new box.
Firstly, SD picture quality over HDMI is considerably better than it was over the old SCART. I guess I shouldn't be surprised by that, but its a nice extra.
As for the HD stuff, the quality difference is pretty amazing. I have an HD drive for my Xbox, so am aware of what you can get from it, but I was pleasantly surprised by what I've seen so far.
Last night the wife had some Graham Norton presented Andrew Lloyd Webber thing on BBC HD and the picture quality was simply stunning. One of the best things I've ever seen in HD, so that was a big surprise from the Beeb.
Checking out a film, Final Destination 3, the increase in quality over SD was immediately apparent, although not as impressive as the BBC thing. I've not checked out many of the other channels, not that there are many to check out to be honest.
As for Sky Sports, the football is kind of surreal. They're not exaggerating when they say that you can literally see every blade of grass. The detail is amazing and I've never seen fast moving images in this much clarity, sharpness and lifelike colour. Am looking forward to the Chelski match later and the CL final this month.
The downsides? Well, the fans on the box are a bit noisy. Nowhere near 360 levels, but you can hear them if the TV isn't on or is very, very quiet.
Amount of content is limited. There's no getting away from that and its one of the reasons I didn't buy a box when they were ?300. There's a lot of American content out there in HD, so it would be good to see some more channels launching or Sky starting to buy in more of the other top series that the US is producing at the moment.
The fast forward doesn't seem to be as smooth as on existing Sky+. However, its nowhere near as bad as I'd read. It seems to be the same situation as when Sky+ first came out, that software upgrades will come along to fix any of the niggling issues.
So, the verdict? I'm delighted with it and its even exceeded my expectations which is a real surprise. I'd seen some of the demo material in local stores, but that really doesn't do the quality justice.
Anyway, I ordered the box and a card for my plasma on Friday so everything showed up yesterday morning. Interestingly, the card for my plasma has also dropped in price, by about ?50, so all in I've saved a fair bit by hanging off.
I was up and running in about 10 minutes. Just swapped all the cables over from my Sky+ box and called up Sky to get them to pair the card with the new box.
Firstly, SD picture quality over HDMI is considerably better than it was over the old SCART. I guess I shouldn't be surprised by that, but its a nice extra.
As for the HD stuff, the quality difference is pretty amazing. I have an HD drive for my Xbox, so am aware of what you can get from it, but I was pleasantly surprised by what I've seen so far.
Last night the wife had some Graham Norton presented Andrew Lloyd Webber thing on BBC HD and the picture quality was simply stunning. One of the best things I've ever seen in HD, so that was a big surprise from the Beeb.
Checking out a film, Final Destination 3, the increase in quality over SD was immediately apparent, although not as impressive as the BBC thing. I've not checked out many of the other channels, not that there are many to check out to be honest.
As for Sky Sports, the football is kind of surreal. They're not exaggerating when they say that you can literally see every blade of grass. The detail is amazing and I've never seen fast moving images in this much clarity, sharpness and lifelike colour. Am looking forward to the Chelski match later and the CL final this month.
The downsides? Well, the fans on the box are a bit noisy. Nowhere near 360 levels, but you can hear them if the TV isn't on or is very, very quiet.
Amount of content is limited. There's no getting away from that and its one of the reasons I didn't buy a box when they were ?300. There's a lot of American content out there in HD, so it would be good to see some more channels launching or Sky starting to buy in more of the other top series that the US is producing at the moment.
The fast forward doesn't seem to be as smooth as on existing Sky+. However, its nowhere near as bad as I'd read. It seems to be the same situation as when Sky+ first came out, that software upgrades will come along to fix any of the niggling issues.
So, the verdict? I'm delighted with it and its even exceeded my expectations which is a real surprise. I'd seen some of the demo material in local stores, but that really doesn't do the quality justice.
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