Just shopping around for a deal at the moment, we are all new to sky, so seeking some advice, wondered if anyone here has the the Sky HD+ service?

Mentions some 30 odd HD channels are available, but that means nothing if the content is not there?

Is it worth the extra dosh each month, over the standard service.?

We have a Sony 1080 HD set, is the Sky service full HD?

Thanks.

Planning on getting it myself, though Sky is 720p as far as I know.

Ive got HD but would say it is only worth getting at the moment if you get sport and film content too. some off the stuff on the other channels is pretty good too – BBC does some good stuff but not enough of it really!

Only if you have really good eyesight…..
😉

I’ve been thinking the same thing and the opinion from my Dad and Brother-in-law has been that for sport and some of the nature programmes it’s superb, but that’s it.

Personally I’m just going to plump for Sky+ for now as I have decent upscaler in my Panasonic Plasma. With a bit of luck once the content is there the HD box will become free even if there is still a surcharge it’ll be worth paying!

Sky transmit HD content at 1080i @ 50hz with 2:2 pulldown, which a decent telly should display as 1080p/25, so capable of pretty good quality. Of course, the bitrate is where things can go pear-shaped, and some channels certainly seem to be better than others. For example, I think BBC HD has the highest bitrate of all the HD channels, and on a decent panel you can really see it…stunning pictures. Personally, I reckon Sky HD is worth it (and I only have the entertainment channels), but I am a bit of an AV geek so image quality means a bit more to me than most I suppose.

Thanks for the comments, an extra £120 a year is quite a chunk just to watch HD content.

Andy@CRC, the offer they planned for us by calling them direct was:

£49 for the SkyHD+ box
£45 for the 1st months, (all Sky TV packages, HD subs free for the first month (£10)
Then I could drop it to £26.50 for the basic package if I wanted to after that.
Free Line rental for the first year (save £120)
Free Broadband 2meg
Free evening and weekends calls (sky talk freetime)
Free installation

£50 of M&S vouchers for both me and my Bro (via him recommending me)
(the other option offered was a free sky+ box each, but they would charge you an extra £10 pm for multiroom)

I’ve had it since Aug 06 and I like it. That said, I watch a lot of football on Sky which looks amazing on HD – so that makes it worth it to me. On the downside, a lot of the channels that are listed as “HD” (Sky 1 HD, Channel4 HD, etc) only have a small amount of HD programming each day….

I like it. The amount of content will grow with time.

If there’s an HD alternative to a programme I want to see, I invariably choose the HD option
Don’t forget you can record in HD too

I think its quality; 24, Lost, Dexter, Fringe all look class in HD and the Footie\BBC stuff is just amazing.

I did have problem with lip sync, but it appears to be fixed now.

Does the SkyHD EPG software make finding HD content easy?

Or do you end up scrolling through pages and pages of channels looking for HD content?

on the current one it is all under one sub menu although there is a new EPG coming out that is supposed to make it even easier. havnt tried it though so couldnt comment! I like it fine as it is at the moment. Works well enough!

Def worth paying the extra £10 a month IMO, it’s getting better and better in terms of new content (although it’s still pretty average). Giro is in HD atm and there’s a massive difference in quality switching between the standard and HD Eurosport channels (pity the commentary is the same shite :p ).
I wish they’d sort out Box Office though instead of the 2 crummy channels currently – surely it’s easy enough for them to push out HD Box Office channels with the same number of films (and same start time frequency)?

One other thing I’ve found is the box seems to struggle with recording 2 HD programmes and watching another recorded HD one at the same time, the picture stutters and the sound goes to pot (or maybe that’s just a sign my box is on the way out). It’s pretty rare I want to do this though.

It was for us as we went from standard SKY to SKY+HD so got recording and HD in one foul swoop.

We do notice the improved picture quality on our 720P HD TV particularly on live sports transmissions on Eurosport. We don not have Sky Sports or Movies.

Does anyone else feel that the picture quality has taken a dive lately on regular channels, almost to make the difference look more extreme, I’m sure dark scenes never used to have such massive pixelation as they do in the darker shaded areas now, it’s like the compression goes from resonable to really low level as soon as Bauer enters the shadows?

I was optimistic for ages about too and then when they did the offer for Sky HD for £79 I took it up, stunning it’s just amazing. Then the buggers dropped the price for the box to £49 a couple of months later. 😕

Worth it maybe then again it’s £10 for the same programmes but I don’t really miss the £10 a month and watching films and wild life programmes in HD is nice. That and I had an old digi box so gained the Sky+ features too.

When I phoned up about how much it would be to upgrade from basic Sky to HD+ they said it would be an extra £10 a month.I said as a longtime loyal customer that doesn’t want free phone calls or broadband I though that was still a bit too much so they said have a look for Sky packages online as there are often better deals to be had there. Still can’t decided what to do.

I’ve had a Sony 42″ 1080p for around sixteen months, and I’ve just made the jump from Sky+ to SkyHD, and the difference is stunning. I spent some time on t’interweb finding settings for the tv and that made a big difference too. Things like the Yellowstone series are just breathtaking, and the programmes I always watch on FX have taken on a whole sheen. Just wish Five would do HD as I’d love to be able to watch CSI in HD, tho’ the autopsies might be a little…queasy making. I think it’s worth the extra: Sky+ had a £10 premium when it started, don’t forget, also you get a bigger h/drive and the boxes are noticeably faster, too.

Called Sky to upgrade today and was told there is now a £30 setup charge for existing customers.I pointed out that setup was free last week and asked them to call me back when there isn’t a setup charge.