Any thoughts?

Don’t do team sports, so have no interest in paying for Sky Sports at whatever rip off per month.

Also heard a news review speculating about Sky future business plans, and the general consensus was that as they pass 10M UK subscribers, revenue growth isn’t going to come from new sign ups, but from sweating the existing subscriber base….

Which points me towards Freesat+, but looks like that only has three HD channels (BBC1, BBCHD and ITVHD)??

1st of all sky tv is part of rupert murdochs monopoly of evil so that alone would put me off
do you get the bbc hd channel(good hd stuff from all 4 bbc channels) and channel4 hd, i get them on freeview

i think the problem is the tv channels themselves are not yet broadcasting in hd, but more channels will as the demand is so high

wall-e was amazing on bbc hd the other day!

I’m also assuming that both Sky and Freesat broadcast in 1080i, not 1080p?

At some point Sky will have to offer HD ‘free’ (or charge more for the basic package) as most stuff will only be broadcast in HD.

My brother is heavily involved in the BBC move to HD and thinks Freesat is currently the better option but in a couple of years will mainly be HD across the board.

He also said that HD is pretty pointless on 32″ or less TV’s.

You could buy a Sky HD box off fleaBay. I did and it cost way less than a years HD subscription to Sky, even after upgrading the capacitors and harddrive 🙂

I’m also assuming that both Sky and Freesat broadcast in 1080i, not 1080p?

Yes, but only because there is not the capacity to broadcast in 1080p so TV HD is not ‘true’ HD.

He also said that HD is pretty pointless on 32″ or less TV’s.

Really? I have a 32″ telly and HD makes a load of difference. What doesn’t is spending a ridiculous amount on a HDMI cable. The difference between a £10 and a £100 HDMI cable is marginal at best.

I’m also assuming that both Sky and Freesat broadcast in 1080i, not 1080p?

you assume correctly

We’ve got an old dish from when we had Sky years ago, and have used it to watch free to air satellite channels ever since we stopped the subs.

Now, it only has one aerial feed into the house.

If we go Freesat+, can I use a splitter to provide two separate coax input feeds for simultaneous HDD recording / watching, or do I need to get a separte feed from the aerial receiver?

Now, it only has one aerial feed into the house. Can I use a splitter to provide two separate coax input feeds for simultaneous HDD recording / watching

not really as they come down on different polarities/bands & need to be able to switch without affecting the other feed
You ideally need a quad LNB & another downlead

“You could buy a Sky HD box off fleaBay”

So if we are on standard Sky we just unplug the normal Sky box and put a Sky HD one on, cancel the Sky subscription and then just re tune to free sat channels?

Sorry I know bugger all about this stuff…

Don’t you have to have a subscription to use the Sky+ functionality and another to get any channels in HD – supect it ends up costing over £20 per month.

Freesat+ would be, unsurprisingly, free.

Currently more HD channels on FreeVIEW (no C4 on Freesat for the forseeable future) but long term potentially more HD channels on Freesat (Freeview unlikely to ever have many more than the 4 it has now).

Currently more HD channels on FreeVIEW (no C4 on Freesat for the forseeable future) but long term potentially more HD channels on Freesat (Freeview unlikely to ever have many more than the 4 it has now).

Freeview isn’t an option. We went satellite when we moved to our current house as the terrestrial reception is non-existant

So if we are on standard Sky we just unplug the normal Sky box and put a Sky HD one on, cancel the Sky subscription and then just re tune to free sat channels?

I believe so, you should be able to view all the free to air satellite channels. however this leads me to…

Don’t you have to have a subscription to use the Sky+ functionality

Yes and you’ll also need to update the LNB (the part at the front of the dish) to a twin or quad for the additional sky cables to enable it.

I currently run a quad LNB with twin Sky+ cable to the living room for the HD. And single cable to the master bedroom (old Sky+ box) and play room (standard Sky box) for the free to air channels

Found out today that Sky do transmit certain channels in HD without needing an HD subscription. These include BBC1 HD and ITV1 HD. Not sure I can tell a great deal of difference between SD and HD so is this something to do with transmitting in 1080i instead of 1080p?

I have 56 HD channels on my Sky box, so really depends on what you want to pay (or not) for.

Saying that, some of them are Sports and some you wouldn’t really want to bother with.