SKY HD Prices are out!!!

rossious

All,
Just got an email from Sky about HD. Here are the details. I'm a UK subscriber.

Box = £299
Sub = £15 - £42 per Month (Plus and Extra £10 for HD Services)
Install = Free
Sky+ = Free

To pre-order you need to pay a £30 deposit either online or in your local Comet store.

DMC

Um, just to be clear, you do play an extra £10, regardless if you have sports/movies or both?

Knowing Sky and the way they price, €450 is a bit steep for the box alone.

PaddyFagan

DMC wrote:

Um, just to be clear, you do play an extra £10, regardless if you have sports/movies or both?

Yeah - the details are up on www.sky.com\hd now too.

Paddy

Furp

This is an excerpt from the email:



"Thank you for registering for Sky HD. As one of our registrants we promised to give you the opportunity to be amongst the first to get Sky HD. Now the wait is almost over. Due to the unprecedented interest in Sky HD we are offering you the chance to pre-order Sky HD now.


You'll need to pay a £30 deposit either online or in your local Comet store. Then during early April, before we open the lines to the general public, we will call you to complete your Sky HD order and arrange your installation. Sky HD pre-order is being offered on a first come, first served basis. Installations are scheduled to start from May.


The table below explains how much you will pay for Sky HD provided you take a Sky digital and Sky HD subscription. "

The table is an image but i haveit shared at flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/furp/

paul.ka

The published prices and details today are applicable to UK, CI and IOM only. No word yet on availability in ROI.

watty

I'll wait till next year or Autumn.

Besides I'm more concerned about the price of something decent to watch it on and actually seeing live HDTV demo and SDTV on the real display so as to make an informed decision. I can't trust tech or A/V system reviews anymore. They mostly have no idea about quality and witter on about styling.

I'm not parting with 800 Euro to 2500 Euro without actually seening the different types of program material on the display.

The Introductional pricing does not sound bad (good actually) and unlike many so called "HD ready" TVs the SkyHD box does exactly what it says on tin, and I have no doubt properly.

When I have an HDTV I would certinally sign up for minimum period for the 3 or 4 HD channels I would watch.

barrera

It doesn't seem that bad a deal to pay a tenner extra a month, and the value of that will improve as HD becomes more common.

They always charge a fair whack for the box for the 'early adopters' - the question is will they ultimately start dropping the box price significantly and giving free subscription as has happened with Sky Plus. I'd love to have it for the World Cup, and I presume Sky are light-years ahead of any cable operators in HD provision.

digiman

barrera wrote:

I presume Sky are light-years ahead of any cable operators in HD provision.

They are in Ireland anyway, but in the UK Telewest have already started HD services to certain customer, I dont think that they have that much content at the minute though.
I think the pricing is not to bad, I would like to see a football match in HD, this is what would persuade me I think, I have already seen many tv shows such as 24 and lost in HD and they are great quality, and a few films in HD.

kkennedy

barrera wrote:

It doesn't seem that bad a deal to pay a tenner extra a month,
....

10 Sterling, Probably €15

Mossy Monk

barrera wrote:

It doesn't seem that bad a deal to pay a tenner extra a month

personally i think it is daylight robbery. lets break it down.

they want you to pay for the regular subscription - fair enough
they want you to pay £299stg for as new box - fair enough
now they want you to pay extra for the few HD channels - legal theft
if you have sky sports or movies already on a SD subscription do you have to pay extra for them too?

Sky will always do this because they will get away with it

Pat Gleeson

Mossy Monk wrote:

personally i think it is daylight robbery. lets break it down.


if you have sky sports or movies already on a SD subscription do you have to pay extra for them too?

Sky will always do this because they will get away with it

As I understand it, you pay the extra £Stg.10 (€15) p.m for the HD sub regardless. The amount of channels you get depends on what package you already have:

i.e Sky World = All HD channels
Basic Pack = No Sports or Movies in HD

I presume this HD service means all sky channels will be in HD?
Including RTÉ and TV3 ?? These are channels that cant even get or take a long time to sort out widescreen and dogs...
It does not bode well.

Presumably the channels are on separate transponders? and ergo actually cost extra for sky to transmit?

djpaul

Mossy Monk wrote:

personally i think it is daylight robbery.



Sky will always do this because they will get away with it

Yep!

I think i'll wait till next year and see what happens. Not going to jump in with both feet this time, as tempting as it is to have it in april.

IrishEmperor

The BBC is to screen this summer's football World Cup and Wimbledon championships in HDTV.

so, will this only be in the UK (and not in Ireland)?

L1011

It'll be free to anyone here who picks up a proper HDTV box, as its the BBC who don't do encryption.

Pat Gleeson

Earthman wrote:

I presume this HD service means all sky channels will be in HD?
Including RTÉ and TV3 ?? These are channels that cant even get or take a long time to sort out widescreen and dogs...
It does not bode well.

Presumably the channels are on separate transponders? and ergo actually cost extra for sky to transmit?

Only 6 channels are HD ready for Sky as of now:

Sky One, Sky Sports, Artsworld, Nat. Geographic, Discovery, and Sky Movies/ Box Office, with more to follow

Even at this not all programmes on the Sky branded HD channels will be HD (e.g. archived shows), but will be what Sky call 'upscaled Standard Definition (SD)'

When a HD programme is about to begin there will be an on screen overlay shown.

The BBC will be testing HD broadcasts from May onwards that can be viewed also.

They use seperate transponders some of which are listed below, not viewable on any SD Sky or Sky+ box

Freq: Polarity: Symbol Rate: FEC:

11798.00 H 28250 3/4
12324.00 V 28250 3/4
12344.00 H 28250 3/4

Note the different symbol rate than usual that is used.

As for how much extra cost for Sky is involved ... who knows ?
I'm sure there is someone who knows a hell of a lot more than me about this reads this mailing list and can answer that and the other questions better than I.

RTE HD ... 2050 maybe

ffocused

i emailed sky back after getting the UK pre order email asking when we can do it.
the reply said we can pre order online or by phone next month.

Sparky

From what I understood, from the presentation, if you had lets say a Sky world package, you got all the HD channels. All you needed to do was buy the box.

But now it looks like, if you do have a Sky world package and a HD box, you have to pay €15 extra to get the HD versions.

Would it not be better, if they had the €15 extra on the Mix packages?

I'm still getting the service anyway, as I have put money aside for the box.

watty

If the HD had stuck with MPEG2 the channels would have been 4&1/2 times more expensive. The HD channels in MPEG4 cost about twice as much to transmit.

Yes. The HD channels are completely separate, though in theory you could have a couple of HD channels and 5 normal channels on the same transponder.

Non-HD receivers can possibly read the sound. But can't do HD video at ALL in MPEG2. Existing DVB boxes can't do even normal TV in MPEG4. ALL HDTV will be MPEG4. Only tests were MPEG2.

Ordinary "SD" may migrate to MPEG to save BW when everyone has HD MPEG4 capabile boxes.

Moorsie

.... on availability this side of the water.

SouperComputer

Will this come with 5.1 DTS (IE not pro-logic) sound? Would be a shame to have HD without it.

watty

Only very few programs have that. Same as with Sky+, it has AFAIK true 5.1 digital out, but only some Film son Sky Movie box channels have it

ixtlan

SouperComputer wrote:

Will this come with 5.1 DTS (IE not pro-logic) sound? Would be a shame to have HD without it.

The US Sky one imports are very likely to have 5.1, but nobody will know for sure until they start transmitting.

So, 24, BSG, Stargate, Atlantis... basically my week's viewing, which is why HD will be good for me, even with admittedly limited content.

I'd pay now for the service, but like Watty I'm reluctant to buy a TV now, with prices dropping... though we differ in that for the right price I'd go for a 37" 768 panel.

Ix.

LFCFan

I read somewhere yesterday that the box will be €450 and monthly sub is €15 for Irish customers.

watty

I'd be surprized if 5.1 is on much more than on the Sky HD box. Which supports it.

Ulsterman 1690

Yes. The HD channels are completely separate, though in theory you could have a couple of HD channels and 5 normal channels on the same transponder.

Non-HD receivers can possibly read the sound.

Well if the HD channels are going to be using a 28250 data rate good luck trying to gat that on a non-HD $ky dodgybox :rolleyes:

You might have more luck on a "grown up" satellite reciever