Sky HD box - Does it only improve HD channels?

Ashfield

I have a normal Sky+ box,
I was just wondering if i get Sky HD, will it only improve my HD channels?
ie will the feed from the box improve channels that are not HD?

steveon

The Hd mix of channels will look amazing on your HDTV but also the std channels will look slightly clearer in my opinion when using HDMI instead of scart. Also the menus look mighty impressive and with the Newly released HD Software it will enable sky to add more HD channels at a faster rate and also to watch tv channel whilst surfing through the tv guide.

If you can justify paying the extra €14.75 a month for the Hd mix then u wont look back in my opinion...plus you will have double the recording time, when compared to the sky plus box..

Wizard007

+1

It is abselutely brilliant. Add a good sound surround system and you'll never look back

marclt

Wizard007 wrote: »

+1

It is abselutely brilliant. Add a good sound surround system and you'll never look back

Make sure in picture settings that the HD resolution is set ot 1080i instead of auto and all channels will be upscaled - which means the SD channels will look better too.

watty

It doesn't "really" improve anything

1: You only get the HD channels with HD setbox.

2: With sufficiently good TV, the SCART in RGB for normal channels can be as good as HDMI on HD set.

Many HD sets will give a better picture via HDMI (only on HD set box) on all channels, but this is typical rather than inherent.

All HD sets upscale SD anyway, but again the upscaller in the SkyHD box may be better than some TV's built in upscaller.

Do ensure SkyHD is set to 1080i

Contrary to popular opinion, 1080i (what ALL European HD uses) is the SAME resolution as 1080p. The difference is how often and in what order the lines are drawn.

1080p draws all 1080 lines progressively, 50 times a second. 1080i only draws half the lines in 1/50th of a second. The other half of the 1080 lines are drawn interlaced (inbetween) in the next 50th of a second. This means in 1080i, all 1080 lines are drawn 25 times a second.

Film is only 24 fps. So from Film source there is no difference in Europe. For 1080p (BluRay playback) or 1080i (Live TV) the same film frames of 24 per second are shown at same 1920x1080 line sharpness, 25 times a second. For 1080p frames are repeated or on very high end players interpolated to created "tweened" frames.

In USA there is a serious problem with NTSC 480i SDTV and HD 1920x1080i from film and that is that to convert from 24 fps to 30 fps you end up with a TV interlaced frame made from two separate film frames. This creates a comb artefact on screen with horizontal movement, the NTSC 3:2 Telecine artifact. This is why progressive SD DVD players and 720p is popular in USA.

The only real advantage in Europe for Progressive DVD player is to feed a VGA monitor, or a marginal increase in upscalling quality if you have a HD TV. There is no need for an upscalling DVD player with HDMI unless your TV is very poor HD set.

Most of what you read on Internet regarding HDTV is hype or USA based thus inaccurate for Ireland and Europe.

recycler1

Ashfield wrote: »

I have a normal Sky+ box,
I was just wondering if i get Sky HD, will it only improve my HD channels?
ie will the feed from the box improve channels that are not HD?

It depends......

With a high bitrate digital signal, e.g. RTE, BBC 1/2, you should see a reasonable improvement in the picture quality. This is because the signal remains digital from the satellite through to the TV.

Low bitrate channels may actually look worse.