My Sky HD quality

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MD74

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

Topic # 31868 2-Apr-2009 13:02

Hi all

Im new to ther forum and just need advice on something

I have recenlty purchased the Series 6 46" Samsung and obviously want to take full advantage of its HD capabilities. We currently have Sky digital and I am thinking of moving to My Sky. I appreciate that the HD content is only available if I pay the extra $10 for the HD ticket but is the quality of the other channels for example Discovery, E, MTV etc better than if I stuck with my current Sky box.

I hope that all makes sense

Cheers

NzKaizer

130 posts

Master Geek

Reply # 205111 3-Apr-2009 12:43

Well if you use MySkyHdi, its likely you will use HDMI cables instead of component cables, which should increase quality of non hd channels, however wether or not you cansee the diffrence is a diffrent story, I certainly can't.

cyril7

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Reply # 205259 4-Apr-2009 08:38

Hi, welcome to GeekZone, the advantage of HDMI over component is irrelivent, there are many reasons why HDMI may infact provide inferiour performance over component but any difference there will be marginal. It should be remembered that HDMI 1.0-1.2 (the latter which is what the HDi uses) is limited to 8bits/channel, where as the analog converters in both the HDi and Sammy are likely to be 10 if not 12bit, further to that video processing done by broadcasters and ulitmately the mpeg4 encoder will not ever let you see full 1080 resolution, this is just the way the world works, so any minor advantage a full digital interconnect between teh box and your TV over a analog one will be minor, that said YMMV.

The real issue is how well does the HDi up convert SD material compared to your sammy, from my observation I think the HDi does a better job. I love the Sammy6's, I have installed quite a few and provided many antennas for FreeView|HD models and they look real good with HD and even on the FreeView SD channels where the builtin decoder is upconverting, the same applies with Sky HDi fed ones I have seen. However if you feed SD into the sammy6's they dont do anywhere as good job of upconvertion.

So in my view concidering the TV you have and to gain access to HD material from Sky, to get the HDi is a no brainer.

Cyril

grantls

22 posts

Geek

Reply # 205545 6-Apr-2009 14:18

Since I've had my 42" 100hz Samsung plasma, I've had nothing but problems trying to get a quality of picture that I would consider acceptable. I bought new VHF, VLF and UHF aerials for the roof, no change. I had sky digital installed, still rubbish. I had three different sky technicians around to try to get a picture that I would accept, no joy there either.

Finally I bit the bullet, blew my budget and installed MySky with HD, and I'm now totally wrapped that it's finally delivering a superb quality image.

The MySky box creates a sublime picture for the HD channels and a very acceptable picture for the non HD channels. The only channel that still falls into the unnacceptable category is ESPN, but I can live with this.

I think the engineering that goes into these new televisions demands nothing short of a very high quality of signal, anything less than this and you will get a rapid drop off in picture quality.

Good luck

sbiddle

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Reply # 205553 6-Apr-2009 15:13

grantls:

I think the engineering that goes into these new televisions demands nothing short of a very high quality of signal, anything less than this and you will get a rapid drop off in picture quality.

It's quite simply the fact that if you've got a Full HD panel feeding anything but native HD content or high bitrate SD into it will only give average results.

IMHO a full HD panel delivers a worse viewing experience than a 720p panel - on a large screen Full HD panel native 1080p Full HD content may look slightly better than a 720p panel but due to the fact a Full HD panel has to upscale all SD content to fill even more pixels it quite simply can't deliver a decent picture on low bitrate SD content.

MD74

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

Reply # 205683 7-Apr-2009 08:41

Excellent thanks for the replies.

One more question I hope someone can answer. As part of the MySky deal I get the HD ticket free for 4 months which is great but after the 4 months and if I decide not to continue with HD ticket will I receive any channels in HD...for example I see Sky show TV3 in HD but is that only with HD ticket or is do you get it with basic package. I also see the TV1 and TV2 are planned to be shown on Sky in the next couple of months , if they have HD shows will I get these as part of basic package or will I have to buy HD ticket.

I hope this all makes sense

Cheers

Klathman

194 posts

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Reply # 205695 7-Apr-2009 09:43

TV3 HD is available without the HD package. This was specifically negotiated by MediaWorks as Sky wanted to require the HD ticket to provided access.

So considering this who knows what TVNZ has negotiated. The current TV1 and TV2 channels are unencrypted so if they do the same thing then it could mean that TV1 and TV2 HD are available unencrypted on D1 but I somehow doubt it this time. I guess we'll find out when the new channels appear.

paul151

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Reply # 206741 13-Apr-2009 23:05

Klathman: TV3 HD is available without the HD package. This was specifically negotiated by MediaWorks as Sky wanted to require the HD ticket to provided access.

So considering this who knows what TVNZ has negotiated. The current TV1 and TV2 channels are unencrypted so if they do the same thing then it could mean that TV1 and TV2 HD are available unencrypted on D1 but I somehow doubt it this time. I guess we'll find out when the new channels appear.

I read somewhere lately that TVNZ will offer their HD versions on the Sky platform soon.

Some channels will appear in June, others in July (from memory)

Leggo

13 posts

Geek

Reply # 207673 17-Apr-2009 19:36

I don't think SD looks any better on a HD box! While upscaling might technically be an improvement, the viewing experience clearly distinguishes SD from HD content in my view. When you get used to looking at HD content, you know when you're not.

The HD material from TV3 is definitely worth a piece of the 10 bucks a month you pay for your HD ticket. I find that in my house TV3 gets the nod for viewing when the comparison over genre is basically even (say House in HD off TV3 vs Grey's Anatomy from TV2). If you get TV3 in HD without the HD ticket - cool for those without! Can somebody verify that?

Sport is obviously superior viewed in HD, and the PVR functionality of pauses, rwnd, ffwd etc are even more useful when the individual frame replays are so clear. Pity the PACE box has no frame by frame or jog shuttle! 1x or pause is all you get I think.

I certainly find the value in the HD, and I suspect that there will come a time in the not too distant future when we'll all say "remember SD TV... HA!"

I'll leave the arguments on HDMI vs Component output and upscaling etc to others, there is plenty of material on these forums to give you a steer on that. Obviously it all depends on your hardware setup and budget. Just remember - 1080p is the true standard, anything else is part B/S.

One small warning - HD takes a heap of space compared with SD programs. A single rugby game in HD is about 10% of your MySky HDi Hard drive space. (I knew they should have put a bigger one in to start with!)

Oh - and the TV1, TV2 stuff is all related to the deal to show Freeview channels on Sky. Call me a cynic, but I'll wait and see what we get in Hi def from the offering - there's some heavy duty politics in them thar hills. Suffice to say I'm pleased that the Freeview camp stuffed around long enough bringing a high def PVR to market that I now won't bother. Hopefully I've just reduced my stack by 1 STB.

In conclusion - Once you've gone HD you won't go back. You might drop Sky in favour of Freeview, or Tivo ... or Bittorrent :-) , but you won't go back to SD!

HTH