Got my SKY HDi installation done yesterday on my Series 2 Bravia.
Picture looks better using the HDMI cable - I had component using the SKY digital decoder.
Text looks a lot more sharper e.g numbers on jerseys.Ii watched the Wellington v HB game in HD last night. Picture does look a bit washed out than before but I cetainly didn't get to see every blade of grass (not that I was expecting too :) )
Sound is good. The only thing I was not happy about is that SD tv seems to have a lot more black space around it - on the old digital decoder I had the strecth thing on which made it better.
This morning I bought a digital optical cable so as to get the HD programming in 5.1 audio...at the moment everything still seems to be in stereo. However the background music in setup mode is definitely 5.1...???
Anyone else having the same problem? I'm 90% sure I have all the settings correct. Any help appreciated as I am certainly no tech genius.
They're doing it the same as TV3, 5.1 all the time on HD channels. If it's not a 5.1 program being broadcast it comes out left and right speakers only.
I've found a lot of programs don't have the 5.1 logo on the guide, but they are 5.1. I think they've put the logo on movies 2 which is only SD and no 5.1.
For non 5.1 broadcasts (on HD channels) I hit setup button, use arrows to go to audio, and then select "English Alt". This lets prologic work so can get sound out all speakers on stereo broadcasts.
I have movies and no sports. Very happy with it. Don't think I'll be getting any DVDs out for a very long time as it's way better then DVD quality. (Exception the latest stargate movies if no sign of them appearing, give it a few months yet.)
HD Sport looks pretty good on Sky Sport 1 and 2, the movies do not look that great -- certainly no where near Blu-ray (I don't expect it to be as good as Blu-ray), or even HD movies on TV3 via Freeview HD.
I still think the movie channels looks like upscaled SD to me. What do others think?
I still think the movie channels looks like upscaled SD to me. What do others think?
If they were upscaled wouldn't all the movies be advertised as HD? I would guess the ones without HD logo are upscaled. I'm happy with TV3 picture but I only have 32" TV. Differences might show up more with larger TV.
I still think the movie channels looks like upscaled SD to me. What do others think?
If they were upscaled wouldn't all the movies be advertised as HD? I would guess the ones without HD logo are upscaled. I'm happy with TV3 picture but I only have 32" TV. Differences might show up more with larger TV.
In my opinion upscaled SD does not equal HD -- so hopefully they aren't doing that.
I think the whole "HD" logo on the info-bar and in the program synopsis is a work-in-progress at Sky -- even movies screening on Sky Movies 2 are listed as HD and it isn't even an HD channel!
I wouldn't go by the program synopsis at all, but maybe the info-bar. The info-bar does not indicate any of the movies I've checked out as being HD, despite the synopsis saying "HD" in it.
JonoNZ: HD Sport looks pretty good on Sky Sport 1 and 2, the movies do not look that great -- certainly no where near Blu-ray (I don't expect it to be as good as Blu-ray), or even HD movies on TV3 via Freeview HD.
I still think the movie channels looks like upscaled SD to me. What do others think?
From what I've seen the cricket and Nascar on SS and the genuine HD content on TV3 are the best. Most of TV3's news footage is in HD as well. The rugby was not as good but maybe that's just because the cameras are working in lower light. With the movies I think there's probably a bit of variance in the original content. I managed to catch a bit of Casino Royale on Tuesday morning while the install was in progress and it looked better than anything I've seen since on the movie channels. Maybe the very newest stuff has been mastered better in HD.
I had my install yesterday. I've got a 40" X Series Bravia and overall I'm pretty happy with HD. Simple installation for me that took about 30 mins all up, including moving the old MySky (download took the longest).
The movies in HD look pretty good (you really can't trust the guide which ones are HD!). The 5.1 has been just as good either by HDMI throughy my SONY receiver or by optical out. The sport though has been a bit of a mixture IMO.
The golf that has been live the past couple of mornings has been excellent and you can see a pretty impressive amount of detail. Same for the cricket highlights I watched yesterday - great colour and impressive amount of detail. TV3 is also excellent. Can't say the same about the rugby so far.
I'm typing this while watching the mighty Manawatu take on Canterbury (and only just behind!). While an improvement on SD - as I flip between the Rugby channel (why would I need this now???) and SS1, it's pretty obvious it's better, but not as good as the overseas HD sport I've seen so far. I wasn't expecting the night rugby to be too flash, but the daytime stuff seems just as average to me.
It would be a shame if Sky is compressing the rugby signal a bit due to a lack of capacity. I suspect that's going on, or otherwise it must be OSB not quite geeting to grips with the technology (which I doubt as I have a brother who works for them and I know they've been doing extensive testing and training). It'll be interesting to see what the Bledisloe looks like tonight.
I'd give it a 7/10, with room for improvement. Looking forward to more content and capacity in the future.
Got my myskyhdi installed this morning. Reasonably quick process, probably about 30 or 40 minutes to be put two in - replacing one mysky and one digital decoder. Unfortunately no HD material to test yet but will be interesting to check the rugby tonight on the projector - particularly skysport 1 versus rugby channel given rugby channel does not appear to an hd channel (which means rugby channel might be heading for the bin shortly)
Other comments:
I have one of the myskyhds running into a matrix splitter and it works no problems at all, can therefore watch sky on two tvs at once, much superior to the old rf out solution albeit somewhat more expensive!
For some reason none of the harmony remotes (an 880, a 785 and a 1000i) wanted to work very well with the new mysky despite them all working on the old mysky. Once updated the setup to the foxtel iq2 fixed all those problems
installer changed all 4:3 to output 14:9, so I changed that back to pillar box - which I much prefer
To my eye comparing freeview to myskyhd on the same tv for tv3 is a win for freeview, although functionality of mysky versus the zinwell means the mysky will be used the most - except for olympics of course
this installer was going to the uk in a couple of weeks, made the comment that he was glad because he forsaw all sorts of problems when they all have to come back in a few months to put the new wiring through, some houses will be easy and some will be difficult
dupka - i think the manwatu / canterbury game is upscaled sd rather than hd so this would explain why the quality is not as good as the overseas sports - in skywatch there is no hd tag on the program listing
I'm typing this while watching the mighty Manawatu take on Canterbury (and only just behind!). While an improvement on SD - as I flip between the Rugby channel (why would I need this now???) and SS1, it's pretty obvious it's better, but not as good as the overseas HD sport I've seen so far. I wasn't expecting the night rugby to be too flash, but the daytime stuff seems just as average to me.
The canterbury manawatu game is filmed in SD and only upscaled to HD. Check the skywatch for accurate HD listings. Only a few of the Air NZ cup games are broadcast in HD (only north island ones and not all of those either)
Just a quick comment on the quality of some of the programs in HD. The guide just seems to be rubbish at indicating what is filmed in HD. As far as I can see all the HD channels are saying that they are in HD in the guide even though skywatch, and a sanity check, seems to indicate only a small percentage is actually HD.
The Wellington HB match was filmed in HD and you could tell although the dark scenes didn't seem to show as much detail, whereas the taranaki NH and all of the south island hosted games appear to be fimed in SD.
It's a bit of a shame that they aren't as easily differentiated as I think it could lead to some people being disappointed by the quality.
So far I don't have any surround sound capable stereo which seems to caused the primary audio stream to go silent when I plugged it in. Changing to the ALT audio stream seemed to fix it though.
On another note though has anyone been able to pick up the HD transponders using a DVB-S2 card? I've seen the frequency stated in the past but am getting no signal lock on my s2 card. Strangely lyngsat doesn't have the HD transponders on D1 yet either.
Thanks DMC & Haaza = didn't check the guide thoroughly enough, although I don't think the Wellington/HB game last night was much better and I'm pretty sure that was HD? I too think the guide is a little bit off, but I guess that's to be expected at the mo.
dupka: I had my install yesterday. I've got a 40" X Series Bravia and overall I'm pretty happy with HD. Simple installation for me that took about 30 mins all up, including moving the old MySky (download took the longest).
The movies in HD look pretty good (you really can't trust the guide which ones are HD!). The 5.1 has been just as good either by HDMI throughy my SONY receiver or by optical out.
I don't think the HDMI output from the MySky HDi box supports 5.1 audio -- you need to connect an optical or coaxial cable. Interestingly this is the same situation with the Zinwell Freeview HD box (no 5.1 over HDMI).
A bit annoying -- but it is actually stated in the MySky HDi manual that it's only stereo over HDMI.
Are you subscribed to our RSS feed? You can download the latest headlines and summaries from our stories directly
to your computer or smartphone by using a feed reader.
