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Stuff magazine
Fri, Sep 28 2007, 6:00AM
Sky was well on its way to ubiquity before the dawn of hi-def broadcasting, and it doesn’t intend to start giving ground now. First out of the blocks with its HD PVR, Sky HD sets a standard its competitors blanch at the thought of reaching.
Obviously, the market leader never comes cheap. £300 for the box and installation, plus another tenner a month on what you’re already paying as a Sky customer is a serious commitment. But whether you want sport, documentary, music TV or movies, Sky has plenty to suit you – and it can sometimes look amazing through the HD box.
Bad news for vain chat-show hosts
Connecting the box to your HD Ready TV via the HDMI output, Sky HD content – and there’s plenty of it – looks pristine. Colours are vibrant, and pictures are so detailed TV make-up artists will need to step things up. Some of Sky’s football coverage is so crisp, it looks like it was shot on film.
Connecting the box to your HD Ready TV via the HDMI output, Sky HD content – and there’s plenty of it – looks pristine. Colours are vibrant, and pictures are so detailed TV make-up artists will need to step things up. Some of Sky’s football coverage is so crisp, it looks like it was shot on film.
The usual party tricks like pausing live TV, recording one channel while watching another and so on are all available. The interface is simple and straightforward, too.
Losing our memory
Apart from the price, though, there are a few shortcomings. Sky will happily tell you the HD box has a 300GB hard drive, but only 160GB is available for recordings – the rest is for mysterious ‘future upgrades’. 160GB is plenty if you plan to tear yourself away from the telly every now and then, but all the same…
Apart from the price, though, there are a few shortcomings. Sky will happily tell you the HD box has a 300GB hard drive, but only 160GB is available for recordings – the rest is for mysterious ‘future upgrades’. 160GB is plenty if you plan to tear yourself away from the telly every now and then, but all the same…
It’s not the quietest box we’ve ever heard, either, and we’ve used one or two Sky HD boxes that have been very touchy about being turned off at the mains. That shouldn’t put you off, mind. The Sky HD box provides picture quality the equal of anything else out there and the best range of programmes bar none.
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Comments
doibi
1 year ago
We acnowledge something like that "I found this site really interesting & thanks a lot for keeping the blog lively with such interesting information" video to Flash converter / hulu to ipad / ipad 3 converter
pootsf
2 years ago
Wouldn't be without it - especially for the rugby!
a1anhill
2 years ago
Why is this top of the 10 of the best charts. The Virgin hd plus box is far better. Why? Well you were able to to record 2 programmes at once and still be able to flick through the channels and watch something else. With sky, you can record 2 channels at the same time, but you need to watch one of them. Pointless. Also, the picture an sound quality for the non hd channels are much better, they must upscale them. I was surprised in how poor the picture and sound quality was for non hd channels on sky. I'll give sky the point for having more channels, but i'll be going back to virgin when im finished with sky
acer q
2 years ago
Whilst Sky do offer a vast range of programs, i do feel that the boxes are let down by the way they switch themselves off or just fail to record programs.Getting sky to come out is nigh on impossible as all they say is oh it just needs a software update and then they run you through the process and say it will be fine now, but it never is and i feel let down by the company. I thought that the updates were automatic