Is sky hd worth £299

[diyobi129]

Choices choices, ! Just been told can have the box installed by the 21st June if I want sky HD. Else not can have a normal sky + box for free- got referred from a friend deal and that will be in by the 5th June.

Help, have a hd tv already and xbox 360 and waiting for the new sony davd 1000.

What to do? Girl on phone mentioned picture quality is about 4-5 times better and said try watching star wars on it!

[Uncle Nick]

So the question is - is Star Wars worth £299?

List all the HD broadcasts that will be made - and have a *really* hard think about if they're worth £299 on top of your current subscription...

[camaj]

Is it worth it? I think so, but it depends how much you care about amazing picture quality. Do you care enough to spend £299 for the best picture you've ever seen? Do you want to get the most out of your new tv?

[whiterabbit]

personally for me - yes - but it depends, as camaj says whether you feel the need for amazing picture quality at whatever cost.

they way i see it - it would cost me approx £400 to import a HDDVD player and another £40-60 say per hdvd... and if that format does die then im stufed.

skyhd on the other hand is £299 plus subs etc but you get to watch it now and watch more than just movies...

better to buy sky box office movies at rental prices then commit to a HD player before the war is won.

i realise my answer is more of skyhd vs hdvd though -

there is always going to be the what if i wait for the price to come down - or wait for more hd content - so its gotta be a personal choice -do you want it? can you afford it without feeling the pinch? if yes then go for it! :)

[diyobi129]

cheers, made my choice easier, there's the debate, is it going to come down, but to have it whilst no one else has it- well has to be positive!

[Matt.Wild]

Depends on you, your job and how much money you have in the bank IMO. If you can afford it reasonably then why not. If you are stretching your finances for essentially the same as you already have with a picture thats a bit better then don't!

[gareth101]

Like the others have said it's a matter of taste and bank balance. As long as your TV is upto scratch I'd be tempted to go for it. After all you only live once.

[smartiepants]

what I find discouraging is the £10 fee regardless of what premium channels you have, I was going to drop the movie package & keep the sports channels & upgrade to HD but that would mean that I would not get the HD movie channels 9 & 10 & any movie I wanted to watch would have to be PPV box office movies, why didn't they make a HD package that was the same across the board & give you ALL the available HD channels for £10 (sorry I forgot it's $ky we are talking about)

[diyobi129]

Smartiepants is harsh- I thought hey up, I'd be lucky, i.e i've got the 3 months half price deal on the movie channels- hence £21 a month for 3 months. If I cancel after that and go back to the basic package- £21 /mth with no movies- is an extra £10 mth for HD, else if I stick to the movies is £42 /mth including the HD/sky + which is technically waived.

[pompeyfan]

diyobi129: I think you'll find the top package is £42 + £10 for HD and only the Sky+ fee is waived if you have 2 premium channels.

IMO the Sky HD is a waste of money - £299 + £10pm for about 7 Sky Channels, of which most are ones I wouldn't watch. I'd much rather have the option of a cheap HD box for the free HD channels - which ironically is what most people are tyinmg themselves into a 12 month contract with sky for - 5 weeks of HD football on the BBC/ITV in the summer.

[camaj]

they way i see it - it would cost me approx £400 to import a HDDVD player and another £40-60 say per hdvd... and if that format does die then im stufed.

Well you wouldn't be stuffed, it'd just mean you'd have to spend a similar amount to get a Blu-ray player unless you waited a year or two for prices to drop dramatically.

I think the best thing to do is import a PS3 from australia (if they're region free) so if the whole thing goes tits up you can still flog the PS3 on ebay (http://www.tkqlhce.com/click-582776-5826355) for probably the same price you paid for it.

which ironically is what most people are tying themselves into a 12 month contract with sky for - 5 weeks of HD football on the BBC/ITV in the summer.

I'm not sure that most people are getting SkyHD just for the World cup. If you cared about football enough to get SkyHD then you're probably the sort of fan who already has Sky Sports. Then you'd get 12 months of Premiership/Championship footie in HD as well as all the other sports and the gen. ent. channels too.

[smartiepants]

Smartiepants is harsh- I thought hey up, I'd be lucky, i.e i've got the 3 months half price deal on the movie channels- hence £21 a month for 3 months. If I cancel after that and go back to the basic package- £21 /mth with no movies- is an extra £10 mth for HD, else if I stick to the movies is £42 /mth including the HD/sky + which is technically waived.
don't understand why I am being harsh, If I dropped the movie channels & kept the sports & upgraded to HD (it the only way I can justify it)I would get less HD channels for my ten pounds than someone that has all the premium channels with HD:thinking:

[MrSpoons]

One way of looking at it is why did you bother with an HD tv if you arent going to watch proper HD on it? Thats the argument that won it for me :) the extra £10 only works out at around 30p a day anyway.
Early adopters always pay a premium - the other alternative is telewests TVDrive although you are knackered if you dont live in a telewest area

[diyobi129]

don't understand why I am being harsh, If I dropped the movie channels & kept the sports & upgraded to HD (it the only way I can justify it)I would get less HD channels for my ten pounds than someone that has all the premium channels with HD:thinking:

soz smartiepants- meant to say is harsh how sky constantly charge!

[thelocalman]

If I had the money, yes I would and yes Star Wars is worth £299 if it brings back the pleasure I had when I was 6 to my son who is 6 now. I'd love it, but sadly, don't have it.

I wish everyone who does have it all the best and enjoy.

[rbullivant]

I doubt your son would be bowled over by the picture quality, Star Wars is a good film and he will enjoy the current DVD.

Rik

[thelocalman]

We're bowled over but the superman trailer HD so I doubt he'll accept the normal dvd now!!

[Alan b]

Is sky hd worth £299

Putting aside the £299 cost of the box, for me there is no way I am going to pay the monthly sub on top of what I already pay and not receive any extra channels in return. Then of course there is the cost of a new television..

[RobDickinson]

Never be an early uptaker of sky products.

Somepoint down the line that box will drop to £100, then the HD service will be free, may atke a year or five.

Or jump in knowing your feeding the sky monster.

[Deron]

I ordered it and then cancelled...

What really narked me was that extra £10 sub...

I already have sky+ and a 2nd box and have all the channels. Then they want to charge me an extra £10 on top of that to get exactly the same channals.

Nah, sod it. I may revisit later, but hopefully the sd channels should benefit from an increase in quality if they use the same HD masters...

What we really need is somebody really impartial to test it when it comes out and compare the sd channels to the hd channles. Obviously someone who's forked out £300 is always going to strive to see a huge benefit to justify their investment.

I'm also interested to see how much different it will look on a 32" screen. A big projector with a 7ft screen will obviously look better, but how much difference will you see on a 1366x768 screen. It may look sharper, but will it look that much better.

I thought about it a lot, and changed my mind in the end until I can see just how good it is.

[xraystan]

I've got the screen, but no way am I paying £299 plus and extra £120 a year on top of my already expansive top sub to sky. I have sky plus already.
I'm a bit dubious as to what they actually have as HD masters. It wouldn't put it past sky to just have SD masters and upscale them before they broadcast.
Also their marketing is going to pull in all the suckers. IIRC there is only 24 and Battlestar Galactic that they have in HD for sky one, all the rest of the shows will be in SD. Did anyone really think they'd be watching Homer in full HD? Same for the other channels. There isn't that much HD stuff that is going to be shown in the UK, so for a tenner a month extra you'd get 24 and BSTG on sky one, the footie on sports and endless repeats of the same documentary on Discovery.
If sky had dropped the extra £10 a month I may have thought about it.

I'm just waiting for all the early adopters to come on here and other forums, digi spy, avforums, etc.. moaning about the lack of HD, after they've bigged it up all over the place.

[SPB]

If sky had dropped the extra £10 a month I may have thought about it.



Ditto. I can easily afford it but that fee has to go, or the number of HD channels significantly increase before I touch it. Yes it is 'only] 30p a day, but that is £120 a year. For 7 channels that I have already and most of which I can live without. I managed to watch the footy OK in SD last night, I'll cope.

But it's all subjective isn't it. Ten of thousands have signed up already and good luck to them.

[moviemonsteruk]

Let's reverse this topic !

Surely though if you have a HDTV and watch the hd broadcasts on the available channels at the extra £10 cost. Then watching the rest of your sky £42 package is going to be a waste of money. The picture quality will be crap compared to the hd channels so would be like watching a vhs tape compared to a dvd.

So will these broadcasts become an occassional treat to watch a favorite programme / movie or match . Or will you be put off watching LOST in standard definition because even though you was submerged into the programme the picture quality wasn't upto scratch .

The reason I ask this is because if a friend came around and you wanted to show off your new hd-sky then you would no doubt compare star wars on sky movies 1 to star wars on sky hd channel if both showing at the same time to show the difference in picture quality .

Also just a final thought a lot of people seem to think that the £10 fee will be wavered over time. Could this not go the other way regarding the more channels they will no doubt increase in hd broadcast then the more likely they will want to increase there subscription charge to say £14.99 of £19.99 per month on top of the £42 package which will then lead to costly duel subscriptions near to £60 - £70 per month. With this being sky's baby and them holding all the cards and the without a doubt tv license increase to kick in is this new technology not going to become far to over expensive .

The hdtv tv's will become cheaper as will the sky hd box and the hd-dvd players and movies but will sky channels become dearer and dearer ?

[snoopstah]

I guess I depends on what you watch.

I don't watch a huge amount of television, but my main viewing is movies, American shows like 24, West Wing, Sopranos, etc., and BBC drama and nature stuff.

So while I don't watch that much, pretty much all the stuff I do watch is stuff that's likely to be broadcast in HD. That makes it worth it for me.

[nictry]

Would have gone for it if just the £299 but not a chance in hell I am paying another tenner on top of the £52 I already pay for subs and multiroom, Sky really are an ultra monopoly and unfortunately they rely on people being prepared to pay just about any price they set without complaint to keep their profits up. I will wait to the general publicstop forking out for HD and when the subs stagnate I would guess that the HD Sub will go the same way as the sky+ sub!

[camaj]

I wouldn't put it past sky to just have SD masters and upscale them before they broadcast.
IIRC there is only 24 and Battlestar Galactic that they have in HD for sky one, all the rest of the shows will be in SD.

You've contradicted yourself there. Either they're going to upscale everything or they've got some stuff in HD. Or are you saying they're only going to upscale the two shows you mention and let the box upscale everything else?

The truth is Sky have clearly indicated what shows will be in HD (not upscaled) and the rest will be upscaled. While most of Sky One's output will be upscaled to start with they will increase the content over time. They've got quite a bit to start with including Bones and Jake 2.0 and I expect every new show in January to be HD.

Pretty much all Sky's produced Sport will be HD including cricket, rugby and football.

There will be two SBO and two Sky Movie HD channels

Discovery,Artsworld and National Geographic will be HD. Normally I'd avoid the SD versions but I'm looking forward to the HD ones.

BBC HD of course, will be promising

[S1LVERBACK]

i refuse to pay sky any more money than i do already and even if i had a HD panel it would be nice to see HD material but im not linning sky`s pockets anymore with there logo laden channels,interactive buttons all over the show and constant commercial breaks.does anyone actually know if the HD service will be as badly bombarded with logos etc as the SD sky channels are ?

the price of the hardware isnt bad imho but that £10 sub is another slap in the face from the one horse race that is british tv.

[George vader]

I'm with Silverback and Nictry

£300 for a box, what do I do with my 'old' Sky+ box? ( oh yeah, bin it)

Then £10 more on top of my £30+ sub to sky............ram I say.

[xraystan]

You've contradicted yourself there. Either they're going to upscale everything or they've got some stuff in HD. Or are you saying they're only going to upscale the two shows you mention and let the box upscale everything else?

By HD I mean stuff that's filmed in native HD 720p or better.

[pigpicker]

Personally I've gone for Sky HD - (£299 plus £10/mth) - simply because I thought it was about time I treated myself.

I've had my bog standard digibox for 7 yrs and it's just given up the ghost. I called Sky and they told me it was £65 just for a service visit and it wasn't guaranteed they could fix it anyway. :doh:

I've wanted sky+ for ages now but never could really justify the added expense so when I heard that the Sky HD package incorporated sky+ and HD I thought it was about time I futureproofed myself and got the lot.

I do believe in the future that HD availability will improve and become a lot cheaper - maybe even free eventually as more and more people get on board. But a lot of us think that the £299 is worth paying now (for me the £10 per month HD charge is almost cancelled out by my cancellation of Film Four which I hardly ever watch.)


My BIG concern is the HDTV I'm going to have to get. :|