With hundreds if not thousands of wannabe Sky HD subscribers having to suffer postponed installations as Thomson struggles to supply HD receiver boxes fast enough, it's fair to say that the birth of Sky HD has not gone smoothly. Thankfully, however, we at AVreview have managed to get our Sky HD up and running, so we thought we'd let all of you who haven't got it yet know if it lives up to all the 'greatest advance in TV since colour' hype…
First, let's talk money. The Sky HD Receiver will set you back £299, plus an extra £10 a month on your Sky subscription for the HD channels. To us the £299 figure for the box seems pretty reasonable, but the £10 a month on top seems a touch cheeky. Hopefully the £10 fee will fairly rapidly get dropped, as happened with the £10 fee originally charged for Sky+.
Moving onto the HD receiver itself, the combination of a deep, almost rubberised finish for most of the Sky HD box offset by a curvy strip of light grey along the front and light grey side panels makes it a likeably stylish affair.
Its connections panel intriguingly sports both component and HDMI outputs for HD pictures. Originally Sky had suggested that it would only allow HD pictures to leave via the HDMI socket because of HDMI's more advanced anti-piracy measures. So presumably Sky has allowed analogue HD output after all on the grounds that many people have HD-capable TVs that don't have HDMI inputs.
Note, however, that it's possible that only Sky's first-generation HD receivers will permit the component option, so if your HD-capable TV doesn't have a digital input, you should sign up for one of these first boxes, pronto.
Other interesting jacks include an optical digital audio output for sending Dolby Digital 5.1 audio tracks to your surround sound receiver, an S-Video output, two USB jacks, and an Ethernet port. At the moment the USB and Ethernet jacks are merely described in the HD receiver's manual as 'for future use', but they'll likely add such tricks as a broadband internet connection and the streaming of multimedia files from USB devices to your TV.
Inside the receiver you'll basically find a souped-up Sky+ box with a reasonably hefty 160GB of HDD (hard disc drive) memory (to reflect the relatively large data sizes of high definition video broadcasts), and two tuner inputs so you can record up to two channels simultaneously.
You get all the other usual Sky+ functionality as well, such as being able to 'pause' live TV, and being able to watch a recorded programme at the same time that the box is recording two more.
One other new option available to you is the facility to have the box output all HD broadcasts in either 720p or 1080i mode, or else leave it 'automatic', so that whatever format a programme is broadcast in is the format that comes out of your HD box. Given that our TV's system for downscaling 1080i broadcasts to fit its native 1366x768 resolution seemed better than the Sky receiver's downscaling, though, we'd suggest you just leave the Sky box set to automatic and let your TV deal with the rest.
Considering it's a first generation box, the HD receiver runs reasonably stably. We experienced the odd hiccup and crash while trying to, say, access listings while recording HD channels, but overall we'd say the problems are certainly no more common than they were with Sky+. And of course, Sky will doubtless broadcast updates to the box's firmware to fix problems as they come up, so it should get more reliable as time goes on.
Inevitably the Sky HD receiver employs the usual, inspired seven-day electronic programme guide so familiar to Sky Digital customers. Only this time there's one key difference: an option to enter a special list of HD channels.
These are currently ten in number: BBC HD, Sky One HD, Artsworld HD, two Sky Movie HD channels, Sky Sports HD, Discovery HD, National Geographic HD, and two HD Sky Box Office movie channels. (For detailed info on all these channels, check out Sky HD channels).
This initially looks like quite a satisfying amount of HD content for such a new service - but look closer and things aren't quite as rosy as they first appear. The BBC, for instance, isn't launching its full HD service until 9 June, so all you've got now is an endlessly cycling showreel of clips from HD-shot shows like Planet Earth and Bleak House.
Some of the other channels, meanwhile, are shut down for certain hours of the day, while others confusingly broadcast a mix of 'true' HD content and 'upscaled' HD content.
What do we mean by this? Simply that although Sky's HD channels currently broadcast everything in HD, not all of the programmes shown were filmed in HD. So effectively anything that was only filmed in standard definition is being turned into HD by video processing systems, resulting in a picture quality that's never going to look as good as a natively-shot HD programme.
Performance
This mix of true and upscaled HD content is the main reason why Sky's HD service as it stands right now can best be described as 'variable'.
At times, programmes on the HD channels look little better than standard definition or, in the case of the movie channels, around the same quality as a very good DVD. In fact, at times the amount of noise caused by the upscaling process can make programmes arguably look worse than standard definition!
But before you cancel your Sky HD subscription in disgust, hear this: when Sky HD is good, it's very, very good indeed. Much of the BBC's showreel, for instance, looks breathtakingly sharp, clear, detailed and noise-free. Sky's HD footie and cricket coverage also looks out of this world, genuinely bringing the matches to a whole new level of life. Some of the Discovery/National Geographic footage, meanwhile, feels more like watching a window on the real world rather than a TV picture.
Unexpectedly, though, the most consistent demonstrator of HD at its stunning best is Artsworld, as much of its concert footage and its documentary series on National Trust properties looks nothing short of sensational.
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So is Sky HD really the answer to all our TV prayers? Well, it's certainly not perfect; it will take more 'true' HD source material and more consistency with the HD picture quality before we'll be able to even think about saying that. But the fact remains that when it's at its best Sky HD brings your TV and viewing experience to life like never before, delivering a genuinely revolutionary new level of TV pleasure that once witnessed is near impossible to be without.
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