Sky picture quality

[DanM30]

Hey all,

I've had Sky TV installed today and I have to say I'm not impressed with the picture quality. The picture is much sharper on my TV's integrated Freeview tuner. I'm wondering if it's a poor quality scart cable that you get with the box?

Any feedback appreciated.

Cheers,

Dan

[schism123]

Make sure its connected to the RGB scart on your tv and in the picture settings on the sky box make sure its set to RGB. Also have a tweak with the picture settings on your tv, sometimes that helps.

[Starburst]

Having an analogue connection between a STB and a TV compared to a fully integrated tuner will add a conversion process that can do anything but impact the picture quality. It's also a fact that quite a few of the traditional channels and their spin offs do get a slightly higher resolution and bitrate on DTT compared to Dsat, Five is the only one that really looks better on Dsat.

As schism123 says use the RGB out on the STB and RGB in on the TV making sure the STB is set to RGB. As for the cable the supplied is upto the job but just as many people have said buying a new one improves things as those who says it doesn't.
If you do buy a new fully wired and screened scart cable you don't have to spend a lot of money, their is a lot of profiteering on cabling.

If you are still not happy make sure you know how long the cancellation period is and also remember that it's not SKY as such, it's satellite so if you got Freesat you would still have the same actual "free" channels.

[Blade2005]

what brand box do you have?

[Drewcat]

Your not alone.

Haveing a good look at picture quality on Sky+ last night and most channels are awfull.

Will be contadting Sky to see if there is anything they can do.

Football is unwatchable.

[TaylorWJ]

I have Sky HD. The picture quality of BBC SD channels is very variable. It can provide very good SD pictures, but the BBC seem to have problems that result in digitisation artifacts.

It seems to me that the problems are worse when the BBC are using the red button service to provide additional channels (today Euro08 Football).

At the same time as BBC1 is less than it can be, I checked: Freeview BBC shows the same problems and channel 5 on Sky was as good as it always seems to be (far better than the BBC on a bad day).

BBC information say they can not see my problems on the Sky driven TV they are viewing now!

[frankg4553]

Originally Posted by DanM30

Hey all,

I've had Sky TV installed today and I have to say I'm not impressed with the picture quality. The picture is much sharper on my TV's integrated Freeview tuner. I'm wondering if it's a poor quality scart cable that you get with the box?

Any feedback appreciated.

Cheers,

Dan

I run a sky box (not sky +) and a technomate 1500 TMS satellite receiver on a 1 metre motorised dish and the picture off both boxes are great.
The big dish will definately give a better signal compared to a Sky dish but also I changed the ordinary scarts that i was using for 'oxygen free' copper type at about £17 a go (you can pay a lot more than that!) and it did make a big difference. I run both cables through an A/B switch so both are connected to the RGB socket of my 32" Sony CRT TV.

[Starburst]

Originally Posted by Drewcat

Your not alone.

Haveing a good look at picture quality on Sky+ last night and most channels are awfull.

Will be contadting Sky to see if there is anything they can do.

Football is unwatchable.

They shouldn't be, even allowing for poor to average SD broadcasts a CRT even a decent flat panel should be more than acceptable.

Footy is totally down to ITV for such appalling satellite broadcasts and to a far lesser degree the BBC. You don't say if you are watching on a HD telly and if you are the simple truth is SD digital broadcasts are not upto the job of feeding a HD display and coupled with cheap scaling chips the results will always fall short especially on very demanding content like sports.

[Drewcat]

Originally Posted by Starburst

They shouldn't be, even allowing for poor to average SD broadcasts a CRT even a decent flat panel should be more than acceptable.

Footy is totally down to ITV for such appalling satellite broadcasts and to a far lesser degree the BBC. You don't say if you are watching on a HD telly and if you are the simple truth is SD digital broadcasts are not upto the job of feeding a HD display and coupled with cheap scaling chips the results will always fall short especially on very demanding content like sports.

On a Sammy 46" A656.

And having a search has shown me that its a comman problem SD to HD. Poor do really.

[Starburst]

Originally Posted by Drewcat

On a Sammy 46" A656.

And having a search has shown me that its a comman problem SD to HD. Poor do really.

Yes but shows you the value of going with a brand or model that does a good job of handling the poor SD sources we have to deal with.
That said I doubt there is a HD display of decent size that could make ITV footy look good, a poor reflection on out main commercial and most profitable broadcaster.

[Drewcat]

Originally Posted by Starburst

Yes but shows you the value of going with a brand or model that does a good job of handling the poor SD sources we have to deal with.
That said I doubt there is a HD display of decent size that could make ITV footy look good, a poor reflection on out main commercial and most profitable broadcaster.

True, I really never even considered that when buying my TV, I bet that goes for 90% of the market.

Footy looked good in the store though.

[tomd84]

Originally Posted by Drewcat

True, I really never even considered that when buying my TV, I bet that goes for 90% of the market.

Footy looked good in the store though.

From experance (Apart from ITV1) Sky boxes allways provide the best picture quaility when set up correctly with RGB.