[nstandley]

Bought this from Curry's for £119.99. Want to replace Sky+, but cannot wait for PVR, so decided to get this until the PVR is released and stable. Really just got it for football in HD!

I just wanted to say that although I am very pleased with the HD image quality, the SD image quality is nowhere near Sky. I am glad that I didn't go for the Humax, as that is apparently worse for SD image quality.

So be aware, if you are expecting to match Sky in terms of image quality, you will be disappointed.

I have not tried SD via Scart, just via HDMI.

TV is 32" LCD.

I will be using it alongside Sky, just for HD programmes.

[chrissyman]

Yes it has a LNB loop through ,the humax doesn't ' puts me off really so the bush or the goodmans

[technogran]

Well I bought the Humax first of all, and the SD picture via HDMI was absolutely terrible, so I then exchanged it for the Goodmans, and my SD pictures are fine! The only one that is a 'bit fuzzy' is ITV1 but apparently that broadcasts in a poor fashion on satellite, so as I get a brill ITV picture via Freeview it is noticable.

TG

[supra21]

Just got this freesat box also; and i agree with nstandley the HD PQ is amazing but the SD channels look so soft and noisy compared to sky's SD quality. Also some of the channels such as ITV1 display in a 4:3 format even though the box and my lcd is set to 16:9; this is very annoying as it occours on quite a few channels (i have a 40" R87 LCD) anyone know how to fix this?

I find it werid that using a hdmi cable and the goodmans freesat box upscaling the SD channels to 1080i looks worse than using sky with a RBG scart cable!? espically as goodmans themselves recently released an upcaling freeview reciver which from reviews gave great SD PQ. It removed the noise/artifacts and displayed a sharper picture(Proof can be found on you tube) the goodmans freesat box on the other hand does the exact opposite when viewing SD channels. I hope this can be sorted with future updates.

[technogran]

Originally Posted by supra21

Just got this freesat box also; and i agree with nstandley the HD PQ is amazing but the SD channels look so soft and noisy compared to sky's SD quality. Also some of the channels such as ITV1 display in a 4:3 format even though the box and my lcd is set to 16:9; this is very annoying as it occours on quite a few channels (i have a 40" R87 LCD) anyone know how to fix this?

I find it werid that using a hdmi cable and the goodmans freesat box upscaling the SD channels to 1080i looks worse than using sky with a RBG scart cable!? espically as goodmans themselves recently released an upcaling freeview reciver which from reviews gave great SD PQ. It removed the noise/artifacts and displayed a sharper picture(Proof can be found on you tube) the goodmans freesat box on the other hand does the exact opposite when viewing SD channels. I hope this can be sorted with future updates.

Well I have found the SD picture to be good via the HDMI much better than the Humax which I exchanged it for because of that very thing. OK so its not as good as Freeview but then apparently neither are the bit rates or the resolutions used.

TG

[supra21]

Originally Posted by technogran

Well I have found the SD picture to be good via the HDMI much better than the Humax which I exchanged it for because of that very thing. OK so its not as good as Freeview but then apparently neither are the bit rates or the resolutions used.

TG

In my opionon my LCD's internal freeview tunner gives a cleaner and sharper PQ than sky's PQ. The goodmans freesat SD PQ is worse than sky's!.....well if you still think its good then thats great!; but for me the goodmans freesat under-performing in SD PQ. I thank god i didint spend more and go for the humax; it sounds like its SD PQ looks like vhs quality.

[nstandley]

I guess we are not comparing eggs with eggs. I can only compare the Goodmans against Sky+ on my LCD, but I have to say, the PQ of SD on Sky for BBC channels is very good. So, perhaps I was expecting too much.

As posted above, on the Goodmans the picture is soft and colours not as vivid.

Again, this is just my experience with my setup.

[chrissyman]

This is strange , on my pace 810 which is a FTA box HD and SD both look great via hdmi, the audio i have found very variable mainly bbc hd i get drop outs and sometimes an irritating buzzing/distortion. regarding my earlier post about freeview' i get much better performance with my sony bravia tuner ITV and ch4 are both fine,but the little panasonic box upstairs is dreadful ? all from the same
signal.

[nstandley]

My Sky+ box has just gone pop. So, now the Freesat picture quality is much better than the picture coming out of the Sky box!

[beezer60]

A lot may depend on the display. My Bush HD box had (before I took it back due to other issues) had a better SD picture via HDMI than my Panasonic digibox has via scart, except for ITV1. Go figure.