Got HD telly, want to watch an HD channel

[markmcrobie]

Hi

Sorry, I realise this will have been asked a million times, I did have a look through other threads but got confused by all the technical talk.

Can someone tell me in layman's terms what I'll need to watch free HD channels (i.e. BBC HD or whatever)?

I currently have a Toshiba 32WL66 HD ready TV - I have my XBox 360 hooked up to it, and the games look great in HD.

I have Sky Digital, basic package (no sports or movies), and I have multiroom (£10 a month extra).

I don't want to pay Sky £300 for an HD box, plus pay another £10 a month for an HD subscription.

If I buy a Pace HD box for £99.99 off eBay, is it just a case of ditching my exisiting bog standard Grundig Sky DigiBox, connecting the cable from my mini dish into the new Pace box, sticking my Sky viewing card into the new Pace box, connecting it to my TV via an HDMI cable?

If I did all the above would I get all my non-HD channels I got before, and get any free HD channels too? Or is it not as simple as that?

Don't know if it makes any difference, but I live in a non-Freeview area.

Thanks for your time in advance, appreciated.

[Starburst]

First the BBC HD channel is a trial and is scheduled to end in May, it may get an extension or evolve into a proper channel, just be aware the £99 could be wasted.
There is only 1 HD channel being broadcast from the satellites that supply the UK with it's main services.


The HD box will not accept a SKY smartcard out of the box so you will only be able to watch the FTA channels (BBC, ITV etc) however I believe there is LNB passthrough so you can use both boxes on a single feed switching between them as needed.
If someone wants to confirm that.

[Phil57]

Your Sky card must be paired up to your HD box, its only a matter of a phone call to Sky (no cost involved, other than the cost of the call)
If you do not subscribe to recieve the HD channels you will only be able to recieve the BBC HD channel.
If you connect the box to your TV via HDMI you will probably find that the SD quality will show an improvement.

[Pooon]

Also the SkyHD will upsample all SD channels to 720p or 1080i which impoves picture quality as well. its not anywhere near as good a proper HD but its still better than the 576i picture that you get at present

[andykn]

The OP doesn't want a Sky HD box, he's considering a Pace one. This won't accept a Sky card as bought off ebay.

Whilst the Sky HD box will upscale SD to HD, your HD TV will do this anyway without the Sky HD box - its unlikely that the Sky HD box will have a much better scaler in it than your HD TV.

The Pace HD satellite box should display the BBC HD channel without any viewing card but may need a firmware upgrade if its an early version.

[markmcrobie]

Even more confused now!

So say I buy a Pace HD box - I can put my Sky card in but to watch normal Sky through it AND BBC HD, I need to phone Sky?

And this will eliminate the need for an LBN passthrough?

[garytreble]

Mark

I have the pace HD receiver & I use it for the BBC HD. All you need to do is connect you satellite in feed to the back of the pace box, then loop a new cable from the pace box to your existing sky digibox.

When you power down the pace receiver the signal is passed to your sky digi box.

Hope that helps..

[markmcrobie]

Gotcha. What kind of cable is needed to do this "loop thru"?

Also this will mean having 2 boxes sitting under the TV - the existing one for normal SKy Digital, and the Pace one purely for any free-to-air HD channels?

Thanks for clearing it up.

Is there no way of just using the Pace HD box for both normal Sky and free HD channels?

[markmcrobie]

Also am I right in saying I could use this box to get Sky's HD channels if I just subscribe and pay £10 a month to Sky?

Or does SkyHD specifically require a SkyHD box?

[Starburst]

Originally Posted by markmcrobie

Is there no way of just using the Pace HD box for both normal Sky and free HD channels?

Also am I right in saying I could use this box to get Sky's HD channels if I just subscribe and pay £10 a month to Sky?

Or does SkyHD specifically require a SkyHD box?

Not sure if a CAM solution would work with the PACE and if you did there would be no 7 day EPG or interactive applications.

IF you could get a CAM to work with the PACE box then you would still need a SKY smartcard with HD subscription and that means you need a SKY+HD and remember the PACE can not record HD or SD.

[Chris Muriel]

Originally Posted by markmcrobie

Gotcha. What kind of cable is needed to do this "loop thru"?

Also this will mean having 2 boxes sitting under the TV - the existing one for normal SKy Digital, and the Pace one purely for any free-to-air HD channels?

Thanks for clearing it up.

Is there no way of just using the Pace HD box for both normal Sky and free HD channels?

You need a short jumper (coaxial) cable with an F-type male connector on each end.
The Pace DSX8xx boxes will not work with $ky's Videoguard system.

Chris Muriel, Manchester

[markmcrobie]

What's a CAM?

And I really don't need an EPG or recording ability

[Chris Muriel]

A CAM is a Conditional Access Module.
It's a small module that has the same physical size (and connector) as a PCMCIA card (as used for laptop add-ons).
A viewing card is then inserted into the CAM.

Chris Muriel, Manchester

[khismet]

Originally Posted by Pooon

Also the SkyHD will upsample all SD channels to 720p or 1080i which impoves picture quality as well. its not anywhere near as good a proper HD but its still better than the 576i picture that you get at present

AHA! Is that definitely correct? I've been wondering for ages whether that was the case, as I couldn't see any difference between (eg Sky Sports 1 and Sjy Sports HD). I can see that the signal off HDMI from the Sky Hd box is hugely better than the same signal into the same TV on analogue coax