HD on TV via Sky+ -a thought.

[pakeen]

Just a thought! If Sky High Def can be received via a Sky+ box,can it be viewed in it's true form on a HD ready TV, although only in compat form when recorded & replayed? If it could, this might be a "half way house" to full blown HD until &,possibly, after the "pukka" HD boxes turn up. It would probably be a lot cheaper. As I said,just a thought-any views?
PS Probably wishful thinking-you don't get "owt for nowt"-especially from Mr Murdoch!

 

[pingu]

I believe the HD broadcasts will use MPEG4 compression and since Sky+ boxes only have MPEG2 decoders we'll have to wait for the HD boxes.

 

[pakeen]

Thanks-From that I conclude that regardless of what standard of signal goes into a current Sky+ it will only come out in a "compat" form wherever it's going. Have I got you right?

 

[Starburst]

The HD channels will probably not be accessible via the EPG of a non-HD SKY+ box, they might not even be included on the EPG of the standard SKY+.

They will as indicated be in mpeg4 which could not be decoded by the mpeg2 chipset in the current SKY+ models even if you could tune into the channel and record the data onto the hard drive.

 

[pakeen]

I'm obviously getting way out of my depth here! My naive reasoning was, that since HD "transmssions" are being accepted by current Sky+ boxes then, if you could access them, to route to HD ready TV. This was put into my mind by a Sky rep. saying that the major requirement for an HD box was for a far greater hard drive capacity.
In my ignorance I thought that,with twin tuners you could at least get the "viewing" tuner output to the TV.
However,it is obviously far more complicated than that.

Perhaps I should not dabble in things I don't understand but I am on a very steep learning curve! (Did I hear you say "Not 'arf?)
Thanks for bearing with me.

PS Did you ever find that cow of yours?

 

[Nick_UK]

PS Did you ever find that cow of yours?

I think it's more likely that he finds his cow, than for your Sky+ box to find a HD broadcast

 

[Dutch]

That Sky rep had obviously been talking to the numpty assistant in my local Comet that insisted that Sky HD would be receivable on current Sky+ boxes.

Steve

 

[Starburst]

There does seem to be some confusion in some quarters about what sort of hardware can receive HD sat broadcasts from SKY, probably created by CS reps and other retail staff who are either making assumptions or blatently telling fibs to get a sale

While there is nothing to stop a SKY+ tuner from accessing a HD channel it will not be able to make use of the data on the transmission due to hardware and software limitations. No current SKY hardware in public circulation can show a HD broadcast, there are HD receivers on the market but they have nothing to do with SKY and will not be of any use for the upcoming SKY mpeg4 service.

The cow was indeed found in the final chapter

 

[Zog]

There does seem to be some confusion in some quarters about what sort of hardware can receive HD sat broadcasts from SKY, probably created by CS reps and other retail staff who are either making assumptions or blatently telling fibs to get a sale

I'm gonna be fairly accomodating here and insist its the former.

The only real confusion here is why the big retail sheds persist in their policy of selling the most expensive gear they can, by using the cheapest staff available.

If somebody is selling me a £1 burger its fair enough. But on retail parks all over the country the same grade of staff are selling innocents £2K TV sets.

 

[pakeen]

"The cow was indeed found in the final chapter" -- I'm so pleased,I was getting a bit worried about her! But enough of this banter-more seriously,thanks a lot.