Originally posted by GavTNewbie
sky digitals picture quality is generally crap:
1) pictures are transmitted as mpeg's - which is a compressed file format, and is prone to having extra noise, which will show up on the tv as fuzzy or pixellated pictures.
2) sky digital has only a limited bandwidth, and as more (crap) channels are launched and interactive functionality vies for the same bandwidth, you can expect non-sky channels to transmit worse pictures and sound as Sky reserves a larger bandwidth for its own channels (compare E4 and Sky Movies to see what I mean).
Dont buy a new, good quality scart lead for this; this will only improve the transport of an already imperfect signal from your sky box to tv.
I would contact Sky if you want a laugh - they will roll out the old excuses such as a tree being 500 metres away blocking the transmission path to your satellite!!!
Im not sure about the signal strength and quality point though - my figures are about the same (I live in Falkirk, Scotland) and my pictures are acceptable at the moment.
Oh, and just to cheer you up, the Sky World subscription is going up for the 2nd time this year, to £38.
Gav.
Just to clear some things up for the sake of people that take the above seriously
SKY digital picture quality is generally excellent.
1) SKY digital, DTT and cable digital all use mpegII compression wich is the same format as DVD's so the technology is very good.
2) The SKY digital platform has as much bandwidth as it wants. There are currently 4 satellites supplying the platform from two different companies (Astra & Eutelsat). Any new channel that is carried does not take bandwidth from other channels, there is not a set amount which is shared between the hundreds of channels. SKY do not stop any channel from using as much bandwidth as they want. The smaller channels might aquire bandwidth from SKY as part of the carriage agreement but the bulk of the channels buy bandwidth direct from the satellite owners. The bandwidth available to all the CH4 content (ch4 regional, E4, F4) are not dependent upon SKY, CH4 aquired it's own transponders and then overloaded them with all their channels, they are not willing to spend more the money required to match the bandwidth used on SKY's premium channels.
The scart lead supplied with a digibox is indeed suitable for the vast majority of homes.
While you are under warranty call SKY if you ever have any problems, they are responsible in the first 12 months for the hardware they supply and install. Digibox software is so flakey that almost anything can be attributed to it and unlike extended warranties you are not charged in the first 12 months even if the engineer can't find anything wrong.
A tree half a kilometer away blocking the signal, made up excuse me thinks
SKYworld prices have not gone up twice this year.
The last increase was Jan 1st 2002, the next price increase is Jan1st 2003.