Sky v Virgin with Pioneer 9G Plasma Panel

Skyrider

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Hi,

I'm planning on upgrading my current 8G screen to a 9G screen within the next few weeks.

I'm also considering subscribing to Sky or Virgin Media mainly for movie & HD content.

I note that there is plenty of discussion in this forum about Sky but not much about VM.

Can anyone offer an opinion on the relative merits/cost of Sky versus VM :confused:

Also, can anyone suggest some screen settings for VM :confused:

Many thanks.:confused:
 
Hi,

I'm planning on upgrading my current 8G screen to a 9G screen within the next few weeks.

I'm also considering subscribing to Sky or Virgin Media mainly for movie & HD content.

I note that there is plenty of discussion in this forum about Sky but not much about VM.

Can anyone offer an opinion on the relative merits/cost of Sky versus VM :confused:

Also, can anyone suggest some screen settings for VM :confused:

Many thanks.:confused:

Hi Skyrider.If it's HD content you want then it's SkyHD.There's currently 20,+2 Pay Per View movie channels.
Virgin only has a few.
No contest really mate.
A SkyHD box,i think is £150 for new cutomers and £75 for current Sky customers until the end of October (+£60/£30 installation respectively ).
Packages vary,but the top package which includes movie /sports is about £54 a month including £10 extra for HD.
Sports such as Premiership Football,Cricket,Rugby,and Golf look AMAZING on SkyHD
Many of the movies look ace too with many NOT available on Blu Ray.
If you're a current Sky subscriber then hurry now and upgrade to SkyHD NOW for £105 (includes £30 installation ) before the end of this month.It'll be the perfect partner for your LX5090/LX6090.
I've had mine for 2 years now and it's worth every penny.
 
Hi Skyrider.If it's HD content you want then it's SkyHD.There's currently 20,+2 Pay Per View movie channels.
Virgin only has a few.
No contest really mate.
A SkyHD box,i think is £150 for new cutomers and £75 for current Sky customers until the end of October (+£60/£30 installation respectively ).
Packages vary,but the top package which includes movie /sports is about £54 a month including £10 extra for HD.
Sports such as Premiership Football,Cricket,Rugby,and Golf look AMAZING on SkyHD
Many of the movies look ace too with many NOT available on Blu Ray.
If you're a current Sky subscriber then hurry now and upgrade to SkyHD NOW for £105 (includes £30 installation ) before the end of this month.It'll be the perfect partner for your LX5090/LX6090.
I've had mine for 2 years now and it's worth every penny.

Hi NICKMHD,

Many thanks for your advice.

The main reason I was even considering VM is that I am one of their cable broadband customers & can therefore get a reasonable deal but the content & broadcast quality are the overriding considerations.

I am likely to go for one of the KRP screens although I can't decide between the A with the TV tuner in the media box or the M which is purely a monitor. Am I right in thinking that I can simply connect the SkyHD box to the monitor (either directly or through my receiver) without needing any other device to get a picture? :confused:

Thanks again.
 
Hi NICKMHD,

Many thanks for your advice.

The main reason I was even considering VM is that I am one of their cable broadband customers & can therefore get a reasonable deal but the content & broadcast quality are the overriding considerations.

I am likely to go for one of the KRP screens although I can't decide between the A with the TV tuner in the media box or the M which is purely a monitor. Am I right in thinking that I can simply connect the SkyHD box to the monitor (either directly or through my receiver) without needing any other device to get a picture? :confused:

Thanks again.

Hi Skyrider.There aren't any Sport or Movie channels on Virgin so if content and quality are your main concern then SkyHD is THE only option.
It's the old 'you only get what you pay for' saying mate :smashin:
You can either connect the SkyHD box to a receiver with HDMI or directly to one of the screens HDMI ports.
The latter is the best option as you have to connect a seperate optical cable to the amp for Dolby 5.1 Surround sound anyway.
NO surround sound through HDMI unless they've upgraded the new boxes to accommodate for this.
Once you see fooball,cricket match in HD on SkyHD you'll never wan't SD again:thumbsup:
 
Once you see fooball,cricket match in HD on SkyHD you'll never wan't SD again:thumbsup:

you can say that again!!!

It makes me sick that we have to watch football on SD ITV, did you see the england PQ:eek: my TV was traumatized afterwords:D
 
Hi Skyrider.There aren't any Sport or Movie channels on Virgin :

Sky sports and movies are available on Virgin, just not in HD, but the sd content of these and other decent bitrate channels through the V+ box is excellent through hdmi 720p/1080i
 
Hi Skyrider.There aren't any Sport or Movie channels on Virgin so if content and quality are your main concern then SkyHD is THE only option.
It's the old 'you only get what you pay for' saying mate :smashin:
You can either connect the SkyHD box to a receiver with HDMI or directly to one of the screens HDMI ports.
The latter is the best option as you have to connect a seperate optical cable to the amp for Dolby 5.1 Surround sound anyway.
NO surround sound through HDMI unless they've upgraded the new boxes to accommodate for this.
Once you see fooball,cricket match in HD on SkyHD you'll never wan't SD again:thumbsup:

Thanks for your further reply.

That all sounds pretty convincing & it looks like the KRP-M would suit my purpose unless anyone knows of any reason why the KRP-A would be better.

Just been checking out the Sky site & they are offering the following for new subscribers:

SkyHD box: £75
HD Mix: £10/month
Setup: Free
Cost for all channels: £57/month

"NO surround sound through HDMI unless they've upgraded the new boxes to accommodate for this." So is there a new HD box that replaces an older HD box? :confused:
 
Sky sports and movies are available on Virgin, just not in HD, but the sd content of these and other decent bitrate channels through the V+ box is excellent through hdmi 720p/1080i

Thanks for this. Do you have any idea what their plans are for HD?
 
you can say that again!!!

It makes me sick that we have to watch football on SD ITV, did you see the england PQ:eek: my TV was traumatized afterwords:D

I agree with you 100%.ITV has always been dreadful:mad:.
The PQ almost made me sick too as did all those morons who booed Ashley Cole:mad:
Complete idiots.I know he messed up but talk about kicking someone when they're down.
 
I agree with that, but it's worth saying that the V+ box does a far superior job of deinterlacing/scaling than the SkyHD boxes and produces a much better SD picture.

Do these do a better job than the Pio screen then? :confused:
 
Do these do a better job than the Pio screen then? :confused:

The problem is you can't send a 576i image from either over HDMI so you are forced to send a de-interlaced image to the screen, which the V+ does a very good job of compared to the SkyHD.

You can send 576i over scart but I found the PQ to be a little washed out and soft, even with high quality cables.
 
I agree with you 100%.ITV has always been dreadful:mad:.
The PQ almost made me sick too as did all those morons who booed Ashley Cole:mad:
Complete idiots.I know he messed up but talk about kicking someone when they're down.

Couldn't agree more about Ashley Cole - as soon as they started booing I just dismissed them as brain-dead imbeciles who would have been better off attending something like the Jerry Springer Show. :thumbsdow

Cheering him later on was even worse as it demonstrated how two faced they were.:rolleyes:

No wonder the England team don't produce their best performances at Wembley.
 
The problem is you can't send a 576i image from either over HDMI so you are forced to send a de-interlaced image to the screen, which the V+ does a very good job of compared to the SkyHD.

You can send 576i over scart but I found the PQ to be a little washed out and soft, even with high quality cables.

I take it that is only an issue with SD content?

So are we saying that the V+ box is better for SD but that SkyHD is better for HD?
 
That's spot on mate :smashin:

Many thanks.

I guess I will need to do some more research to see which service will be the most suitable...
 
Many thanks.

I guess I will need to do some more research to see which service will be the most suitable...

If I had to choose then it would definitely be Sky. I am watching more and more HD content and, whilst the SD is slightly poorer compared to Virgin, it's perfectly acceptable.

Unfortunately, Sky really is the only way to get a decent amount of HD broadcast material. Virgin do have some on VOD but there's not much and you could easily watch it all in a week.
 
If I had to choose then it would definitely be Sky. I am watching more and more HD content and, whilst the SD is slightly poorer compared to Virgin, it's perfectly acceptable.

Unfortunately, Sky really is the only way to get a decent amount of HD broadcast material. Virgin do have some on VOD but there's not much and you could easily watch it all in a week.

Okay, I guess that settles it as far as content is concerned. How would the SD compare with:

Freeview with scaling & deinterlacing handled by the PDP?
 
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