HD TV - Are Sky taking the proverbial?

[peteo]

Telly on its way out so looking at posh new ones. I have Sky plus Sky Sports and whilst I think it's a bit overpriced, it's just about worth it for me as I watch anything involving a ball.

If you get your shiny new HD TV, you need a box to convert the HD signal. Sky, to be fair, only charge you £30 but then fleece you for £10 a month for HD on top of whatever package forever.

BBC aren't charging, ITV aren't charging, Channel 4 aren't charging, BT Vision don't either.

Fully accept the need to pay for a box but aren't we being ripped off here? They've found the holy grail - they can charge you for watching someone else's programmes in HD.

I guess I'll just suck it up as it's so much hassle changing supplier - you even need to buy new stuff - but old Rupert isn't my favourite person at the moment.

[elvismiggell]

I cannot stress strongly enough how much you shouldn't touch BTVision with a bargepole if you want a decent internet connection or any level of customer service that doesn't involve them trying to charge you £90 for an engineer visit.

[eob]

I totally agree with you, however.
I held off getting HD because I refused to pay £60 for installation plus £200 for a box when I knew that the price would drop.
I watched it tumbling and when I got a leaflet saying £30 installation, free box, 1 month free HD subs and £50 M&S vouchers I thought it was time to jump (if I had waited one week I could have saved the £30 as a friend received “Introduce a friend to HD” vouchers – DOH!)
I was lucky in the respect that the finances are such just now that I have stashed £120 aside to cover the extra £10 a month. So I can forget about the additional subs for 12 months.

Anyway, after watching SD on a big telly for 3 years I have to say that the £10 is worth it. It paid for itself on the first night. I watched Back to the Future and Indiana Jones in HD and they were stunning.
The only thing that I grudge paying is the TV Tax, sorry, BBC Fund, I mean Licence Fee.

If you are at all into home AV then I would whole heartily recommend upgrading to Sky HD and trying to ignore the additional cost.
My mother in law has BT Vision and in comparing the two, I can say that the Sky system is by far the better platform.

Yes, Sky bend their customers over, lube them up and aim for penetration. But this is Britain, were used to it!

[ledburyloafer]

well worth the cost, and I guess eventually that will go as well as did the initial sky + fee that used to be £10 a month.
Also the sky channels are many compared to freesat, and imho the picture thru the dish far superior.
Also if you get it invest in hdmi cables and optical audio output awesome!

[eob]

Also if you get it invest in hdmi cables and optical audio output awesome!

Without a doubt!
Even the SD broadcasts look stunning due to the upscaling of the SkyHD box.

[eob]

Hmmm, I don't know why I have a little thumbs down next to that last post, but it was definetly unintentional.

[shark_90]

It's a lot more worthwhile than it was for the early adopters such as myself, who paid £300 for a box and £10 for the very few channels that were in HD.

Now, to be honest, the £10 is a snip and now the boxes are free, what more could you want?!

[SpinneyA6]

Also if you get it invest in hdmi cables and optical audio output awesome!

I'd have to disagree a out spending lots of money on HDMI cables. Digital signal is not like analogue. It's 0s and 1s it either comes out the other end or it doesn't. It doesn't degrade like a anologue over the length of a cable unless it's a very long cable. People are getting ripped off by companies selling very expensive cables that don't make any difference to the picture quality.

The cable you get with be sky box will work as well as a cable costing 100 quid over a short distance

[Ben]

I agree with spinney.

When i bought my wii, i wanted the cable that connected it to my component sockets rather than the standard that went to the scart. Instead of paying 10 to 15 quid for the lead, i bought one off ebay for £250 delivered.