Michael Kimb Jones

It happened. I got Sky+. It was installed only 2 days ago. I am pleased, of course, I finally have a decent Sports Package! Its also truly wonderful to have Discovery and Sky One back in my life.

Sadly this means that the era of Satellite based HDTV in my living room is not meant to be - just yet.

The Cost of HD
SkyHD let me down tremendously a few months ago when I tried it out in my local Sony Centre. Read why here.

In the end £300 for a SkyHD box and an extra £10 on top of that per month as well as a £60 install fee just didn’t make good economical sense for the measly array of HD channels you actually get (around 5 standard and 2 sports). No matter how good the football looks on it.

The SD Alternative
In contrast I got my Sky+ box free and it was installed free. I also got 6 months half price on the package. All of this was gained simply by calling up and doing some very mild bartering with a member of the Sky sales team.

Sky+ is an excellent system. Its the first time in years I have been able to record and schedule TV as I threw my VCR out sometime in the late 90s. The ability to Pause, Rewind and Fast Forward TV is of course a very nice feature.

Quality wise SDTV through the Sky+ box looks excellent on my Samsung HDTV. Sure you get the occasional blocking and some glitches with older TV repeats. But I would have had the very same issues with the HD box. Last nights Everton v Peterborough game looked great, a surprise for such a small game.

Overall I am immensely happy with the product. What sweetens the deal even more is the ability to sign up for Sky’s Broadband service when my current contract with Bulldog runs out (very soon).