Sky HD
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Sky HD is the brand name of the HDTV service launched by BSkyB on 22 May 2006 in the UK and the Republic of Ireland to enable high definition channels on Sky Digital to be viewed. The service requires the user to have a Sky HD Digibox (costing upwards of £199/€248), and a HD ready TV. Customers who pre-ordered by paying a £30/€45 deposit before 6 April 2006 were the first to receive the service, with installations starting on 22 May 2006.
Sky have signed up 465,000 customers to their HD service by the end of March 2008.[1]
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[edit] Subscriptions
A subscription to the Sky HD service carries an extra £10/€15 per month fee on top of the standard Sky subscription. This fee allows customers to view the equivalent HD channels of their chosen channel package. To receive all HD channels, one must subscribe to the Sky Movies and Sky Sports packages. Without a subscription to Sky Movies or Sky Sports, Sky Movies HD and Sky Sports HD respectively, will not be available.
If you subscribe to any Sky Digital package, the Sky HD subscription also includes a Sky+ subscription and enables the PVR features of the box. (A Sky+ fee was previously charged at an additional £10/€15 per month, or waived if you subscribed to a premium package including sports and/or movies.) This does not apply if you have a FreeSat agreement – Sky will charge £10 for HD and an additional £10 for Sky+ (the Sky+ £10 charge was dropped in early 2007; the Sky HD page What does it cost? has more details).
Only those who subscribe to Sky HD can watch pay-per-view Sky Box Office HD movies. The FTA BBC HD service does not require a subscription (but does require an HD capable digibox such as the Sky HD box).
[edit] Technical information
The first generation of Sky HD Digibox were produced by Thomson. It is a version of the Sky+ PVR with a 300 GB hard drive, 160 GB of which is for consumer use, with the other 140 GB reserved for Sky Anytime services. Samsung have started a trial run of a small amount of Sky HD Boxes, and are expected to produce more by April. Pace Micro Technology have also announced that they have been contracted to produce Sky HD and are expected to roll out the Set Top Box in 2008.[2]
For connectivity with HD ready televisions, the box outputs via a HDMI connector (adapters to Digital Visual Interface are available). The box is High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) compliant. Sky boxes manufactured prior to Jan 2008 also had analogue component connections (YPbPr), but as the HDCP copy protection cannot be applied to this type of output it is no longer included. Traditional standard-definition (SD) connections are available via SCART and S-Video. All programming is currently output from both HDMI and SD connections, although individual broadcasters have the option to require HDCP (and therefore HDMI) in the future. The digibox also comes with a new slimline version of the Sky+ remote control.
All HD channels are broadcast in 1080i format (though the box can be set to scale this to 720p if the user wishes), using the H.264/MPEG-4 AVC compresion standard, from SES Astra and Eurobird 1 satellites at 28.2E and 28.5E in a new DVB transmission standard, DVB-S2. BBC HD is however DVB-S.
The electronic program guide is almost identical to the one found on Sky+, with the exception being that by pressing TV Guide and then number 2 on the remote control, listings for only the HD channels are shown. An update was sent to the HD boxes early on March 20, 2007, which also included code for Sky Anytime. Sky Anytime TV is accessed by pressing "TV Guide" and then the red button.
[edit] Teething problems
Many early adopters of Sky HD have encountered numerous issues with both the hardware and software of Sky's latest offering.
Unforeseen box shortages prior to launch meant that thousands of customers who had already paid the £300 fee for the box had their installations delayed, many at the shortest of notices.
Software issues include failed recordings, unresponsive fast forwarding, the inability to fast forward at the advertised rate of x30 (although this is only on HD channels due to HD using more memory) and time delays on the clock (which can interfere with recordings). Hardware issues include overheating of the box and a slightly controversial discussion regarding possible damage to certain Pioneer panels. All of these issues are intermittent and by no means experienced by all users. Sky have continued their policy of attempting to resolve these issues via software updates. Another problem is on certain HD television sets, viewers have been unable to view Sky Anytime recordings when using HDMI. This is caused by HDCP errors, so customers are having to use component instead[citation needed].
Sky have also been criticised for not yet allowing the use of certain interfaces, such as the Ethernet, Serial ATA and 2xUSB ports (all of which have planned future use[citation needed]).
According to James Murdoch (Chairman of BSkyB), Sky intend to combine Sky Broadband with Sky HD to offer a true on-demand service using the ethernet socket of the Sky HD box[citation needed].
The other main cause for concern among those that took up the HD service during its infancy, is how few HD broadcasts are available. Many have been disappointed that of the 18 HD channels, only BBC HD, Luxe TV HD, Rush HD, the movie and documentary channels show exclusively HD footage. The others, to varying degrees, complete their coverage with upscaled standard definition programmes.
[edit] Channels
The following channels are available and can currently be found on the given channel numbers. Selecting these numbers on a non-HD digibox brings up an information banner displaying a contact telephone number.
The majority of these channels, such as Sky One HD, broadcast the same programmes as the standard definition version, and only use HD for certain programmes.
The launch line-up consisted of Sky One HD, Artsworld HD, Sky Movies 9 HD, Sky Movies 10 HD, Sky Sports HD, Discovery HD, National Geographic Channel HD, Sky Box Office HD 1 and Sky Box Office HD 2.
[edit] Current HD channels
| Channel Number | Channel | Notes | Owner/parent company |
|---|---|---|---|
| 140 | Channel 4 HD | Free-to-view | Channel 4 Television Corporation |
| 143 | BBC HD | Free-to-air | BBC |
| 175 | Sky One HD | Subscription | BSkyB |
| 205 | FX HD | Subscription | Fox International Channels UK Ltd |
| 268 | Sky Arts HD | Subscription | BSkyB |
| 286 | Luxe.tv HD | Free-to-air | Twenty Four 7 TV Limited |
| 313 | Sky Premiere HD | Subscription | BSkyB |
| 314 | Sky Screen 1 HD | Subscription | BSkyB |
| 332 | Sky Screen 2 HD | Subscription | BSkyB |
| 408 | Sky Sports HD1 | Subscription | BSkyB |
| 409 | Sky Sports HD2 | Subscription | BSkyB |
| 450 | Sky Sports HD3 | Subscription | BSkyB |
| 452 | Rush HD | Subscription | Rainbow Media |
| 536 | Discovery HD | Subscription | Discovery Networks Europe |
| 543 | National Geographic Channel HD | Subscription | National Geographic Society/BSkyB |
| 545 | The History Channel HD | Subscription | A&E Television Networks/BSkyB |
| 756 | Sky Box Office HD1 | Pay-per-view | BSkyB |
| 757 | Sky Box Office HD2 | Pay-per-view | BSkyB |
[edit] Sky Anytime
On 27 March 2007, Sky launched its Sky Anytime on TV Push-Video on Demand service for owners of Sky HD set top boxes. Programmes in high definition and standard definition are recorded overnight to a reserved 140GB of disk space, to give the effect of video on demand.
This has also been used to bring viewers high definition programmes from channels that do not currently broadcast in HD. These have included Sky News (Technofile, Diana: The Last Word), The Disney Channel (High School Musical 2) and Nickelodeon (iCarly).
Every Sunday The Big New HD Preview Show, presented by Jason Barlow, showcases upcoming high definition content on both Sky Anytime on TV and the linear HD channels.
[edit] Future developments
[edit] Increase in HD channels
In the two years since launch, the number of HD channels available has doubled from 9 to 18 and is expected to grow to 30 in the coming year, making Sky HD the world’s largest HD offering outside North America.[3]
However, this expansion of channels will not include ITV HD at launch, as the service will initially be exclusive to Freesat.[4]
[edit] New electronic programme guide
Since launch, the Sky HD EPG has been based upon the Sky Guide, which has changed little since the launch of Sky Digital in 1998. For two years, Sky have been working on a completely new EPG exclusively for Sky HD boxes which will appear during autumn 2008.
The channel listings will now be cached on the hard drive, freeing up the tuner so that users can continue to view programmes in a small window while browsing the TV Guide. The data being stored on the hard drive also means that loading times decrease and synopsis information can be displayed for channels other than the one you are watching. Other features include a significantly improved programme search system, Series Stack, which groups episodes of the same series together in the planner, and the ability to highlight HD programmes in the TV guide. The new EPG is also presented in 1080i, rather than the current upscaled version.[5]
[edit] Video on Demand
Sky have so far announced few details on their plans for a pull Video on Demand service. However, they have made it clear that they plan to use the ethernet port on the HD box for VOD in the near future, and that the forthcoming EPG update is designed to "lay the groundwork" for this service.[6]
[edit] See also
- British Sky Broadcasting
- High-definition television
- High-definition television in the United Kingdom
- V+
[edit] References
- ^ 465,000 Sky HD customers by 31st March 2008 – BSkyB 3rd Quarter Results
- ^ http://www.pacemicro.com/corporate/newsroom/pacenewsitem.asp?id=10571 Pace Micro Technology Press Release
- ^ Forrester, Chris. "BSkyB: On way to 30 HD channels", Rapid TV News, 2008-04-30. Retrieved on 2008-05-06.
- ^ West, Dave. "Confirmed: ITV HD is Freesat exclusive", Digital Spy, 2008-05-06. Retrieved on 2008-05-06.
- ^ Scott, Katie. "BSkyB previews HD Sky Guide", Pocket Lint, 2008-05-29. Retrieved on 2008-05-31.
- ^ Welsh, James. "Sky unveils new high definition EPG", Digital Spy, 2008-05-29. Retrieved on 2008-05-31.
[edit] External links
- Sky HD at sky.com
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