My Sky HDi
October 2nd, 2008 at 4:00 pm by David FarrarTo go along with the new hi def 42″ flat screen, I figured I should invest in upgrading the My Sky box to My Sky HDi. It was a good investment, as Pat Pilcher states in the Herald.
New features include:
- Movies, Sports and TV3 in high def
- Dolby Digital Audio
- HD doubled to 320 GB
- Four tuners, allowing three to be used for recording and viewing, and the fourth for the programme guide
- An Ethernet port, allowing downloading from the Internet at some future stage
- A USB port, which may allow you to add on additional storage one day
Pilcher’s recommendation:
MySKy HDi is more of an evolutionary improvement than just an upgrade to its non-HDMI sibling. HD video, proper surround audio and what appears to be some serious future-proofing makes buying MySky HDi a definite no-brainer.
I agree.
Tags: Fun Things, Pat Pilcher, Reviews, Sky TV
October 2nd, 2008 at 4:17 pm
Wants.
Vote:October 2nd, 2008 at 4:33 pm
i dont think this is true hi-def.. but certainly an improvement.
the dolby digital sounds nice.. i guess its 5.1?
i think they are overpriced and the fact that sky retains ownership sucks.
personally, im happy with my media PC.. 4,000 albums at the touch of a button, 300 movies on hard drive (increasing daily heh) , web access etc etc
Vote:October 2nd, 2008 at 4:36 pm
Ordered one myself yesterday. Decided to rent rather than pay the 1-off fee. Haven’t heard back from them re an installation date yet though….
Vote:October 2nd, 2008 at 4:51 pm
Welcome to the club
Vote:The audio is proper 5.1 and sounds ok.
The future possibilities are appealing (USB, Ethernet, eSATA connectors).
The planner and recording possibilities are outstanding, we are pleased with them, we had no sky box before.
The picture is a little more noisy than the tv’s inbuilt digital tuner’s but fits our expectations.
October 2nd, 2008 at 4:51 pm
I have had it for close to two months and it is far better than the standard Mysky. We love it.
Vote:October 2nd, 2008 at 5:49 pm
Took them long enough. Been getting 1080p’s for the last two years with dts 5.1 sound. Quite big, but well worth it. Heroes, Lost and Dexter, much better in hd.
And yes, it’s half HD on Sky, 720p. Recording raw 1080p would fill in with a few movies.
Vote:October 2nd, 2008 at 6:44 pm
How on earth do you folks find time to watch TV?
Hell, my life is full-on from 6am to 10:30pm every day and the only time I see any telly is when I have a bite to eat in the evening in front of the 6pm “newsbite” hour.
Try living life rather than being a couch-potato – it’s fun!
Vote:October 2nd, 2008 at 8:13 pm
1080p should be available in the future, once sky gets another satellite up. You may be gagging for HD, but be careful what you wish for. I can report that Helen Clark in HD is not good!
Vote:October 2nd, 2008 at 8:40 pm
I have had freeview for a few months now; It would take wild horses to take me back to standard defination. As for recording, my pc takes care of that. the difference between standard and high defination is like night and day.
Vote:October 2nd, 2008 at 8:47 pm
It all sounds great, my only regret is that in 3 years it will all be out of date, or even worse they find something even better in the next few months that blows it away!
Still… I am sure “adult” entertainment is all good on HD
Vote:October 2nd, 2008 at 9:46 pm
The main problem with Sky TV is they are such arseholes to deal with.
Vote:I’ve lost Sky reception twice in the last 12 months through Sky decoder failure – for a combined period of 6 weeks.
I’ve written on 2 occasions for a credit – no credit – not even a response
October 2nd, 2008 at 9:57 pm
Yeah….be prepared for your remote to not function in a well lit room….the sensor is light sensitive, something i discovererd and relayed to Sky last month….also the bastrad crashes easily…its too new to cope…
Vote:October 2nd, 2008 at 10:18 pm
you are right about the crashes they must of known as they have put a reset button on the front of the box but the 1080i picture is glorious
Vote:October 2nd, 2008 at 11:24 pm
Great picture, great sound thru home theater system. All channels are improved, but the HD sports are the best. I never used to watch the news, but now I can speed watch in 20-30 minutes
Vote:October 3rd, 2008 at 12:53 am
Still prefer my telly in B/W.
And get some exercise by pressing buttons to change channel
Tried to get a monochrome Mac. Had to reset the options. Colour? Yuck.
Tui Advert.
Vote:October 3rd, 2008 at 6:59 am
Couple of parents at playcentre – she’s nurse, and he’s an arborist with two kids recently had to cancel SKY as an unaffordable luxury.
Vote:October 3rd, 2008 at 7:30 am
I agree with Patrick – Sky blow chunks. In the States you can get over 100HD channels, but here it’s limited to only a couple of channels because Sky doesn’t want to pay for the satellite bandwidth. But they’re quite happy to take a small fortune off you for the “privilege” of watching a bit of sport in HD.
Vote:Not that TVNZ is any better. I bought a Freeview HD box to watch the Olympics, but since then their Sports Extra channel has shown virtually nothing and TV1 and 2 are only showing upscaled SD – so much for the new digital age! It’s no wonder we’re losing thousands of people overseas every year. New Zealand is fast becoming irrelevant in today’s digital world.
October 3rd, 2008 at 8:42 am
I got Freeview in the UK, screw SKY. I got my box for £19 and that was it…sweet.
I can go watch the football at the pub so I am not missing anything….
Vote:October 3rd, 2008 at 8:45 am
Got to say NeillR, if/when I abandon these shores, the lure of better TV reception or more channels, won’t be one of the lures…
Vote:October 3rd, 2008 at 10:36 am
Yea the image looks good but it has a tendency to occasionally crash or other wise ‘go off into the weeds’. The remedy varies from waiting for it to come right, pressing reset and standby cycle on/off to full power off at the wall for 10 minutes.
There are some expansion ports for future external hard drives etc. So maybe a decent storage at full HD will be possible.
Totally sux that if you are a new Sky subscriber you get it straight away but if you are an existing customer it takes 2 months. How to totally piss off your loyal customer base.
Vote:October 3rd, 2008 at 12:42 pm
afaik skytv is not HD, not to mention “full HD”
the satelite (Optus D1) they are using only supports upto 576i, the signal is plain old DVB-S. it looks like the sky box upscale the signal to 720p/1080i and output via HDMI.
DVB-S2 supports full HD but not used in NZ.
Vote:September 22nd, 2009 at 11:19 am
I concur with Patrick
After 7 years as a customer , zero consideration!
My infant daughter spilt some liquid on our original decoder, sky replaced it with a faulty one pending their decision on charging us for the damage.
Vote:In the mean time we decided to upgrade to HD, so I called to inquire whether they were going to charge us for the original decoder?
The answer was of course Yes…. I asked if they had insurance cover as we do not “own” the decoder. They said they did have insurance and would make a claim but would also charge us…. Is this ethical? or Legal ? I suggested it was verging on insurance fraud!