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 £299/€449), 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 reported they had signed up 422,000 customers to their HD service by the end of December 2007.

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).

Technical information

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Sky HD STB and Remote

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. 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.

For connectivity with HD ready televisions, the box outputs via a HDMI connector (adapters to Digital Visual Interface are available) as well as an analogue component connection (YPbPr). Traditional standard-definition connections are also available via SCART, S-Video and component. The box is High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) compliant. All programming is currently available via both HDMI and component connections, although individual broadcasters have the option to require HDCP (and therefore HDMI/DVI) in the future. The digibox also comes with a new slimline version of the Sky+ remote control.

All HD channels are broadcast in the 1080i format (though the box can be set to scale this to 720p if the user wishes), in the H.264/MPEG-4 AVC format, broadcast from the SES Astra and Eurobird 1 satellites at 28.2E and 28.5E in a new DVB standard, DVB-S2. They use HDMI to connect to an HD Ready TV. 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.

The Sky HD Digibox backpanel.

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.

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).

According to James Murdoch (former CEO 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.

The other main cause for concern among those that took up the HD service during its infancy, is the paucity of HD broadcasts available. Many have been disappointed that of the 14 HD channels, only BBC HD, the movie and documentary channels show exclusively HD footage. The others, to varying degrees, complete their HD coverage with upscaled standard definition programmes.

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.

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
268	Sky Arts HD	Subscription	BSkyB
286	Luxe.tv HD	Free-to-air	Twenty Four 7 TV Limited
311	Sky Screen 1 HD	Subscription	BSkyB
313	Sky Screen 2 HD	Subscription	BSkyB
408	Sky Sports HD1	Subscription	BSkyB
409	Sky Sports HD2	Subscription	BSkyB
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

Planned HD channels

The following channels have been confirmed to launch in the near future:

Launch date	Channel	Notes	Owner/parent company
March 17 2008	Sky Sports HD3	Subscription	BSkyB
March 2008	FX HD	Subscription	Fox International Channels UK Ltd.
April 2008	ITV1 HD	Free-to-air	ITV plc
August 2008	Setanta Sports HD	Subscription	Setanta Sports
2008	MTV HD Europe	Subscription	MTV Networks Europe
2008	Disney Cinemagic HD	Subscription	Disney-ABC Television Group
2008	UltraHD	Subscription	Rainbow HD Holdings LLC
2008	Rush HD	Subscription	Rainbow HD Holdings LLC
TBA	Sky Premiere HD	Subscription	BSkyB
TBA	CNN HD	Free-to-air	Turner Broadcasting System Europe (Time Warner)
TBA	The Jewellery Channel HD	Free-to-air	TJC Ltd (STS/VGL)
TBA	Five HD	Free-to-air	RTL Group
TBA	E4 HD	Subscription	Channel 4 Television Corporation

Future

As well as the anticipated increase in HD channels in 2008, a new EPG exclusively for Sky HD boxes will appear by the end of the year. Amongst other features, the new EPG will allow users to view programmes in a small window while browsing the TV Guide, will have a new programme search system, and will cache channel listings on the hard drive enabling loading times to decrease and for synopsis information to be displayed for channels other than the one you are watching.

See also

• British Sky Broadcasting
• High-definition television
• High-definition television in the United Kingdom
• V+

External links

• Sky HD at sky.com