Rastalovich
New member
At the end of the week that follows, the Superbowl is on - I`ve booked off the next day, by chance it gets to be a good game and I`m up til 4am watching it.
.. of course it can be viewed in HD.
Already having the excellent Samsung LE32R87BDX, I scrambled after christmas to get Sky HD installed in good time to have both ready for the entertainment to come.
As per usual, the offers for Sky HD purchased through Sky were over just b4 I considered getting it - go figure. Having been with Sky for 2000 years, I figured it was worth ringing them and seeing what prices we can arrange.
After some to-and-fro`ing, I had a quote of £279.99 plus a £30 install charge. My reply was pretty much "bite me!". £310 pfft.
Searched around, no1 was doing offers anymore. There were leads to follow, but they all turned up empty unless u got their broadband or telephone at the same time - no thankyou.
Looking into the Sky+ setup and the SkyHD setup - the installs are the same, for the most part, in it`s most basic terms surely u take out 1 box and put in the other, then tell Sky. Well loosely - it actually is.
So I went searching to buy the box off a 3rd party. My favorite was an Amazon shop, £249.99 + £10 shipping. I like to do this as Amazon are reputed to `step in` if any consumer gets any real greif off one of the shops using their facilities. Anyway, I ordered it and got it within 2 days.
(I would like to mention here that boxes can be bought from places like ebay reportedly for around £180, but I didn`t fancy that. There are also companies that sell refurbed ones if ur really on a budget for around £140 or something.)
Off to the internet I went, these days some1 somewhere would have installed this themselves, and after an evening or so of searching I found this excellent forum:
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=491562
Step by step guide - what more do u want. (I would like to mention here that for me this went like clockwork, word for word with the exception that Sky have changed their phone-menu, but I asked a guy who put me through to some1 - job done) - changed my package a bit too (was paying £42 for a few things, £45 gave me everything - no contest really). Also for the more nervous amoungst us, Sky do-not kick up any fuss cos u installed it urself. Saying that, they didn`t have to talk me through any issues cos my install went very smoothly.
Anywho, that`s it, I`m up and running from last night. Started the whole de-rigging of the old box at about 7pm, which involved some wire changes and stuff cos of where my box was situated (amoungst the routers, switch boxes etc), reading and rereading of the guide - maybe it took an hour all together. 1 other bonus I had too was that cos I was changing my package at the same time, the chick I went through to to do that switched on my HD abilities there and then instead of having to w8. I`d imagine it`s done on a job-queue basis or something normally. Most cs stuff is these days.
So there we have it, £310 down to £260, £50 to spend on pizza & beer for the Superbowl
hehe
I have absolutely no doubt that within a week of me doing this, Sky will drop their prices or there will be somekind of offer to pish me off - but hey I`d have to w8 another year to watch the Superbowl.
1 thing I`ll add is that if I`m honest, I`m slightly unhappy about the HD properties of the Samsung. It is a tremendous budget set, £500 for such a unit cannot be sniffed at - hey they`re £20 cheaper from where I bought it, and the likes of Currys/Comets are still selling it for more than I paid - but I saw HD in the states in november coming off a terestrial feed to a TV that I`ve gotta chase up the model for and compare. Their TV wipes the floor with the picture quality of mine. Don`t get me wrong, the picture I have is tremendous, but when u`ve seen better u get miffed sometimes. (comparitively their was cheaper too of course with the financial market being what it is) Saw StarWars on theirs, and ER I think it was, the picture was like a mirror - even up close. Mine I can see the grains, worse up close, not so much when ur 6/8 feet back from it.
This is an outstanding site for peoples discussing and setting up the Samsung LE32R8x TVs.
http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=513376
Flip on National Geographic HD - and sit there stunned for half an hour means I`m pretty happy
Those thinking of going HD, via Sky or whatever. I will say I`ve only heard bad things about Virgin`s HD quality atm, believe it`s only 576 too. But in any case, the general availablity of HD programs is just not worth it. Unless u have a reason to do it, like me with sport, u may well be disapointed in general atm. The Sky HD movies - well in the majority they weren`t made HD, so they don`t show HD in it`s glory. I will say tho, in Forrest Gump, on C4HD last night, Tom Hanks has bad skin something u will pick up on when u watch stuff. If it was cheaper as standard, I`d say go for it.
HD channels will continue to explode through the year, so of course everything is in place. But for the money it costs atm, I`d think twice without a reason.
Thanks for reading
.. of course it can be viewed in HD.
Already having the excellent Samsung LE32R87BDX, I scrambled after christmas to get Sky HD installed in good time to have both ready for the entertainment to come.
As per usual, the offers for Sky HD purchased through Sky were over just b4 I considered getting it - go figure. Having been with Sky for 2000 years, I figured it was worth ringing them and seeing what prices we can arrange.
After some to-and-fro`ing, I had a quote of £279.99 plus a £30 install charge. My reply was pretty much "bite me!". £310 pfft.
Searched around, no1 was doing offers anymore. There were leads to follow, but they all turned up empty unless u got their broadband or telephone at the same time - no thankyou.
Looking into the Sky+ setup and the SkyHD setup - the installs are the same, for the most part, in it`s most basic terms surely u take out 1 box and put in the other, then tell Sky. Well loosely - it actually is.
So I went searching to buy the box off a 3rd party. My favorite was an Amazon shop, £249.99 + £10 shipping. I like to do this as Amazon are reputed to `step in` if any consumer gets any real greif off one of the shops using their facilities. Anyway, I ordered it and got it within 2 days.
(I would like to mention here that boxes can be bought from places like ebay reportedly for around £180, but I didn`t fancy that. There are also companies that sell refurbed ones if ur really on a budget for around £140 or something.)
Off to the internet I went, these days some1 somewhere would have installed this themselves, and after an evening or so of searching I found this excellent forum:
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=491562
Step by step guide - what more do u want. (I would like to mention here that for me this went like clockwork, word for word with the exception that Sky have changed their phone-menu, but I asked a guy who put me through to some1 - job done) - changed my package a bit too (was paying £42 for a few things, £45 gave me everything - no contest really). Also for the more nervous amoungst us, Sky do-not kick up any fuss cos u installed it urself. Saying that, they didn`t have to talk me through any issues cos my install went very smoothly.
Anywho, that`s it, I`m up and running from last night. Started the whole de-rigging of the old box at about 7pm, which involved some wire changes and stuff cos of where my box was situated (amoungst the routers, switch boxes etc), reading and rereading of the guide - maybe it took an hour all together. 1 other bonus I had too was that cos I was changing my package at the same time, the chick I went through to to do that switched on my HD abilities there and then instead of having to w8. I`d imagine it`s done on a job-queue basis or something normally. Most cs stuff is these days.
So there we have it, £310 down to £260, £50 to spend on pizza & beer for the Superbowl
heheI have absolutely no doubt that within a week of me doing this, Sky will drop their prices or there will be somekind of offer to pish me off - but hey I`d have to w8 another year to watch the Superbowl.
1 thing I`ll add is that if I`m honest, I`m slightly unhappy about the HD properties of the Samsung. It is a tremendous budget set, £500 for such a unit cannot be sniffed at - hey they`re £20 cheaper from where I bought it, and the likes of Currys/Comets are still selling it for more than I paid - but I saw HD in the states in november coming off a terestrial feed to a TV that I`ve gotta chase up the model for and compare. Their TV wipes the floor with the picture quality of mine. Don`t get me wrong, the picture I have is tremendous, but when u`ve seen better u get miffed sometimes. (comparitively their was cheaper too of course with the financial market being what it is) Saw StarWars on theirs, and ER I think it was, the picture was like a mirror - even up close. Mine I can see the grains, worse up close, not so much when ur 6/8 feet back from it.
This is an outstanding site for peoples discussing and setting up the Samsung LE32R8x TVs.
http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=513376
Flip on National Geographic HD - and sit there stunned for half an hour means I`m pretty happy
Those thinking of going HD, via Sky or whatever. I will say I`ve only heard bad things about Virgin`s HD quality atm, believe it`s only 576 too. But in any case, the general availablity of HD programs is just not worth it. Unless u have a reason to do it, like me with sport, u may well be disapointed in general atm. The Sky HD movies - well in the majority they weren`t made HD, so they don`t show HD in it`s glory. I will say tho, in Forrest Gump, on C4HD last night, Tom Hanks has bad skin
something u will pick up on when u watch stuff. If it was cheaper as standard, I`d say go for it.HD channels will continue to explode through the year, so of course everything is in place. But for the money it costs atm, I`d think twice without a reason.
Thanks for reading
. 
