I notice that James Murdoch is making a presentation at the Bear Stearns 2006 Media Conference today at 2.15pm. Let's see if he gives any more information away on HD.
If we don't hear anything, I suspect that things are delayed. I'm starting to think that 'early 2006' may become 'mid 2006' or later, in terms of actually getting a box installed. Very few companies are able to deliver on time these days!
Is it just me or is there no new information at all in that newsletter ?
Not just you:)
However it is at least an official source and backsup the website info, I didn't really expect any hard facts re. price/launch date until SKY make a public statement.
I notice that James Murdoch is making a presentation at the Bear Stearns 2006 Media Conference today at 2.15pm. Let's see if he gives any more information away on HD.
If we don't hear anything, I suspect that things are delayed. I'm starting to think that 'early 2006' may become 'mid 2006' or later, in terms of actually getting a box installed. Very few companies are able to deliver on time these days!
I just caught part of this presentation online before it cut out and it now says avaliable again soon. They had just got to pricing on Hi-Def and said there would be upgrade options for people with existing boxes who were planning on relocating the old box to a different room and taking out multi-room and also there would be offers for new customers as well.
However it did say there wouldnt be any heavy subsidising of the new boxes.......I dont know if it goes onto give any pricing details of subscriptions after this point as it just cut off.
Murdoch stated that HD launch will be in Spring.
He emphasised that boxes won't be significantly subsidised. He claimed that with people buying £1000+ TV sets, Sky considers that customers will be prepared to pay for a "reasonably priced" set-top box. He also confirmed that there would be an additional subscription for HD, although he didn't say what it would be!
I've managed to get my Xbox 360 streaming to my 40" Sony Bravia, with lots of HD clips and I've been demonstrating to friends and neighbours.
My conclusion so far is that, although I am really keen to invest, many people agree the picture is "very clear" but they don't seem to have a strong desire to go out and buy Sky HD. There is much more interest in upgrading TVs for the benefit of style and smaller footprints. I suspect that there will be many owners of LCDs and Plasma that don't bother to get HD.
Overall, once Sky services the early adopters, I think that the take-up of Sky HD will be relatively modest.
I've been running several HD clips through my 42 inch plasma from my Windows Media Centre PC (Via DVI) and the image clarity is utterly awesome particuarly on 'nature' style clips involving vivid colour and scenery
I've downloaded most of the clips from the Microsoft HD website but if any of you were unaware they were there and have a reasonably powerful Media Centre PC, they are worth a look
One hundred and forty thousand million bytes... of stuff you don't want. Unbeflippinglievable.
Chip
Well considering that HD movies will take up twice as much space as a SD movie (approx) then having a higher reserved space makes some sense.
While PPV HD movies may not interst everyone they will certainly interest many who buy SKY+ HD if only to get the latest movies and not the 12month+ that will be on the normal subscription channels.
Having them stored locally also makes it a more user friendly service, would be nice to have this user defined though for those who do not want this aspect of the service be it HD or SD.
Comments
If we don't hear anything, I suspect that things are delayed. I'm starting to think that 'early 2006' may become 'mid 2006' or later, in terms of actually getting a box installed. Very few companies are able to deliver on time these days!
Issue 1.
That would be funny if we hadn't been waiting for so long:)
Not just you:)
However it is at least an official source and backsup the website info, I didn't really expect any hard facts re. price/launch date until SKY make a public statement.
I just caught part of this presentation online before it cut out and it now says avaliable again soon. They had just got to pricing on Hi-Def and said there would be upgrade options for people with existing boxes who were planning on relocating the old box to a different room and taking out multi-room and also there would be offers for new customers as well.
However it did say there wouldnt be any heavy subsidising of the new boxes.......I dont know if it goes onto give any pricing details of subscriptions after this point as it just cut off.
The 300GB was publically announced during the Easynet presentation to the City.
He emphasised that boxes won't be significantly subsidised. He claimed that with people buying £1000+ TV sets, Sky considers that customers will be prepared to pay for a "reasonably priced" set-top box. He also confirmed that there would be an additional subscription for HD, although he didn't say what it would be!
and
http://customer.talkpoint.com/BEAR002/022706a_cy/linkdefault.asp?entity=bskyb
One hundred and forty thousand million bytes... of stuff you don't want. Unbeflippinglievable.
Chip
My conclusion so far is that, although I am really keen to invest, many people agree the picture is "very clear" but they don't seem to have a strong desire to go out and buy Sky HD. There is much more interest in upgrading TVs for the benefit of style and smaller footprints. I suspect that there will be many owners of LCDs and Plasma that don't bother to get HD.
Overall, once Sky services the early adopters, I think that the take-up of Sky HD will be relatively modest.
I've downloaded most of the clips from the Microsoft HD website but if any of you were unaware they were there and have a reasonably powerful Media Centre PC, they are worth a look
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/content_provider/film/ContentShowcase.aspx
Although obviously different hardware with Sky HD, it may help to swing the odd decision.
Well considering that HD movies will take up twice as much space as a SD movie (approx) then having a higher reserved space makes some sense.
While PPV HD movies may not interst everyone they will certainly interest many who buy SKY+ HD if only to get the latest movies and not the 12month+ that will be on the normal subscription channels.
Having them stored locally also makes it a more user friendly service, would be nice to have this user defined though for those who do not want this aspect of the service be it HD or SD.
Thanks:)
Got the pdf from cjgpers post.