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HD ready TV, sky HD and DVD players...


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Old 29-03-2007, 13:57
c_bosher
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Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 34

I would really appreciate some advice.

Just purchased a Sony Bravia 32v2500. I have standard Sky, a Sony DVD player that is a few years old and a VCR. All are connected via Scart.

Picture quality is fairly rubbish on all - and I expected something slightly better than my 15 year old television that I have just replaced!

Booked sky to come and install HD - but had the same problem as others on this forum - no second feed as I have a communal dish. People who installed the dish want about £400 to put a second feed in. That on top of the sky HD box seems like too much to pay.

Picture quality on the DVD player is also not great. VCR I expect to be bad - so no worries there.

Questions:

If I did fork out for Sky HD would the other 'non HD' channels be better as the connection to my Bravia would now be via HDMI.

Is it worth buying an HDMI DVD player. Sony do one for about £80 odd quid which seems cheap. I know it's not HD - but it would mean I could improve on the Scart connection and connect via HDMI.

Or- should I accept that HD is going to be a pain and fork out on a decent hard disc recorder with DVDR - that has an HDMI connection. If so - any advice on where to go?

Or - is there another option?!

Basically, I want to improve my viewing experience and am willing to spend a further £300 - £400 in doing this - but just don't know where to start. And I'm gutted I don't get sky+ functionality as that is really what I was after.

Sorry for very long post - any advice/comments are really welcome. Thanks in advance.
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Old 29-03-2007, 16:00
Nigel Goodwin
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Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: North Derbyshire
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Originally Posted by c_bosher
Questions:

If I did fork out for Sky HD would the other 'non HD' channels be better as the connection to my Bravia would now be via HDMI.
It will be slightly better on the SD programmes on the HD channels, because of the much greater bandwidth used - but normal SD channels won't be improved much, if at all. HDMI isn't some great wonderful improvement, it's there to accept HD - it may even be worse than RGB SCART?, depending on which up-scaler is the best (TV or Sky Box).


Is it worth buying an HDMI DVD player. Sony do one for about £80 odd quid which seems cheap. I know it's not HD - but it would mean I could improve on the Scart connection and connect via HDMI.
Again, it depends on the relative upscalers, RGB SCART is already better quality than an SD DVD can provide, so it's not limiting the quality.


Or- should I accept that HD is going to be a pain and fork out on a decent hard disc recorder with DVDR - that has an HDMI connection. If so - any advice on where to go?
I don't see how a DVDR is going to help you?, your problem is upscaling the SD to fit the HD screen - no matter what you use it's got to upscale somewhere.

How far away do you sit?, viewing too close makes the problem worse.
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