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Sky HD clips live on the web

And about time too... Sky has done the decent thing and given all us HDTV-obsessed web surfers a very brief taster of what it is planning for March, or is it April? Skip over to its HDTV website, click on 'more to explore' and you’ll find four snippets of HDTV content which, provided you have a high spec computer and a decent screen, will give you a fair insight as to how HDTV will look when it launches.

The four videos, two rugby clips and a couple from the National Geographic HD channel, are delivered in glorious 1080i and were obviously chosen for their rich detail. Each file is about 50MB and took my 8MB connection a couple of minutes to download. You need Windows Media Player 10 to play them.

Last week I took delivery of Philips HD-friendly Media Centre the MCP9350I/05 so later on today I’ll whack the files onto its hard disk and play them back through my Philips 37PF9830 TV. Let’s hope this is just the beginning. There's precious little legit HD content on the web and Sky would be a great source of footage. How about some football?

Btw what does anyone else think? Have the files been easy to download and play?

Cheers to Josh for the tip.

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Posted by Shiny Media on February 18, 2006

Comments

anyone know if sky hd is gunna be 1080p?

Posted by: sdf | February 18, 2006 3:21 PM

I think it is very unlikely. Both Telewest and Sky have told me recently that they are focusing on 1080i and see 1080p as a format for HD delivered by disk. Of course that might change quickly one day.

Posted by: Ashley | February 18, 2006 7:30 PM

The files played fine here (2.8Ghz P4) but did eat almost all the CPU. Based on viewing them on my monitor I've realized one thing - at small monitor sizes visible improvements over DVD type quality is a lot less obvious than I thought it would be. It's basically put paid to any thoughts I had of using a 24" desktop computer LCD to view 1920x1080 HDTV broadcasts. Yeah, it might look better, but to really appreciate the visual improvement you're going to need to scale it to sizes which really show the increased resolution off, unless you want to sit right next to the screen.

Surprisingly I come away from viewing those clips realizing for your average 28" sized TV the current DVD resolution is plenty. HDTV is only going to take off when 40"+ screens, which can do it full justice, are cheap enough for ordinary consumers to afford. Wake me up again in 10 years time..

Posted by: Pat | February 24, 2006 5:48 PM

Where did you get your MCP9350I/05

I have been searching the web for one for ages

Posted by: William White | March 2, 2006 3:58 PM

Could you tell me whether US HD tvs and HD DVD players/recorders/systems will work in Britain? Will HD be regionalised as DVD is now? No more PAL?

Posted by: Kelvin Nel | March 3, 2006 8:47 AM

Does anyone know where i can buy a Philips

MCP9350I/05 media centre looking for one for ages can you help

Posted by: SETH RUSSELL | March 7, 2006 6:53 PM

Hello all!

I am selling LG Philips Grade A Panel LCD TV's for a great price!

20" = £250
32" = £495
37" = £680
42" = £860

All prices include VAT but exclude carriage which is circa £30.

Additional parts are wall mount bracket which is an extra £20

Spread the word and check out these great screens by visiting my website on:

http://www.mayscomputersolutions.co.uk/homeentertainmentlcdtvs.htm

Hope to hear from you soon!

Best Regards

Chris May
Mays Computer Solutions

Posted by: Chris May | June 24, 2006 4:16 PM

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