I'm sure this issue has probably been raised before............ however.......

I've just got a JVC 37" LCD and to be honest I am finding the quality of broadcasts on Sky to be very poor to very good depending on the channel. For instance the movie channels are excellent although channels such as ITV news are dreadful. I guess this has to do with compression? I had a 28" CRT prior to this and (obviously) didn't notice the difference.
I've had a play around with the settings on the TV and it has improved somewhat but still the larger screen now shows up the deficiencies.

You should try watching some of the channels on a 50" plasma! Like a lot of people, I'm waiting for Sky's High Def service to be launched. My only worry is that the chanels broadcast in standard def (of which there will be many) will look even worse in comparison!

As an aside.....the dealer I got the TV off said that the HD Sky box was going to be in the region of £500 and an extra £10 a month....................................

£500 sounds a bit steep. About half that sounds more reasonable to me at initial launch and then reducing from there over the next few years. Aren't these things fairly well established in the USA/Canada and cost about $200 ?

Allan

I have sky and Nova (greek tv package) - on both the signal is very average on my panasonic 42inch plasma (unwatchable on a projector). However, I purchased an RGB to plasma vga converter (from http://www.js-technology.com) and the improvement was substantial.

Highly recommended.

Jonathan

A sclaer will improve the picture from Sky massively and can also output your plasmas prefered resolution so that your plasmas 'lesser' internal scaler does not have to do so much processing work. This is not a replacement for a better source, ie. Sky HiDef, but will drastically improve what you have and can also be used if you get Sky HiDef later and can also improve the picture from other sources, such as DVD etc..

I have a high def cable box in canada. For costs (all dollars are canadian dollars, currently approx £1 = $2.2) I pay approx $16 rental for it, to buy one then it would be about $250. For a standard box then it would be about $10 to rent or $250 to buy.

Previously I had a 32" CRT HD set and it was ok for everything, I now have a projector with a 106" screen. The proper high def stuff on there is stunning and in general better than DVD. standard programs broadcast on a high def channels are ok, and other channels you take your chances on, some ok, some very bad.

I think that, even though providers might upgrade to HD/HiDef, it still comes down to the number of transponders they lease to transmit their signal. If they continue being so thrifty, an improved standard will help only a little but will probably not be used to its full potential.

Compare your picture quality to some of the German stations if you have the opportunity. They lease the number of transponders they require based on technical requirements instead of accounting standards.

Cheers,

Edo