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HDTV UK had the opportunity to play with the new Sky+ TV HD box (in case you don’t know...Europe is getting HD as we speak, in conjunction with the 2006 World Cup). Those luck !@#$%^&* better hold that box tight because only 40,000 are being installed before the big soccer football tourney and they all are already accounted for. Overall they were pleased with the box. The storage could increase (it’s at 160 GB) but the current programming is overall good (besides the lacking BBC) and clearly labeled HD. We obviously could not test this out so continue reading for their full review of the new box.

The box Well Sky has done a good job redesigning the Sky+ unit. It looks a lot more stylish than its predecessor. You can check out the specs here, but the key part is that it has 160 Gigabytes of storage for your HD and standard definition recordings as well as a further chunk for Sky’s Push HD plans. Incidentally there’s still no word from Sky on this yet.

The remote control / interface Sky sensibly hasn’t messed with the remote control. It is almost identical to the current Sky+ remote. The interface is marginally different in that there is a red button which gives instant access to the HD programming. You still access the planner/hard drive through the green button. There are also a few tweaks to the system set up menu including an option of recording in 576 lines as well as 720 and 1080.

Finding HD Sky has been fairly upfront about what content is HD originated and what is upscaled from SD. If the content has been shot in HD then the letters ‘HD’ appear in the info box. Almost all the content that Sky screened today was shot in HD.

Cricket in HD Cricket has been billed as a killer app for HD and Sky hasn’t disappointed us. Those greens certainly look green and you could see tremendous detail when the cameras tracked the crowds at the England Vs Sri Lanka game today. You could also see the marks the ball had made in the batsman’s crease and the graphics were amazing too, really vibrant. The difference between the pictures in SD and 720p was phenomenal. I can’t wait to see the Premiership in HD.

Documentaries The trailer for Discovery’s HD channel also looked superb. The clip focuses on exotic locations and the viewer gets to see beautifully rich colours. The level of details of some of the animals was pretty stunning too.

Movies Movies also looks great in HD. Even a throwaway movie like Deuce Bigalow European Gigolo became very watchable. Venice looked gorgeous. I think certain recent movies will make the best of the format. It’ll be very interesting see Star Wars Revenge of the Sith, which is Sky’s big movie for opening night. The pay per view movies go for £3.75 a shot which is the same as standard definition films.

BBC HD The BBC’s debut day line up of HD programming looks pretty unappealing. Fortunately in the afternoon they were showing an extended trailer which had pictures from Later with Jools Holland. I tried in vain to catch the lines on Elton John’s face which says to me that either he’s either weathered very well, or more likely been on the receiving end of some serious make up. The BBC footage had a pristine quality that some of the Sky footage lacked, which is probably because it was shot in a studio, whereas most Sky footage was either an outside broadcast or documentary based video. I can’t say for certain whether the Later footage was true HD, but even if it was upscaled it still looked really good.

Sky One/24 For me this was the weak link in the Sky HD package. The footage from 24 looked more like upscaled HD than it did true HD. To be fair I only watched a couple of minutes of the programme and the shot were fairly dark, but then the dark shots on Sin City looked amazing.

Overall Well there is a clear leap on from standard definition through to HD. I would say that sport and movies are going to be very striking in high def and the documentaries really do take you closer to the subject than before. I am going to reserve judgement about the Sky One stuff, the price and the capabilities of the box until I get to take one home next week. Suffice to say that I can’t wait to get my hands on that box.

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