Can I recieve British channels via satellite in HDTV ?

[Martin963]

The CD saga was quite a laugh for us at the BBC at the time,  and this to a certain extent goes the other way..  

It WAS true that there were some bad players and some bad CD's around in the early days,  but mostly the improvement in quality was superb.   And yet the BBC was bombarded by a bunch of so called golden-ears who stuck to their mantra that digital was bad because - in essence - it used discrete levels for the sampling and coding.   All of these guys (for they were all guys) cited the fact that FM sounded so superb (and in those days it did,  long before all the dynamic compression that wrecks the quality nowadays was introduced).

What these golden ears had failed to spot was that all the FM transmissions that they were listening to (and so enjoying) were in fact passing through a digital transmission system considerably inferior to that used for CDs,    namely the BBC's 13 bit 32 kHz sampling PCM distribution system  (which actually for its purpose was a quite superb and ground breaking invention)

When informed of this fact they all went very very quiet!

It is quite true of course that stuff recorded before the era of CD's was not "improved" by being re-released,  at the same time it has to be said that many sonic artefacts are cunulative,  so a small amount of tape hiss on the master would be exacerbated by the inherent hiss on a cassette or whatever.  But you're right of course,   people labour under the idea that if they've shelled out money then the improvement  must be worth it!

What I find so utterly depressing (having been intersted in sound for the whole of my life) is that up to and including  the introduction of CD's there were always demonstrable jumps in quality.   Cylinders -> acoustic 78's -> electrically recorded 78's -> 33's -> CD's.   And MW/AM -> Band II FM.    But now we're headed in the opposite direction,  mp3 (unless carefully used) is (in day to day use) inferior to CD's;  CD's themselves are being wrecked by the childish emulation of the trend to dynamic compression on radio,  which is leading to truly horrific lack of dynamics and in many cases downright distortion (so I'm told,  I wouldn't part with money to buy 'em).  

So from having been someone who liked to keep up I'm now way behind sticking with the proven technology which makes the young laugh when they see it!

[Just Chris]

Right, just to make it abundantly clear, once and for all, for all those who don't know (and who would like to know).

You CAN receive Sky HD in France.  The prerequisites are:

A Sky HD receiver (and dish, obviously)

A current UK subscription to Sky HD

A television receiver capable of receiving and displaying either the full High Definition or the reduced format.

You DON'T need to connect the box to the telephone.

And yes, you ARE in contravention of Sky's conditions - mainly due to licensing.

You CAN'T subscribe to Sky in France.  However you CAN employ one of the many companies on the internet who can obtain Sky for you (at a price), and this normally entails them setting up a fictitious account for you in the UK.

The difference between high and standard definition is astounding, and yes, you certainly can see the difference, so there would be no doubt in your mind whether the picture you were watching was High Def or not.

This is from one who is successfully receiving HD in France (and hopefully who will continue to do so...)

 

Chris

 

[Wisigoth]

Thanks, everyone, for all your help and advice.  I don't wish to subscribe to Sky HD so I will continue down the SD route for the moment.

I'll see what's available on Ebay.

Lesley