Sky Arts goes FTA

Sadly, it's mushy 544x576

544 x 576.

Frequency: 12070
Pol: H
Symbol Rate: 27500 5/6
DVB-S
QPSK

It might still look marginally better than 544 x 576 on Freeview, but it's still going to look crap

With Challenge and Pick both 544x576 on Freeview, I can't see Sky Arts being anything but the same.

Has anyone seen any publicity for this ahead of the free launch on Thursday? I thought there'd be a bit of a push but maybe they're waiting for it to appear on Freeview rather than make it seem like Thursday is an opening night.

Not seen anything for Sky Arts but have seen ads about Pick moving to 34. Talking of which does Pick have different versions on Sky and Freeview?

It's on 12,070H 27.5Msym/s if you want to have a look.
Looks very soft, so I suspect 544 x 576, but I can't tell for sure - might be source material of course, although I doubt that.

As it is a free to view, then the lower quality is ok, and if you do want it in HD, then there is a means of doing that, using your credit card.

No, they are identical. I think Pick is often under-rated as a channel. Hopefully Sky Arts will find itself a larger audience by going FTA.

Confirmed already that it is 544x576, same as Pick and Challenge on terrestrial and satellite.

So - if my remembrance skills are working - today's the day Sky Arts is supposed to go FTA, correct?

FTA from tomorrow.

Technically the satellite service dropped encryption last week - so you can already watch it on a free-to-air satellite receiver or on a Sky box without a card stuck in the slot.
Thursday is the day the channel is then officially added to Freeview and Freesat EPGs, that's normally done around lunch (Freeview typically does changes between 11am and 1pm; Freesat typically makes changes at around 1pm.).