Sky to close 8 box office channels

Ohh they're probably all the same git.

Sorry for my complete ignorance but what is HDTV, I take it VoD stands for "Video on demand".

High Definition TV. See hd.sky.com for more.

Thanks for that

well one point is missing everyone going to have to get a new TV as my telly doesn't have HD,
I doubt some of the even older telly could handall this type of pitcure!

this is just another Money making scham form SKY!
will you be paying for a
NEW TV
NEW Sky box (more or likly in a years time it will be FREE)
New subscirption
and it clearly says that!

Just shut up.

On Telewest before Video on demand the Front row channel broadcast the channel you choose (film) on just one channel (400) without seeing all of the different film streams.

This could be what sky are doing to tidy up the EPG, so still same choice of movies on less channels.

Really?? I was led to believe my old black and white set would be HD.

Yes of course it's going to cost a lot for the first couple of years, but remember how much DSL for example cost only a couple of years ago. It's a "new" technology so if you want the benefits of HD you'll need to fork out for it.

Well Sky is a commercial company just like any provider in Europe, you are not forced to buy HD, SD will be around for a long long while yet.

EDIT: to mromega nice signature!

All I’m say is SKY has come along new product, and the majority of people haven't even got SKY box + yet so at the rate its going, sky box +, it not worth investing in it. You got to remember Sky may be out to make money but if there customer aren’t keep up with then what the point. I sure I’ve seen people commenting about how bad some of the channel are on Sky … there still a lot of people who are still not gone digital yet.
Some how someone we complain about this post!

Wrong! Only a new box is required. If the television connected to it doesn't support HD, then the box will convert the video to SD size.





But upgrading the television isn't a necessity, so you can still benefit from the better compression and original resolution of the HD broadcasts on an SD set. In short, 10mbps H.264 at 1280x720 converted into composite video (or RGB) will look better than 2mbps MPEG-2 at 768x576 converted into composite video (or RGB).
What this means is that if someone with an 'ordinary' television just buys the new box, they will still be able to notice the better quality pictures on HD broadcasts - in the form of less pixellation, more fluid motion, and some extra detail.

This is VERY likely to be to make space for Sky HD services - which will include at least two Box Office streams.

The bandwith for HDTV (even though they are using DVB-S2 and MPEG4 H264 to increase efficiency of compression) means that they have to find the space somewhere, and there aren't many spare transponders left in the 28.2 slot.

(And a slight correction - 768x576 isn't a broadcast resolution - 720x576, 704x756 - which is the nearest MPEG2 multiple to 702x576, and 544x576 are the 3 most common resolutions used for both 16:9 and 4:3 broadcasts - remember broadcast pixels/samples aren't square! 768x576 is a 4:3 square pixel resolution - but it is irrelevant in broadcast terms - just a PC capture card kind of standard)