Sky Upgrade Question

My sis in law is upgrading from old style standard SKY(non Plus!).

She wanted to goto Sky Plus only, but Sky is now supplying HD Plus boxes(which is understandable).

She says she didn't sign for the HD upgrade, so she is thinking she would only get SD channels on a HD box, which I guess for the 'pay channels' SD only versions of certain certain channels like Sky family, SyFy, Hallmark etc, plus the SD versions of the Sports & Movies channels.

What I'm asking is, in a nutshell, if you don't pay the extra for HD, would you get the HD versions of what we call the PSB channels, ie BBC OneHD/BBC HD, ITV1HD anyway or not?

Anyone ever had a similar issue, as I can understand not getting the HD Sky One, if you don't pay for it, but surely BBC One HD should be available to all irrespective of whether the HD sub is on or not, as BBC One should be PSB, but SKY One isn't?

If you don't take the HD pack, you will still get BBC One HD, BBC HD and ITV1 HD... i think. I'm not sure if Channel 4 HD and Five HD counts, but you do end up with at least a few HD channels.

Thanks.

I thought that might happen.

(I should know, but I paid for the HD pack when I upgraded, having better finances than the sis in law!)

C4HD has moved transponder this week, in preparation for launch on Freesat next month. Sky boxes now 'point' at this new stream too. It'll have to go unencrypted to appear on Freesat, so that should mean no viewing card, and therefore no subscription, will be required to view it on Sky boxes. Currently it is FTV, so only some sort of valid viewing card is required.

We had our Sky subscription cut off for a few days last week, effectively making our card a FTV one, and both Channel 4 HD and Channel 5 HD were still viewable, as well as BBC One HD, BBC HD and ITV1 HD of course which are not encrypted.

What about ITV 2, 3 & 4 in HD & Sky News?

ITV2/3/4HD are all subscription channels, as is Sky New HD.

Though you just need the variety pack + HD pack for Sky News HD, not the News & Events pack, despite what the Sky website says.

Channel Four HD and Channel 5 HD are both FTV channels and don't require any subscription to be viewed on a Sky+ HD box, they just require a Freesat from Sky or lapsed Sky subscription viewing card.

They (along with all of the other FTA and FTV channels - SD and HD) require the £10 Sky+ only subscription to be recorded. (The Sky+ recording option is included in all pay-TV subscriptions, but if you want your box to record WITHOUT subscribing to any pay-TV channels you have to pay the tenner still)

BBC One HD, BBC HD and ITVHD should all work without a viewing card in a Sky HD box, though you may find Five doesn't (as I think the default card-less EPG maps a FTV rather than FTA stream to 105)

So - to answer the OP question - as I understand it, if you have a Sky+HD box and just an SD subscription, you should get BBC One HD, BBC HD, ITV1 HD, Channel Four HD and Channel 5 HD (and be able to record them) without the Sky HD subscription. You'll probably also get "Luxury Life HD" which used to be "Luxe HD" - but if you can watch that for more than 10" you're doing very well...

You WON'T get ITV2/3/4 HD or E4HD AIUI, without the HD subscription (even though the SD channels are non-subscription, the HD ones are).

Just to confirm, my install (mid-August 2010) was a Sky+HD box, even though we only have a 5 year old JVC SD CRT and a crappy 'portable' plugged in (via SCART and RF/coax respectively), but the HDMI output does work, and we're able to receive all the channels listed above and "Luxe HD" (which I think might have been renamed recently).

They get it right on this page!!

http://www.sky.com/shop/high-definition/home/hd-channels/

Slightly off topic, but thought it may interest people who didn't know - probably not the OP though as they're after a Sky+ system.

Sky have launched a new box recently - with HD, but no PVR functionality: http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/broadcasting/news/a309271/sky-launches-new-multiroom-hd-box.html