Managed to see SKY HD in the flesh today. John Lewis in Newcastle had it running on a 40 inch Sony Bravia LCD (1366 x 768). Cricket was showing, and despite being downsampled from the native 1080i of the feed to the lower resolution of the Sony panel, the picture did look very good.
Looking at in isolation, I would have said that it was like a very very good DVD. But then I looked at the other TVs running standard definition feeds, and they were terrible in comparison. Really pixellated. So if you’re into sport and movies, and can afford a good HD TV, it looks like it’s worth the extra £10 a month that SKY are charging.
There’s not enough content for me at the moment, but if that situation improves (especially the BBC), I could be tempted by a 1080p LCD panel and Sky HD around the year end.
I think I’ll have to visit John Lewis to have a look. I’m planning to get an HD-ready TV in next January’s sales. By that time I expect quite a few (probably Blu-ray) DVDs to be released, as there should have been good PS3 sales for Christmas. So at least there will be some content worth watching on the new TV, although whether or not I rush out and buy a Sky HD box immediately afterwards is another matter.