So I've finally gone and bought an HD ready plasma TV. I use Sky+ but don't want to be spending another £10 a month with them to upgrade to HD.

So what's the deal with Freesat HD. Can I use this through my existing Sky dish, or do I need a new one?

The satellite that sends the Sky signal is the same on that sends the Freesat(BBC) signal. The sky digibox would need replacing and the Sky dish is quite small so you might need to replace it with a bigger one. But yes, in theory (if you've got a good signal) replacing the skybox with a Freesat box should suffice.

I want to keep my regualr Sky+ box and have the Freesat HD as well for the HD signal .....

I quite fancy a skyHD box, too but can't justify £150 AND an extra £10/month. One or the other would be fine but not both.

As Ben says, it uses the same dish.

If you've got sky plus then you may be lucky and have a quad band LNB (4 way Receiver) already mounted on your satellite dish.

If so then you can have sky+ and freesat HD simply by running another cable from the dish to your tv area for the Freesat receiver.

BTW I'm assuming it's a standalone Freesat HD box. If you wait for the PVR versions to become available then you'll need one cable per tuner.

8 way LNBs are reasonably cheap via fleabay.

Just seen on the digitalspy forum you can get SKY+HD installed for £75 + £30 .... not such a bad deal, but it's still another £10 a month.....

quote:

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Originally posted by Jasper
Just seen on the digitalspy forum you can get SKY+HD installed for £75 + £30 .... not such a bad deal, but it's still another £10 a month.....

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I really want it for movies.... so here's another question, if I can get HD movies on my PC, then what's the easiest and cheapest way to then watch them on the TV?

When you say 'get HD movies on the pc' do you mean downloaded them from newsgroups or bittorrent in VC1 format?

If so then you could buy an xbox360 arcade and use it as a media client for all your divx/xvid and hd files streamed from your pc.

If the pc is running vista then you can use the 360 as a pvr as well.

Sounds good if I understand you completely, my PC is not near my TV - but I have Cat5 cables between the two I can use.

And yes, I'm running Vista with Media Center.

And is the cheapest way of doing it? I want to be able to control the DVD in my lounge, and not through the PC in the office.

Would I need to connect a decent sized external HDD to the Xbox to store all the media on, as presumeably it doesn't come with a large built in one.

[Edited on 19/7/08 by Jasper]

The 360 would stay sat at your tv plugged into your network via cat5 (You can do it wireless but if your going to be streaming HD content a hardwired connection is best)

You can then browse all your pictures/music/video files on the main pc from the xbox360 and stream them over to it to watch You have full control over ff/rw skip play stop etc etc.

The xbox360 'arcade' is the new entry level 360 (£125-£150) and comes with a hdmi port as standard unlike the previous 'core' version which did'nt. It does'nt come with a 20gb hdd but does come with a 256mb memory card so at least you can use it on xbox live.

You can also burn your files to a dvd in udf mode and watch them just by putting the disc in the 360, or use an external usb2 hard drive - plug it into your pc and drag over what you want to watch/see then unplug it and plug it into the front of the 360

Streamings from your pc is the easiest way though as everything is sat on your pc acting as a central media server. You can rip your own dvd's to to the pc and store them on it so your whole dvd library is available via the 360 in your front room without getting up The larger the hdd in your pc to store them all the better obviously!

If your downloading hd films then make sure they are xbox360 compliant - it will usually say this in the 'details' section on the download page.

[Edited on 19/7/08 by Mr G]

Thanks Mr G - that defintiely looks the way to go for me ..... and at £150 it's a relatively locost option as well ..... better get ordering from Amazon

I'll probably be back with more questions once I get to setting it all up ......

This whole linking a 360 to the pc can the same be done with a ps3????

quote:

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Originally posted by johnston
This whole linking a 360 to the pc can the same be done with a ps3????

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Have you tried Tversity to do the streaming? - keeping reading good things about it on the web, and it's free ..... I've downwloaded it, now to wait for the Xbox and Plasma to arrive from Amazon .... it feels like Christmas Eve

No need for TVersity...so long as the file is in a format that the xbox can understand streaming for (windows media file) then you can share it directly from Windows Media Player.

If it's DIVX or such then also take a look at Orb

Stephen

PS SkyAnytime, BBCiPlayer and 4OnDemand all work with the windows media player / xbox combination.

Personally, I'd either buy one of these:

http://www.netgear.com/Products/Entertainment/DigitalMediaPlayers/EVA8000.aspx

...or build a dedicated media PC for the TV.

Jasper - if you need some HD content to watch, drop me a line.

Chris

Thanks Chris, Netgear ordered and XBox will go straight back once it arrives.

This whole area seems to be a bit of a minefield - so thanks to everybody for their advice.