Sky Launch 1TB HD Box – Review

Sky have launched a new 1TB HD receiver. We’ve managed to get our hands on one! We’ve given it a good testing over the last few days and am happy to share our findings.

Well, it’s very black, very glossy and very sleek, almost PS3 like. It’s slimmer than the old box & boy is it quieter – thankfully. Even the Remote Control is a much darker, almost black affair. With the big beast of a Hard Drive, it’s the ideal buddy for the forth coming Sky Video on Demand service.

It is in fact a 1.5TB HDD, 1TB for recordings with half a TB reserved for Sky’s Anytime Service.

Its got all the connections you would expect – HDMI, Optical (thankfully as the HDMI is STILL only V1.1 so does NOT carry 5.1 audio!!!), Phone, Network, RS232, RF in, out & RF2 for Magic Eyes, Analogue Left & Right Phono Audio.  It only has one Scart socket – which still supports RGB. We are a bit disappointed by this – as a lot of new TVs have less Scarts, its nice to be able to loop thru & daisy chain kit – Well, not with this new box.

Performance is the most important thing. So how does it measure up. As we’ve already said, its quieter and runs cooler. Its so quiet, all you can (just) hear is the Hard Drive ticking away – but it really is quiet. The EPG also runs quicker – we guess this is down to more memory & faster processors on board. Audio is as you would expect, no issues. Just a shame the HDMI spec wasn’t improved to carry 5.1 audio.

HD Picture is superb, no issues – unless you take into the lower bit rate currently employed on the BBD HD Channel – It such a shame to see MPEG artifacts on HD broadcasts. Side by side comparisons with other HD Sky Boxes, Freesat IDTVs and the Panasonic Blu-Ray Freesat+ Recorders, show this is down to the bit rate & NOT the Sky Box.  The Sports coverage on ITV-HD (yes you can manually tune it in) was just stunning with no blocking. Other HD broadcasts fair much better than the BBC HD service.

But we have to report the SD pictures are well short of the mark, compared to other Sky Boxes & Freesat devices, the SD pictures are very poor. Lots of blocking, with visible lines – for example on BBC News, to the point of being annoying. Horizontal Text is well below par. You say “Who Cares? Its an HD box” Well, you might be right, but lets not forget the vast majority of TV still is SD! So its not really acceptable to get sub standard SD product. It really is poor, to the point that whilst watching BBC News, we switched off the Sky Box & went to Freesat!

The version we have is (sadly) manufactured by Amstrad, so other brands may vairy in quality – time will tell.

Overall, a nice product for those who record a lot or like to have the latest model. If your waiting for Sky’s VoD Service, this is the receiver for you. Just remember the poor Standard Definition pictures.

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