Sky Q HDR Launched

[WaveyDavey]

Afternoon all,

 

Just a heads up, for those that hadn’t seen the various press releases, that Sky launched its HDR service on Sky Q yesterday with a low key launch. Only three series are currently available in HDR and all are from the new Sky Nature channel, (Gangs of Lemur Island, Wilderness Reborn and Malawi Wildlife Rescue). Third party apps such as Netflix, Disney + and YouTube will be updated in the coming couple of months so that their HDR content can also be accessed. 
 

Sky Cinema will launch it’s HDR library in time for the Christmas period and sports coverage in HDR is currently lined up for the rescheduled Olympics. 
 

HDR content is accessed via the download option rather than on the channel itself and a UHD subscription is required along with a compatible Q box. 
 

Having had a quick watch the quality seems pretty good but I’m looking more towards the cinema and sports launch and Netflix app update myself. 

Edited 29 May, 2020 by WaveyDavey

[john999boy]

Thanks for that Dave.

I'd got connection issues yesterday and the first Gangs episode was something I started to download and watch as a test. I was surprised to see the additional quality info displaying on the screen and wondered why I'd not seen it before on a Sky program. 

[WaveyDavey]

And for anyone going into meltdown because they have a v1 2tb box which isn’t compatible there is a box exchange program planned before the launch of the other parts of the HDR service whereby users will be able to get a newer compatible box. 

Edited 28 May, 2020 by WaveyDavey

[langers2k]

14 hours ago, WaveyDavey said:

And for anyone going into meltdown because they have a v1 2tb box which isn’t compatible there is a box exchange program planned before the launch of the other parts of the HDR service whereby users will be able to get a newer compatible box. 

 

Got any more details/links? I currently have a non-HDR compatible 1TB box 😕

 

I did ring up a few days ago but they wanted £200 for the newer box.

[WaveyDavey]

3 hours ago, langers2k said:

 

Got any more details/links? I currently have a non-HDR compatible 1TB box 😕

 

I did ring up a few days ago but they wanted £200 for the newer box.

 

There's nothing set in stone as yet for time scales but a few quotes circulating from Sky saying that there will be an exchange program in place ready for the greater availability of HDR content. The people on the phones now won't have anything in place at present so will indeed charge for the replacement..... Unless of course your v1 box was to suddenly start going faulty and start getting very warm and be resetting very often for instance then you could arrange replacement of your obviously faulty v1 box.  

 

Obviously nothing to confirm you wouldn't get another v1 but pretty unlikely.

Edited 29 May, 2020 by WaveyDavey

[john999boy]

On the other hand, if you decided that you wanted to leave Sky, you would then get a call from their Retentions Team who have greater autonomy over different deals.

This may well be the best bet as you'd still need one of the UHD packages as Dave mention above to go with the latest Q box.

 

FYI, when I renewed recently (at the time of an impending price increase) they actually cut the cost of what I was paying.

It's good to see that 1Tb boxes are now 4K ready as I had to have a Multiroom package together with the 2Tb box just to get UHD.

[Lady Elanore]

On 28/05/2020 at 20:01, WaveyDavey said:

And for anyone going into meltdown because they have a v1 2tb box which isn’t compatible there is a box exchange program planned before the launch of the other parts of the HDR service whereby users will be able to get a newer compatible box. 

You would hope so as all the bumph they have sent me states the box belongs to them as you only rent it.

 

I've been holding off updating to Q as they didn't have HDR support (4k does nothing for me with it) so if I find I am back at work and not insolvent, I might look at this next year  

[WaveyDavey]

1 hour ago, Lady Elanore said:

You would hope so as all the bumph they have sent me states the box belongs to them as you only rent it.

 

I've been holding off updating to Q as they didn't have HDR support (4k does nothing for me with it) so if I find I am back at work and not insolvent, I might look at this next year  

yes Q has always been rented equipment since it launched. Does of course mean unlimited replacements for failures whether in or out of contract. 

[Lady Elanore]

1 hour ago, WaveyDavey said:

yes Q has always been rented equipment since it launched. Does of course mean unlimited replacements for failures whether in or out of contract. 

Luckily, I live 50 meters from one of Manchester finest SKY box repair chaps (he also does GHD hair straighteners-really expensive) and he has not only fixed my HD box before, but upgraded the HDD to a rather large size  I can record without deleting for the rest of my life on it, if it doesn't give up  cant recommend him highly enough. He spent a day soak testing and trying to get to the bottom of a problem I had and in the end reckoned he had improved matters, but not entirely fixed things....so he didn't want any payment.

[Defenderben]

No ideas how much Sky TV or any other TV subscription service is, got a friend that mentioned around £70 a month, which scares me....I just can’t justify paying anything like that for TV. I only get what ever comes from Freesat I think.

 

But out of interest what is HDR TV is it like 4K TV - a resolution thing?

 

 

[john999boy]

4 hours ago, Defenderben said:

But out of interest what is HDR TV is it like 4K TV - a resolution thing?

4k TV is a jump up from HD but that's not what this upgrade brings. This gives the picture more of a presence and pop. If you were to view a 'with' and 'without' screen side by side then you'd immediately notice the extra quality that it brings.

 

Netflix and Prime already have some programs with this feature.

[WaveyDavey]

4 hours ago, Defenderben said:

No ideas how much Sky TV or any other TV subscription service is, got a friend that mentioned around £70 a month, which scares me....I just can’t justify paying anything like that for TV. I only get what ever comes from Freesat I think.

 

But out of interest what is HDR TV is it like 4K TV - a resolution thing?

 

 

 

HDR stands for High Dynamic Range and in photography it's been around for a good few years now but is still relatively new to TV/video.

 

For example if you stood someone in front of a window and looked at them your eyes and brain can see both the detail outside and the detail of the person in front of the window but if you pointed a camera at that same person and focused on the person then the camera would have the person exposed but the background outside would be washed out and white. If you told the camera to focus on the background outside then that would be perfect but the person would be very dark.  So in HDR photography you would take maybe five images. One a lot under-exposed, One slightly under-exposed, One perfectly exposed, One slightly over-exposed and one a lot over-exposed. Then software would merge the images together to get something very close to what the human eye sees.

 

The end result of HDR in video is the same..... Colours are very much brighter as they would be in reality and you see the details in the dark and light areas as well as the main focus of attention.

 

It is something that you need to have a 4k HDR TV and a 4k HDR bluray player to view though and not just a normal 4k TV or bluray player.

 

And as John says Netflix and Amazon produce pretty much all their new content in 4k HDR now.

Edited 30 May, 2020 by WaveyDavey

[Lady Elanore]

The only fly in the ointment for me is SKY are opting for HLG rather than Dolby Vision (my preferred HDR) or HDR10+ (my LG doesn't recognise this, but it would be good for Samsung peeps etc)

 

The HDR benefits of greater colour gamut and greater contrast are not a fully realised with HLG (a BBC and NHK invention) although if anyone saw the BBC's Blue Planet in 4K HDR (HLG) then they would have been wowed. I look at eh contrast side like making a portrait out of black and white Lego bricks. from a distance and with a squint it would probably work fine, but if you had grey brisks, almost white and nearly black bricks too, the image would look much better and even closer up. that's what HDR can do for contrast, add those missing steps. The 12 bit colour gamut is fantastic, except the whole thing ends up in a bottleneck of 10 bit colour due to equipment that is still working on 10 bits (some have a 12 bit look up chart), but eventually we will all be working on 12 bit with some luck and a following tailwind, although we will all have to buy new tellys for that to work 😞 

 

Dynamic HDR images are the ultimate answer as they can take into account that LCD (LED/Quantum dot/flashy clever stuff etc) TVs can go to very high brightness but OLED can't, yet OLED tvs can go to infinite black and so have an infinite contrast ratio which LCD/LED can't do. Dolby Vision and HD10+ have the advantage that not only do they change the HDR information on a frame by frame basis 'on the fly', they also understand the tv they are working with, so to speak, and so produce the best possible images within spec.

 

HLG is very clever though, in that it can be packaged alongside a regular broadcast signal and doesn't chew up extra bandwidth, which is why BBC and eventually other broadcasters will use this for regular digital tv and it seems SKY has probably been forced down this route for similar reasons. Streaming companies don't have this problem luckily for them. I would say have a look at the iPlayer and it's UHD test shows but even they have been removed over the bandwidth limiting 'over reaction' that has gone on with Europe broadcasters and streaming sites. 

[WaveyDavey]

1 hour ago, Lady Elanore said:

The only fly in the ointment for me is SKY are opting for HLG rather than Dolby Vision (my preferred HDR) or HDR10+ (my LG doesn't recognise this, but it would be good for Samsung peeps etc)

 

The HDR benefits of greater colour gamut and greater contrast are not a fully realised with HLG (a BBC and NHK invention) although if anyone saw the BBC's Blue Planet in 4K HDR (HLG) then they would have been wowed. I look at eh contrast side like making a portrait out of black and white Lego bricks. from a distance and with a squint it would probably work fine, but if you had grey brisks, almost white and nearly black bricks too, the image would look much better and even closer up. that's what HDR can do for contrast, add those missing steps. The 12 bit colour gamut is fantastic, except the whole thing ends up in a bottleneck of 10 bit colour due to equipment that is still working on 10 bits (some have a 12 bit look up chart), but eventually we will all be working on 12 bit with some luck and a following tailwind, although we will all have to buy new tellys for that to work 😞 

 

Dynamic HDR images are the ultimate answer as they can take into account that LCD (LED/Quantum dot/flashy clever stuff etc) TVs can go to very high brightness but OLED can't, yet OLED tvs can go to infinite black and so have an infinite contrast ratio which LCD/LED can't do. Dolby Vision and HD10+ have the advantage that not only do they change the HDR information on a frame by frame basis 'on the fly', they also understand the tv they are working with, so to speak, and so produce the best possible images within spec.

 

HLG is very clever though, in that it can be packaged alongside a regular broadcast signal and doesn't chew up extra bandwidth, which is why BBC and eventually other broadcasters will use this for regular digital tv and it seems SKY has probably been forced down this route for similar reasons. Streaming companies don't have this problem luckily for them. I would say have a look at the iPlayer and it's UHD test shows but even they have been removed over the bandwidth limiting 'over reaction' that has gone on with Europe broadcasters and streaming sites. 

 

The last paragrapgh is your answer as to why Sky have opted for HLG. I'd say probably half if not more of their HDR content here will be live sports / events. Football and F1 have already been broadcast in HDR for the last 18-24 months or so on Sky Italia using HLG i believe. These have obviously got to be broadcast alongside the existing SD, HD & UHD feeds. As you say Netflix and Amazon don't have this issue with the only live sport on these being on Amazon with it's tennis and Premier League football and is only ever in UHD rather than HDR.

 

Also, Not just Samsung for HDR10+ either..... My Panny EX-750 had the HDR10+ firmware update last year and i've confirmed it works with some HDR10+ material. All the current Panny HDR TVs and blu-ray players are HDR10+ compatible too along with some from the last couple of years or so like my TV but not my HDR blu-ray player unfortunately which is just outside the cut-off point.

[Lady Elanore]

I thought it was only the Sonys that have both of the top end HDR formats, good to know others are adding them, everyone else seems to be going with one camp or the other. The HLG data is sent simultaneously with the picture information and so it's a one shop solution for broadcasters. Dolby Vision and HD10+ requires post production to do it properly. It's a shame though that SKY Cinema won't get the benefit of either of those high end HDR formats 😞 

 

I can't see LG budging anytime soon on HD10+ though, which is annoying as virtually all OLED tvs have an LG screen, Sony and Panny included 

Edited 30 May, 2020 by Lady Elanore

[cheezemonkhai]

On 29/05/2020 at 10:56, langers2k said:

 

Got any more details/links? I currently have a non-HDR compatible 1TB box 😕

 

I did ring up a few days ago but they wanted £200 for the newer box.

So you rent a box as part of the service, but if you pay them for a HDR service and the box won’t deliver it’s £200....

 

Either you rent the box or it’s yours. Can’t have it both ways.

 

If they keep trying that, then it’ll be interesting to see what trading standards would say.

Edited 30 May, 2020 by cheezemonkhai

[john999boy]

34 minutes ago, cheezemonkhai said:

So you rent a box as part of the service, but if you pay them for a HDR service and the box won’t deliver it’s £200....

Either you rent the box or it’s yours. Can’t have it both ways.

If they keep trying that, then it’ll be interesting to see what trading standards would say.

As I mentioned previously, there was IIRC initially two Q boxes available but it was only the 2Gb version which had the 4K capabilities. There may have been a cost implication then too but I don’t think it was £200.

I suppose it’s similar to when they released the HD boxes except you could keep these at the end of your contract.

People don’t need to pay extra to get the HDR facility as it comes with adding 4K but they will be told which boxes are compatible and then if additional costs are involved.

Even having both Sky bits needs a TV that can show the extra so they are only saying what their charges are. 
It’s the time of year when ‘making hay while the sun shines’ springs to mind.

 

[cheezemonkhai]

@john999boy Still think it’s cheeky as it’s their box and their problem. 
 

As £200 is way more than the cost to make one of those boxes, I would be talking to sky to get released from contract if I only found out after the 4k upgrade.

 

Afterall the box is included in the subscription cost.

 

 

Otherwise yes, I accept the TV part and the rest.

[WaveyDavey]

53 minutes ago, cheezemonkhai said:

@john999boy Still think it’s cheeky as it’s their box and their problem. 
 

As £200 is way more than the cost to make one of those boxes, I would be talking to sky to get released from contract if I only found out after the 4k upgrade.

 

Afterall the box is included in the subscription cost.

 

 

Otherwise yes, I accept the TV part and the rest.

 

I believe the £200 isn't solely the charge for the box but also includes the cost/charge of an "engineer" to attend your home and install it.

 

Plus as i mentioned previously i don't know why anyone would ever pay the £200 charge to replace their old Q box. Everyone i know of who has wanted to upgrade to the latest version of their Q box has spoken to Sky to advise them that their box has suddenly and inexplicably developed a habit of overheating and resetting or being intermittently noisy at which point an engineer attends and replaces it without charge.     

Edited 31 May, 2020 by WaveyDavey

[john999boy]

1 hour ago, cheezemonkhai said:

@john999boy Still think it’s cheeky as it’s their box and their problem.

Their box and our options might be a better analysis?

 

I agree with Dave about one of the ways to ensure a newer box too. In fact my main box lost it's internet connection again yesterday and showed up as multiroom inoperable but also didn't continue with series downloads.

 

All I want is a reliable setup at this moment in time!