Sky Sports UHD anytime soon?

[Koolmacher]

• It's now 3 years since the press statement claiming a deal has been struck with Sky for the provision of movies and sport in 4k uhd. Cinema 4k came in 2021 on virginmedia but when are we getting Sky Sport in 4k uhd?

My contract is up in September and a return to Sky is looking very tempting at the minute. 

[Roger_Gooner]

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@Richardr1 wrote:

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@mac51 wrote:

@Infoaddict Does Sky Main event UHD do HDR/HLG or is that just on UHD 1 and 2 channels.

Some posts I've read make it sound as if Main Event UHD is just used as an upscale channel 1080i to 4k. Not sure if that's true or not. 

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All 3 of them will be HLG HDR.

The difference is that the other two will seemingly only show events originated in HDR, Main Event will upscale including HLG when it is not showing such events.

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The whole point of having UHD channels is to broadcast genuine UHD content, so why upscale HD to UHD when the HD channels are already being broadcast. Also HLG is only included in UHD broadcasts.

[Richardr1]

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@Roger_Gooner wrote:

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The whole point of having UHD channels is to broadcast genuine UHD content, so why upscale HD to UHD when the HD channels are already being broadcast. Also HLG is only included in UHD broadcasts.

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Presumably for the same reason the HD channels include content upscaled from SD - for example some nights very little of BBC Four HD is genuine HD originated content - e.g. Fridays when they play old Top of the Pops and mainly old music shows.

Meanwhile, if only because of the higher bandwidth Virgin allocate to the UHD channels, the HD content will look better for many on the UHD channel.

[Roger_Gooner]

You make an apples and pears comparison. UHD is a premium product and you only get it if you pay extra. And you haven't answered the point I made: Sky Sports broadcasts in HD, so it makes no sense to also broadcast one channel but upscaled to UHD.

[andyshortw]

Hmm, makes me wonder if it may be better value to add UHD to a package but *not* the regular HD add on?  Given the HD channels are widely acknowledged to be of a disappointing quality via Virgin anyway, and that upscaled HD will generally be broadcast (in better quality) on the UHD channels in the absence of actual UHD content....?

Suppose it depends what sports you are mainly into, but I could imagine if it's for Premier League football and say F1 the UHD channels would have you covered 99% of the time and would be of a better quality than the HD channels.

[InfoAddict]

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@andyshortw wrote:

Hmm, makes me wonder if it may be better value to add UHD to a package but *not* the regular HD add on?  Given the HD channels are widely acknowledged to be of a disappointing quality via Virgin anyway, and that upscaled HD will generally be broadcast (in better quality) on the UHD channels in the absence of actual UHD content....?

Suppose it depends what sports you are mainly into, but I could imagine if it's for Premier League football and say F1 the UHD channels would have you covered 99% of the time and would be of a better quality than the HD channels.

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That's a great point. Yes that would make sense. What's funny is these UHD channels are the first true example of HD broadcasts, almost 2 decades on from HD first becoming marketed to people. 

The actual Broadcast HD standard has been closer to SD+ than true HD. 1080i and low bitrate versus 2160p and high bitrate from the Broadcast UHD standard. 

For me the normal HD channels still betray their broadcast TV origins. UHD channels look like they could be off of a UHD Blu Ray disc. 

[HavencroftKev]

This is definitely the case for me too. 

[Richardr1]

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@Roger_Gooner wrote:

You make an apples and pears comparison. UHD is a premium product and you only get it if you pay extra. And you haven't answered the point I made: Sky Sports broadcasts in HD, so it makes no sense to also broadcast one channel but upscaled to UHD.

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There are plenty of other examples - ITV 4 broadcasts a lot of SD upscaled to HD, but Virgin Media charged more for the HD channel than the SD channel up until a couple of weeks ago.

Sky Sports Main Event UHD will be a mixture of events in UHD and the rest of the time in upscaled HD. It is the channel most viewers will watch the UHD content.

Part of the logic of HLG is that eventually (like the HD channels quoted with SD material) Virgin Media will be able to broadcast just a UHD channel, and all can use it independent of whether they have a HLG UHD TV set or not.

Obviously, like the HD channels, this will depend on the cost structure, and whether the content provider provides such content, which outside of live sport is unlikely with downloads and streaming taking over. It also means that the technical issues mentioned above are overcome, but this is a long term strategy.

Feel free to dislike the strategies adopted here, but take them up with Virgin Media and the content providers who adopt them (and feel free to not watch the channels involved).

Meanwhile, as others have posted, for the rest of us the additional bandwidth allocated to the channel means that upscaled content will look better for many on the UHD version of a channel than on the HD and the SD versions.

[mac51]

Don't think you can add UHD to a non HD package. You have to have HD first I think.

[andyshortw]

I'm sure Virgin would say so, yes, but there is no logical reason why.  I want to subscribe to the 3 UHD channels.  That's all.

[tmleafs]

Anyone with an LG having issues with the TV detecting HLG HDR

I can only get it to work with the hidden HDR menu but that would require remembering to try it off too

Have also checked some UHD content on iPlayer again doesn't auto-detect either 

V6 > Onkyo TX-NR656 > Hue Sync Box > LG OLED55BX6LB

EDIT: its my Onkyo AVR it doesn't support HLG so either upgrade or directly connect the V6 to the TV and get ARC working 🙄