Sky HD - what a washout
By Davey Winder in Editorial
Posted in Sky on
I managed to put it off for 12 years, but having run out of excuses such as “it’s perfectly lovely as it is” or “let’s wait until the kids are old enough not to mess it up” and “if I had any spare time I would” I have finally been forced into decorating the living room at Chez Happygeek. Those with an interest in social commentary will notice that I did not say ‘lounge’ or ‘front room’ but ‘living room’ and by so doing have betrayed my council house boy working class upbringing. Those with an interest in decorating will notice I said ‘forced’ and by so doing have betrayed both my dislike of emulsion paint and parting with cash to solve the problem by allowing a professional into the house.
Surprisingly, the whole thing was going swimmingly well. Some 75% through the redecorating process, everything but the chimney breast painted, a brand new cream carpet (yes, I must be mad with a 9 and 7 year old in the house) fitted and some built-in furniture units ripped out and removed it was time to relocate the TV from one end of the room to the other. No big deal, you might think, apart from the fact that the Sky + and TV cables now came through the wall at the wrong end of said room. I could, I guess, have got a big ladder out and moved them myself. But far better to use this as an excuse to upgrade to Sky HD surely? That way I get a nice new shiny Sky box to pump high definition broadcasts into my HD ready television, and a professional gets to move the cables for me in the process.
And so it was that I made the worst decision this year so far.
Thursday lunchtime and the professional yells Davey rather too loudly for my liking. As I amble the short distance from my office to the living room I discover why. He has managed to drill straight through the main pipe supplying water from the central heating bolier to the radiators. I am greeted by dirty black water spurting onto what was a brand new cream carpet but now seems to be a slushy grey mess and quickly turning into a submerged slushy grey mess.
Eventually both the water flow and my rather loud cursing dry up. Eventually the living room is full of Sky installers and their managers from the local area office. Eventually a plumber arrives to get a new pipe in and provide my kids with hot water and hot heat for the fast approaching cold night.
Friday afternoon and eventually the people turn up to look at the water damage, and the huge hole in the wall the plumber had to demolish to get access to the pipe.
So here I am, on Sunday night, sitting in my living room trying to work with the sound of two underfloor heaters and fans, two above floor fans and huge industrial dehumidifier all competing for the prize of which can give Davey the biggest headache. At least the carpet is dry, and by Tuesday I am told the floor and walls will be as well. Sometime after Easter I might even have a rebuilt wall, and can start decorating. Again.
Now being a consumate geek I probably wouldn’t have minded so much had Sky HD been any good, but sadly it is far from it. Sure, the few shows being broadcast in HD, mainly on Discovery and National Geographic channels, are impressive. But you quickly get fed up with the blatant lie that is Sky One HD. You may think you are getting an HD channel, but check out the ‘info’ button and you discover that 90% of the output is not in HD at all. What’s the point of a HD channel that shows largely non-HD content?
More to the point, where is my extra
Rated: 100% (1 votes)
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