Have your say & ask the experts

Have today had our Thompson Hd box, a refurb box, changed following a number of problems. Having contacted Sky and explained i did not want another Thompson refurb box but insisted on a Pace box which they agreed to do. The engineers turned up and i asked which box they had, to be informed it was an Amstrad. O.K. i thought lets see what this box produces and i have to say i am disappointed with the picture quality. On the plus side it is very quiet but my view is whats the point in buying a 5 star rated t.v. with full hd if the Sat box is only average. I should state that i have seen the picture from a Pace hd box and the picture is first rate. I will be contacting Sky again as i am determined to get hold of a Pace box.

What makes you think the Pace box is any better than any of the other makes of sky box. You say you've seen it and it had a first rate picture but was that with your TV and equipment? I think you are reading too much into the differences in these sky boxes. All of them should produce an excellent picture for HD and even if there were the smallest of differences they probably wouldn't even be noticeable. If you have the Amstard box and are getting anything less than an amazing picture your quality issue must be coming from elsewhere. I have the Amstrad Sky HD box and it is fine. Surely Sky wouldn't have bad Amstrad and Thomson boxes and good Pace ones or two thirds of those customers are likely to be pretty upset and want to leave them!

Yeah my Amstrad box is fine, although I did set it to Auto in the resolution settings to stop it upscaling SD channels, my TV does a  better job of that.

I have a new amstrad box as well and its fine.  Pic output resolution also set to Auto.

Thank's guys for the feed back, glad your all happy with your Amstrad boxes. I can only go on what i have seen, having had one of the new PACE boxes (unfortunately recalled) and as soon as i connected to the t.v. it was like wow what a great picture. I did not get the same feedback from the Amstrad, even the wife commented that the picture did not look as sharp.

But i am not rubbishing the Amstrad box even though i am giving that impression and am starting to warm to it. Will try the setting on Auto as you have suggested see if there is any improvement.