Have your say & ask the experts

I'm well aware that Currys is probably the last place anyone with any knowledge of AV kit should seek advice (no offence intended to any employees). But I just felt I had to comment on how poor the demonstration of Sky+ HD is in my local store.

I feel sorry for the average consumer (who has little or no knowledge of HD-ready this or aspect ratio that), who walks into Currys and is sold Sky+HD based on a demonstration that nowhere NEAR represents what the service truly offers. Granted, I am still currently on Sky+ myself (although I intend to upgrade by the end of the year), but even so I know that what was on display in that Currys store was unacceptable. The new EPG looked just as blurry as the old upscaled version, and all the HD channels genuinely looked worse than what I get with my current Sky+ box. MUCH worse.

I know that most TVs in such stores are often set up using inferior connections (sometimes as bad as composite), and I didn't ask anyone at the time how this particular Sky+HD box was connected (though I should have, in retrospect). And I'm sure some 'Dynamic' picture setting on the TV didn't help matters (I didn't get to check the TV settings).

But it really frustrates me to think that the average consumer will be shown this so-called 'HD', think it's wonderful and then proceed to shell out an extra £10 a month for it.

Has anyone else noticed this in other such stores? 

Jack of all trades and masters of none

To be fair to Currys they aren't on their own though the likes of Comet etc are the same. I recently went to Currys to demo some Samsung LED TV's and they couldn't even be bothered to take the computer graphic display off to show me a standard picture! Needless to say I left empty handed. Glad I did to be honest I haven't yet seen a Samsung LED that is significantly better than my Samsung LCD yet. I think I'll keep my wallet shut until something "new" takes my fancy.

With regard to Sky HD it is definitely worth the extra £10 in my opinion. I find when theres nothing on I go straight to "HD channels" on my guide just to watch something in HD! Go for it Liam

I've often found TVs in Currys displaying Sky HD through an analogue RF feed. It doesn't give a fair idea of what HD is capable of but I'm surprised they sell any TVs or any Sky packages that way.

One of our central in-store policies is that EVERY set has a HDMI feed from Sky HD. As far as I'm concerned its one of the basics.

currys near me(purley way)has just had a refit and its not bad thay are now seling amps by onkyo racks by atacima and speakers by kef thay also have a demo room(kinda)thay are selling dedicated subs and its better than the normal currys still not sure if i would buy any serious kit from them(still found the staff anoying, i was only in the store 5 minutes and i was jumped on about 4 times)

Liam19:

I feel sorry for the average consumer (who has little or no knowledge of HD-ready this or aspect ratio that), who walks into Currys and is sold Sky+HD based on a demonstration that nowhere NEAR represents what the service truly offers.

Far from feling "sorry" for these people, if they decide to shell out an extra £10 per month for HD when they've been shown a demo which doesn't represent the true quality, then you should be questoning their mental state.

On the other hand, just think how pleased they'll be when they gat their HD box installed and marvel at the superior picture quality which they weren't expecting if their expectations were only what they saw at the Currys demo.