HD TV on old TV's

by John Reid
(Yorkshire, UK)

Hi, if I upgrade my old Sky Digibox to a Sky+HD (I would be happy with Sky+ but all the deals are on the SkyHD packages) or similar Freeview HD / FreeSat HD product, can I still use my olde worlde non-HD TV (obviously viewing in lo-def picture quality)? Or are the two systems totally incompatible.

I will replace my old TV at some point but it's perfectly serviceable at the moment so I'm not prepared to skip it for the sake of it.

Many thanks.

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Hi

You certainly can use a Sky+ HD box (or similar) on a standard definition TV. Just connect it the same as your old Sky box and away you go.

The high-definition signal is just an option over the HDMI connection - and even if you connect via HDMI to your old TV (although that probably won't be possible on a standard definition TV), your TV would just scale the image to suit it's own native resolution.

The most important thing is to make sure you have a suitable connection type on your old TV. However, I believe the Sky+ HD box has a choice of HDMI, SCART, component, S-Video and good old RF aerial and so I'm sure you will be fine.

You can find more information on these different connection types at the home theater connections picture gallery.

However, don't leave it too long to upgrade the old TV, it seems a shame to pay the extra for a Sky+ HD box and not see the benefit of high-definition!

All the best.

Paul (Site Editor)

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