Sky Sports Main Event UHD/HDR

[Brucemeister5]

I notice that this is launching as a stand alone channel on Sky Q and Sky Glass on Wednesday. I’m wondering whether this will be made available to BT TV customers too in the very near future.

[stereohaven]

I wouldn't have thought so, unless it was going to be available through NOW and there still isn't any hard evidence that UHD HDR is coming to that platforms content. 

Never say never though, BT and Sky did extend their cross supply deals earlier this year to take them into 2030 and we are not privy to the detail.

Nice to see Yesterday HD is also in testing on satellite so that may also make it's way to BT when they start delivering extra channels over multicast.

I notice that Sky continues to refer to "Ultra HDR" as well, which doesn't exist.

[Brucemeister5]

I was assuming that it would be made available to BT TV customers through NOW as the Pro TV box would be able to handle it wouldn’t it? We’ll see anyway.

[NigelB72]

A website posted last year that 4K HDR sports will launch at some point on NowTV if you have the HD Boost add on and I read on a NowTV forum that it would be for the start of the Premier League season but there's been no official word from Sky or BT and that thread appears to have been quietly removed.

[Brucemeister5]

I heard that Sky Sports 4K HDR would only be made available to direct NOW customers who were paying full price (currently £33.99). I assume that they’d need to be taking Boost too. Many pay a heavily discounted price by attempting to cancel and being given an offer to stay. 

BT TV customers have 3 options ( Big Sport, VIP or taking Sky Sports as an add on). If Sky Sports 4K HDR is made available to BT TV customers at no extra cost to those who currently have the right package/add on that would be a great bonus. I’d have to assume that BT Sport 4K would then be made available on Sky.

[stereohaven]

Well, not long now until you find out.

I’m not sure what will be on there all day mind, only select football games, F1 and some cricket has been in UHD HDR on Sky so far.

When you watch the F1, only the actual race footage is in UHD HDR, all the preamble, pit lane and post race coverage is upscaled HD and you can see it as well.

If this comes to pass and BT customers get access to Sky 4K sports content and if BT can hold their existing pricing and flexible packs it would be massive.

You could in effect just buy access to Sport in the best quality available all in one place, that is streamed as close to live via satellite as you can get, without the dish or having to buy an entertainment pack or low quality TV (yes you Sky Glass) and record it to watch when you want. 

That would be a major selling point in my view for BT, which is why I will be amazed if it happens. If it does, I would move back to BT TV when my Sky contract ends.

Does the BT Pro Box support HLG HDR as that is Sky’s (and BBC iPlayers) 4K delivery method?

BT Sport Ultimate uses HDR 10.

On a side note, the more 4K recordable content that becomes available, the smaller a 1TB HDD feels.

[Brucemeister5]

I’m certainly not qualified to comment on the technical detail here, but I’ve just read an article which states that Sky doesn’t support HDR 10 which is used for BT Sport Ultimate. If they are using HLG HDR and the BT Pro TV box is unable to support that then there is a potential stumbling block there. I don’t know if the very talented guys at BT would be able to find a way around that.

[stereohaven]

The older Humax YouView boxes support HLG HDR, they are listed as compatible devices in the BBC iPlayer technical help, but not the newer box.

If you have a Pro Box a quick way to check HLG support is to load iPlayer and see if you can access and play UHD content such as Sherwood, Virgil or The Tourist.

You may need to turn on "iPlayer Beta" in the settings to enable UHD if it is there as technically it is still in a never-ending trial.

HLG HDR was designed for broadcast UHD content as it allows broadcasters to transmit a signal with a wide dynamic range supported by HDR and SDR televisions, massively reducing the cost and complexity of the broadcast signal.

HLG is royalty-free, unlike more niche standards like Dolby Vision (but the best picture bar none in my view), and unlike the other HDR standards, it doesn't use metadata to tell the TV how to display the HDR content.

[ozsat]

Three years ago both VM and Sky released offiicial press released confirming they had agreed that VM will carry Sky Cinema and Sports in UHD. Cinema appear a few months later.

Still waiting for Sky Sports in UHD  -  and still no HDR on Cinema.

[stereohaven]

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@Brucemeister5wrote:

I’m certainly not qualified to comment on the technical detail here, but I’ve just read an article which states that Sky doesn’t support HDR 10 which is used for BT Sport Ultimate. 

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On the above specifically, Sky Q supports HDR10 through apps only, broadcast is in HLG HDR.

Sky Glass supports HDR10 and Dolby Vision through apps only, broadcast is in HLG HDR.

You could then in theory watch BT Sport Ultimate on Sky through the BT Sport app, but the last we were told on this forum was that it wasn't going to be made available on any Sky platform, even though reference to the app can be seen in the Sky Q XML file.

Sky Q XML file