After the battle with Sky for 2 years to have a working Sky+ setup, I have been accidentally upgraded to HD. The visiting engineer didn't have any Sky+ boxes, and as we've had 4 in the house and all have failed I was happy to see the back of the 4th and the installation of Sky HD.

I've resisted HD TV for as long as possible, and so was happy that I hadn't ordered an upgrade (at a cost of £10 a month) so was still on the regular sky price structure. This gave me a chance to see HD in my own front room as free to air (BBC HD, ITV 1 HD, etc) HD channels were available.

After watching ITV1 HD and switching to regular ITV1 constantly I have to say the difference is amazing. Is it worth £10 a month though? For us it is, we have the full Movie and Sports package from Sky and all of this content is available in HD. I'd be concerned about the current lack of HD channels in other genres of channel at the moment, but I'm sure more channels are coming soon.

The big selling point for me though isn't the HD picture... it's the software in the box. The arranging of series into "stacks" or groups makes finding recordings easier, and so more enjoyable to watch. You can keep watching on a "mini" TV whilst setting up other recordings. And more importantly, unlike Sky+, when I set it to record something it actually does it... and plays it back in a watchable quality.