MGM HD and E4 HD are the latest additions to the Sky line-up of high definition channels, both being officially added to the EPG earlier today.

There's a sense of déjà vu however, because once again a new HD channel is blighted by a huge and obnoxious on-screen digital graphic (DOG), or logo, stuck in one corner.  Telly Toad readers will remember our reaction to Disney's huge on-screen logo when their HD channel first launched, and thankfully it was eventually toned down (but is still far from ideal).  Now MGM is following suit, with a huge, bold “MGM HD” logo stuck on top of all their programming.

Now let's be clear here, the partnership between Sky and MGM is a good one, we can look forward to a 24-hour-a-day schedule of classic movies that have all been remastered for HD broadcast, but not with that huge, obnoxious logo stuck in the corner!

MGM HD's huge on-screen logo blights the launch night's showing of the Pink Panther movies. With any luck, Joanna Lumley will start a campaign to have it removed.

BET HD has launched in the UK, specifically for the BET Awards, which will be shown at 8:30pm on Saturday, July 4th. The broadcast is being marketed as exclusively available to Freesat viewers.

“Being able to broadcast this year’s BET Awards exclusively on Freesat in HD is a real coup and we hope Freesat viewers will really enjoy watching some of the world’s biggest entertainers like Beyonce and Jay Z with amazing HD picture and sound quality," said Freesat managing director Emma Scott as reported by Digital Spy. BET is The Black Entertainment Television network, and their awards promote the best African American talent in the fields of TV, film, sport and music.

Ms. Scott is clearly living in a utopian marketing bubble however, because BET HD is also available to anyone who has a Sky+ HD receiver.  Adding the channel is achieved in exactly the same way as adding ITV HD, with just a couple of minor differences.

Firstly, follow steps one to five in our guide, ITV on Sky HD.  Then enter the following details, as shown in the screen below:

Frequency (GHz): 12.730
Polarisation: V
Symbol Rate (Mbaud): 27.5
FEC: 2/3

After pressing the yellow button to “Find Channels”, BET HD will be listed as Freesat HD F6U as in the screen below.

Simply store the channel as detailed in our ITV HD guide, and viewing it is exactly the same too; go to “Other Channels” under the “Options” menu (the same caveats about EPG listings and recording apply).  Currently the channel is showing a ident card, but come Saturday night, fingers crossed, Sky HD viewers will also be able to view the BET Awards... with amazing HD picture and sound quality. Thank you Emma! 

BET HD, a Freesat “exclusive” that's also available to Sky HD customers (the dodgy colour is their fault, not ours). The SD version of BET can be found on the Sky EPG at channel number 191 and on Freesat channel 140. Both are free to air.

Martina Cole's The Take concluded last night on Sky 1 and Sky 1 HD. Billed as a gritty four-part drama it was certainly that, surpassing even The Sopranos when it came to blood, gore and sheer, downright nastiness.

Essentially a story about seedy, underworld crime, the action centered around Freddie, a psychopath if ever there was one, his dysfunctional family and their own emotional breakdowns into violence, alcoholism and drug abuse. Aside from countless murders (including child fratricide) committed with an unnerving level of venom, Cole also included torture, graphic rape and various instances of grievous bodily harm, which left victims in a vegetative state.  Sounds like fun, doesn't it?

And yet, even though the writing lacked depth and its objective was clearly to shock, Sky's translation to the small screen was strangely compelling, largely due to the performance of Tom Hardy as Freddie, who absolutely nailed the role of psychotic, drug-addled thug.

Back when I was in high school, sitting behind me in maths class was a boy we called “Cocker”. He wasn't a bully, in fact if you were brave enough to get to know him he was actually quite sensitive with an engaging character, but he could turn, and he'd get a look in his eye that would strike fear into the whole school, teachers included.  Everyone walked on egg-shells because of it. I haven't seen that look since 1986, until now, because Tom Hardy's Freddie had the same menace.

Kierston Wareing as the constantly disheveled (and rather snotty) Jackie and Charlotte Riley as sister Maggie both fared well, although there were a few weak scenes between them, probably as a result of having to continually cry on-cue, which was what both women spent most of their time doing.  As Jimmy, the fourth lead, Shaun Evans was perhaps the least convincing of the quartet, but only due to the lack of character development on the part of the writer, an area illustrated by the naming of the major characters; Jackie, Maggie, Jimmy, Freddie, Ozzy...

At times it was all too easy to pick flaws in the story, such as the lack of accountability for all the crimes committed (floods of blood and a trail of evidence that a blind policeman could follow) with no sign of the law, but it was also easy to forgive such flaws on the back of Tom Hardy's performance, which constantly stole the show, including the only hint at humour. Explaining to his young son why he has to go and live with grandma: “I dont wanna go!” “I know, but you have to, because otherwise uncle Jimmy is going to kill you, right? Do you understand?”

Production values were excellent throughout with some notably polished cinematography benefiting from a sparkling high definition image. Only once was there any noticeable digital manipulation (applied to blur away the spots on actress Charlotte Riley's chin, such are the perils of HD), otherwise it was clean, grain-free and full of detail. Over 600,000 tuned in for the final, which is quite a healthy number for a subscription channel and drama that wasn't likely to be to everyone's taste.

Kudos to Sky for venturing into an area typically dominated by the BBC and ITV, and in many areas outdoing them.  Homegrown drama, produced in high-definition, is to be encouraged, and with Martina Cole's The Take, the cast, Company Pictures, Warner Sisters and Sky's production team turned a rather distasteful, bland book into compelling, stylish and some would say unmissable television.

 
Tom Hardy and Shaun Evans in Martina Cole's The Take, gritty drama from Sky 1.

ITV HD can now be viewed on Sky+ HD boxes, thanks to Sky's new EPG and operating system, currently in the process of being rolled out to Thomson, Pace, Samsung and Amstrad HD boxes.

The channel has to be added manually, so check out our Step-by-Step Guide to adding ITV HD to your Sky+ HD box.

There aren't many programmes – let's face it, the channel is a complete waste of bandwidth most of the time – but with Champions League, FA Cup and England's World Cup qualifying matches, plus the likes of Law and Order, Lewis and Moving Wallpaper (OK, forget I mentioned that last one) it's certainly worth making the effort.

Doctors, the BBC's Birmingham-based afternoon soap opera, made its début in high definition today with an episode entitled 'Defining Happy', marking a first for the BBC, their first HD soap.

I already know what you're thinking... why Doctors?  Yes, there are far preferable and more deserving subjects of the HD treatment, for example, the BBC's HD sport output is woeful and a few more movies wouldn't hurt, but in reality Doctors has been produced in high definition for some time, it just hasn't been broadcast in HD – another one of those weird things the BBC do – so moving the programme onto the HD channel won't have had any real impact on the production budget.  Additional good news, as you can hopefully tell from our example clip, is that the image quality is actually of a really high standard with lots of bold, saturated colours and almost completely free of noise.  HD standards at the BBC are improving of late and this is a good illustration of that.

This is series ten of Doctors and the current cast includes veterans of the programme Stirling Gallacher and Diane Keen, but some return viewers hoping for a feast of high definition loveliness will be disappointed to learn that both Sarah Manners and Corrinne Wicks (aka Dr. Norks, currently touring in The Holly and The Ivy) have left the show - in 2001 and 2005 and respectively.

Doctors is often described as “comfort television”, the sort of thing you'd only usually watch if you're at home sick, unemployed or a student.  Because there are a couple of new stories every day and a lot of guest performers, the show doesn't have the greatest reputation for its acting, but in fairness some of the issues they tackle are sensitively treated and there's none of the gratuitous blood and guts you'll see in Holby City or Casualty.

Because the regular 1:45pm slot on BBC One is outside BBC HD's broadcasting hours, Doctors is being shown in HD at 6pm (with a late night repeat).  Whether it'll hold an early evening audience remains to be seen, although the HD showing of Hollyoaks on Channel 4 HD immediately after might help.

Download Windows Media HD - 720p 130.3MB

 
Doctors, the BBC soap set in Birmingham, makes its début in high definition.

Pace Sky+ HD receivers are being recalled by Sky.  Customers who own certain revisions of the Pace TDS850NB are being contacted directly by Sky with regards to a potential fault uncovered during testing, that may manifest itself in the future.

When I spoke to a member of the Sky Technical team earlier today, he would not divulge the details of what the fault might involve, but did assure me that it was not a matter of health and safety, and that it did not involve any issues of a hazardous nature (early suggestions are that it is hard-disk related).  Neither could he reveal which specific batch of Pace Sky HD boxes are being recalled, although according to our own initial research, many of them appear to have been purchased through the recent Tesco promotion and are version 9F3002 or 9F3003, 1.614.

For those with boxes that are affected, and reports suggest the number may be in excess of seven thousand, Sky are offering an engineer visit to install a replacement, together with a new twelve month guarantee and three free months of Sky HD subscription.  Unfortunately, Sky are not able to say whether the replacement box will be a Thomson, Samsung, Amstrad or another Pace, or whether it will be a refurbished item.

This puts owners of affected Pace Sky+ HD receivers in an awkward position; either hang onto a (currently) fully-functioning box knowing that it might develop a fault of unknown nature in the future, or arrange a replacement for what might turn out to have lip-sync or noise issues or perhaps worse still, a refurbished Thomson. The box swap is optional, not mandatory.

If you don't know what brand of HD receiver you own or what revision it is, those details can be determined via “Services” -> “System Setup” -> “System Details” from the on-screen menus.

Given that many consider the Pace to be one of the better Sky+ HD boxes, this recall will come a something of a surprise, although confidence in the build quality of previous Sky HD boxes has never been particularly high.

Important Update 15/02/2009

Four days after we broke this story, Sky have finally provided an official announcement that helps clarify the situation. All the information we originally posted was correct, but the news is worse than we originally thought.  Ninety thousand Pace Sky+ HD receivers are being recalled over a period of approximately twelve weeks.  They are all those produced as part of the first batch: versions 9F3001, 9F3002, 9F3003 and 9F3004. As we initially suspected, some of those who have already had engineer visits have been offered Thomson Sky+HD boxes as replacements.

The Sky statement explains that: “The issue relates to the way in which some of the boxes in the batch were assembled. In particular, it involves the internal cabling and the quality of the connections between components. This means that the build quality of the box may not meet Sky’s standards. The assembly flaw does not involve a faulty component, such as a hard drive, or a software problem. Importantly, Pace has confirmed that the assembly flaw does not pose a safety risk.”

The full text of the Sky statement can be found at: Pace Sky+ HD boxes