topic Re: Removing HD option in Sky Q

Removing HD option

Vince888 — Sat, 24 May 2025 17:44:15 GMT

Hi, we have Sky Q with Movies and HD options

Trying to save a little money, what happens if we remove HD option, do we then lose many channels?

What about movies, are they only HD so won't be able to watch any, or only a few Movie channels?

Thanks in advance.

Re: Removing HD option

oldfella — Sat, 24 May 2025 17:52:01 GMT

@Vince888 wrote:

Hi, we have Sky Q with Movies and HD options

Trying to save a little money, what happens if we remove HD option, do we then lose many channels?

What about movies, are they only HD so won't be able to watch any, or only a few Movie channels?

Thanks in advance.

Hi @Vince888

Sky Cinema (Movies) is in HD as standard on Q if you subscribe.

The Sky Q Sports pack and TNT Sport if you subscribe through Sky are also in HD as Standard.
Sky Signature includes BoxSets and Entertainment channels only in SD as standard.
Only free to air channels such as BBC, ITV etc are in HD. The Q HD pack is required for all other Sky Signature HD content, including Catch Up in HD, On Demand in HD and BoxSets in HD
If you do not have the Optional HD pack you need to change the Download to SD in All Formats (as HD is the default setting).
So that you do not need to do this every time it’s best to change your Download preference to SD in Home - Settings - Setup - Preferences.
This needs to be done on the main Q box.
Then if you want to download any HD content from free to air channels (BBCHD ,ITVHD etc) you can select HD in the All formats tab of the content . This will change the format for that particular download only but still leave your format to SD in preferences.

Re: Removing HD option

Vince888 — Sat, 24 May 2025 18:27:24 GMT

thanks for all that information.

I have the Cinema extra subscription, but are you saying I must pay the extra HD option to watch all the Cinema channels?

or can I watch them all in SD?

Re: Removing HD option

oldfella — Sat, 24 May 2025 18:29:47 GMT

@Vince888 wrote:

thanks for all that information.

I have the Cinema extra subscription, but are you saying I must pay the extra HD option to watch all the Cinema channels?

or can I watch them all in SD?

No @Vince888

Sky Cinema is in HD as standard as I said in my post. You do not need the HD add on to watch HD Sky Cinema.

Re: Removing HD option

Vince888 — Sun, 25 May 2025 07:15:30 GMT

Great, OK so can still watch Cinema. All Movie channels too?

Final part just to be clear, when removing the additional HD subscription do we lose any other channels, or can still watch all of them but just in SD?

Thanks in advance.

Re: Removing HD option

nigea99 — Sun, 25 May 2025 07:43:43 GMT

@Vince888 wrote:

Great, OK so can still watch Cinema. All Movie channels too?

Final part just to be clear, when removing the additional HD subscription do we lose any other channels, or can still watch all of them but just in SD?

Thanks in advance.

hi @Vince888

No you don't loose channels - as you say you just have access to the SD versions

As @oldfella you can watch any Free to Air (FTA) channels that are in HD (some of which like the BBC & ITV only have HD versions now)

One quirk is that you can watch & record Channel4 & C5 in HD but can only watch SD downloads without the HD add on

Re: Removing HD option

Vince888 — Thu, 05 Jun 2025 11:29:54 GMT

For sake of completeness, when I called Sky to change my current package and remove HD, they said I would no longer be able to watch any recordings or purchases that are in HD 😞 😟

Re: Removing HD option

nigea99 — Thu, 05 Jun 2025 11:35:13 GMT

@Vince888 wrote:

For sake of completeness, when I called Sky to change my current package and remove HD, they said I would no longer be able to watch any recordings or purchases that are in HD 😞 😟

You can still watch any Purchases but not recordings for any Subscription HD channel

You can also watch FTA (Free to Air) channel HD recordings without the HD add on (although not C4 & Channel 5 HD downloads )

Re: Removing HD option

Chodley — Thu, 05 Jun 2025 14:26:33 GMT

Think I'd cut down by 1 pint a month ahead of losing HD.

Re: Removing HD option

Marlu-Nyu — Thu, 05 Jun 2025 14:55:48 GMT

@oldfella wrote:
@Vince888 wrote:
Hi, we have Sky Q with Movies and HD options
Trying to save a little money, what happens if we remove HD option, do we then lose many channels?
What about movies, are they only HD so won't be able to watch any, or only a few Movie channels?
Thanks in advance.

Hi @Vince888
Sky Cinema (Movies) is in HD as standard on Q if you subscribe.
The Sky Q Sports pack and TNT Sport if you subscribe through Sky are also in HD as Standard.
Sky Signature includes BoxSets and Entertainment channels only in SD as standard.
Only free to air channels such as BBC, ITV etc are in HD. The Q HD pack is required for all other Sky Signature HD content, including Catch Up in HD, On Demand in HD and BoxSets in HD
If you do not have the Optional HD pack you need to change the Download to SD in All Formats (as HD is the default setting).
So that you do not need to do this every time it’s best to change your Download preference to SD in Home - Settings - Setup - Preferences.
This needs to be done on the main Q box.
Then if you want to download any HD content from free to air channels (BBCHD ,ITVHD etc) you can select HD in the All formats tab of the content . This will change the format for that particular download only but still leave your format to SD in preferences.

Just to add to @oldfella's comment.

In the UK, Sky Sports subscribers get both HD & SD channels (most Sky Sports SD channels have been delisted in the UK). My understanding is that TNT Sports and Premier Sports are separate subscriptions and get the HD and SD where available.

In Ireland, it's slightly different:
For Sky Sports, the HD pack is required for HD channels.
For TNT Sports and Premier Sports channels, one can get both HD and SD channels via the Sports Extra pack.

Just wanted to add this for future readers.