Are you a + or an HD?

If you are searching for information on the different digiboxes that Sky digital provide, then the best location to look is on the main company site as they have information about all the various options you have to choose from.

Choices come in threes

Sky Television comes with the choice of three distinct types of digibox and the one that you choose will all be dictated by the digibox that you purchase.

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The Sky Box

The original digital box that Sky do is the simple digibox. This standard digital box will allow you a selection of all the Sky programmes (except HD Channels) and all the normal interactive services.

Sky +

The next digibox that Sky provide is the Sky Plus box. The Sky+ digibox is a receiver that includes a hard-drive so you can record your favourite Sky content with the press of a button. The service is amazing and allows you to not only record programs but set the machine to record a whole set of episodes with the press of a remote. The box gives the opportunity to record 2 channels at a time as well so you need never struggle to view and record what you like. The service is free on condition you subscribe to a paid TV package, alternatively there will be a ten pound monthly cost. The receiver itself can be obtained free of charge via various recommend a colleague offers but otherwise is priced at £99 depending on the available deals.

Sky HD Plus

The final Sky receiver available is the Sky High Definition receiver. The Sky high definition receiver is very similar to the Sky+ receiver except features H.D.M.I sockets that can be used with the Sky HD channels. This high definition receiver is by far the most impressive on the market and you will pay £10 monthly for the HD channels (called the High Definition mix) but it is also by far the greatest picture and audio quality on offer if you have a High definition TV.

Overall, you will need to decide what suits you, your TV style and your budget most.

More on Ordering Sky here.

All about the Coraline movie

The Coraline movie is here! Neil Gaiman’s marvellous kid’s book Coraline has become a completely enchanting movie helmed by none other than Henry Selick, the man that helmed the 1993 cult movie classic stop-motion adventure ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’. If anyone was capable of bringing Gaiman’s strange story of people with Button-eyes in an alternative version of our real world, it would be Selick. The visual aspect of the Coraline movie is a beautiful example of stop-motion animation, a moviemaking method that can truly be exciting when managed well.

Where the original Coraline book was of the same weird and wonderful sort that we’ve all come to expect and demand from Neil Gaiman, the visual element of the Coraline movie took several viewers by surprise with its palette of radiant colours and the style of animation. The Coraline movie is a marvellous piece to savour, and will thrill viewers young and old with its dreamlike story and highly entertaining cast of characters.

The acting talent that signed on to the stop motion action of the Coraline movie is extremely special too. Dakota Fanning takes the role of Coraline Jones herself, and the rest of the cast has a number of English TV icons involved, namely Ian McShane, Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders. Teri Hatcher provides the vocal work of both incarnations of Coraline’s mother. The Coraline movie’s wisecracking feline friend is voiced by John Hodgman.

It is quite fitting that such a deliciously odd novel is brought to the screen in such a manner that it does capture the essence of a dream. Stop-motion has that wonderful dreamlike quality to it that Computer generated effects are yet to possess. There is something wonderfully strange about stop motion, especially here in the Coraline movie. It may be the knowledge that the moviegoer is watching inanimate objects moving around on a giant screen, or it might just be that the finished look of a stop-mo movie is so different to various other animated films of the modern industry.

While the Coraline movie is nowhere near as packed with iconic images as The Nightmare Before Christmas, it is certainly not devoid of it’s visual treats. Just look out for the musical numbers, the disturbing metamorphoses of the characters, and yes, the chilling buttons that characters have sewn into their eyes in the alternate world. Viewers that haven’t read the story are in for a real treat as they are introduced to the crazy world that Gaiman created, a world that is like ours, just somewhat skewed.

For those who have read the book (and it has been enjoyed by just as many adults as youngsters), the Coraline Movie is as near a faithful movie version of the Coraline novel as it’s going to get. This is one children’s film that is going to become a much-loved classic for all ages. The Coraline movie is absolute magic.