Is Sky HD proper HD?

Forums › Sky, Neon › Is Sky HD proper HD?

turb

765 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 103

Topic # 112444 9-Dec-2012 09:39

The Freeview picture quality seems way better and the sound is in another league altogether. Sky seems so heavily compressed it's sometimes like watching YouTube. I know not all content is HD but I'm talking about stuff like the 6 o'clock news.

I'm watching terrestrial FV on a freeview enabled 32in TV and sky through mysky HDi & HDMI.

HTPC: Antec NSK2480B case, AMD A4-5300 CPU, Asus F2A85-M LE mobo, WD Caviar Green 64Mb 2TB HDD, HD Homerun, Win7 Home Premium, RAM 1600Mhz 4Gb.
iPad air 2

1 | 2

547 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 19

Reply # 729194 9-Dec-2012 09:52

Do you pay sky each month for the "HD ticket"?

cyril7

6337 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 309

Trusted

Subscriber

Reply # 729195 9-Dec-2012 09:59

Hi, all HD channels are 1080i, I dont believe TV1/2 are compressed any more or less than on FV, the news out of Hobson St is all SD so I would not expect it to look HD, because its not.

The Sports and Movie channels are quite good from an HD perspective in my opinion.

Cyril

sbiddle

27146 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 6579

Moderator

Trusted

Biddle Corp

Lifetime subscriber

Reply # 729197 9-Dec-2012 10:02

The news on both TV1 and TV3 is only SD. Both also tend to have terrible issues with artifacts on many cameras, particularly with low bitrate outside broadcasts.

Duffuss

111 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 3

Reply # 729795 10-Dec-2012 14:05

I have Sky HD and a Full HD TV and indeed news looks like "crud vision"
Whereas my darling has freeview HD and in a very unscientific way it looks heaps better than Sky's "version"

sbiddle

27146 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 6579

Moderator

Trusted

Biddle Corp

Lifetime subscriber

Reply # 729808 10-Dec-2012 14:21

Duffuss:
I have Sky HD and a Full HD TV and indeed news looks like "crud vision"
Whereas my darling has freeview HD and in a very unscientific way it looks heaps better than Sky's "version"

Both use the exact same upscaled 576 -> 1080i feed, the only difference in the broadcast is in the bitrate.

DjShadow

2713 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 399

Trusted

Reply # 729809 10-Dec-2012 14:22

I upgraded to a 55" Samsung LED TV yesterday, can def notice all the compression used on Sky SD, noticed 3news (TV3 HD) was showing signs of compression too

ajobbins

Awesome
4811 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 1062

Trusted

Subscriber

Reply # 729811 10-Dec-2012 14:30

I always found the Sky feeds of the FTA channels far worse than Freeview HD. Suspect what is coming off the satellite is heavily compressed where as the DVB-T feeds from Freeview are less so.

Sky run higher bit rates on the sports channels than on others - which is very noticeable, especially on large displays.

Twitter: ajobbins

turb

765 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 103

Reply # 729909 10-Dec-2012 17:49

So there's more to quality than the definition I guess. Certainly recording an All Blacks match takes up way more HDD space than anything else. I thought i was paying for maximum quality, is all.

HTPC: Antec NSK2480B case, AMD A4-5300 CPU, Asus F2A85-M LE mobo, WD Caviar Green 64Mb 2TB HDD, HD Homerun, Win7 Home Premium, RAM 1600Mhz 4Gb.
iPad air 2

Niel

3267 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 77

Trusted

Reply # 730072 11-Dec-2012 06:08

FV and Sky use different compression formats. Ons of the significant differences, apart from compression efficiency, is that MPEG2 does not require a de-blocking filter (and I can't see it implemented on Sky) where as the compression chosen for FV requires it. This by itself makes a difference in perceived quality.

You can never have enough Volvos!

Nil Einne

370 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 16

Reply # 730079 11-Dec-2012 06:34

Niel: FV and Sky use different compression formats. Ons of the significant differences, apart from compression efficiency, is that MPEG2 does not require a de-blocking filter (and I can't see it implemented on Sky) where as the compression chosen for FV requires it. This by itself makes a difference in perceived quality.

Aren't we talking about HD? I'm pretty sure Sky uses AVC/H.264 for their HD 'FTA' channels as they do for their other HD channels.

steve98

1113 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 110

Trusted

Reply # 730524 11-Dec-2012 15:22

blair003: Do you pay sky each month for the "HD ticket"?

You don't need to paying Sky for the HD ticket to receive the FTA channels in HD -- all you need is a MySky HDi box and the basic subscription.

blair003

547 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 19

Reply # 730528 11-Dec-2012 15:25

Yeah I saw that wording on their website - looks like you only need it for movies and sport.

That must be how they get away with calling it mysky HDi -- it is HD for some channels even if you don't pay for the ticket.

turb

765 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 103

Reply # 730580 11-Dec-2012 16:06

Niel: FV and Sky use different compression formats. Ons of the significant differences, apart from compression efficiency, is that MPEG2 does not require a de-blocking filter (and I can't see it implemented on Sky) where as the compression chosen for FV requires it. This by itself makes a difference in perceived quality.

I'm having trouble deciphering what you've said, sorry!

Freeview HD = mpeg2 = better perceived quality.

Do I have that right?

PS yes I am paying for the HD ticket.

PPS I'm planning to go to a FV based HTPC and I'm hoping to retain the same (perceived) better quality, but I'll post in the HTPC forum.

HTPC: Antec NSK2480B case, AMD A4-5300 CPU, Asus F2A85-M LE mobo, WD Caviar Green 64Mb 2TB HDD, HD Homerun, Win7 Home Premium, RAM 1600Mhz 4Gb.
iPad air 2

cyril7

6337 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 309

Trusted

Subscriber

Reply # 730589 11-Dec-2012 16:14

Both FVHD (SD and HD services and SkyHD (HD serivces only) use mpeg4 AVC/H.264, as for how the two are configured either the same or differently I cannot say.

Cyril

tehconz

43 posts

Geek
+1 received by user: 4

Reply # 731222 12-Dec-2012 10:55

Freeview HD and Sky HD use the same compression and very similar bitrates for 1, 2 & 3. Both based on a statistical multiplex with bitrates hovering between 8 - 10 mbits or so. There should not be a visually perceptible quality difference between the two, if there is then it's something in your setup causing it.

1 | 2