Is Sky HD proper HD?

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

turb

881 posts

Ultimate Geek

#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.

Interests: HTPC, Web App authoring.

1 | 2

557 posts

Ultimate Geek

#729194 9-Dec-2012 09:52

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

cyril7

9058 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

Subscriber

#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

30853 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod

Trusted

Biddle Corp

Lifetime subscriber

#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

113 posts

Master Geek

#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

30853 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod

Trusted

Biddle Corp

Lifetime subscriber

#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

4084 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

#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

5052 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#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

Equinox IT

Cloud spending continues to surge globally, but most organisations haven’t made the changes necessary to maximise the value and cost-efficiency benefits of their cloud investments. Download the whitepaper From Overspend to Advantage now.

turb

881 posts

Ultimate Geek

#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.

Interests: HTPC, Web App authoring.

Niel

3267 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#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

469 posts

Ultimate Geek

#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

1395 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#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

557 posts

Ultimate Geek

#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

881 posts

Ultimate Geek

#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.

Interests: HTPC, Web App authoring.

cyril7

9058 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

Subscriber

#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

47 posts

Geek

#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