Is Sky HD proper HD?

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turb

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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.

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Reply # 729194 9-Dec-2012 09:52

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

cyril7

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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.

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turb

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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.

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Niel

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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.

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Nil Einne

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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

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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

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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

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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.

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cyril7

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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

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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.

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