HD channels and refresh / frame rates and LCD TVs?

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spacedog

482 posts

Ultimate Geek

#63447 27-Jun-2010 09:33

Hi,

So I have a question here about watching the HD channels on my MySkyHDi with my Samsung LCD HDTV.

First off, I want to point out that I do not use the motionflow type of feature on my LCD as I think it takes normal video and makes it looks artificial and unnatural. So when watching DVDs I never apply that and especially when watching BD movies I love the fact that the LCD will scale back to 24 fps and looks 'true' to the film presentation.

But here is where I'm confused....whenever I watch channels like TV2 HD or TV1 HD and they show a film in HD, it seems like they are presenting it with that enhanced framerate so the film to me looks very "video" like and the frame rate seems very unnatural.

Is my TV picking this up from the MySky and automatically switching into an enhanced frame rate mode? Or is this happening on the backend at Sky and there is nothing I can do to turn this off?

Does this bother anyone else?

I was trying to watch Oceans Eleven last night and I had to turn it off because I thought the video looked just awful.

dasimpsonsrule

147 posts

Master Geek

#345686 27-Jun-2010 10:04

TV1 and TV2 are in 50fps, 720P. I don't think they artificially enhance the framerate, I think thats how they get given the movie

sbiddle

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#345687 27-Jun-2010 10:04

There is nothing you can do about this. All broadcasts in NZ are 50Hz - whether that be 720p50 or 1080i/25.

The content is converted from 24Hz before it's broadcast. This is an issue that the majority of people don't care about and wouldn't even notice. It's unfortunate that if you are somebody who is aware of this issue it can be very annoying!

spacedog

482 posts

Ultimate Geek

#345711 27-Jun-2010 11:06

Is this problem exacerbated by LCDs? Or do plasmas suffer the same?

spacedog

482 posts

Ultimate Geek

#345715 27-Jun-2010 11:08

Also the framerate on non-HD looks fine...it's only HD content where it starts looking funky to me. What's the non-HD framerate?

sbiddle

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#345727 27-Jun-2010 11:35

spacedog: Also the framerate on non-HD looks fine...it's only HD content where it starts looking funky to me. What's the non-HD framerate?

All framerates broadcast material are the same whether it's SD or HD - 50Hz either as 720p/50 or 1080i/25

penfald

94 posts

Master Geek

#345738 27-Jun-2010 12:25

(hopefully not off topic)

have you tried using Freeview or TiVo. I have noticed the picture can often be better or worse than Sky HD depending on the program - I generally prefer movies on TiVo

Penfald

spacedog

482 posts

Ultimate Geek

#345779 27-Jun-2010 15:03

sbiddle:
spacedog: Also the framerate on non-HD looks fine...it's only HD content where it starts looking funky to me. What's the non-HD framerate?

All framerates broadcast material are the same whether it's SD or HD - 50Hz either as 720p/50 or 1080i/25

Well...now you are making really wonder here.

SD content the motion/frame rates look perfectly fine. It is definitely only happening on channels that are HD channels

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sbiddle

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#345780 27-Jun-2010 15:11

spacedog:
sbiddle:
spacedog: Also the framerate on non-HD looks fine...it's only HD content where it starts looking funky to me. What's the non-HD framerate?

All framerates broadcast material are the same whether it's SD or HD - 50Hz either as 720p/50 or 1080i/25

Well...now you are making really wonder here.

SD content the motion/frame rates look perfectly fine. It is definitely only happening on channels that are HD channels

The problem will occur with any content that's converted from 24fps to either PAL or NTSC 50Hz or 60Hz standards. It has nothing to do whether the content is in HD or not. The common effect of a 2:2 pulldown for transfer to PAL is a 4% speedup which is normally noticeable by by the audio pitch being slightly higher.

spacedog

482 posts

Ultimate Geek

#345781 27-Jun-2010 15:16

OK...I'm a little lost....so does your above explanation actually explain why I only observe the problem with HD content?

cyril7

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#345783 27-Jun-2010 15:35

Hi, not too sure what you are seeing, I have not noticed any such issues on HD film material on TV1/2 on my MySky on a Panny Plasma, but I have observed similar things on other brands both LCD and plasma when watching TVNZ's HD services both on MySky and FreeView, so I dont think its anything Sky does, but what they are supplied.

But as Steve says films are speed up from 24fps to 25fps for playout on any 50Hz system (PAL/SD or 720p/TVNZ or 1080i/SkyMovies/TV3), that speedup is not noticable except sound naturally will pitch up unless corrected.

Movies would have been supplied to TVNZ as 1080i at 50Hz, and they will have to convert them to 720p50, exactly how this is deinterlaced and scaled is probably got to do with what you are seeing.

Sorry cannot shed anymore light on it than that.

Cheers
Cyril