Somewhat underwhelmed by new HDTV picture quality

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sbiddle

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#316199 8-Apr-2010 13:09

Lurch: Changed to a Magic TV box which up scales everything to 1080p, sure SD sources upscaled are not quite HD but the picture is impressive.

When you do view an HD program however it's fantastic, the detail is amazing.

Since getting the Magic TV box theres been no problems with picture quality, before that on the DVB-S service it was shocking.

So it all comes down to the source.

Any Full HD panel is essentially doing the same thing and upscaling everything to 1080p - firstly it has to deinterlace the content (which goes back to the whole which is better 720p vs 1080i debate) and then upscale it to fit a 1920x1080 panel.

The difference in picture quality just comes down to the quality of the hardware and software doing the upscaling.

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dougierydal

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#317279 12-Apr-2010 12:08

allstarnz: another thing that I forgot to mention...

if you want to admire the beauty of HD footage, flick over the the coverage of The Masters. Flicked over to the coverage of the golf this morning briefly, some really nice sharp pictures.

Watched the Golf this morning in HD, blown away by the picture...fantastic quality and Augusta is a beautiful place to appreciate the images coming through...

Gordy7

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#317282 12-Apr-2010 12:20

I am a bit confused about terrestrial HD Freeview picture quality and resolution.

Seems hard to find the answer.
From what I see here its reads like 720p is the max transmitted.
Reads like 1080p is only available from DVDs.

What lines and resolution are transmitted by NZ (terrestrial) Freeview?

Any good sources of info?

Cheers

Gordy

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mentalinc

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#317286 12-Apr-2010 12:27

Gordy7: I am a bit confused about terrestrial HD Freeview picture quality and resolution.

Seems hard to find the answer.
From what I see here its reads like 720p is the max transmitted.
Reads like 1080p is only available from DVDs.

What lines and resolution are transmitted by NZ (terrestrial) Freeview?

Any good sources of info?

Cheers

From memory
TV1 and TV2 @720p
TV3 @1080i
C4 576i

Not to sure on the others but prob the same as C4.

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huxtable

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#317294 12-Apr-2010 12:42

Gordy7:
Reads like 1080p is only available from DVDs.

Not quite true - DVDs aren't "HD" at all, max res of approx 560p (someone will correct me).

Bluray, on the other hand, can output at Full 1080p HD (requiring an actual Bluray player, HDMI cable, and Full HD TV, of course).

Gordy7

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#317297 12-Apr-2010 12:47

Thanks for the Blue Ray correction and 1080p.

Will Freeview Terrestrial ever transmit full 1080p.

Another digression: What is Satellite Freeview resolution?

Cheers

Gordy

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mikerussellnz

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#317301 12-Apr-2010 12:52

Gordy7:
Thanks for the Blue Ray correction and 1080p.

Will Freeview Terrestrial ever transmit full 1080p.

Another digression: What is Satellite Freeview resolution?

Cheers

Freeview not likely to offer 1080p as the bandwidth required would be too high. Also, I am not sure but I don't think the Freeview Standard requires 1080p, so a lot of the TV's / Set top boxes may not be able to handle 1080p.

Satellite Freeview is 576i.

robjg63

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#317308 12-Apr-2010 13:09

Gordy7:
Thanks for the Blue Ray correction and 1080p.

Will Freeview Terrestrial ever transmit full 1080p.

Another digression: What is Satellite Freeview resolution?

Cheers

I dont think anywhere is the world is broadcasting 1080p - so I dont think this is ever likely - it would chew up too much bandwidth (frequency).

Satellite Freeview is 576 lines (SD - Not HD - Standard Def not Hi Def) - but the common complaint is that they are heavily compressing it and it looks worse than it should. The reason they are compressing it I gather is that the broadcasters wanted to have regional advertising. Initially Freeview satellite was just one 'channel' (say TV1) for the whole country - no matter where you were you got the same program and adverts. To try and get regional advertising they effectively broadcast the same program stream but with different adverts. In other words TV1 (upper north island/ TV1 Lower North/TV1 Upper South/TV1 Lower South) and likewise all the other channels. So in the same bit of frequency where they started out with one apparently nice sharp not compressed TV1, they now have 4 squashed TV1s. Excessive compression leads to blocky looking pictures.

Just to confuse you further, I gather you can get the Freeview HD channels broadcast over SkyTV in HD. They presumably do not pump out the regional variants and therefore have allowed enough bandwidth to be broadcasting an ok looking HD picture on Satellite)

If you are in a Freeview HD area and have good size HD tv then Freeview HD is pretty good.

PS have you looked on www.freeviewnz.tv - lots of info there and of course
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeview_(New_Zealand)

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lchiu7

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#317316 12-Apr-2010 13:30

robjg63:
Gordy7:
Thanks for the Blue Ray correction and 1080p.

Will Freeview Terrestrial ever transmit full 1080p.

Another digression: What is Satellite Freeview resolution?

Cheers

I dont think anywhere is the world is broadcasting 1080p - so I dont think this is ever likely - it would chew up too much bandwidth (frequency).

DirectTV in the US is

Direct TV 1080p

As an aside, I find Freeview HD excellent when displayed on my 1080p projector on a 100" screen. It's almost as good as BluRay

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sbiddle

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#317330 12-Apr-2010 13:59

lchiu7:
robjg63:
Gordy7:
Thanks for the Blue Ray correction and 1080p.

Will Freeview Terrestrial ever transmit full 1080p.

Another digression: What is Satellite Freeview resolution?

Cheers

I dont think anywhere is the world is broadcasting 1080p - so I dont think this is ever likely - it would chew up too much bandwidth (frequency).

DirectTV in the US is

Direct TV 1080p

As an aside, I find Freeview HD excellent when displayed on my 1080p projector on a 100" screen. It's almost as good as BluRay

You do realise their 1080p is only VOD? There is nobody commercially broadcasting 1080p purely because of the bandwidth requirements.

fahrenheit

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#317353 12-Apr-2010 14:41

Survivor on TV3 would be the best current running program. No idea how Sky are handling it but its 1080i on Freeview HD and looks spectacular. Shame I don't care for the show.

openmedia

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#317355 12-Apr-2010 14:47

Gordy7:
Thanks for the Blue Ray correction and 1080p.

Will Freeview Terrestrial ever transmit full 1080p.

At the moment no broadcaster uses 1080p, the best you can hope for is 1080i

Gordy7:

Another digression: What is Satellite Freeview resolution?

All freeview DTH (Satellite) is 576i MPEG2 with MP2 audio.

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sbiddle

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#317367 12-Apr-2010 15:13

It's also worth noting that many people will even beg to differ over which is better - 1080i or 720p.

1080i is transmitted in an interlaced format. Interlacing was created for old CRT TV's so the first job your flash LCD or Plasma has to do with an interlaced signal is deinterlace it since all panels are progressive scan. Because 720p is transmitted in progressive scan already no deinterlacing is required.

While 1080i has more pixels than 720p it's only refreshing the screen 25 times per second rather than the 50 with 720p. This gives merit to the long staning argument that 720p is far better for fast action movies and sport while 1080i is better for everything else.

Dunnersfella

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#317450 12-Apr-2010 18:24

sbiddle: It's also worth noting that many people will even beg to differ over which is better - 1080i or 720p.

1080i is transmitted in an interlaced format. Interlacing was created for old CRT TV's so the first job your flash LCD or Plasma has to do with an interlaced signal is deinterlace it since all panels are progressive scan. Because 720p is transmitted in progressive scan already no deinterlacing is required.

While 1080i has more pixels than 720p it's only refreshing the screen 25 times per second rather than the 50 with 720p. This gives merit to the long staning argument that 720p is far better for fast action movies and sport while 1080i is better for everything else.

I'm not so sure that all TV's are progressive scan...
Sony do not specify 1080i or 1080p on their TV's as they have used both.

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