[TelstraClear] T-Box Picture quality on non-HD channels

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Kiwi1971

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#77060 10-Feb-2011 12:50

A friend of mine bought a new 46" LCD Sony Bravia and was dissapointed at how bad SD looked on it through the old small grey SD Telstra box. He has ordered the T-Box but in the mean time he wanted to know if [HD channels aside] whether there was any noticable improvement to the SD channels.

Are channels like Food, C4 etc in any way improved through this box either by higher bit rate or by virtue of being connected through HDMI as opposed to a composite lead?

DLS

TelstraClear

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#437839 10-Feb-2011 16:32

Quality is usually limited by the incoming source. The HDMI output is the highest quality output on the T-Box and of course offers superior picture over the other outputs (ie: composite, component and S-Video). TelstraClear simply passes through what is already available on the Sky and Free-to Air platforms (it is untouched apart from adding our own encryption). The T-Box will be capable of of presenting up to 1080p image if this quality is presented by content providers. Current best quality is 1080i delivery by Sky, TVNZ and TV3. see link below. A simple rule of thumb is, SD will look OK up to about 40inch TV, but over this size the SD becomes 'grainy' due to the lower bitrate.

http://www.telstraclear.co.nz/residential/inhome/homemedia/widescreen/high-definition-and-widescreen.cfm

DjShadow

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#437842 10-Feb-2011 16:40

I'll agree with TelstraClear on the TV size issue, running the new C4 channel from Freeview Satellite via a satbox with HDMI, can def see grainy images on a 50" panasonic plasma