Freeview HD not so clear ?

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pctong

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Topic # 29880 22-Jan-2009 09:40

Hello Everyone

I have bought a sony bravia W4500 series lcd with a built-in freeview HD tuner. I was watching the HD demo channel last night, and the picture quality is not as good as the one I saw at the shop ? Can this be cause by my old TV aerial ? It is fairly old, it came with the house, with bits missing, and the TV cable looks fairly ratty too ! If I change the TV aerial and cable, would it help ? Regarding the TV aerial, should I get someone in to install it or DIY ? Please advice !

best regards

PC Tong

sbiddle

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Reply # 191222 22-Jan-2009 10:05

Is what way is it not as good as the signal in the shop?

If you are not experiecing any picture breakups and have good signal strength (there should be a way of seeing this) then your aerial is not the problem.

If it's a simple case that you don't see a bright fantastic looking picture then you've simply fallen for the trap retailers want you to fall into. Retailers typically show custom demo discs of very high colour bright full HD 1080p signals into display TV's to make them look good. When you get home you will never experience anything like that simply because 90% of what most people watch is standard definition content.

DaveB

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Reply # 191230 22-Jan-2009 10:33

pctong: I was watching the HD demo channel last night, and the picture quality is not as good as the one I saw at the shop ? Can this be cause by my old TV aerial ?

The HD Demo channel has some loops that are of a shocking quality and I suspect overcompressed. Poseidon is a very good example of this and does nothing to demonstrate the true quality that is now available to you through HD programming.

Criminal Minds is in HD tonight on TV1 and should look quite good on your set. However, be aware that even this series does not do full justice to Hi Def. Also try McLeods Daughters, I caught a few minutes last week and it looked very good.

HD series that stand out in terms of their HD quality are the CSI New York and Miami series and Boston Legal, but I do not think they are running at the moment.

davidcole

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Reply # 191236 22-Jan-2009 10:40

Hmmm, interesting that you comment on McClouds daughters as an example of something good. I was at a friends house and on his zinwell Freeview|HD box I thought it looked quite bad. Almost like it was upscaled was pretty grainy and some of the upsclaed content actually looked better.

I've found on my Telly, that CSI Miami (tv3 tonight) and Into the Wild on tv1 look the best IMO.

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Reply # 191255 22-Jan-2009 11:53

davidcole: Almost like it was upscaled was pretty grainy and some of the upsclaed content actually looked better.

I've noticed some, but not all, HD content seems to have an appearance of a grain of some sort. Possibly a compression effect, i'm not sure, but some shows/shots do have this look. Possibly similar to a low light grain or maybe even a post production look. On the whole though, the HD stuff is different, then you get used to it, don't think it's good, and then you see what we came from in SD and you never want to go back!

sbiddle

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Reply # 191256 22-Jan-2009 11:58

Jaxson:
davidcole: Almost like it was upscaled was pretty grainy and some of the upsclaed content actually looked better.
I've noticed some, but not all, HD content seems to have an appearance of a grain of some sort. Possibly a compression effect, i'm not sure, but some shows/shots do have this look. Possibly similar to a low light grain or maybe even a post production look. On the whole though, the HD stuff is different, then you get used to it, don't think it's good, and then you see what we came from in SD and you never want to go back!

Most US HD material is all shot on film and scanned. I personally don't like this look and prefer the look of non film material - IMHO Rove is the best example of HD content on broadcast TV. It's not on at present however so you can't use it for compatative purposes.

davidcole

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Reply # 191269 22-Jan-2009 12:30

sbiddle:
Jaxson:
davidcole: Almost like it was upscaled was pretty grainy and some of the upsclaed content actually looked better.
I've noticed some, but not all, HD content seems to have an appearance of a grain of some sort. Possibly a compression effect, i'm not sure, but some shows/shots do have this look. Possibly similar to a low light grain or maybe even a post production look. On the whole though, the HD stuff is different, then you get used to it, don't think it's good, and then you see what we came from in SD and you never want to go back!

Most US HD material is all shot on film and scanned. I personally don't like this look and prefer the look of non film material - IMHO Rove is the best example of HD content on broadcast TV. It's not on at present however so you can't use it for compatative purposes.

THEN WHY MENTION IT!!

And yes I'd agree, I did see some of that before it went off air and it did look good.

lchiu7

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Reply # 191420 23-Jan-2009 00:24

Criminal Minds tonight was okay but it's only half HD with the audio still that ratty AAC stereo :-(

CSI Miami is no longer HD - they are showing previous seasons. Bones is coming up in HD 5.1.

And Ice Age 2 on the other day looked pretty good (and sounded good also). I recorded it for my son and he ended up watching in timeslip mode on my Popcorn and on passing viewings thought it looked very good.

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Reply # 191455 23-Jan-2009 09:18

Yeah Ice Age 2 was very good I thought.
It's cartoon so obviously looks good on displays anyway, but you could see the effort in the animation. Sound was good too.

Yeah the film side of things could definitely explain the grain I see every once in a while.

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Reply # 191712 24-Jan-2009 00:49

I think when it was shown in HD, hands down CSI Miami showed off HD the best.

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lchiu7

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Reply # 191735 24-Jan-2009 09:08

especially the scenes on the beach

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davidcole

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Reply # 191741 24-Jan-2009 09:19

oh bugger, so the CSI coming up next week is not in HD?? I was going to watch it.

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Reply # 191963 25-Jan-2009 14:15

I have a new Sony W4500 too and was able to try it with a DSE Zinwell box as a comparison. The Sony's built-in tuner is significantly better at providing a clean picture. On HD content the picture is as flawless as I can determine.

It did take me while to find the best picure settings but I'm happy with this set.

lchiu7

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Reply # 192037 25-Jan-2009 23:12

Bones and Numb3rs both in HD tonight on TV3 and looked pretty good. They are also advertising the US Life on Mars as being in HD coming soon so things are picking up.

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Reply # 192073 26-Jan-2009 09:33

KiwiME: I have a new Sony W4500 too and was able to try it with a DSE Zinwell box as a comparison. The Sony's built-in tuner is significantly better at providing a clean picture.

Hearing this I really hope Sony can get this PlayTV thing up and going soon. I know a lot of people are hanging out for this, hoping it will replace the freeview STB, and current DVD/HDD recorder etc.