HD picture quality not as good as before?

[richiephx]

Exactly. Look at some of the MPEG2 channels like HBO, SHO or DiscoveryTheater..the picture quality really sucks now. I don't even watch HBO or DiscTh any more. I dropped Showtime and will probably drop HBO too.

 

[gadgtfreek]

Ill not argue that the mpeg2 stuff stinks, Deadliest Catch is horrible. Mpeg 4 looks good to me.

 

[JEFFinINDY]

I watched some of Transformers on Cinemax HD last night and then I was watching TMNT this morning on Cinemax HD and there is definately a lot of pixelation or macro blocking during fast motion scenes. I understand that 1080i doesnt have as fast a frame rate as 720p or 1080p but to have those kinds of anomalies seems to be more of an over compression to me than it would be display format. The HD channels still look better then SD but ive definately seen better HD before...especially BD movies.

You're expecting way too much from TV. You'll never, ever be happy if you compare satellite HD to BluRay.

 

[larrylwill]

You're expecting way too much from TV. You'll never, ever be happy if you compare satellite HD to BluRay.

You might say that if you have never seen true 1080i not compressed. PBS used to broadcast it. Also C-Band sat HD is WAY better.

 

[JEFFinINDY]

You might say that if you have never seen true 1080i not compressed. PBS used to broadcast it. Also C-Band sat HD is WAY better.

I don't think you've ever seen uncompressed 1080i either.

Everything is compressed. OTA is compressed. BluRay is compressed. But even OTA MPEG-2 broadcasts at 18Mbps can't compare to 33-40Mbps of MPEG4 that you can get from BluRay.

C-Band, well... I'll take your word on that.

 

[larrylwill]

I have definitely seen it live along side uncompressed Pal and NTSC. In the early days PBS used to broadcast it on their C-Band feeds uncompressed. They didn't compress it the local stations did after they got it off the bird to rebroadcast it OTA. The same went for almost every station on the C-Band feeds. They sent it up uncompressed and the down link stations compressed it before putting it on cable or DBS or OTA. Much of it is still done that way. All re broadcasters like Dish, DTV, local networks get their feeds off C or KU band and then compress it to rebroadcast it.
Before the networks scrambled their feeds it was great. Although in those days there was little HD.

 

[USMCGrunt0307]

I know the HD channels are a long long way off from becoming par with BD but my point was that the PQ has gone down significantly and its definately noticeable...and of course the bigger the tv the more..."duh" that is.

 

[gadgtfreek]

I have a 50" and I dont think that helps with the compression. I can imagine how it looks on someones 60" DLP.

 

[JEFFinINDY]

I have definitely seen it live along side uncompressed Pal and NTSC. In the early days PBS used to broadcast it on their C-Band feeds uncompressed. They didn't compress it the local stations did after they got it off the bird to rebroadcast it OTA. The same went for almost every station on the C-Band feeds. They sent it up uncompressed and the down link stations compressed it before putting it on cable or DBS or OTA. Much of it is still done that way. All re broadcasters like Dish, DTV, local networks get their feeds off C or KU band and then compress it to rebroadcast it.
Before the networks scrambled their feeds it was great. Although in those days there was little HD.

It will be interesting to see what happens when Starz and HBO (and hopefully others) start providing their feeds to Dish and other providers in MPEG-4 format, so no conversion from one compressed format to another compressed format will need to occur.

 

[kstuart]

I have definitely seen it live along side uncompressed Pal and NTSC. In the early days PBS used to broadcast it on their C-Band feeds uncompressed. They didn't compress it the local stations did after they got it off the bird to rebroadcast it OTA. The same went for almost every station on the C-Band feeds. They sent it up uncompressed and the down link stations compressed it before putting it on cable or DBS or OTA. Much of it is still done that way. All re broadcasters like Dish, DTV, local networks get their feeds off C or KU band and then compress it to rebroadcast it.
Before the networks scrambled their feeds it was great. Although in those days there was little HD.

You are confusing "uncompressed" and "HD".

No one has broadcast uncompressed HD on anything - satellite or OTA.

Uncompressed HD digital video would require an entire satellite's bandwidth by itself for one channel.

 

[larrylwill]

What I saw in Berlin Germany 1982 was demonstration of HD it was
ANALOG and uncompressed hard wired. Alongside Pal HD and PAL and NTSC normal,
long before it was available for broadcast. I also watched early HD on a Unity motion C-Band sat receiver in 1080i . If it was compressed then it was Analog compression not digital.

 

[richiephx]

When I first got HD on E* several years ago, there was no MPEG4, just MPEG2. HD Theater, HDNet and HBO were really sharp and crisp. When it comes to OTA HD, my local PBS sent a looping video in HD that was spectacular but now even that quality has been lowered because they added multiple sub channels. Over the years, E* has added more and more HD channels to its transponders, sharing the bandwidth because people demanded more and more channels. The picture quality declined. When MPEG4 was introduced, the initial picture quality was very good and now, by dish adding 6 or more channels on each transponder, the quality again is mediocre. As HD tvs get bigger and better, unless E* gives its channels the needed bandwidth it needs and deserves to make the picture spectacular again, the picture quality will continue to look like crap. As I said previously, I am giving E* the benefit of the doubt to do the right thing. If they don't I will not pay for something that is less than what they should be delivering.