International SD Channel Quality

[psychotrope]

I recently signed up for My Sports Germany, a Standard Definition international channel in German that shows a lot of Bundesliga soccer games. It's a great channel. But what has really surprised me the most about this channel is that as an SD channel, the picture quality is exponentially better than the regular standard definition channels in the English packages. At least the ones I've watched a lot of. When my local sports are not in HD on FSN-SW the SD picture quality is quite bad. Same with Fox Soccer Plus (although FS+ is slightly better). But watching soccer on My Sports Germany almost rivals 720p HD when zoomed to fit an HD TV! Maybe a bit of an exaggeration, but you get my point. My first thought is that they have more room on the satellite that carries the international channels so they don't have to over-compress the standard def feeds like they do with the channels on the main/English satellites. Is that the case? Does anyone know why there's such a disparity in the SD picture quality? I haven't explored any other international channels so my experience is limited, but the difference was so striking that I thought I'd ask about it.

 

[Tampa8]

I think SD quality on Dish has been generalized too much. I would agree RSN's in SD seem particularly bad. But TV Land looks quite good actually, as does EuroNews and TVJapan. (to answer your international question) I have first hand side by side proof the TV makes a difference. My calibrated LG TV makes superstations look very decent. My plain inexpensive Magnavox, with a smaller screen, makes them look not too appealing.

 

[DishSubLA]

I think Dish is allowing for higher bit rate or other measures for better PQ than other internationals because a lot of sports is on the channel you watch. 119, where a good number of RSN's are located is totally at saturation crush point.