How HD is BBC HD?

[geordiejohn]

When I first watched BBC HD using a darkbox on a samsung 50" plasma I was blown away, the definition was amazing, you could see Jonathan Ross's black heads!

But not so good now, I have read that the BBC is using a "better" method of encoding and they use much less bandwidth, is this true?

Is the future of BBC HD ever reducing bandwidth as they cram more channels in? Has the picture quality actually got worse or do I need to go to the opticians?!

 

[Pietclock]

They lowered the bitrates, that is true, but the encoders are really better than they used to be. The studio HD productions look really well because they do not have much noise, so the encoders can easily encode the picture at low bitrates. It's a different story when it comes to sport like Formula 1 or football, rugby etc. The bitrates go straight up, but there is blocking. Older movies can also be problematic.

 

[Hixxy1]

It's true they use lower bitrate and have also noticed the picture isn't as good as other channels like ch5. They use 15mb/s and the picture quality is far better.



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[Analoguesat]

It's true they use lower bitrate and have also noticed the picture isn't as good as other channels like ch5. They use 15mb/s and the picture quality is far better.



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C5HD is about to move onto a new tp where it will be the 6th HD service so expect its quality to reduce.

 

[timo_w2s]

C5HD is about to move onto a new tp where it will be the 6th HD service so expect its quality to reduce.

I thought it was testing on 11798H where there are now four HD services?

 

[Analoguesat]

Oh have I miscounted? I was playing with the Dr Who BBC Radiophonic music site and not concentrating

 

[timo_w2s]

I thought it was testing on 11798H where there are now four HD services?

Just rescanned the transponder and Sky Sports News HD and Sky Sports 1 HD are both listed twice but point to the same streams. Maybe that's where the confusion was. The transponder also contains Sky Living HD and a test for Ch 5 HD.

 

[Pietclock]

It's true they use lower bitrate and have also noticed the picture isn't as good as other channels like ch5. They use 15mb/s and the picture quality is far better.



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They must have lowered the bitrates again during the last 2 weeks... on BBC Two the average is around 4Mbit/s now... and you can see more compression artefacts. I dont know why, they have enough capacity and broadcast a lot of null bytes.

 

[Hixxy1]

I think they were about 5 meg + 192k when I checked a few months ago. Maybe they're making way for more services?



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[TheProfRobin]

When I first watched BBC HD using a darkbox on a samsung 50" plasma I was blown away, the definition was amazing, you could see Jonathan Ross's black heads!

But not so good now, I have read that the BBC is using a "better" method of encoding and they use much less bandwidth, is this true?

Is the future of BBC HD ever reducing bandwidth as they cram more channels in? Has the picture quality actually got worse or do I need to go to the opticians?!

Yes geordiejohn, I totally agree. I recall walking past a hi-def demo in John Lewis in Spring 2006 and being blown over. I ordered one there and then for the summer footie; nothing like seeing an English footballing disaster in close up. Where I live I have French subscription to Canal + and of course, also get German TV by satellite. It is not possible, by any stretch of the imagination to call the bulk of BBC's transmitted media "hi-def". It is half way between the best German hi-def and standard def. Whenever tackled on this, BBC deny it. But then they switch into denial whenever they are criticised. I was looking at the latest TVs in a shop in Bruges just before christmas and local hi-def TV on a modern 50inch screen was superb. My 2006 42 inch plasma is still going strong. Your opticians remark is also worth considering though. I recall in my 30s going round shops rejecting all CRT TVs for being soft, then found independently I needed glasses for first time in my life. I took them home and found I had a new TV for the price of a pair of glasses.