BBC HD - No better than SD

[jennifer]

I watch a number of BBC HD programmes and honestly cannot see any difference compared to the SD broadcast. My TV is a new Panasonic TXP3710X plasma. Set up seems correct with 1080i input selected for the HDR and an HDMI cable in use.

It may be that the Panny is so good on SD that there is no difference - but I saw an X10 display at Richer Sounds yesterday and the pictures were stunning - almost jumping out of the screen.

I realise that the source for the display model was not from an HDR, but I thought HD was HD - yes?

J

[grahamlthompson]

I watch a number of BBC HD programmes and honestly cannot see any difference compared to the SD broadcast. My TV is a new Panasonic TXP3710X plasma. Set up seems correct with 1080i input selected for the HDR and an HDMI cable in use.

It may be that the Panny is so good on SD that there is no difference - but I saw an X10 display at Richer Sounds yesterday and the pictures were stunning - almost jumping out of the screen.

I realise that the source for the display model was not from an HDR, but I thought HD was HD - yes?

J

Try playing this clip from a usb drive (It's BBC HD pre the new encoder and bit rate reduction)

http://www.4shared.com/file/185323199/57e67bb/RobinHoodHD.html

[jennifer]

Thanks Graham - Wow! 96Mb - trying to download and unzip now..... Yes I was aware of the controversy regarding BBC HD bit rate reduction last year. Still the HDR is my only source of HD - no Blu-ray to try. I tried another non-freesat channel?? - it streams HD images and I could not say that they were stunning.

J

[jennifer]

The Robin Hood clip is good and has marginally better image detail than the current HD transmissions. Wallander on Sunday may as well have been omitted from the BBC HD schedules - colour and qulity not up to that standard.

There is a dedicated thread for my TV on AV forums and I am fine tuning its settings today. Already I have an improvement in the visual of the Robin Hood HD recording. Even Wallander looks a little better.

J

[jennifer]

With my new TV settings - I watched "Silent Witness" and "Rab C. Nesbitt" in HD last night. I go back to my initial assessment - there was no real difference in viewing quality between the HD and SD transmissions.

Other forums report "amazing" HD content with Virgin and Sky but I cannot see what the fuss is about with BBC HD on the HDR.

J

[grahamlthompson]

You can only really appreciate HD if you have a big TV and sit close enough. HD allows you to watch a larger percieved picture before the artefacts become visible. For example with my 40" TV at about 4M SD and HD look very similar. Move to 2M from the TV and the differrence is very marked. On a small screen TV you would have to be very close to notice the additional picture detail. My neighbour has a 19" Sony HD ready LCD. Connected to my hdr it's very hard to tell HD from SD (captions and titleshave sharper more defined edges) but very obvious on my 40" set.

[jennifer]

I'll do some tests with ITV HD, (I understand the difference between SD and HD from them is marked), and also try sitting at 5ft which seems to be the the correct distance for a 37" panel.

J

[grahamlthompson]

I'll do some tests with ITV HD, (I understand the difference between SD and HD from them is marked), and also try sitting at 5ft which seems to be the the correct distance for a 37" panel.

J

It depends which ITV 1 region you use. ITV 1 West Country SD transmissions depending on programme can be pretty well nearly HD quality (Higher resolution and bitrate than the others). The other ITV 1 regions have dire picture quality

[jennifer]

Meridian from Rowridge Tx on terrestial. Can't understand a difference in regions with Sat?????

J

[grahamlthompson]

Meridian from Rowridge Tx on terrestial. Can't understand a difference in regions with Sat?????

J

ITV 1 West Country 704 x 576 Bitrate 5920kbps (even better than freeview)

Other ITV 1 regions 544 x 576 Bitrate about 3200 - 3500kbps.

Try postcode EX2 2JN (or add the chanel using non-freesat) to see the difference. ITV 1 WC was used pre dso to feed the terrestrial transmitters. Thankfully it's so far stayed at the higher quality.

Note you can move your local BBC 1 region back to 101 if you wish.

[jennifer]

Thanks - I'll give that a try today. I have also set a test recording of "Law & Order UK" ITV HD to compare with my regular 9200T recording of that programme.

I didn't realise non-freesat channels could be added - all I get when pressing OK whilst in non-freesat mode is previously watched channels. I only use it for the news multi screen available on T7 Strm-0 (something near to that name), as freeview killed theirs in September.

We sat 5ft from the TV last night and watched your "Robin Hood" HD clip - it is clearer. Then switched to BBC HD and that was clearer too. Our main problem then is seating distance.

I tried ITV WC and saw no appreciable difference between that and ITV South which is on the same non-freesat page so easy to swap between the 2.

J

[rexleroy]

if you watch say a tennis match the net in sd is fussy but in hd you can see the net clearly i have a 50 inch lg plasma i can see little difference to hd and said when playing a blue ray disc the picture is outstanding but it is outstanding in sd also yours rexleroy

[jennifer]

I watched tennis this morning and was able to switch sources quickly to see the differences. Sitting at 5ft the HD images were clearer, especially with detail in the distance and with smoother movement. I had to study the 2 sources of images closely for 30 minutes to really appreciate what the difference was. Not "stunning".

At my normal sitting distance - no difference.

J

[Mike0001]

How could Sky give amazing differences for BBC when it uses the same transmission? Also I thought they had no ITV HD.

You have to remember that both your AV amp and TV are probably upscaling SD to HD. Having said that, I notice a difference even with a 32" at normal watching distance. Even the depth of contrast is better, also sound if they broadcast in 5.1 and not 2.0!:D

[gomezz]

How could Sky give amazing differences for BBC when it uses the same transmission?Three possibilities are:-

1) The Sky box HD processing is better than that of the Humax;

3) The TV is set up different for the two different sources;

3) User delusion (needs a double blind test to eliminate this as a possibility).

[Mike0001]

LoL! I can see someone comparing Sky on HDMI with Freesat on Scart and saying the former is better too!