simonlpearce Posted July 23, 2012 Report Share Posted July 23, 2012 I just picked up a new TV - Sony HX923 and have connected it to my Sky +HD box over the weekend. The TV itself is fantastic and watching Blu Ray/3D films really is one of the better pictures i have seen. However one thing that is annoying me is some of the sky HD content doesn't seem as clear as i expected. Comedy Central HD is a good example of this where the picture looks a little grainy and some of the text looks pixelated...Yet if i watch SKY F1 HD the image is amazing. Is that down to my settings or is that down to Sky??? Is some of the stuff they stick on the HD chanels not actual true HD? It has all new HDMI cables so i dont expect this to be the problem and i have checked all the connections to the back of the box are good and all seems ok to me. Any other ideas? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjn Posted July 23, 2012 Report Share Posted July 23, 2012 A lot of the stuff sky show, is just upscaled. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simonlpearce Posted July 23, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 23, 2012 That would make sense then, as some channels are awesome and some are no better than it was before HD... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frobius Posted July 23, 2012 Report Share Posted July 23, 2012 Make sure you set the box up to highlight programmes that originate in HD. That way, on your HD channels, programmes that are actually being broadcast in HD rather than being upscaled will come up in yellow on the planner. Sadly although some channels are HD, they're broadcast with such a limited data rate that the quality suffers like hell. Example, BBC HD used up be f*cking stunning. Then they had to reduce the data rate do sky could fit more HD channels in per multiplex. The quality has dropped notably on that channel since I got HD. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simonlpearce Posted July 23, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 23, 2012 Have got it set up so that it highlights the HD programs in yellow, and i still notice a considerable difference between certain channels. Will just have to keep an eye on it and maybe stick a complaint in to sky if things don't improve. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colossuss Posted July 23, 2012 Report Share Posted July 23, 2012 A lot of the programmes on Comedy Central were made before HD even came out! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjn Posted July 23, 2012 Report Share Posted July 23, 2012 If the show was recorded on film, then its not a problem, even if it was made in 1950, its when the shows are recorded on video. Film has a resolution far higher than HD of 1080p. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colossuss Posted July 23, 2012 Report Share Posted July 23, 2012 FIlming won't have anything to do with it though, unless they re-release them Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjn Posted July 23, 2012 Report Share Posted July 23, 2012 Eh? Material recorded on film has a higher resolution than standard 1080p HD. Material recorded on video has a lower resolution than standard 1080p HD. The stuff on Comdey Central, was mostly recorded on video, so there are no film masters to use for a HD output. So they have to upscale the video recordings to HD, which is why they suck. However, movies recorded on 35mm film back in the day, can still be mastered for HD, and look stunning. Assuming the film hasn't rotted away into nothingness, as that is a major downfall of film, and why a lot of movies need restoration work to remove dirt, scratches, etc. Then you have the bandwidth of the channels, and codec used. Compared to BR, sky HD is low bitrate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mit Posted July 23, 2012 Report Share Posted July 23, 2012 It's because HD uses lots of bandwidth and only the premium channels from Sky themselves use the maximum. Other channels from other companies run higher compression to use less bandwidth, because it's significantly cheaper for them and sky can then use multiplexing to fit more channels into the same amount of bandwidth. The highest quality HD you get on Sky are Sports, News and Movies. The rest is much more compressed. There's also a delay of a few seconds on all the digital channels because of the amount of time the processing takes. Frobius 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colossuss Posted July 23, 2012 Report Share Posted July 23, 2012 However, movies recorded on 35mm film back in the day, can still be mastered for HD, and look stunning. Assuming the film hasn't rotted away into nothingness, as that is a major downfall of film, and why a lot of movies need restoration work to remove dirt, scratches, etc. That is what I meant. Chances are the publishing companies won't go back to reimage a series just to upscale the final footage (Not recorded footage) to HD I wasn't arguing with you on film being higher quality that digital video lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simonlpearce Posted July 23, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 23, 2012 Been doing a bit of reading into this on the AV Forums and it would seem that they do have a problem, and that it is generally getting worse the more HD content they add. Personally i would rather it get dropped back to SD so that certain channels can take up higher bit rates and be a truer HD picture. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjn Posted July 23, 2012 Report Share Posted July 23, 2012 Yeah, can never see the point in upscaling old stuff, might as well leave it as SD, and leave the bandwidth for proper HD. But $KY will never do that, they want to boast as much HD content as possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mit Posted July 23, 2012 Report Share Posted July 23, 2012 Been doing a bit of reading into this on the AV Forums and it would seem that they do have a problem, and that it is generally getting worse the more HD content they add. Personally i would rather it get dropped back to SD so that certain channels can take up higher bit rates and be a truer HD picture. But then they can't market it as a HD channel and get you to hand over your money for nothing Do they still charge more for a HD subscription than a normal one? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suhail97 Posted July 23, 2012 Report Share Posted July 23, 2012 Yeah £5 or £10 depending on your offer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterH Posted July 23, 2012 Report Share Posted July 23, 2012 Sky are s**t and expensive! I've had 4 sky box's over 2 years and over heated and failed... It's not even like they were situated in a hot place with no ventilation!... Virgin FTMFW! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colossuss Posted July 23, 2012 Report Share Posted July 23, 2012 Just wait until you watch the Simpsons and realise it's in 4:3 rather than 16:9 haha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simonlpearce Posted July 23, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 23, 2012 Cant get VM in my area yet but i cant see how their content will be any different? Most of it comes from Sky anyway. Although their boxes may be better, especially considering they offer a 1TB package for around the same price you pay for a 250gb Sky box. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterH Posted July 23, 2012 Report Share Posted July 23, 2012 lol try recording 2 HD programs on your sky box = it's full. or pay them what?..£200 for a 1tb on top of your £60p/m subscription... err wait a minute! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjn Posted July 23, 2012 Report Share Posted July 23, 2012 Or, just buy a 1TB HDD from Scan or eBuyer, and use that Anyway, got my 1TB Sky HD box for £50 from Sky. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simonlpearce Posted July 26, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 26, 2012 Sky technicals answer to this was to change the channel and then go back again to the problem channel to see if it fixed the problem Frobius 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frobius Posted July 26, 2012 Report Share Posted July 26, 2012 Bangladesh know great technical success with your problem of quality! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simonlpearce Posted July 26, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 26, 2012 Also very interestingly the guy on the other end of the phone insisted that they only broadcast genuine HD but wouldnt explain what he classed as HD, nor does it say on their website. Next step is to get an engineer out, going to bust his balls i tell you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frobius Posted July 26, 2012 Report Share Posted July 26, 2012 Technically if something is upscaled to 720 or 1080, it's hd. It will still look crepe though unless they're using some pretty special upscalers. It's all about the resolution of the image. A 1920x1080 image is classed as full hd. If you then compress the p*ss out of that image so that you can fit loads of them down the pipe, it will still be hd, but will look crap. As Mit said, sky compress their non premium channels within an inch of their lives so that they can offer more channels down the limited bandwidth multiplex pipe. More channels = more spondooberries! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mit Posted July 26, 2012 Report Share Posted July 26, 2012 lol @ spondooberries!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
