Bell TV HD Needs Improvement Fast

I was watching Heroes last night on NBCHW and the first 5 minutes was simsubbed with GlobalHW (with good picture) and then Bell switched back to NBCHW. I guess the video glitches on GlobalHE forwarned Bell to not simsub the whole hour or the next hour either (Life).
 
I don't do it for a living but am encoding/transcoding hidef video for as long as it is available. You're right, changing resolution is very taxing on video quality.
But I believe your comparison is only true in an ideal world where the stages video goes through are perfectly executed.
Nothing to do with the real world...

A perfect example of what it "costs" to deinterlace is trying to playback 1080/60i footage on a PC.
It takes at least twice the horsepower of progressive playback (same bandwidth). Since DVD times.
Again, if nothing but a proper 3:2 puldown is required, it works. But there was never a stream that qualified.
Have you ever read DVD player reviews on Secrets? If there is one problem most players in $1K+ class have, it's deinterlacing.
And screwed up deinterlacing is very visible. Therefore I'd pick a 720/60p video stream over a 1080/60i any time.
The fact that the bandwidth is not more than 9Mbps most of the time and the encoders at BeV are often plain horrible doesn't help...

EDIT: An example of perfectly performed telecine-IVTC is HD-DVD playback.
The source video material is stored on the disk as 1080p.
Unlike BD, on exit movie material is telecined.
The TV turns it back into 1080/24p... if it is capable of x24Hz.
 
Haven't you ever started watching a show on a network channel and then notice a difference in quality when the CTV feed cuts in?
I certainly have.
Seems to me that the main source is not the problem.
 
i have the 9200 PVR and from time to time i watch hockey on CBCHD but find it hard to tell the difference between SD and HD with hockey on CBC which menas the quality isn't that great and i am a videophile so its not me. I agree with CI getting fox sports channels for center ice and others Like NESN there quality even on SD is horrific so i blame it on the U.S. sport channels.

The funny thing is over in the shaw forms they are having practically the same debate with the quality with the cannuks PPV hockey channel having low quality and beleve the fault is with the carrier rather than the network
 
granduncle and fmr, here's a couple more points to add to your debate:

1) Subjective viewer testing of the effects of reduced bandwidth on compressed video performed by the European Broadcast Union has indicated that 720p degrades much more gracefully than 1080i. Considering BTV assigns only 8-9Mbps per channel maybe 720p is a better compromise.

2) If you purchased your 1080p TV prior to 2008 there's a good chance it fails to deinterlace 1080i inputs properly and results in 540 lines of vertical resolution. Gary Merson at Home Theatre Magazine has written several articles that reveal the shortcomings of the deinterlacers included in consumer HDTV's. (The good news is that 96% of 2008 1080p HDTV's passed the test. The bad news is that most failed the 3:2 pulldown test.)
 
mickk, assuming you are a videophile, if you're having a hard time distinguishing between HD and SD with hockey on CBC then something must be seriously wrong with your equipment. CBCHD hockey is far, far better than their broadcasts on the SD channels (which is almost unwatchable on a big screen). Even when they occasionally broadcast SD widescreen on channel 804 it's much poorer than the HD content on 802. Check the output resolution on your 9200 - maybe it's set to 480i?

On a related note last Saturday I compared CBC's 1080i OTA broadcast to BTV's 720p version on channel 802, using a 52" 1080p 120Hz LCD. Despite the switch to 720p BTV still allocates a full transponder to channel 802 so both are getting ~17mpbs (I confirmed this by comparing the file sizes of an identical 10 min segment from each feed). The loss of resolution with BTV's 720p signal was noticeable on still shots that had little or no action. Once things started moving the difference was quite difficult to discern.
 
I 'll be the first to admit it, when BEV screws up, I'll point the finger and call them on it every time..... but I also want to give praise to BEV when its due.
I must say *-can't believe I am actually typing these words-* that as of late (last week or so) the PQ has certainly improved from what it was over the last 8-12 months.
NOW, let be perfectly clear, THERE IS STILL PLENTY OF ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT. I for one, would like to see complete passthrough of the original broadcast signal (1080i for the most part)

Just my 2 cents.

Paul
 
It sounds lke people are having the same issue as I am, which is a relief. I am getting a poor feed from Global, CTVand other local channels. I knew that Global has a crappy HD feed seeing it at my folks place on his Bravia XBR so I wasn't too concerned when my new Panasonic THpz80 didn't look that great, but seeing these other stations with the same problem is really tickin me off. I don't know about the rest of you, but I am getting a tracer image on my local feeds while watching shows like criminal minds and CSI, by Tracer I mean when they show a close-up of a person and they turn there head you see a white blur when they turn. Anyone else get the same problem???

Other channels like TSN and Discovery are outstanding, very happy with that picture.
 
i live in a border town to michigan.
friend of mine there has direct tv hd
bell is BRUTAL compared to direct tv for picture quality.
direct tv has true 1080 hi-def. Bell does not.
 
I have a hard time believing its that much better. I have not seem them side by side but i've many times watched direct TV and it didn't even really have a difference with bell in terms of HD quality in my mind...
 
It probably has more to do with your friend having a better television for HD. I have cable service which gives me HD in 1080 and I have Bell and the difference is not that noticeable whenever I compare.
 
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