picture quality

  • Thread starter Thread starter new-oakviller
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I still think the PPV's could look sharper, but I'm not complaining too much. They definitley look better then the rest of Bell's HD. I have ordered a few WWE events and thanks to the shutdown of the other channel, they have looked good. Watching Raw/Smackdown on the Score, and even now Superstars on WGN, the picture quality is horrible with tons of macroblocking. The best comparison I had was with Superstarts and the Royal Rumble that I had on PVR. The logos on screen were so much sharper on the ppv. I also think the PPV's are produced in 1080i but only shown at 720p on Bell like everything else, at least this is the case with WWE events.
 
A 10 Mb/sec 720X1240 (Bell) signal does not give the same PQ as a 16 MB/sec 1080X1940 signal (Rogers).

As others have posted if PQ was same, every supplier would be doing 10 Mb/sec 720X1240 to get more HD channels within the available bandwidth
 
Not many customers have access to see Bell TV and another provider side by side, if they did I am sure you would not hear it from everyone.
 
The black levels of the two STBs could be different. For example, try turning the brightness (black level) down on the TV for the 9242.

I'm not sure what picture modes are available on your Pioneer, but you may need to change it to User or Movie for example to adjust brightness.

Do you have the HDMI input and the component video input on the TV properly calibrated for that device? If not, then you can't say one type of connection or STB is superior as I mentioned a few posts back. Check out the links in that post if you don't. If you're running only one (HDMI) connection from the AVR to the TV and having the AVR transcode the signal, again this is not a fair comparison.
 
Although I don't have a 6100, I just had my 6000 replaced with a 9241 due to the 6000 no longer being able to receive channels starting in April and the HD between the 6000 and 9241 is the same over component. With the exception of the brightness, I can't tell a difference in the quality but the picture from the 9241 is definitely darker. I'm not sure why that is. It's just as sharp but darker.
The SD performance between the 2 is an entirely difference story. The SD on the 9241 is horrible, it's very soft and depending on the channel/show actually blurry. I called Bell and complained about this but they said there is nothing that can be done, it's how the receiver is designed. I'm not sure if that's true but not much I can do. I would be curious to see if Bell's current entry level SD receiver produces the same quality of SD I am used to seeing from my 6000 or if all of the new receivers produce such an aweful SD image.
 
I too have found the picture quality to be better recently, depending on what I was watching. However, tonight it was horrible. HNIC looked "good", but not great, lots of macroblocking. Any network shows looked terrible. Flipping through channels and my results were, Hitched on ABCHDW looked bad. At the same time, Law & Order on NBC was soft and Criminal Minds on CBS was really soft. Even TSN, which had curling in HD, didn't look too good. The Score looked soft, and I've seen that ticker really stick out before, looked bad tonight. Sportsnet seemed alright, but still not great. Hopefully in April things change for the better.
 
I have removed posts and issued some infractions here.
I'll say it once.

People are entitled to their opinions.

You may not agree with them and you are welcome to debate, however, it is expected that your comments are objective and factual.

If you choose to call other members or say that others opinions are {insert foul language here} then your posts will be deleted and you will be issued infractions which will lead to your suspension for the forum.
 
When did they make the MPEG-4 announcement?
I can't find hide nor hair about it.
I know they have the MPEG-4 capable receivers, but no-one seems to have a clue when they're going to switch.
 
It sucks....it sucks....is sucks.
500 bucks for the latest PVR hardware...and have to put up with this?
Unbelievable. Is there a return policy?
 
Actually the proof should be trivial given that Bell representatives have openly posted about the technology they're using to do variable bit-rate compression and transcoding from 1080i to 720p. The CRTC standard says "in the same quality and format" as the original, so even if the quality aspect is subjective, there's no arguing the format requirement for 1080i channels.
 
The big four in the US are 50/50 - ABC and CBS 1080i, Fox and ABC 720p.
At least we can see shows like Lost in all their 1080p glory on Blu-ray, it's a huge jump in quality over ABC's 720p broadcast.



Blu-ray's done properly I think are miles better than even the purest 1080i OTA signal deinterlaced properly to 1080p, but with 40 Mbps available for video that shouldn't come as a surprise. Then there's the massive upgrade in audio going to lossless.
 
This is quite interesting. To find that BTV is broadcasting in 720p while many others are using 1080i confirms my suspicions when I saw the "softer" look of HD channels in their stores. Is this something that may change going forward? There seems to be some references to compression or technology changing in the spring. Is this wishful thinking or has there been some comment from BTV about changes coming?

It's interesting that DishNetwork is offering 1080p with their Video On Demand. They must have a fair bit more bandwidth available than BTV to offer this.
 
I think the extra up convert would come into play 720p/1080i/1080p vs 720p to 1080p So I would guess setting the 9242 to 720p.
 
TSN2 actually looks better then TSN. During last night's football games, more so when the Calgary game was on and the Montreal game was on replay on TSN2, TSN2 showed less noise in the picture then what was on TSN. Too bad it wasn't the other way around seeing how TSN is the live channel.
 
Semantics...

"Format" can mean many different things and is less defined than "quality".
And 1080/60i is frankly speaking not a format but resolution.
MPEG-2 is certainly a format. And maybe this is the reason they haven't switched to MPEG-4 yet.

I believe Bell participated in the group that wrote that document.
If CRTC wanted to say what you are saying, it would be much simpler: don't touch the stream.
Bell knew that and made sure it is worded differently and leaves wiggle room...
 
oh yea 4100 is newer. i think i was refurring more to the 4000. i think it was the 4000 i know bell years ago had another old IRD in the 400 series that was availible around the same time as the 2700
 
I believe that my picture quality this past week has changed dramatically as now I have lot's of macroblocking on the HD channels whereby before I never did. Anyone else notice this? Is this a result of the change in modulation to 8psk?

Cobra
 
I have adjusted it to perfection. It's quite a radical change to the Optimum settings that the TV defaults to. The funny thing is, the other 2 PVRs were excellent at the optimum setting on the TV. The 9242 needs adjustments with HDMI, but the 9242 is great as-is using component.

I think I will stick to the component as I don't see any benefit to switching to HDMI if I have to keep switching adjustments on the TV so dramatically between the different devices that I have. Right now, the PS3 and 9242 component are calibrated perfectly when I've got the TV set to Optimum. It saves time and fiddling if I don't have to keep switching picture modes around.
 
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