Why are the BBC's pictures so poor??

[456GT]

Not sure if it's my browser but the BBC is the only site where photos look as if they're taken by a twelve year old mobile phone:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news

[C.A.R.]

Weird - as the page loaded the image seemed to get better in quality. Almost like it buffered. But it's crystal clear after about 15 seconds - and looked like a crappy image beforehand.

I'm sure someone who understands these things will be along in a minute...

[hairykrishna]

Looks like a progressive jpeg. Someone at the BBC obviously nostalgic for 90's era websites.

[marshalla]

Responsive images.

That one picture is actually a set of pictures at different resolutions. The page codes loads the lowest res. first and then loads successively higher resolution images until it gets to the "best" one for the device.

No point in having a lot of pixels if the screen is too small to show them all.

[maffski]

marshalla said:

No point in having a lot of pixels if the screen is too small to show them all.

Can also be the other way around - on larger screens you have a thumbnail but on smaller screens move across to a full width image as the thumbnail would be to small, in this case you need a higher res image on the small device.

[456GT]

marshalla said:

Responsive images.

That one picture is actually a set of pictures at different resolutions. The page codes loads the lowest res. first and then loads successively higher resolution images until it gets to the "best" one for the device.

No point in having a lot of pixels if the screen is too small to show them all.

That makes sense except that all other websites' images are perfectly clear.

[marshalla]

456GT said:

That makes sense except that all other websites' images are perfectly clear.

Because they're not using the same technique as the BBC.

[bigbob77]

If your internet connection is slow enough that you see the low-res images for more than a few seconds, then the alternative is not seeing the images at all until they've had time to load. Seems like an OK solution to me.

[456GT]

woowahwoo said:

What device/browser/version is it? Except for the images, f the page layout is the same in your browser, as it is on other equivalent devices, then it might be something blocking the requests for the 'higher' resolution images. As others have said, they are loaded as part of the 'responsive' design, after the actual page, and its links, by javascript, .

You could try clearing out your browser's cookies/cache (although, you will lose any persistent logins). If that doesn't work then, at a guess, may be you have some other security which is limiting those requests - a plugin or some software like an av/firewall system?

It's a work computer (I know, I should be working, not browsing the internet!) and the stickers on the front say 8BG RAM, Windows 7 and Intel Core Duo. The Chrome version number is: 38.0.2125.111.

I can't change any settings on here, certainly nothing to do with Javascript or plug-ins.

Seems like I'll have to just live with it. Grrr!

[456GT]

woowahwoo said:

If you view the news site now, this is the higher res version of the lead Junior Doctors story image:
http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/410/cpsprodpb/15354/p...

If you cleared your cache and it didn't work, and if you can see the image at the link above then I assume it is some security policy. Ask your IT.

Cleared the cache. That link was clear at 100% zoom but the BBC main page is still low res. And I'm sure IT won't change their security policy just to make photos on the BBC website clearer!

Thanks for the input, guys.

[MaximumJed]

456GT said:

It's a work computer (I know, I should be working, not browsing the internet!) and the stickers on the front say 8BG RAM, Windows 7 and Intel Core Duo. The Chrome version number is: 38.0.2125.111.

I can't change any settings on here, certainly nothing to do with Javascript or plug-ins.

Seems like I'll have to just live with it. Grrr!

It must be something local to your network as Chrome 38 (quite an old version now) updates to the clearer picture when I test it