Discussion
SKY is suggesting that the picture is 'Even Better on Sky HD".
But I reckon the normal broadcast picture quality can be quite poor at times.
When I compare say BBC its HD equivalent, I can see the difference but it's not always immediately evident; but after a few seconds you can clearly see the difference in quality. Same goes for ITV.
But I'll watch a live event on Sky (not HD) and I look at the picture quality a recall that my Sony CRT telly showed a better picture before the days of LCDs and Plasma.
Is there a bit of picture quality tweaking going on?!
But I reckon the normal broadcast picture quality can be quite poor at times.
When I compare say BBC its HD equivalent, I can see the difference but it's not always immediately evident; but after a few seconds you can clearly see the difference in quality. Same goes for ITV.
But I'll watch a live event on Sky (not HD) and I look at the picture quality a recall that my Sony CRT telly showed a better picture before the days of LCDs and Plasma.
Is there a bit of picture quality tweaking going on?!
Sky? Make their chargeable HD service seem better by downgrading their SD channels?! Well I never.
But serisouly I know what you mean, ether in the 6 months I've had it I've grown so used to HD that SD looks s
t, or more than likely the above.
That said, I still remember the first time I ever saw a DVD, I think it was the Matrix, the quality was outstanding and I recall thinking that the picture looked perfect, now, after a couple of years of owning a BR player, DVD's look as bad to me as VHS did compared to DVD.
But serisouly I know what you mean, ether in the 6 months I've had it I've grown so used to HD that SD looks s
t, or more than likely the above.That said, I still remember the first time I ever saw a DVD, I think it was the Matrix, the quality was outstanding and I recall thinking that the picture looked perfect, now, after a couple of years of owning a BR player, DVD's look as bad to me as VHS did compared to DVD.
Sky offered us a new HD box a few months back, as we'd been subscribers for a while. The box had a larger capacity, was smaller, chucked out less heat and had a faster processor.
The (cocky) engineer was full of how great the new box was, and how "everything was in HD these days".
The real problem - the SD quality is poorer in the new box than the compared to the old. I messed with lots of settings, even checked the Freeview reception to see if the signal had been downgraded at source. I was left really disappointed.
It's almost like the box is smaller because they've left out the upscaling SD hardware, even if the original had only upscaled to 576.
The (cocky) engineer was full of how great the new box was, and how "everything was in HD these days".
The real problem - the SD quality is poorer in the new box than the compared to the old. I messed with lots of settings, even checked the Freeview reception to see if the signal had been downgraded at source. I was left really disappointed.
It's almost like the box is smaller because they've left out the upscaling SD hardware, even if the original had only upscaled to 576.
jonnylarge said:
Sky offered us a new HD box a few months back, as we'd been subscribers for a while. The box had a larger capacity, was smaller, chucked out less heat and had a faster processor.
The (cocky) engineer was full of how great the new box was, and how "everything was in HD these days".
The real problem - the SD quality is poorer in the new box than the compared to the old. I messed with lots of settings, even checked the Freeview reception to see if the signal had been downgraded at source. I was left really disappointed.
It's almost like the box is smaller because they've left out the upscaling SD hardware, even if the original had only upscaled to 576.
everything you watch is getting up scaled by the new box to the resolution you have selected. as for saying [quote]even if the original had only upscaled to 576The (cocky) engineer was full of how great the new box was, and how "everything was in HD these days".
The real problem - the SD quality is poorer in the new box than the compared to the old. I messed with lots of settings, even checked the Freeview reception to see if the signal had been downgraded at source. I was left really disappointed.
It's almost like the box is smaller because they've left out the upscaling SD hardware, even if the original had only upscaled to 576.
even if you set your skybox to 576i it would be still up scaling the image once it hit your screen to the native resolution of your tv
Trustmeimadoctor said:
is totally wrong as thats the native resolution for sd pal tv everything you watched was at that resolution by default on your old non hd box it didnt scale anything.
even if you set your skybox to 576i it would be still up scaling the image once it hit your screen to the native resolution of your tv
Surely if you set your Sky box to output at native resolution, it's the TV that does the upscale, not the Sky box. This is likely to be preferable if you have a half decent TV.even if you set your skybox to 576i it would be still up scaling the image once it hit your screen to the native resolution of your tv
skoff said:
Surely if you set your Sky box to output at native resolution, it's the TV that does the upscale, not the Sky box. This is likely to be preferable if you have a half decent TV.
yes the tv will play with the image again when it converts it to 1080p from 1080ithe sky box cant auto set its resolution based on content everything gets scaled to usually 1080i apart from the natively broadcast 1080i hd material
if you watch an sd program sky box will upscale it from 576i to 1080i then your tv will convert it to 1080p (if your tv is native 1080p that is)
Trustmeimadoctor said:
yes the tv will play with the image again when it converts it to 1080p from 1080i
the sky box cant auto set its resolution based on content everything gets scaled to usually 1080i apart from the natively broadcast 1080i hd material
if you watch an sd program sky box will upscale it from 576i to 1080i then your tv will convert it to 1080p (if your tv is native 1080p that is)
I have an old style HD box (I think it's a Samsung) that has the resolution option 'automatic' which makes the box output to native broadcast resolution allowing your TV to do the up-scale (I know this as my TV -Pioneer 5090- tells you what the input resolution is when you press the little 'i' button). You can force a specific resolution output to make the Sky box do the up-scale (or downscale), but in my case the SD picture is better on 'automatic' than if I have the sky box set to up-scale it to 1080i.the sky box cant auto set its resolution based on content everything gets scaled to usually 1080i apart from the natively broadcast 1080i hd material
if you watch an sd program sky box will upscale it from 576i to 1080i then your tv will convert it to 1080p (if your tv is native 1080p that is)
Is the 'automatic' option missing in the new slim box? If so I won't upgrade as I'd potentially be taking a step back in PQ for SD transmissions and gaining nothing other than a smaller box (I've already put a 1TB HDD in my old box). Worrying how Sky can strip useful features out of their equipment, sounds like the removing component outputs type thing all over again...
Dear readers, Thank you comments. I'd just like to point out a few things:
1. The quality of SD from the Sky box definitely has gone down.
2. PAL TV has 480 lines of vertical resolution.
3. I put (1) down to the fact that the box is no longer upscaling (2) to 576.
4. I do not use my TV to upscale as I'd always assumed an AV Receiver has more appropriate hardware to do this.
5. My TV is set display at the resolution of the source.
6. The new Sky box has the following options (under Settings - Picture): HD Resolution Output - 576, 720p, 1080i and Automatic, which suggests to me that nothing happens to SD signals which, as per (2), could be received as 480.
Trustmei... , it sounds as if you are fairly knowledgeable but please make sure you have complete knowledge of my hardware before remarking that I am "totally wrong". I found that offensive. (Ooo, get me).
1. The quality of SD from the Sky box definitely has gone down.
2. PAL TV has 480 lines of vertical resolution.
3. I put (1) down to the fact that the box is no longer upscaling (2) to 576.
4. I do not use my TV to upscale as I'd always assumed an AV Receiver has more appropriate hardware to do this.
5. My TV is set display at the resolution of the source.
6. The new Sky box has the following options (under Settings - Picture): HD Resolution Output - 576, 720p, 1080i and Automatic, which suggests to me that nothing happens to SD signals which, as per (2), could be received as 480.
Trustmei... , it sounds as if you are fairly knowledgeable but please make sure you have complete knowledge of my hardware before remarking that I am "totally wrong". I found that offensive. (Ooo, get me).
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