Do non HD channels look better via the HD box?

garlad

Just wondering if its worth paying the 7.50 a month?
Would guess pic should be better via HDMI to my 46" Sony Bravia than current Scart connection.
Anyone any experience with this?

Paulw

Yes, the picture should be better via HDMI than scart.

But, yeah, the SD channels do look better quality via the HD box than the standard box.

garlad

Cool.
Just checking though, 60 Euro installation fee if you an existing customer :mad:

Any way round this?

Paulw

I don't think there's any way around it. It requires an engineer visit to install the box and make sure it's running.

who_me

IME, the quality of the SD channels varies greatly; from channel to channel and depending on the picture content (bright/dark images).

Blacks, or dark colours in SD channels often appear with banding (a blotch of black, next to a blotch of dark gray, next to a blotch of lighter gray) instead of smooth gradients.

Even weirder, there are repeating patterns in the dark colours. Sometimes it's a pin-stripe effect across all the blacks on-screen; last night on Film 4 there were repeating patterns of squares where there should be just solid black.

I'm guessing these are all just compression artefacts; quite distracting though!

bk

who_me wrote: »

IME, the quality of the SD channels varies greatly; from channel to channel and depending on the picture content (bright/dark images).

Yes, digital TV (sat or cable) uses variable bitrate for encoding. This means that the bit-rate will increase or decrease depending on what is currently be showing (e.g. fast moving action needs a higher bit-rate) and the current bitrate of the other channels.

For instance if there are two channels with fast moving action on at the same time, then there bitrate won't increase as much as it would if there was only one channel with fast moving action on.

Also different channels will typically get a different minimum allowed bitrate depending on the type of content they usually carry and their popularity. So a popular channel like RTE One or a channel with lots of fast movement like Sky Sports will get a relatively high minimum bitrate, while QVC will get a very low bit-rate.

ciaran76

Paulw wrote: »

I don't think there's any way around it. It requires an engineer visit to install the box and make sure it's running.

I know is not a HD box but I know magnet send out their new plus boxes to their customers and they follow the instructions for set up.

No install fees except for the new box.

Wonder why UPC dont follow that route?

who_me

Interesting info bk, thanks!

I have noticed alright that Setanta has excellent picture quality for me, about as good as SD gets. Sky One seems quite poor for me - though it might just be I watch that channel more than most, so notice the problems more!

There certainly is a "problem" for me though with darker images, programmes with lighter images don't have the banding/stripes/patterns.

I also just read my TV has a resolution of 1366x768; so I'm not sure how it can claim to display 1080i. If my TV is downscaling the 1080i signal to 720p, that probably isn't helping the image quality, so anyone reading my comments - bear that in mind!

dubmick

I thought it was €14.75 a month?

Ranicand

who_me wrote: »

Interesting info bk, thanks!

I have noticed alright that Setanta has excellent picture quality for me, about as good as SD gets. Sky One seems quite poor for me - though it might just be I watch that channel more than most, so notice the problems more!

There certainly is a "problem" for me though with darker images, programmes with lighter images don't have the banding/stripes/patterns.

I also just read my TV has a resolution of 1366x768; so I'm not sure how it can claim to display 1080i. If my TV is downscaling the 1080i signal to 720p, that probably isn't helping the image quality, so anyone reading my comments - bear that in mind!

It means your tv can decode a 1080i picture.

Set your UPC box to 720P the default setting and your tv will not need to rescale the picture.

I have mine set at 720P an I think the picture looks great.

Nat Geo Wild HD looks brilliant if people can't see it then they need glasses.

campo

dubmick wrote: »

I thought it was €14.75 a month?

nope that is with sky
with UPC it is 7.50

who_me

Ranicand wrote: »

It means your tv can decode a 1080i picture.

Set your UPC box to 720P the default setting and your tv will not need to rescale the picture.

I have mine set at 720P an I think the picture looks great.

Nat Geo Wild HD looks brilliant if people can't see it then they need glasses.

It may already be set to 720p, I'll check when I get home, thanks! If not, it'll be interesting to see if that affects the banding/artefacts on dark images.

I agree Nat Geo is great in HD - obviously, when the image has a lot of
detail to show it off.