Setanta HD is not in HD - you won't believe this

bestie

So a week or more before xmas, my father decided to opt for the Setanta HD digital box for the kitchen. He got a lovely little 22inch LG HD tv a.k.a the sports tv

So everything was installed fine or so we thought, ESPN HD etc.. all coming through and looking really really good. Feeds were excellent.

However around the time we got the HD box, Setanta Sports went HD so we were looking forward to watching some rugby on it. But the picture wasn't anywhere near as good as ESPN or the others. Not even the HD icon came up on the box as it should when its piped through.

All other channels - the HD icon appears. Channel 412 shows no such thing.

So I ring up UPC, tech sent out, oh must be the cable. Another week later a guy replaces the cable and says oh thats in HD now. Which it wasn't and had to stop him legging it out the door, had a mate and uncle there to verify. Said I should ring back up UPC myself to sort it out further.

They scheduled another tech to come out and replace the box. A tech came out over a week later, took one look at the problem and said its not the box and said we didn't need a new box.
Yup.. back onto UPC (you can imagine this is going on all over xmas and new years and people have to be here, a nightmare in itself)

So then UPC tell me its an outside fault and were not the only ones affected (im in Rathfarnham by the way) and a 2nd or 3rd line tech is going to come out and have a look at the problem. Techs were due to come out one date and never made it and then another date they did (only to find out over the phone later that everything looked ok out on the street)

Finally a tech came this morning, he wasted no time and was quite knowledgeable. Showed him 412 and it obviously being in SD even though the channel shows up but of course no HD icon appears.

He rings up the UPC head end as he calls it (now this is their HQ with over 100 tellies on the wall he tells me) They confirm that even THEY are not getting HD on the setanta sports HD channel.

So after all this advertising and promotion - one of the biggest carriers in multiple countries across Europe launched a HD channel in Ireland and it appears from the information I was told about 30 mins ago they never even bothered to check if its coming through in HD.

IF ANYONE has UPC HD, can they check channel 412 because this is like something out of the twilight zone!

Thanks

JDxtra

Maybe it's only in HD at certain times? I can’t imagine Setanta Ireland having enough money to afford to fill their schedule with true HD content.

bestie

JDxtra wrote: »

Maybe it's only in HD at certain times? I can’t imagine Setanta Ireland having enough money to afford to fill their schedule with true HD content.

I check it everyday, no HD icon has ever shown up. All the other 11 or 12 channels do. Even the replay of the Ireland v New Zealand match was in SD - looked horrible. That can't be right.

xtal191

bestie wrote: »

I check it everyday, no HD icon has ever shown up. All the other 11 or 12 channels do. Even the replay of the Ireland v New Zealand match was in SD - looked horrible. That can't be right.

Only some of the stuff is HD, same as ESPN.
Italian football is def HD on it and so too is the Premier Leagu. Apart from that I've never seen anything in HD on Setanta.

bestie

xtal191 wrote: »

Only some of the stuff is HD, same as ESPN.
Italian football is def HD on it and so too is the Premier Leagu. Apart from that I've never seen anything in HD on Setanta.

Has the HD icon shown up on your box when watching Premier League and Italian football?

As the channel will show and you'll see Setanta's logo up on the top right, and it looks good like digital but nothing I've seen looks HD.

Yes when ESPN shows old stuff etc.. it still has the icon 24/7 - channel 412 is missing this.

xtal191

For some reason it never shows the little icon on the box, I dont know why but they are def in HD.

bestie

xtal191 wrote: »

For some reason it never shows the little icon on the box, I dont know why but they are def in HD.

Well if the techs in the UPC HQ says its not coming through in HD on their end, sorry, but I'm going to trust them over your view.

xtal191

Haha fair enough, I guess you'll see next time theres live football on.

forzacalcio

Setanta HD is only in testing now, besides, HD with a 22" screen? There will not be much difference unless its above 32" Im afriad. I have ESPN, Eurosport and Setanta in HD, Eurosport is by far the best of the 3, ESPN isnt too bad but Setanta is dire. I never understand why people are surprised by this. There is a big difference between regular Setanta and Setanta HD channel though.

Minstrel27

bestie wrote: »

Well if the techs in the UPC HQ says its not coming through in HD on their end, sorry, but I'm going to trust them over your view.

You're not going to get much of a HD view on a 22" screen.

bestie

forzacalcio wrote: »

Setanta HD is only in testing now, besides, HD with a 22" screen? There will not be much difference unless its above 32" Im afriad. I have ESPN, Eurosport and Setanta in HD, Eurosport is by far the best of the 3, ESPN isnt too bad but Setanta is dire. I never understand why people are surprised by this. There is a big difference between regular Setanta and Setanta HD channel though.

The difference between the old SD philips tv we had (around 21 inch, not even flat screen) compared with the lg 22inch widescreen HD is staggering. It's not like we have the tv in a sitting room and sitting way back from it. It's on a counter-top in the kitchen and no more than 3 feet from our view.

Eurosport HD comes in great too, but I prefer ESPN (basketball and American football especially looks excellent) Colours and sounds are very impressive.

Then a switch to Setanta HD and just cringe.. disaster. How could comreg even allow UPC to sell this onto the market I do not know.

JDxtra

That's interesting. Sky have a policy for broadcasters who wish to have their channels listed as “HD” on the guide. The channel must comply with their technical and content specifications (things like minimum amount of HD content, resolution etc.). I must dig out the link again.

Maybe UPC are just desperate for any “HD” content.

bestie

JDxtra wrote: »

That's interesting. Sky have a policy for broadcasters who wish to have their channels listed as “HD” on the guide. The channel must comply with their technical and content specifications (things like minimum amount of HD content, resolution etc.). I must dig out the link again.

Maybe UPC are just desperate for any “HD” content.

Just to update, he rang me there about 10 mins ago saying he hasn't forgotten about the situation and that he'd keep us informed. They are still looking into it afaik.

And in fairness to the tech that came out, he knew and mentioned what some posters here said (content available for certain stuff etc.. only at certain times) but taking that into account he still said, something wasn't right and they confirmed it back at base.

The size of the tv doesn't come into question, yes bigger will look better but you are either getting the min. HD or you ain't. On another note, I'm sure the cisco box's CPU or video decoding hardware can detect whether a stream is coming through strong and of high enough quality to insert the HD icon like the other channels. Unfortunately doesn't seem to be the case.

I've seen digital UPC on a Samsung 1080p 40 inch plasma HD TV and it looks amazing. I thought it was HD when I first saw it. But it wasn't, could it be possible that people thought they were watching Setanta HD and it was really only a very good digital stream, well not up to the min HD requirements anyways.

It will be interesting to see UPC's response.

JDxtra

JDxtra wrote: »

Sky have a policy for broadcasters who wish to have their channels listed as “HD” on the guide. The channel must comply with their technical and content specifications (things like minimum amount of HD content, resolution etc.).

Found the document here.

An Tarbh

bestie wrote: »

I've seen digital UPC on a Samsung 1080p 40 inch plasma HD TV and it looks amazing. I thought it was HD when I first saw it. But it wasn't, could it be possible that people thought they were watching Setanta HD and it was really only a very good digital stream, well not up to the min HD requirements anyways.

It will be interesting to see UPC's response.

I think there was an issue this weekend with the FA Cup but anytime there's been a Serie A on ESPN and Setanta at the same time I've checked both to see if there's a difference and there hasn't been, so they have been broadcasting in HD just not a huge amount of content yet.

You were previously complaining about the Ireland New Zealand match not being in HD, that wasn't broadcast in native HD by RTÉ who were host broadcaster for the game, they did do their 6 Nations game in HD so not sure why they didn't do the Autumn Internationals. Anyway not Setanta's fault, the same reason stands for their Magners League coverage.

Where they can they have been broadcasting in HD, the Royal Trophy Golf at the weekend was certainly in HD, either that or they've downgraded their SD channel something shocking to try and pull the wool over our eyes.

JDxtra

Doesn't sound like it should be marketed as a HD channel then.

Again, it's really sounding like a desperate attempt by UPC to have an exclusive.

bestie

Something has to be going on, because if the box doesn't detect it as the min requirement for HD format in Europe - then we can't call it HD can we.

wush06

It has the HD sign up in the top right hand corner of mine.
But there is something not right about it not sure what.
Strange when I turn the volume down on espn hd it does not work with the remote nor does any other hd channel.
It works with every other sd channel and it also works with setanta hd.
Does any of that make sense

Just seen this on the net might be the reason for the sound problem.
Setanta not broadcasting in 5.1 Dolby.

412 Setanta HD Setanta Sports 24 hours Value 1080i HDTV
416 ESPN HD Dolby Digital 5.1 audio ESPN Inc. 24 hours Select Extra[n 5] 1080i HDTV

mackersdublin

Compared to all the other HD channels on UPC...

No delay at all between Setanta Ireland & Setanta HD
No dolby sound
No HD light on box

forzacalcio

Is it even possible for the human eye to detect HD on a 22" TV? Yes of the course the picture is better on a HD or HD Ready over a SD TV but to be able to detect HD? Personally I dont think so.

bestie

forzacalcio wrote: »

Is it even possible for the human eye to detect HD on a 22" TV? Yes of the course the picture is better on a HD or HD Ready over a SD TV but to be able to detect HD? Personally I dont think so.

This has to be a troll. If it isn't, it's one of the stupidest statements I've heard in a very long time.

forzacalcio

bestie wrote: »

This has to be a troll. If it isn't, it's one of the stupidest statements I've heard in a very long time.

Not getting into an argument but you may want to look up retina definition of the human eye.
Yes it can be detected but its not the same quality, obvioulsy

bestie

A lady from UPC just rang me (prob. due to the fact that I opened up a case with comreg)

She tells me I'm not down to get the Setanta Sports HD channel? I was like what? I had the HD box, you advertise it as a channel and now you are saying it's a premium thing?

She starting going on about Digital Multi Packs.

I told her there's 3 channels

Setanta Sports (401)
Setanta Sports 1 (406) pay per view premium
Setanta Sports HD (412)

Get this, she said according to my package I don't have chan 412.

She said originally only the first two channels. I said I have that coming through and she's like what?

I told her yup, and there's many more people on the internet I've spoken with that get this channel too. I got the feeling we shouldn't be getting channel 412

I don't think she new what channels they were even supplying.

After this she started rambling on about HD transmitters and Dublin's a big place haha and she'd have to check what transmitter I'm on.

Humbly enough I said you go check that and get back to me.

This is getting ridiculous.

forzacalcio

ESPN is the Select extra no? Its BBC HD and Setanta HD you get on basic package.

jeckle

forzacalcio wrote: »

ESPN is the Select extra no? Its BBC HD and Setanta HD you get on basic package.

Yes, you're right!

BostonB

bestie wrote: »

...It's not like we have the tv in a sitting room and sitting way back from it. It's on a counter-top in the kitchen and no more than 3 feet from our view.....

...

watty

forzacalcio wrote: »

Is it even possible for the human eye to detect HD on a 22" TV? Yes of the course the picture is better on a HD or HD Ready over a SD TV but to be able to detect HD? Personally I dont think so.

Well, about 1m away on 22" is like 1.9m viewing distance on a 42"

You need to be watching practically at PC /Laptop screen distance.

At 1.2m / 4' some value (like 44" @ 2.4m / 8')
At 1.5m / 5' it's nearly pointless.

Actually for most ordinary living rooms 42" is minimum HD size.

BostonB

Counter top TV's in kitchen. I don't find that so remarkable myself. Some people are bothered by IQ more than others.

bestie

I have a PhD wrote: »

Actually getting upset about HD on a 22 inch is the stupidest thing I have heard in a while.

Do you sit less than 3 feet away from the tv? Otherwise you are wasting your time.
http://myhometheater.homestead.com/viewingdistancecalculator.html

served.

jasus lads, about 3 feet - it's probably more. I never actually took out a tape and measured it.

I think we're getting away from the topic.

Hugh Cream

ive come to the conclusion that UPC is crap,there is reasons why i cant get sky but if i could id gladly pay the extra.
not that this thread is about UPC,but still,i feel like saying it.

BostonB

bestie wrote: »

jasus lads, about 3 feet - it's probably more. I never actually took out a tape and measured it....

Seriously TMI....

zilog_jones

I watched Top Gear a couple of times on Setanta HD late last year (in Limerick), seemed like it was coming through as HD but using an upscaled SD source of course.

Heisenberg1

I watched the Liverpool match on sunday on the so called setanta HD channel no icon was present for the first half of the game and picture quality was standard at best in the second half the HD icon appeared and picture was IMO HD ive a 37" Samsung LED series 7 TV and it was a great picture.So the plot thickens.

bestie

luzon wrote: »

I watched the Liverpool match on sunday on the so called setanta HD channel no icon was present for the first half of the game and picture quality was standard at best in the second half the HD icon appeared and picture was IMO HD ive a 37" Samsung LED series 7 TV and it was a great picture.So the plot thickens.

I've never seen it come up once if I saw that I would be somewhat content but I understand as the tech said (and some posters) it could be on and off, even when ESPN HD is showing old stuff it's still got the HD icon 24/7 like all the others.

Also an update, the lady from UPC that rang me earlier rang back again to see exactly what I see on channel 412. Kind of changed her tone of voice from her original call.

No new information from her really.

Hyzepher

In was in HD last night and the HD icon came up

bestie

Hyzepher wrote: »

In was in HD last night and the HD icon came up

good news, what was playing may I ask?

jacklennon

Think there might be some confusion between the HD icon on the box and the HD logo on the screen! I've never seen the small red icon on the box for Setanta HD

bestie

jacklennon wrote: »

Think there might be some confusion between the HD icon on the box and the HD logo on the screen! I've never seen the small red icon on the box for Setanta HD

I don't get a red icon, just a green 'HD' comes up (not on 412)

jacklennon

Apologies the icon is not red (getting confused myself now with my blu ray wifi logo)

bestie

Here is a rough reference guide for the Cisco box : Cisco 8485DVB

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/video/ps8611/ps8612/ps8644/7015725.pdf

Multi-Format Video Decoder

● Allows decoding and presentation of audio and video in both MPEG-2 and
MPEG-4 Part 10 formats
● SD Model Formats: MPEG-2 MP@ML; MPEG-4 Part 10 MP@ Level 3.0 and
HP@ Level 3.0
● HD Model Formats: MPEG-2 MP@ML and MP@HL; MPEG-4 Part 10 MP@
Level 3.0/4.0 and HP@ Level 3.0/4.0
● Supports multiple picture formats (576i, 576p, 720p, or 1080i) to allow optimum
picture performance with both standard TVs and HDTVs

Though it would do 1080p - suppose alot of the American casting is in 1080i. Thought Europe was more on the 1080p bandwagon though.

if only there's a way to get into a debug mode and actually see what signal UPC is taking channel 412 into the box.

bestie

Why was my post edited? Hacking systems?

You log into your TV Digital box like you log into your wifi router - not much difference.

Unregistered.

bestie wrote: »

Though it would do 1080p - suppose alot of the American casting is in 1080i. Thought Europe was more on the 1080p bandwagon though.

Nah-ah. It's a rarity to find 1080p being broadcast anywhere in the world. Europe is nearly fully 1080i (open to correction). In America it's mixed, some 720p, some 1080i.

Minstrel27

Unregistered. wrote: »

Nah-ah. It's a rarity to find 1080p being broadcast anywhere in the world. Europe is nearly fully 1080i (open to correction). In America it's mixed, some 720p, some 1080i.

Some of the German channels are 720p for some reason but it is mainly 1080i in Europe..

forzacalcio

Just a quick one here, maybe its the fact that Ive been watching Eurosport HD and ESPN HD alot lately but it seems like the quality of SD channels like Eurosport 1 and 2 or ESPN SD are really bad quality. Its Bad enough that the logo is not really crisp and there is motion blur ( I have a 100hz TV). RTE seems fine but just certain channels. Is this just my mind playing games because HD is so good or are these channels normally rubbish qulaity?

Minstrel27

forzacalcio wrote: »

are these channels normally rubbish qulaity?

Yes.

nialldinho

I emailed Setanta to ask why their FA Cup coverage wasn't in HD last weekend. Here's the response I got:

Thank you for contacting Setanta Sports.

We pick up the FA Cup feed from other broadcasters and it is depending on how they broadcast the event that determines how we will show it to our customers.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

They seemed to have the same feed as ITV so not sure why ITV could broadcast HD and they couldn't.

10000maniacs

bestie wrote: »

This has to be a troll. If it isn't, it's one of the stupidest statements I've heard in a very long time.

http://www.thinkrightnow.com/audios/anger-management.asp

bestie

Just to let folks know..

I got a call a few mins ago to tell me that the issue was fixed, they switched me to a new transmitter and I can confirm that the HD icon does indeed come up now all the time now on the box when switching to channel 412.

happy days

JDxtra

bestie wrote: »

they switched me to a new transmitter

Whatever they did, they didn't do that! But at least it's fixed.

Mountjoy Mugger

bestie wrote: »

Just to let folks know..

I got a call a few mins ago to tell me that the issue was fixed, they switched me to a new transmitter and I can confirm that the HD icon does indeed come up now all the time now on the box when switching to channel 412.

happy days

Interesting. I'll check if mine is fixed when I get home. I never saw the HD icon light up on 412.

BostonB

Any difference in quality