Crap picture quality still in 2015, why?

Vic_08

Really, why is it that the majority of channels on all platforms are still being broadcast in horribly compressed SD?

Go into a retailer and they will have rows of 4k TVs they will happily sell you. Take it home and go to watch something and you end up seeing something covered in digital artefacts and so badly pixellated that a 20 year old VHS recording wouldn't be much worse to look at.

If everything going HD is not realistic can SD sky and Freesat channels not be switched to MPEG4 SD at least? Is that really too much to ask, MPEG2 produces a horrible picture particularly at the heavily compressed bitrates used, far far inferior to the quality that was available from PAL625 in the 1970s, it is pathetic that nearly 50 years on from colour broadcasting that much of the current output is visually inferior to what was available half a century ago.

As well as the massive improvement in quality it would bring switching to MPEG4 would mean all the duplicated SD/HD channels would not be needed and added to the lower bitrates it would free up a considerable amount of bandwidth.

satelliteman20

I completely agree with u i think the reason sd is low quality is because the majority of people have never seen a high quality dvd like sd channel so they dont know any better

Also a lot of people dont care about pq anymore especially in this country once its not freezing or pixelating they think its ok content is more important

Broadcasters do not want sd to look too good up against hd otherwise u wouldnt have as many hd subs

really sd in the uk and ireland all main and pay channels should be 720x576 wide with a high bitrate over 4mbs we pay some of the highest rates for pay tv in the world

sky does not seem to have the interest to replace all remaining sd mpeg 2 boxs to mpeg 4 sky hd boxes probably not worth the expense and its a big job with the amount of overseas subscriptions in use


i would think its cost prohibitive for broadcasters like the budget fta channels on 28 east eg the music channels true movies etc to give decent high bitrates on their channels

lertsnim

Vic_08 wrote: »

If everything going HD is not realistic can SD sky and Freesat channels not be switched to MPEG4 SD at least?

If that happened all they would do is cram more channels onto each transponder.

The people in charge of the vast majority of TV channels care more about profits than picture quality unfortunately .

MEGA BRO WOLF 5000

Because money.
Different more expensive subscription for HD channels. I'm 99% positive BT Sport HD has recently made the picture worse just so they can sell you the "Ultra HD" package.

Money money money.

NIMAN

Totally agree OP.

There'd this mad hyping of Ultra hd, when we still aren't transmitting in HD Ready.

If you ever see a half decent hd pic, you'd be delighted to have that across the board. I don't care for 4k, just gimme 720p on every channel and I'll be happy.

Harry Palmr

Indeed, the number of channels that are low fat SD is also appalling.