[arj154]

Ive heard bad things about digital distrubuation of HD content as they compress the content so much but it does make me wonder if the same applies to pay per view films from sky HD or virgin HD. Is that better picture quality in digital distrubuation or pay per view HD films do they have a problem with compression?

[Starburst]

The two HD PPV movie channels on SKY currently share transponders and during the date seem to suffer in terms of bitrate while overnight when the other channels close down the bitrate spikes and PQ is as good as you will get.
Given that every SKY HD customer is watching via a DVR then recording a PPV movie overnight is likely to provide the best PQ than watching it during the day/evening.

Only time will tell if new capacity via 2C will improve this situation which considering the premium price and that the standard HD movie channels run at high bitrates all the time is a little strange and surely a customer burnt once will never order again.


No idea about VM.


I don't think you can really compare IPTV or other internet based distribution of HD at this time, few offer 1920*1080i content let alone 1080p and none at the bitrates SKY and the BBC use when using the same mpeg4 based codecs.

[arj154]

what about things such as xbox live video marketplace? Are they any better or does the compression compremise the quality to the same sort of PQ as sky during the day? Is it pretty much better to go with blu ray discs for the best picture quality until they find a way to improve the compression rates?

[Starburst]

Originally Posted by arj154

what about things such as xbox live video marketplace? Are they any better or does the compression compremise the quality to the same sort of PQ as sky during the day? Is it pretty much better to go with blu ray discs for the best picture quality until they find a way to improve the compression rates?

I can't comment, don't have access to the HD stuff via MS and to be honest I have yet to see SD downloads match broadcast SD let alone HD downloads match the best of SKY/BBC HD let alone Blu-ray.
I've had some SD video via iTunes, the Damages premiere I compared to both the SD and HD broadcast on the BBC and both eclipsed the download which was only fee for the first episode, not quite sure why anyone would pay for something of lower quality than they can get for free and repeated a few times in case you miss it.

If you want the best quality HD (source not withstanding) then Blu-ray is the current king, tons of capacity so no bandwidth constraints and offline encoding along with the HD audio formats. I can not see a time in the next decade where online sources either downloads or streaming will match the very best a pre-recorded version on a fixed medium provides BUT lets be honest the average consumer isn't interested in the ultimate quality, they want convenience and a good enough product

[arj154]

Originally Posted by Starburst

I can't comment, don't have access to the HD stuff via MS and to be honest I have yet to see SD downloads match broadcast SD let alone HD downloads match the best of SKY/BBC HD let alone Blu-ray.
I've had some SD video via iTunes, the Damages premiere I compared to both the SD and HD broadcast on the BBC and both eclipsed the download which was only fee for the first episode, not quite sure why anyone would pay for something of lower quality than they can get for free and repeated a few times in case you miss it.

If you want the best quality HD (source not withstanding) then Blu-ray is the current king, tons of capacity so no bandwidth constraints and offline encoding along with the HD audio formats. I can not see a time in the next decade where online sources either downloads or streaming will match the very best a pre-recorded version on a fixed medium provides BUT lets be honest the average consumer isn't interested in the ultimate quality, they want convenience and a good enough product

im sure that the tv shows were actually meant to be the same resolution as a ipod's and it is upscaled on the apple tv. Also have you tried the bbc iplayer? i think that offers a alternative download as well. And i know this is a bit random but does nielo TM still post? does he have any comparrison shots? he used to post qiute a lot on HD content on the xbox forums and he helped a lot of people over there.