[Garrett]

I don’t watch much on channel Five but have watched it over 3 night's and found the quality a lot worse than just after the re tune.
On re tuning I saw a lot if pixelization bloom round objects, but over the last 3 days a lot of the pictures have broken up I to tiny squares as though the picture was made up of different coloured tiles.

Has any one else had this problem?

[j0hn]

yes its terrible. I switched over to Sanctury Monday and picture was amazingly improved. (freeview aswell)

Watched some other tv on freeview last night and all those were way better than Five. Monday I thought I was watching a low res camera phone preview on the net! it was shocking! tight wads get ya hand in ya pocket!!!!!

[conan]

I noticed the same thing also. It's not as bad on my main TV (but still very noticabe), but I guess that is because it has some upscaling through the Amp/TV. On my second TV, a 32" LG with direct freeview feed the PQ is terrible, its as though I am struggling to get a full picture, "snow" effect on the screen.

[j0hn]

big squares for me like the OP mentioned. I wonder if they cut back on funding like I joked above or if its a technical hitch? though if it was technical you'd think they'd sort it by now, so personally I think they have tried to get away with as less as possible for as little £££ outlay as possible.

[bosque]

Channel 5 used to broadcast the best SD PQ in the South East, Prison Break season 1 used to look better than a DVD, but as the OP says, lately they have been broadcasting a very poor PQ, especially on their off-shoots 5USA and Fiver.

[brian s]

I don't watch Channel Five at all but I'm noticing these problems a lot more in general since the retune.

Regards
Bri

[Thornastor]

Don't worry it is only temporary. It will be back to the original quality resolution after mid October.

[Starburst]

Originally Posted by Thornastor

Don't worry it is only temporary. It will be back to the original quality resolution after mid October.

Will there be enough bitrate to support a higher resolution though because the mantra seems to be new encoding techniques will always pull the industry out of the fire.

[wednesday83]

I watched CSI miami last night and all the CSI series usually look excellent. CSi miami looked very poor. Also the gaget show looked even worse than usual as well on monday.

Bring back the good old days.

[nwgarratt]

They obviously moved CH5 to a worse multiplex when trying to get more people to be able to watch it. That is not good as it will likely put people off freeview.

[Fen Star]

Originally Posted by Garrett

I don’t watch much on channel Five but have watched it over 3 night's and found the quality a lot worse than just after the re tune.
On re tuning I saw a lot if pixelization bloom round objects, but over the last 3 days a lot of the pictures have broken up I to tiny squares as though the picture was made up of different coloured tiles.

Has any one else had this problem?

Yep me aswell been terrible since the re-tune..

[Garrett]

Originally Posted by wednesday83

I watched CSI miami last night and all the CSI series usually look excellent. CSi miami looked very poor. Also the gaget show looked even worse than usual as well on monday.

Bring back the good old days.

I too watch this and the quality was outstanding of the picture till the change over.

I've been disappointed at Five's treatment of non recent films and put it down to them buying 4:3 versions and not upgrading them although Ch4 as far as I can tell always show films in there right aspect even for very old films.

But on Sunday night Five showed Ghost Rider in 16:9 when the film was made 2.35:1. There no excuse for that only to credit their public with limited intelligence.

[aprout]

Originally Posted by Garrett

But on Sunday night Five showed Ghost Rider in 16:9 when the film was made 2.35:1. There no excuse for that only to credit their public with limited intelligence.

It's a rare occasion that ANY terrestrial/freeview channel (apart from dedicated movie channels like Film4) show a 2.35:1 film in 2.35:1. Channel Four do occasionally, but I put that down to them using Film4's cast-offs.

JoePublic will still complain about 'the black bars' taking up half the picture.

[Thornastor]

Originally Posted by Starburst

Will there be enough bitrate to support a higher resolution though because the mantra seems to be new encoding techniques will always pull the industry out of the fire.

I don't really know but there is a long thread about it here

Five at low bit rate - Freeview - Digital Spy Forums

also the this article FIVE limited resolution in some parts | ukfree.tv - independent digital TV + switchover advice, since 2002

[nwgarratt]

Channel 5 still show some films in 4:3 (esp ones from the 80's and 90's).

[Rob100]

I did start a thread about this the day after the re-tune, but it got closed:

Channel Five - New resolution and bitrate is a joke!

I've since noticed that the resolution (from Sandy Heath) is back up to 704x576, but the bitrate is still about ⅔'rds of Satellite (Freesat).

PQ is still very poor on the whole.

[Garrett]

Originally Posted by Thornastor

I don't really know but there is a long thread about it here

Five at low bit rate - Freeview - Digital Spy Forums

also the this article FIVE limited resolution in some parts | ukfree.tv - independent digital TV + switchover advice, since 2002

I just copied this post from that forum to show the problem.


OK, I've worked out how to upload screen grabs. For information for those who aren't experiencing this:

Blocking on Flash Forward
http://img389.imageshack.us/img389/4...shforward2.jpg

And 1 second later
http://img79.imageshack.us/img79/2493/flashforward3.jpg

Nottingham tx.

[PoochJD]

Hi,

My Channel Five picture quality is fine with no blocking/artifacting at all, on Freeview. Yes, the picture occasionally goes blocky, but that's only because I live in a not-very-good-reception area for Freeview/terrestrial TV.

If anything, since the Freeview retune, I've had better signal quality and can now get more channels!

Sorry to hear that many of you have had problems since the retune. I now it may sound stupid, but have you all completely reset your Freeview boxes and/or done a complete channel search, again? Sometimes, that can cure the problem. (I appreciate the fact I'm preaching to the coverted, as the saying goes, so apologies if that sounds like I'm being condescending. I'm not, honest. )


Pooch

[neroon]

I've also noticed the poor picture quality during Flash/Forward on Ch5 on several eps now. I'm not impressed with CH 5.

[Garrett]

Originally Posted by PoochJD

Sorry to hear that many of you have had problems since the retune. I now it may sound stupid, but have you all completely reset your Freeview boxes and/or done a complete channel search, again? Sometimes, that can cure the problem. (I appreciate the fact I'm preaching to the coverted, as the saying goes, so apologies if that sounds like I'm being condescending. I'm not, honest. )


Pooch

Rearrange these words Pooch.


Granny eggs. try to to suck Don’t your teach

Or in other words YES.

Joke.

[j0hn]

I have direct line of site to a transmitter. Strong signal. Still crappy picture. Maybe I have golden eyes? hahaha

[Hawkesley]

I also had this problem and am glad to hear I'm not the only one with the blocky pictures on Ch. 5. I noticed it when I was watching Law & Order: SVU and the picture was dreadful. Didn't notice any problem when watching this weeks ep so maybe they've sorted out the problem?

I've also noticed that when I try to change channel using the up/down button that the freeview channels take a lot longer to change than when I change channels on analogue. Weird.

[brian s]

Originally Posted by Hawkesley

I've also noticed that when I try to change channel using the up/down button that the freeview channels take a lot longer to change than when I change channels on analogue. Weird.

This has always been the case for me.

Cheers
Bri

[Garrett]

Originally Posted by j0hn

I have direct line of site to a transmitter. Strong signal. Still crappy picture. Maybe I have golden eyes? hahaha

When I moved into my house years ago the aerial was crappy and the aerial wire was like 3 strands of hair and the first thing I did was replace the aerial and aerial wire for better and you know what the picture went worse. And was told you can actually get too much power and you have to use attenuaters to lower the power going in.

[John Martin]

Originally Posted by Garrett

When I moved into my house years ago the aerial was crappy and the aerial wire was like 3 strands of hair and the first thing I did was replace the aerial and aerial wire for better and you know what the picture went worse. And was told you can actually get too much power and you have to use attenuaters to lower the power going in.

I get this problem with the Ron Smith FM aerial on my roof. I went for a very directional one, as I was getting some multipath problems. It certainly cured that, but I now occasionally have to use an aerial attenuator to get rid of the "birdies". (sigh)

[j0hn]

Originally Posted by Garrett

When I moved into my house years ago the aerial was crappy and the aerial wire was like 3 strands of hair and the first thing I did was replace the aerial and aerial wire for better and you know what the picture went worse. And was told you can actually get too much power and you have to use attenuaters to lower the power going in.

My pictures fine on all channels. Using a pioneer digi box signal has never been breaking the needle so to speak. ie not locked at 100%
On my sons lcd tv it has no signal metre but picture looks brilliant. I cant imagine it looking any better.

Channel 5 tonight Flash Forward was alot better, very good picture, no complaints apart from two parts where the women was being drowned I think, when it flashed back to her face it was blocky. I think it was that part. Anyone else notice anything?