Digital broadcast compared to DVD quality?

Don't have Freeview but, as far as Sky is concerned, it all depends on the bitrate used.

Sky 1 and the Sky Movies channels tend to have the highest bitrates and, at their best IMHO, can rival some DVD's.

Most of the other channels use a lower bitrate and the quality varies from quite good to donwright awful.

HTH

John
 
The picture resolution is the same on all these platforms. The bitrates used on Freeview are a bit higher (i.e. less compression, better image) than on most $ky channels, but much less typically than on DVDs. Sound on Freeview is always 2-channel, never more (because that's what the broadcasters use - not a platform limitation). I gather that some (few) $ky channels have used multi-channel audio.
 
Sky+ via SDI is very near to DVD quality on the better channels. Box office is excellent.
 
BBC,ITV etc are far better on Freeview than on Sky,but none come close to a good dvd.
While Sky Movies often look good,they give themselves away during the fast moving action sequences,which must look awful on some of the larger screens.
ITV on Sky is terrible with pixellating/blocking on many normal scenes.During "I'm a Celebrity",the jungle with all its leaves and trees made it laughable.I had to change over to the DTT version
 
Hi Phelings


Agreed on 'im a celeb' - it did look truly awful. However as Phil said, most of the time Sky looks *very* good on SDI. The blocking/banding/pixellation that you describe on most large screens is often due to poor video processing built in to many large screens.
 
David PluggedIn said:
Hi Phelings


Agreed on 'im a celeb' - it did look truly awful. However as Phil said, most of the time Sky looks *very* good on SDI. The blocking/banding/pixellation that you describe on most large screens is often due to poor video processing built in to many large screens.

I have this problem with my large screen (42PD5200) I belive it only has an eight bit processor wich add to the problems. I am looking for a Digital box that I can buy as a one off and not have to subscribe every month. In the absence of a freeview box with DVI out, if I buy an SDI modded Sky+ box & dish etc can I just get the free channels without having to subscribe?
 
basically you can do what you want with the addition of a £20 viewing card from Sky

Although you may need to pay £10 per month to activate the Sky+ recording capacilities as you are not subscribing to at least two premium channels.

Wackojacko32
 
Personally I have been very disappointed with the quality of Sky on my Screenplay 7200 .I only watch the movie channels or Footie on the PJ btw, the rest of the time it's used for DVDs.
Most of the channels look acceptable (if not exactly what you could call high quality) on my 32" crt but switch to the bigger PJ image and the imperfections are only too apparent, particularly moving flesh tones.
I am currently looking at options for rectifying this situation but am a bit intimidated by the whole idea of a scaler as I am still new to the wonderful world of Home Cinema having only had this my first install since Xmas eve.
I'd love to hear what others think on this subject though.
 
I am using an S-Video connection from the Sky + into the 3805 and letting the amp do the conversion/switching while a single set of component leads run from the amp to the Screenplay for all sources. I should also add that the kit and caboodle was pro-installed so *hopefully* there won't be any setting/s that can be used to improve things..... :confused:
 
There were some DVD spec captures of Battlestar Galactica doing the rounds created from a SDI modified SKY+ and some of them would have been captured when SKY1's programs were being broadcast at around 3.6gig per hour.
I should have grabbed one and compared it to the actual broadcast and my basic s-video/pc capture. It would be interesting to see how they actually looked against the retail DVD's out soon.
 
I have heard of SDI modded Ondigital boxes.

It might be worth asking the SDI company what Freeview boxes they modify now!
 

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