HRL

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Had Sky HD for a couple of days now. Was really looking forward to having a few movies and documentaries with a decent picture.

Seems I was wrong though. Either that or it's just my setup.

PQ on the HD movies is awful, it's grainy as hell. It's almost like a 1 Mbps .AVC file instead. :thumbsdow

I've got a Sammy LE46M87 and a PS3, the picture quality from anything the PS3 outputs, including DVD's, is far far superior. I knew that Blu-Ray was going to look better than 1080i Sky anyway, but blimey, didn't think it would be this crap.

Was I expecting too much from Sky HD?

I gather I can cancel it within 28 days or so, guess I'll have to watch a bit more but at the moment I'm really disappointed.
 
The PQ I get from SkyHD on my old Tosh 37wlt58 is nothing but excellent, crystal clear, sharp and very high def. Football on Sky Sports HD is a breath of fresh air.
Mine is set on Auto output and via HDMI.
 
That's a 1366x768 LCD panel, right?

Don't know if it makes any difference that I'm using a 1920x1080 panel instead.

Just don't appear to have the usual HD sharpness or focus and things suffer pixelation at a level I really didn't expect for £50 a month.

My SkyHD box is set to 1080i via HDMI.

Help.

:lease:
 
Don't know if it makes any difference that I'm using a 1920x1080 panel instead.

Sounds like there is an issue with your setup mate.

I have a 1920x1080 Samsung M87 and the HD movie channels look fine to me.

There is a huge variation in the quality of the movies presented but even the worst ones are far superior to SD broadcasts.

Look out for any of the movies on the following thread being repeated as these are people's recommendations based on PQ.

http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=596353

EDIT - Just noticed you have an M87 too, I'll post a link to my settings for Sky HD and see if that helps you.

Ok ignore the ones in the first quote, it's the amended ones below that you are after.

http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?p=5288208#post5288208
 
Any thoughts on what could be causing a soft focus on detail?

Skin doesn't look real, it's either grainy or blurry. :(

Maybe I just need to record 5 or 6 different films this weekend and try to compare the differences.

Any additional settings to be tweaked in the SkyHD box other than the 1080i setting?
 
I agree that my panel is 1368x768 but then again if you downgrade to SKY+ you will end up in a worse situation, even less res. This site is littered with people complaining about the quality of pictures of transmitted mediums when they own a Full 1080p set, because what ever happens the incomming signal has to be up scaled.
 
Check your cabling.
Check your settings.

Also Blu Ray & HD DVD are superior to Sky HD but not light years away in comparison.
The further away you are from your tv set the better the picture looks. Look up real close and you will see imperfections in the image.

Then again who is going to sit a foot away from my 50" plasma... :rotfl:

Can you not take some screenshots of sky on your tv so we can have a look here?

I know there is a member on here that has links underneath his signature to Sky HD images he has taken with his digital camera and you can really tell how good Sky Hd is on his setup.
I don't know his name sorry but if you could look at those images and compare them to what you are seing on your tv you would get an idea of the differences (if there are any).

If however it is found that your tv is setup corectly and there are no faults then you are in the very small minority that either needs glasses or is expecting far too much from Sky HD.

Good Luck.
 
:rotfl:

Luckily I have 20:20 vision. ;)

I'll check out the links above, thanks.
 
Any thoughts on what could be causing a soft focus on detail?
One obvious thing to check. Did the installer connect a SCART lead as well. Most TVs will default to the SCART connection, so you would then be viewing everything in SD.

ALso, check out the BBC HD preview programme. If that doesn't look stunning on you 1920x1080p TV, then something is definately wrong.
 
ALso, check out the BBC HD preview programme. If that doesn't look stunning on you 1920x1080p TV, then something is definately wrong.

Now that is the only thing I have watched so far that kept my eyes focussed on the screen.

The preview looked great. Better than any of the programs/movies so far.

No Scart lead in use. :(

I'll have a play around with the TV settings this evening but as far as I can remember all PQ "Enhancements" are switched off.

The standard Sky supplied 1m HDMI cable should be up to the job shouldn't it? 1080i support isn't really an issue on cheap HDMI cables it is?
 
Now that is the only thing I have watched so far that kept my eyes focussed on the screen.

The preview looked great. Better than any of the programs/movies so far.
So which movies have you been dissapointed with. Were they mainly dark, grainy movies. That's how a lot of movies look, and no amount of HD will make them look any less grainy.

Watch a bright, well lit, movie, and see what you think of the PQ.


The standard Sky supplied 1m HDMI cable should be up to the job shouldn't it? 1080i support isn't really an issue on cheap HDMI cables it is?
Over anything other than very long distances, any old cheap HDMI cable is fine. So the Sky supplied 1m cable is fine.
 
Any current recommendations on something to record/watch to test?

Top Gear Polar Special, Saxondale, Casualties Of War, Scary Movie 4 watched so far.

Crap films, I know, but I just wanted to watch something in HD.

The NatGeoHD Ice Hotel documentary was pretty much subject to the same complaints too.

Maybe I just haven't watched enough yet. :confused:
 
Brothers Grimm had nice, sharp PQ on BD (except blocking issues, ahem - I assume the HD-DVD didn't) - if they're using the same master it should look good on Sky too.

Generally though it's possible you just prefer the PQ of HD cams vs film. All the Beeb and Sky Sports stuff is shot on HD cams, the large majority of the movies are done on 35mm, and there you have to worry about director's intent and stylistic choices etc etc etc. Not all movies are going to have pin sharp PQ and detail.

I was going to suggest that your TV was doing some DNR of some sort but guess you checked that already.

EDIT: Oh, and if you turn your Anytime on and pray to the right gods, you might end up with PotC2 - which is also a very nice looking movie. NatGeo I wouldn't bother with, Discovery will probably impress you more.
 
All I had listed as available in Anytime yesterday was Snakes On A Plane, Stir Crazy and some documentary.

Does stuff just randomly appear in Anytime then? Or should I be searching through the A-Z? I know, I've not played around with it enough yet.

Having read others reports about fantastic PQ I think perhaps I have just yet to see anything worth shouting about. More investigation to be done this weekend...
 
All I had listed as available in Anytime yesterday was Snakes On A Plane, Stir Crazy and some documentary.

Does stuff just randomly appear in Anytime then? Or should I be searching through the A-Z? I know, I've not played around with it enough yet.

Having read others reports about fantastic PQ I think perhaps I have just yet to see anything worth shouting about. More investigation to be done this weekend...
Plenty of discussions on this forum about the "random" nature of Anytime.

Words like "fantastic" are very subjective. Out of interest, which movies that you've watched had awful PQ? I don't think I've ever seen any HD broadcast that looked "like a 1 Mbps .AVC file"
 
The standard Sky supplied 1m HDMI cable should be up to the job shouldn't it?

That's the one I have connected to my M87.

Any current recommendations on something to record/watch to test?

Aquariavision starts again on Sky Arts HD every day at 02:00 from Sunday morning.

I've never seen it but it's in the planner to record this Sunday. Apparently it is very good for PQ. Not in surround sound though according to the planner info.
 
King Kong is very good quality on the HD movie channels, i suggest you take a look at that as most of the CG shots do tend to take well to HD panels.

Some other movies i have watched have looked a little grainy is down to the director/filmaker adding the grain into the film for artistic reasons. Miami Vice is a prime candidate for this and you will either love the effect or hate it.

Im not overly keen myself and love the sharpness of what HD can offer but i do acept it and don't let it ruin my movie enjoyment. :thumbsup:
 
Any current recommendations on something to record/watch to test?

Watch the football in about an hour's time. If that doesn't look good, then you have a problem somewhere.

Ken
 

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