The best quality HD channels

[Headbangerdaz]

I've only had HD for a few days coupled with a new telly bought yesterday,a Samsung 37 B550 lcd,so I'm still navigating my way round but there's a definite difference between the picture quality of the various channels.
One that stands out is Sky News HD.That's the best picture I've seen so far.
If only all were of the same quality

 

[satriales1]

I find myself switching over to Rush HD (452) for a nice looking picture, due to the type of programmes they have a lot of outdoor scenic shots etc.

 

[B_o_b_o]

I find myself switching over to Rush HD (452) for a nice looking picture, due to the type of programmes they have a lot of outdoor scenic shots etc.

wow..never even watched Rush HD before..I've just put it on

 

[Starburst]

I've only had HD for a few days coupled with a new telly bought yesterday,a Samsung 37 B550 lcd,so I'm still navigating my way round but there's a definite difference between the picture quality of the various channels.
One that stands out is Sky News HD.That's the best picture I've seen so far.
If only all were of the same quality

Well that's never going to happen since HD is not about creating a certain level of PQ but to as accurately as is practical to recreate the film/video master which itself was created thanks to choices made by the producers and director.

Certain programmed is made to look as "natural" as possible with a lot of lighting so documentaries (natural history, wildlife etc) tends to look good, live sports in natural sunlight or very well lit stadiums can look fantastic but any loss in lighting which is compensated by more sensitive optics means you get a trade off in detail and noise.

Rush HD as satriales1 says shoots a lot of stuff at altitude in bright sunny weather, it's always tend to look impressive but obviously you can't make movies, most sports, dramas etc in the same settings and if exactly the same production crew and hardware was used to make a "proper" movie, drama etc they would also have to deal with the same issues as everyother HD producer.

Ultimately it's not the best HD channel, it's the best programme that happens to be in HD when you want to watch it

 

[Headbangerdaz]

I've just put Rush on,wow it's almost like 3D and the colours are so vivid !
Now that's what I hoped for when I got HD

 

[logiciel]

That's odd - it's usually one of the poorest - but then I'm not keen enough on people sliding down mountains to watch it much.

 

[Fatwaz]

sky news hd is great not only cos it tends to be just a single shot with no motion so hd stands out better but the fact they have optimised it for 16:9 so the ticker and news side bar all look perfect.

anyway try luxe hd,crap programs but some fabulous hd

 

[spile]

Live programmes always appeat the most impressive to me.

 

[SevloW]

Another vote for Rush and also Luxe HD both of them are very good examples of what HD is about.

 

[winka45]

Rush is brilliant, just a shame there is not a load of 'new' stuff. I got it when it was a test channel and I love extreme sports so was in love with it, but then the lack of new material bored me after a year or so.

Theres some awsome stuff on there though

 

[grahamlthompson]

Luxe-Hd in particular is only 1440 x 1080 and a low bit bitrate. The pictures do look great but the content is not challenging because of the programme content. Slow pans over tropical beaches is not challenging to any mpeg encoders. If they were to show a football match it would look crap. The more motion in the content the higher the bitrate required to give quality pictures. Add to this the fact that none of the content is live so they can analyse the content and allocate the highest bitrate to the few scenes that require more bitrate. Live pictures as in sport start with a massive disadvantage.

Without considering the programme content and an understanding of how mpeg compression works and source of the video, comparisons are pretty futile.

 

[badkarma]

I've only had HD for a few days coupled with a new telly bought yesterday,a Samsung 37 B550 lcd,so I'm still navigating my way round but there's a definite difference between the picture quality of the various channels.
One that stands out is Sky News HD.That's the best picture I've seen so far.
If only all were of the same quality

If you have the move sub check out Disney Cine HD, some of the kids films look cracking in HD

Also check out some rated movies to look out for on Sky Movies HD....

http://www.avforums.com/forums/hd-tv-programmes/596353-films-great-picture-quality-sky-hd.html

 

[moonrakerz]

For all round consistency I like Premiership football on Sky - much better than the stuff that purports to be HD from the World Cup !!

 

[sofasurfer]

For all round consistency I like Premiership football on Sky - much better than the stuff that purports to be HD from the World Cup !!

Got to agree with that. Last night's England game on ITV HD was appalling.

 

[grahamlthompson]

Got to agree with that. Last night's England game on ITV HD was appalling.

The picture was pretty rubbish as well