merapi Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 Hello people. I stumbled upon this forum when I was trying to find out why my SBS image quality was as jagged as an Englishman's dental work. The above was posted almost 2 months ago but I'm still hating SBS image quality. Is everyone else still experiencing the jagged edges? It appears nothing has been fixed. Thank god Mad Men has finished now - it was painful to watch. As mentioned in another thread, the SBS picture for the Tour de France is quite awful, both on the SD and HD (what a joke!) channels. I nearly choked the other night when Paul Sherwin talked about the Tour being filmed in HD for the first time this year, while looking at horrible macroblocking and jagged artifacts on the SBS coverage. Heaven knows what the cricket will look like from tomorrow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrP Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 Not only has the SD jaggies not been fixed, nor the HD jitters, the HD audio is now also buggered. Just as well there wasn't much I watched on SBS as now I don't watch SBS at all. Substandard Broadcasting Service. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrindiCruiser Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 As mentioned in another thread, the SBS picture for the Tour de France is quite awful, both on the SD and HD (what a joke!) channels. I nearly choked the other night when Paul Sherwin talked about the Tour being filmed in HD for the first time this year, while looking at horrible macroblocking and jagged artifacts on the SBS coverage. Heaven knows what the cricket will look like from tomorrow. Wow - I thought it was just me thinking that the tour pictures looked really, really bad. SD and HD (the info says 720p on my TV). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrindiCruiser Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 Wow - I thought it was just me thinking that the tour pictures looked really, really bad. SD and HD (the info says 720p on my TV). I also called and left a message with SBS Transmission services Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MichaelCPE Posted July 13, 2009 Share Posted July 13, 2009 A few months ago, before the extra bright and more intrusive watermarks and the terrible picture quality, I used to watch about 22 hours of SBS each week. Having stopped watching SBS I'm now catching up with my DVD and Blu-ray collection. And of course the better quality of even the DVDs above SBS, and the fact that they have no watermarks, means that every time I flick past SBS it now looks even worse. JB now have a special of buy two $32.95 priced TV series and get one free, ie $22 each. Yesterday I bought 9 boxes, about 47 discs! I might be the one of the few writing posts like this, but there are many more that have stopped watching TV because the stations don't give a damn about quality broadcasting. I sort of miss SBS, but it seems that they don't miss me, and I've got plenty to watch without them. Michael Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pneu Posted July 13, 2009 Author Share Posted July 13, 2009 Oh hai, check out my cool new signature Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digitalj Posted July 13, 2009 Share Posted July 13, 2009 but it seems that they don't miss me, and I've got plenty to watch without them. they should when advertisers realise that not as many people are watching and as a result aren't willing to pay as much to the broadcasters, then the broadcasters will want to do what ever to get more viewers, but this usually results in a show being axed rather than the quality of a broadcast being increased. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Cupcake Posted July 13, 2009 Share Posted July 13, 2009 I flicked over to SBS Two's coverage of the Tour De France and the picture quality was shameful. It was, quite frankly, the most pathetic PQ of any FTA transmission I have seen- EVER! The rubbishness was obvious on a 51cm CRT with brightness issues at a distance of FOUR METRES. Shocking, SBS, absolutely shocking. However I do credit SBS for showing these things at all, it just annoyed me how bad they could get the quality. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonymy01 Posted July 14, 2009 Share Posted July 14, 2009 I record SBSHD more than SBS-SD these days, due to their playout facility apparently focussing more on the HD side of things, but god "Flight of the Conchords" was ***horrible*** on SBSHD last night. It had nasty nasty artifacts in it, like when you see the wrinkles on their forehead it would be all jaggy, or the edge of Jermain's glasses. And it would kick in and out also, like whatever nasty upscaling engine (and then downscaling?) just doesn't do a good job for motion detection at all. I thought the "missing line appearance" on the SD channel was pretty bad, but SBS HD with SD sourced material is just as poor! The Ashes on Sunday night (the only time I got to flick across and finally see some) was OK though, at first I didn't believe it was HD as it was mediocre at best, but then eventually convinced myself that it was better resolution than SD with some subtle evidence of that in places (their sweaters/jumpers weave was a good spot to see it, the score board overlay was not, it has the "blurred look" that SD normally has, maybe to reduce any artifacting for broadcasters who have to downscale it, dunno). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prl Posted July 14, 2009 Share Posted July 14, 2009 ...The Ashes on Sunday night (the only time I got to flick across and finally see some) was OK though, at first I didn't believe it was HD as it was mediocre at best, but then eventually convinced myself that it was better resolution than SD with some subtle evidence of that in places (their sweaters/jumpers weave was a good spot to see it, the score board overlay was not, it has the "blurred look" that SD normally has, maybe to reduce any artifacting for broadcasters who have to downscale it, dunno). I wondered about the Ashes broadcasts, too, because SBS was advertising with comments from McGill and in banner advertising that it was "Available in HD" (or something similar). Does SkySport do HD? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonymy01 Posted July 14, 2009 Share Posted July 14, 2009 Whole thread on it here: http://www.dtvforum.info/index.php?showtopic=77500 Start from about page 3 or 4 to get actual experiences of the broadcast though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prl Posted July 14, 2009 Share Posted July 14, 2009 Thanks, Tony. I should have had a look around first. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wfdTamar Posted July 14, 2009 Share Posted July 14, 2009 I wonder if the poor quality of Tour de France footage has to do with the French using secam and the secam to Pal conversion is not very good (or does HD trump secam/pal/ntsc?). Maybe it goes hd - secam - pal, each step robbing quality. Very disappointing as the main reason I watch the TdF is for the scenery. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrP Posted July 14, 2009 Share Posted July 14, 2009 Unless there are analogue stages involved PAL, SECAM and NTSC don't get a foot in the door. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ckent Posted July 14, 2009 Share Posted July 14, 2009 I wonder if the poor quality of Tour de France footage has to do with the French using secam and the secam to Pal conversion is not very good (or does HD trump secam/pal/ntsc?). Maybe it goes hd - secam - pal, each step robbing quality.Very disappointing as the main reason I watch the TdF is for the scenery. -------------------- TV - Sony KVHR36M31 86 cm HD CRT TV (King of TV's if you don't need bigger) HD STB - DigiCrystal HDT-9200 (cheap & seems OK) SD PVR - Topfield TF5000PVRt (good, but overpriced) & TF5000PVRt Masterpiece (too much led) Vista Home Premium on a Dell 390 Precision (got sick of waiting for HD Toppy or Beyonwiz) Sound - Philips LX700 5.1 & Dick Smith 10" Subwoofer (excellent combo) DVD - Toshiba SD-2500 VCR - Panasonic NV-HV60GL (excellent & quiet - selected after testing 5 others) EyeTV 400 (great) & EyeHome (so so) with Mac Remote - Harmony 785 (good concept, but fiddly) Auto switch - Audio Authority 4to1 Component/AV With all that equipment wtftamar, you should know better :-) There isn't any analogue technology involved at all in the production process. Even before digital transmissions began, it was rare. CK. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xlr8or Posted July 14, 2009 Share Posted July 14, 2009 Wow, Just thought I'd pop in and say something about the terrible SBS tour de France quality I have been watching over the last few days and I seem not be the only one. It's terrible very pixellated and probably as someone already said the worst coverage of sport ever seen on Australian commercial television. The pixellation blocks are made worst with rapid movement of the camera which is what generally happens with cycling Also, the ashes coverage has been great but a little pixellation is visible on the SBS one channel. Is there not enough bandwidth on SBS one and SBS two? This is shameful for SBS.... I even watched the Formula replay tonight and it was beautiful. If OneHD can get it right surely SBS can too or am I wrong? Thnx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MediaDude Posted July 14, 2009 Share Posted July 14, 2009 (edited) Wow,Just thought I'd pop in and say something about the terrible SBS tour de France quality I have been watching over the last few days and I seem not be the only one. It's terrible very pixellated and probably as someone already said the worst coverage of sport ever seen on Australian commercial television. The pixellation blocks are made worst with rapid movement of the camera which is what generally happens with cycling Also, the ashes coverage has been great but a little pixellation is visible on the SBS one channel. Is there not enough bandwidth on SBS one and SBS two? This is shameful for SBS.... I even watched the Formula replay tonight and it was beautiful. If OneHD can get it right surely SBS can too or am I wrong? Thnx SBS only has 19Mb/s to play with and has 4 Mb/s less bandwidth than the commercial networks due to its SFN's around the country and I think its 2Mb/s less than the ABC to guard against UHF dead zones. This means they have around 20% less bandwidth than the commercials and 10% less than the ABC. To add to this they have to transmit their two radio channels in the same space so this adds even more pressure on the data needs. Apart from the issues discussed here, having the same image on all three channels means their stat mux doesn't stand a chance at making it look any better. Edited July 14, 2009 by MediaDude Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pneu Posted July 14, 2009 Author Share Posted July 14, 2009 Just looking at the tour de france on SBS1 and SBSHD right now and I notice the program and all the ads appear to be clear of the aliasing and line twitter issue. Have they finally fixed it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonymy01 Posted July 14, 2009 Share Posted July 14, 2009 Hey yeah, weird. And the weather map thingy on right now is perfect. I just flicked thru last night's Top Gear and it was good also. So only Flight OtC was bad.. wonder why? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrP Posted July 14, 2009 Share Posted July 14, 2009 While waiting for a program to start on Foxtel I saw a bit of top gear via FTA and I can state beyond any doubt that all the ills were still clearly visible in regional QLD on both SD and HD. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pneu Posted July 15, 2009 Author Share Posted July 15, 2009 I saw Top Gear on Monday and it did have the aliasing issue, but last nights Tour de France coverage and all the ads in between were fine for some reason. Looking at SBS1/HD right now (2pm) shows that the problem is still in fact there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrP Posted July 15, 2009 Share Posted July 15, 2009 I took at look at SBS SD around 14:30 today and the problem in regional QLD appeared to be massively improved but alas there are still issues with the SD picture. I'll take another look tonight to see if it was sheer luck that the content was particularly 'youtube' filter friendly or not. If it wasn't sheer luck I'd risk saying that most people would be happy with how it looked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pneu Posted July 15, 2009 Author Share Posted July 15, 2009 The picture is looking a lot better now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rennmaxbeta Posted July 15, 2009 Share Posted July 15, 2009 It's pathetic. My brother loves the Tour, but the SD digital transmission was unwatchable at 6pm. The quality level dropped consistently below 50%. We flicked over to the snowy analogue channel which we could at least watch continuously without total picture and sound break up. What the hell will happen when the analogue signal is switched off for good? They seriously need to boost that signal. "Crystal clear digital" is a joke on SBS at the moment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonymy01 Posted July 15, 2009 Share Posted July 15, 2009 This thread is talking about image quality issues with respect to the upscaling/downscaling or whatever SBS is doing. Not reception issues. I have no reception issues whatsoever, running the correct antenna for the job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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