| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
bb0118
Kiddie Poster
Joined: 23 Feb 2008
Posts: 30
Location: Gloucester
|
 Posted: Tue Mar 11, 2008 4:57 pm Post subject: HD TV |
 |
|
As some of you may well know.. especially after seeing my signature below.. I have Sky HD and I personally feel its one of the best things to experience without actually being there.
Just curious to know if anyone on this board have access to HD? Has anyone seen the difference in the quality?
Last night, for the 1st time, Sky Sports showed WWE (wrestling) in HD. I have been to watch WWE in the UK twice now and watching it last night was just amazing.
For those who are cynical about the HD revolution, take a look at this:
SD: http://img373.imageshack.us/img373/1386/dscf9193tq2.jpg
HD: http://img381.imageshack.us/img381/289/dscf9190ej2.jpg
Now.. if only Sky can remake the Ultimate Thrill Rides in HD 
_________________
Sky HD - The future of TV 
RCCGB - 2442 |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
frosty
Junior Hyper Poster
Joined: 21 Jan 2008
Posts: 165
Location: London
|
| Posted: Tue Mar 11, 2008 5:44 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Hi,
Even with all HD broadcast material being compressed, it all looks fantastic in comparison to normal SD programmes. Even if I do not like the programme itself I can enjoy it more when it looks good
But a lot of older TV programmes converted to HD can look dire - due to noise and old 16mm film stock. This is unavoidable.
Some live music performances are fantastic in HD, even if they are down-converted to a lower resolution.
I do not have HD TV at home, but I have seen lots of HD material.
_________________
Steve
Member of 'non rollback' Stratacoaster club 06/08 |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
stormforce
Kiddie Poster
Joined: 01 Oct 2007
Posts: 16
Location: London
|
| Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2008 12:41 am Post subject: |
|
|
Frosty, you are too modest by far, if anyone knows the ins and outs of HD and it's true domestic use compared to professional, you are the person to ask by far. I know I'd seek your advice!
_________________
Linda |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
frosty
Junior Hyper Poster
Joined: 21 Jan 2008
Posts: 165
Location: London
|
| Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2008 10:43 am Post subject: |
|
|
What's that bright light appearing though the storms in north London - is the sun making extra effort?
Unfortunately no, not yet, it's just little 'ol me blushing.
stormforce - your too kind !
_________________
Steve
Member of 'non rollback' Stratacoaster club 06/08 |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
reg
Kiddie Poster
Joined: 23 Sep 2007
Posts: 43
Location: Swindon
|
| Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2008 6:03 pm Post subject: |
|
|
I've not watched any HD braodcast through Sky or Virgin Yet, but if it looks as good as Blu Ray movies on my PS3, then thats fine by me!
Like Frosty said though, some programmes, and even movies, don't make the transition well. I recently watched Deja Vu on BluRay, and it looked incredible, even when right up near the screen it was flawless. But then I also had 300 on BR too, and I honestly would not have noticed the difference. It was grainy, the blacks were merely dark grey, and there was a small amount of colour bleed between contrasting colours too.
I guess its down to a number of factors, like the quality of the original material, the equipment the original print was produced on etc.
I'm rather happy that Blu Ray seems to have come out on top ofthe HD format 'war'. I am not sure I would have bought a stand alone HD player, but that fact that it is built in on the PS3 is a very nice bonus.
_________________
319 coasters: Steel 251 Wood 68
Park Count: 78
#1 Woodie - Shivering Timbers, Michigan Adv.
#1 Steel - Expedition Ge Force, Holiday Park.
First Public Ride on The Voyage!
Part of the TTD Roll Back club!! |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
frosty
Junior Hyper Poster
Joined: 21 Jan 2008
Posts: 165
Location: London
|
| Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2008 8:13 pm Post subject: |
|
|
HD may come to freeview at some point, but the HD channel's on freeview will be very limited and probably not up to satellite quality and you will need yet another new box to cope with freeview HD.
The BBC HD satellite broadcasts are free and can be watched with an HD free-to-air satellite receiver or HD sat-card and a fast PC, and you can get such cards relatively cheaply from Ebay - but you need a dish pointed at the right place and of the right size
The quality of the BBC HD Sat broadcasts have the upper hand on many Sky broadcasts due to Sky over-compressing - and cable is a poor cousin anyway, but as said, it's still gorgeous compared to the very compressed normal def stuff we see today.
It's also a shame that many of the HD LCD TV's in retail outlets are not that great quality where movement is concerned or for black parts of the picture, and some are not full HD resolution!
As bb0118 has raised - if your lucky enough to have a good HD TV and access to quality HD output - your a lucky person.
_________________
Steve
Member of 'non rollback' Stratacoaster club 06/08 |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
bb0118
Kiddie Poster
Joined: 23 Feb 2008
Posts: 30
Location: Gloucester
|
| Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2008 8:27 pm Post subject: |
|
|
I was pretty jammy in laying my hands on HD.
Firstly my mate won a Sony Bravia 40" HDTV through doing something for his companys HQ. Now this mate, DOESNT do tellys, yup thats right he doesnt watch tv lol - so offered it at £200 less than the cheapest price at the time on the net. Bargain I thought, and I even paid in installments!
Then back last year, Sky sent us a mailout saying we could upgrade to Sky HD for half price with free installation. Seeing as we had Sky+, it would be a straight swap of the boxes. However, we decided to go multiroom.. so therefore a whole new installation from our dish for free!!!
I have to admit... out of all the HD tellys that are around at the mo... Nothing beats a Sony. The pic quality is far better than tvs like Samsungs.
Freeview HD is a few years away as they need to use the frequencies from the switch off to use as its limited space.
Whats more weird is you feel more compelled to watch evertything in HD. I have sat and watched programmes on Nat Geo which before I got HD, I would have no interest in!
Best programme seen in HD was BBC's Planet Earth - pure crystal
_________________
Sky HD - The future of TV
RCCGB - 2442 |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Death
Banned
Joined: 10 Oct 2007
Posts: 871
Location: Farnborough, UK
|
| Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2008 8:44 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Hail All!  | reg wrote: | | But then I also had 300 on [Blu-Ray] too, and I honestly would not have noticed the difference. It was grainy, the blacks were merely dark grey, and there was a small amount of colour bleed between contrasting colours too. |
Hmm, that would be very odd considering 300 can't have been filmed more than two years ago - And was most likely filmed using (I would guess) HD-quality equipment anyway! 
If the quality on that specific Blu-Ray title is as bad as ye make out (Sounds like 1024x768 at no more than 700kbps to me) then I would guess it's either just a direct copy of the DVD version (MPEG-2, small frame size) made in the hope that no-one would notice, or whoever converted/encoded the masters from 300 made a right male-chicken-up of it!   
According to Wikipedia, a Blu-Ray disc can store up to 50Gb of data, as opposed to 30Gb for HD-DVD and 8.5Gb for a traditional DVD (Assuming dual layer in all cases)...So if they've only dumped 8 Gb of DVD data onto the Blu-Ray version of 300, they're not only guilty of ripping people off (As they're simply selling the DVD version of 300 on a different storage format) but they're also guilty of a severely heinous waste of good storage space (As ye could get a very high res 350Mb/s version of 300 on there) as well, and 300 is one of those films that should NEVER be compromised on, IMO.
If ye have access to a PC with a Blu-Ray drive, try surfing around the Blu-Ray and see how much data it's got on it (Should be at least 10Gb, double for a dual-layer one) and/or try ripping it and see how much HDD space is taken up by the BD image file.
Farewell...
>> Death << |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
frosty
Junior Hyper Poster
Joined: 21 Jan 2008
Posts: 165
Location: London
|
| Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2008 9:31 pm Post subject: |
|
|
I've not seen 300 - but apparently all copies of 300 are grainy as that's the look they went for in the master print. Even viewed in an Imax cinema it's grainy.
I guess the 'grainy' look is the video equivalent of pops and clicks on some recent CD releases - to me it ruins a good song on a format that should be free of such nastiness
When CD's came out they were often almost full, now your lucky to get a CD album of little more than 30 minutes duration.
_________________
Steve
Member of 'non rollback' Stratacoaster club 06/08 |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Join! (free) 
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
