Sky High definition picture size?

[Gees]

Having spent a blooming fortune on a HDD plasma telly and a sky HDD subscription imagine how peed off i was (am) when a lot of the HD content is 4 by 3 aspect ratio. So be warned........

 

[Ltnman]

Are you sure it is actually a HD broadcast? Programmes like The Simpsons on Sky 1 HD are not actually HD

 

[Gees]

How can I tell ??????????????

 

[ban-all-sheds]

If you cannot tell the difference between a HD picture and a normal one then the blooming fortune you spent was a blooming waste of blooming money, wasn't it...

 

[Space cat]

Your high definition TV will come into its own for DVDs provided that you use a good quality connection from the player, ie NOT composite video!

The standard for HD TV is 720 lines so if you paid extra for a 1180 line TV then you wasted your money UNLESS you want to play blue ray discs, which are currently the only source of genuine 1180 line video. They are way overpriced at the moment but I think they're here to stay and so they'll get cheaper. Standard DVDs certainly did. I had planned to transfer my old VHS tapes onto DVD but when I see one I want for £3 or less I just buy it.

There are many possible reasons why you might not be able to tell the difference between standard and HD TV. One of these is the broadcast quality. If the original video source is bad, broadcasting it as HD won't make it any better. Find a channel that's putting out a live studio broadcast (in HD obviously).

Next, go carefully through all the settings on your TV and turn off any fancy effects that claim to 'improve' the picture. If you apply edge enhancement to good video you will only make it worse. When I did this with our new flat panel TV, the video quality improved considerably. I'd been blaming the black outlines around moving picture elements on screen lag.

If you still can't tell the difference then I'm afraid BAS is right. Your eyesight isn't up to it and you wasted a lot of money. Cut your losses, ditch Sky and stick to Freeview. It's not HD but, like it says on the box, it's free and you can buy a lot of DVDs with the money you'll save.

 

[Gees]

Don.t get me wrong.. I have a 1080p panasonic with freeSAT as well as freeVIEW. I know the diffrence between chalk and cheese !!
What annoys me is that there is a LOT of SD progs aired on HD channels.
The most single annoying " feature" is the fact that these are "stuck" in 4 by 3...........At the moment I am in the Algarve so at least I can watch other HD stuff ( I have a technomate HD Receiver here as well )

 

[kkynaston]

I've had SkyHD for 2 years now on a cheap tesco 37" panel (digihome or something) and the picture quality is amazing.

The only time I've seen 4:3 is on Sky1 HD on the simpsons when it is in SD.

I think the STB does a good job of upscaling SD content also.

On sky if the programme is being broadbast in HD it will say HD on the info banner. All HD programming is in 16:9

If you have the new EPG you can switch on the 'highlight HD' feature, then when you look in the TV guide all HD programmes will be highlighted orange.

 

[gday2uk]

Your high definition TV will come into its own for DVDs provided that you use a good quality connection from the player, ie NOT composite video!

The standard for HD TV is 720 lines so if you paid extra for a 1180 line TV then you wasted your money UNLESS you want to play blue ray discs, which are currently the only source of genuine 1180 line video. They are way overpriced at the moment but I think they're here to stay and so they'll get cheaper. Standard DVDs certainly did. I had planned to transfer my old VHS tapes onto DVD but when I see one I want for £3 or less I just buy it.

This is not right...
Your high definition TV will only be high definition when playing blu-ray discs on a blu-ray player or watching broadcasts from an HD source. With standard DVDs you can get better quality with a progressive scan capable DVD player but only when connected to the TV through component video connections labeled Y, Pb, Pr.
As for the standard for HD, this is and always has been 1080p. There are all manner of articles on the web about 720p, 1080p, 1080i etc.

@ Gees - As for seeing your broadcast in 4:3 format this is more likely to be the TV settings as hardly any programs made in the last 10 years were made in 4:3 - all in 16:9. Yes if you are watching old broadcasts (like repeats from ages ago) then they could be in 4:3 but they wont be in HD either

 

[Space cat]

With standard DVDs you can get better quality with a progressive scan capable DVD player but only when connected to the TV through component video connections labeled Y, Pb, Pr.

Absolutely correct. That's how I've got mine set up.

As for the standard for HD, this is and always has been 1080p. There are all manner of articles on the web about 720p, 1080p, 1080i etc.

Thanks for pointing out my numerical error. Of course I should have put 1080 (which is 1.5 x 720) and not 1180.

It was in one of those web articles that I got the info about 720 lines being the standard for HD TV. Maybe it was wrong and I should have read more than one. Time to go have another look.

 

[slup]

The issue is that there are very few full-time HD channels.

Sky One HD for example just upscales all the normal Sky One output and then inserts HD versions of the programmes where available.

Actual HD programmes are flagged accordingly in the Sky Planner.

Steve

 

[Diyisfun]

The issue is that there are very few full-time HD channels.

Sky One HD for example just upscales all the normal Sky One output and then inserts HD versions of the programmes where available.

Actual HD programmes are flagged accordingly in the Sky Planner.

Steve

Isnt that what Virgin does to all its tv.

If I switch from Virgin to Antenna, the Virgin picture is lots better than the Antenna.
As for bbc hd, When you look at the picture of the little boy & the water, the picture is brilliant, when the programe comes on there is little if any difference.

 

[slup]

The slight difference is that the Sky upscaled content is upscaled by them before transmission. They are (theoretically at least) using very expensive kit to do the upscaling rather than the cheap chip in your box doing the scaling.

 

[gday2uk]

If I switch from Virgin to Antenna, the Virgin picture is lots better than the Antenna.

Is your antenna signal still analouge? This could explain the quality drop.

 

[nitro23456]

As already stated, if you are seing things in 4:3 you have your TV setup wrong..... the only thing in 4:3 I have seen is The Simpsons on SKY1 which wasn't in HD - the new series is being broadcast in HD, the others are just upscaled.

720p is the minimum resolution that is allowed to be called HD.... SKY broadcasts in 1080i

Originally there was talk that sky would broadcast sport at 720p 50Hz and everything else at 1080i 50Hz. Unfortunately that is not to be - we are stuck with 1080i for everything. This is great for film - as it is encoded to come out as 1080p at 25Hz (Blu Ray is 1080p 24Hz) - but for sport, the quality of your display and its ability to do a decent job of an interlaced signal has a huge influence on what you see. So some displays just do line doubling, giving 540p at 50Hz, others just crudely interlace. Better displays will interpolate with varying levels of success.

I do also believe that some people genuinely aren't capable of seeing the difference at all - this is not their fault and they are usually women (wives in particular ). For me, a decent film in HD with my surrounds on is stunning!

 

[GaryB]

With standard DVDs you can get better quality with a progressive scan capable DVD player but only when connected to the TV through component video connections labeled Y, Pb, Pr.

You can also do this with a DVD player that has an HDMI output, as many do now. This will generally give a slightly better picture than Component as the picture does not have to be converted from digital to analogue.

Many DVD players have built-in upscalers to give a 1080 output from a DVD and depending on its quality, this can sometimes give a better picture than a 576p ouput.