Sky HD picture issues opinions please
 

When in Oz we bought a 1080p Panny 42" with Oz freeview, the HD channels through the aerial were excellent, especially older films, for instance The man with the golden gun, it didnt look like a grainy 60's film, if it wasnt for the style and cars of the time you'd have thought it was a brand new film, really blew me away that HD could do that for such an old film.

Anyway since we got back we subscribed to Sky HD and yes it all looks very nice and crisp but it aint blowing me away like the freeview HD did in Oz.

Could it be

1: The TV, although the DVB tuner is for Oz only when you plug the Sky in it is basically acting as a monitor imo, as our old UK Sammy 720p did in Oz .

2: Sky HD is 1080i (well according to the settings it is and there is no option for 1080p)

3: The TV hasn't been turned on for 3 months and needs to get back into it's stride as some normal Sky channels looked a little grainy to start with but are improving

I'm guessing it's the 1080i that Sky are broadcasting with, is Freeview 1080p ? would I be better off getting a freeview box for the rest of the HD channels ?

Buying another 1080p set really isn't an option at the mo, even though I dont believe thats the issue.

Any advice welcome

Cheers

Is actually it in HD, turn the setting on that highlight programs that was actually recorded in hd and not sky upscaling

Best way to check pic quality put rush hd on

I'm not an expert, so can't explain it entirely accurately, but Sky HD is not Full HD, neither is Freeview, it's only "HD Ready" - i.e. 720p. The only full HD (1080p) source you'll get on your TV is through a Bluray player or streamed from a PC, or a PS3/Xbox 360.

Are you sure your set hasn't been damaged in transit? As my HD Panasonic Plasma was crystal clear/sharp from the minute I first turned it on, it didn't have to get up to speed first. Also, agree with antc, not everything on a HD channel is necessarily HD. I think BBC HD is a good test, as they're committed to only broadcasting HD content on their HD channel. As opposed to a lot of others, that just scale it up.

Or Sky Sports HD if you have that? Try watching something you'll know is in HD, like a Premiership football match. On mine, if I switch between the HD and none HD game then the difference is really obvious.

the panny 1080s IMHO have a very soft picture, so i think there is nowt wrong with the tv. I have a panny 50" in my living room and although nearly x3 the price of my 2year old samsung 50", i don't think it holds a candle to it.

Thanks for the advice.

Watched the footy yesterday and did the channel comparison and it was clearly better, the Cricket is also way better :thumb: That said I found in Oz it was never live sport that stood out it was your normal Films and Tv programes that looked way better

I'll have a look at the BBC and Rush HD channels later tonight

And before anyone asks, I'm not using the HDMI lead they supplied with the box, using something far more expensive :lol1:

Talk to pslewis if he is still alive.

Some hd can be grainy that's all down to what mm camera they used iirc

Aww he is not that bad :) hey he had two Vulcan flyovers for his 80th birthday :)

We have a Panny 42" PX80B 1080i and our friends have the PZ80B (1080P). We have both got Sky HD and both agree that the picture is better in 1080i, as the 1080P is so good that is shows all the imperfections.

Firstly, It'll never look as impressive the 2nd time as it does the first

When I flick from BBC to BBC HD the only difference I can really notice is the sweat on peoples foreheads !

I wrote a lengthy reply and SN crashed.

It's the HD bitrate being dropped IMO.

First thing first, is the TV connected in the correct way?

Are you using an HDMI cable to connect the Sky HD box to the screen?

Other than component (which is being removed from the Sky HD boxes), HDMI is the only way to support HD content from the Sky box.

Assuming this is the case, and you have selected the correct input (not assuming you are an idiot, but you would be surprised how many clients complain of no difference between SD & HD. Upon investigation, they are not looking at an HD image) there are a few checks to be done.

As previously mentioned, go into the Sky menu, go to "options", then "customise" and then ensure that the option "highlight programmes originated in HD" is switched ON.

This will then highlight all programmes that are filmed in HD in orange on the planner. This is useful information as any programs on HD channels that are white in the planner are SD sourced and scaled to an HD resolution and will offer little or no difference in picture quality. Orange programs will give you the best picture quality assuming all being equal in transmission bit rates etc.

HD broadcasts, either Sky, or Freeview (FreeSat) are all at either 720P/1080i. This is the standard agreed upon for all broadcast media in the UK. Currently only Blu-Ray or Games consoles will output at 1080P (some PC's as well).

Given the resolution of your screen, you should ensure that the HD output on the Sky box is set to 1080i. This will give the best picture results as the screen will not have to "scale" this image to generate the picture. If you have an HD Ready screen, i.e something with a resolution of 1024 x 768, 1366 x 768 or similar, these will perform better with the HD box output set to 720P.

Once all that is done, that should yield some good results for you.

If you have any further queries, let me know.

Jason

I think that as much as anything it depends on the quality of the transmittted picture as has been mentioned.

I find Sky Sport to be the best, ITV is next and BBC is the worst as far as quality is concerned. Mine set is a Panny 1080p, I dont know if 1080p transmitted is significantly better since I have not seen it.

I find the freeview to be good quality with non HD as seen before I had the Panny. I think the higher resolution of the tv itself is responsible for that.

The 720 HD would be inferior of course and I think that BBC and maybe ITV use that for transmission.

Les

No one transmits 1080p, you can only get that through a Bluray/HD-DVD player or games console, as said a couple of times above.

Any HD TV/Freeview/Cable/Satellite signal input to a TV will be 720p or 1080i.

Thanks for that, didn't know about the 'originated in HD'.

However, your last bit I'm not so sure - I have a 1366 x 768 set, thinking theat 720P was all I needed since Its for Sky viewing only - after hours of playing with settings I found the 1080i output was better than 720P.

Both sky and my TV have the ability to output / accept both and the 1080i (to my eye) was the better setting, must be the way the SKY/TV up/down scales.

:D

I'm an idiot but not that idiotic :lol1:, see post #6 and yes I am looking at the HD channels, funnily enough my 7 year old made a comment where she said the picture in Oz almost looked 3D, it was that good a picture.


All good info, wasn't aware of that, Thanks

Done, see post #1