I recently got an HDTV DVI through the cable company.

I noticed with the local stations that were in Hi-Def, they weren't quite as "crisp and clear" as something like ESPN HD.

Is it because the local stations aren't sending out an HD signal?

I want Judge Judy to be Crystal Clear and she looks fuzzy.

I Judge Judy in HD.

 

it depends on the source material. If it was filmed with old equipment it should still be digital quality 480i signal but not high definition. The best test to see how well the channels are coming through is to watch a few minutes of Leno. There is a very good quality HD signal for both Leno and I think Letterman as well. If those shows are not high quality pictures, then you might have a problem. If those shows look great your setup is probably fine and the ones that look bad are just not HD programming.

 

Well, let's see here:

First of all, we have 3 HDTV's in the house with DirecTV and a terrestrial antenna on each of them. I can tell you that speaking stricly from a technical standpoint, the over the air (antenna) channels look absolutely better than everything else. This has primarily to do with their much lower compression ratio. DirecTV is still less compressed than HD cable, and as such it looks better.

I'm pretty sure Judge Judy is not broadcast in HD. This is a common misconception many of my clients have when getting HDTV. Just because you have the service, it does not mean all the programming will be in HD. The only way you'll be able to watch stuff in HD is if it's BROADCAST in HD. The other thing is that on an HDTV, especially when hooked up with a DVI/HDMI cable, non HD material looks noticably poorer than it did on your old "regular" TV. Don't fret, just watch some true HD signals like some sporting events or HBO or something, and you'll immediately see the difference in resolutions. If you want to post a list of your gear and it's various connections, I may be able to help you out some more. Good luck!

C

 

You need to setup a terrestrial (read old school) antenna. The over the air broadcasts have the best resolution (picture quality).

Unfortunately, all sources (antenna, Cable, and Satellite) use compression. MPEG-n.

This is the one thing that annoys me about HDTV. They need to come up with a broadcast format that uses lossless compression. Then the picture will really look remarkable. Hooking up your set to a computer will really show off its capability.

I was an early adopter of DirecTV (they had 2 services back then DTV and USSB). They can (and do) vary the compression on each channel. They can allocate more or less bandwidth per channel. The physical cable or satellite dish has only a fixed amount of bandwidth. Not sure of the exact number. But they stuff a lot of channels on it. Each additional channel would take a little away from the rest.

Early on with DirecTV, the PPV channels had the best quality picture (in other words they dedicated more bandwidth to those channels). A lot of the lesser channels suffered (cartoon network, BET, $$$$$$, etc).

With a lossy compression which MPEG is, you can dial down the bandwidth as low as you want and still have it uncompressed at a high resolution (1080i which is 1920x1080 pixels). What the consumer will see is what I call "macroblocks" which are the individual rectangular blocks that the compression algorithm uses. As the bandwidth decreases you can start to make out the shape of the blocks.

MPEG in general works best with a picture that slowly changes (the difference between the current frame and the last is small). Fast moving cameras, and scrolling text will show the compression.

The kicker with MPEG and an HDTV set is that because of the signal being digital, the set is now really like a computer monitor. The old analog TV standard (NTSC) would have a tendancy to smear the pixels together to create a smooth continous signal / picture. You really wouldn't see the "macroblocking" on a lower bandwidth DirecTV (or digital cable) channel. On an HDTV set, I can almost always see the compression. (I have good eyesight).

That said, the BEST bandwidth I've seen so far is on the over-the-air broadcasts. Plus its free. Just get on your roof and put up an old school antenna. You might have a hard time finding a store to buy one from though. Great for sports and Public Television. I also still subscribe to DirecTV but haven't bothered to get the HDTV receiver because it seems to me that they dedicate about half the bandwidth that the over-the-air antenna does and I can really see the compression. Not worth the extra money.

Another thing about HDTV sets is that the current generation of plasmas do not display in full (1080i) which is 1920x1080 pixels. They will display the picture, but a chip inside the set scales it down to a lesser resolution. It will say 1080i compatible, but it is just scaling it. Some of the DLP sets are like this also. Unless you plan on buying a new set a few years later, I'd stick to buying a set that is capable of displaying all the formats at full resolution.

 

The first statement pretty much hit the nail on the head, but I'd change the second part to state that unless a program is SHOT and broadcast in HD, it wont be in HD. Right now, there are still a very small number of shows shot and produced in HD.

 

That's kind of what I was thinking, but just wanted some clarification.

 

I saw a recnt Direct TV commercial saying they were launching a satellite that had capacity for 1500 fully HD channels. Sweet. Bout time too. That would probably mean they will not have to compress any signal on the few HD channels they do have.

 

They have that Voom stuff. My wife can't tell a difference between analog and HD. I think she needs glasses.

 

Actually, that's not even the whole truth. Many HD programs (like all movies on HBO, Showtime, Skinimax, etc) are originally shot on film (so they can be shown in theaters), and are later scanned through a telecine to produce the HD image shown on screen. TV shows are a different story, as most networks don't care if their day-to-day programming is in HD. It's really expensive to broadcast HD, and TV executives are cheap!

This is actually a GOOD thing because it means that any program can be upconverted and broadcast in an HD resolution. Bottom line, the material doesn't even need to be shot in HD to be broadcast that way.

 

[quote name='JohnE' date='Feb 17 2005, 10:25 AM']Another thing about HDTV sets is that the current generation of plasmas do not display in full (1080i) which is 1920x1080 pixels.