CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

[WanMan]

Has anyone been able to experiment (test) to compare the OTA Digital TV transmissions of, say, Fox, ABC, NBC, and CBS to the sources being re-transmitted by DirecTV (MPEG-2 & 4) and or Comcast? I would be curious to see if anyone has noticed any advance compression going on. I know that 3-4 years ago the cat was let out of the bag about DirecTV's MPEG-2 over-compression and reduced [pixel] resolution tactics that led to the HDlite being added to our vocabulary.

Since the MPEG-4 transmission may not have been massaged to a point for determination, I wonder if other means have been applied to determine the state of affairs there in. Anyone have any information?

[dbaisey]

I was wondering about that also the last couple of weeks. Anyone using the 'new' MPEG-4 STB's? Doug

[Clarence]

Post a frame from the newest D* signal and I'll post the same frame from Comcast.

I watched a football game last week at a friend's house and it wasn't too bad... it used to be unwatchable. I think D* is much better than it was a couple of years ago...

[dbaisey]

Dang. So even with the JPEG-4 Direct is still doing 1280? The best HD I have seen so far was FiOS but hard to get where you need it. Thanks Clarence. Tried making sense out of A site's threads. Doug

[kschmit2]

those streams were all MPEG-2. It's an old comparison. I think HDTVFanatic provided some of the samples

[perisoft]

[WanMan]

I tried to question D* business practice in terms of MPEG-4 and HD 1920x1080i channels. Some took offence as if I had a bone to pick with D*. Based on my MPEG-2 experience for HD, its natural (I thought) to question whether or not the continued practice by D* was implemented on their MPEG-4 transmissions.

I would think that this would be relatively easy to determine. For instance, the previous insight simply took a satellite's transponder data bandwidth and an unadulterated condition permitted only one HD channel. So, when D* put two HD channels on a transponder (talking MPEG-2, here), there was no doubt they were re-compressing the original signal. But when you take a bunch of enthusiasts they also determined (curious by what means) that D* was also chopping off and throwing away a chunk of the original resolution (1/3).

Now the problem seems to be getting into the MPEG-4 stream enough to determine what D* is sending to the MPEG-4 STBs. But even without an independent verification or determination, I am not going to give D* the benefit of the doubt, because they've proven a willingness to abuse their customers (a la short-sheeting). So, while those consuming the MPEG-4 content from D* are saying its nice and pretty and much better than the abused MPEG-2 does not cut it enough for me to feel comfortable with D*.

And even if D* isn't chopping off the resolution or re-compressing the original signal, how much of the content on all those standard channels iterated in HD are actually producing HD content and not merely scaling the same exact content found on both the MPEG-2 HD channels and the SD channels? Let it be know that there is no consumer protection mechanism.

[Clarence]

[WanMan]

Should means little to me. Should is speculation. BTW cannot the same fellas that busted Bungie on Halo 3 and AE for COD4 for HDlite game releases perform the same investigative observations for us?