Resolution - BellTV vs. DirectTV

[gdmaclew]

Can someone explain to me why there is such a discrepancy between the resolution offered by BellTV and DirectTV in the US.
Bell sends all its signals at 720p and DirectTV does it at 1080i or 1080p.
Do the US satellites have more or better transponders or do they simply have more satellites so they don't have to compress the signal as much?

[spun14]

I'm pretty sure that it has more to do with competition in the US then it has to do with much else. Greater competition leads to more money spent which leads to high quality of service.

When you look at the competition in Canada there really isn't much. 1 cable company really per territorial area and the option to us a dish. What is the motivation to offer better service when none of the companies are pushing to be better? If 1 company takes the first step then i'm sure the others will start following but that just hasn't happened here and likly won't for a long time because it cost money which none of the companies here seem to care to spend when ppl really arn't complaining overly about the service or easilly shut up with some discounts on service.

I've heard rumblings from a few of the cable companies about switching thier systems over to fiber to the house but not seen it yet. But when that eventually comes here like it already has in the states then you might see a push from Bell or Shaw Direct to upgrade thier systems. But really i think its going to take Roger's to do something substantial before it really effects Bell and SD.

[jasonbyers7]

I don't think there is a dramatic difference between the two as their frame rates are different.
720p is sent at 60fps, while 1080i is sent at 30fps.

[newstarbob]

Hmmm mixing resolution and frame rates????
Resolution is the number of 'lines' that can be displayed.
Frame rate is how many times, per second, the picture is refreshed. I'm unsure of the frame rate of either, but frankly it's a non issue.
As for the difference... there is a difference and it's considerable. Either American system, PQ wise, blows away anything available here in Canada. As were not allowed to talk about the american systems here, that's all I'll say.
Agreed, more competition would force the hand of Rogers/Bell/Shaw. Too bad our government protects our 'Canadian' identity so much so, that it's illegal to subscribe to either American service.
Regards

[scampbell]

Resolution is the number of 'lines' that can be displayed. Frame rate is how many times, per second, the picture is refreshed. I'm unsure of the frame rate of either, but frankly it's a non issue.

The "p" and "i" are significant as well.

720p represents 720 lines of resolution, with a full frame sent to you every 1/60th of a second (60 times per second).

1080i represents 1080 lines of resolution, with half of those lines being sent to you every 1/60th of a second for an effective frame rate of 30 fps.

1080p represents 1080 lines of resolutions, with all 1080 lines sent to you every 1/60th of a second (60 fps).

[peano]

Originally Posted by jasonbyers7

I don't think there is a dramatic difference between the two....

Believe me there is a dramatic difference. I have had the opportunity to compare Bell, Dish and Directv on the same HDMI input on a Pioneer plasma.

Directv is best, Dish Network is a close second and Bell looks like 480p or worse in comparison.

I also A-B'd the US networks over OTA and then via Directv and then Dish. Both US providers provide network feeds that are very hard to distinguish from OTA. In fact some stations look better via DBS.

[hugh]

Bell sends all its signals at 720p and DirectTV does it at 1080i or 1080p.
Do the US satellites have more or better transponders or do they simply have more satellites so they don't have to compress the signal as much?

Don't confuse compression and native resolution. You can have 720p at different compression ratios.

In addition, the discussion has been had umpteen times around here. It's true that 1080 is bigger than 720 but that doesn't mean its better. Many would argue that 720p is superior to 1080i.

In a notable anecdote, Mark Cuban, founder of HDNET was asked why engineers at HDNET used 1080i instead of 720p. His answer was that the engineers had nothing to do with it. They had analysed everything and were mixed. He chose 1080 because it was bigger and sounded better than 720.

[Steve Gyurki]

bitrate plays a large part in the picture quality also. MPEG4 compression over MPEG 2 has made a vast improvement in available bandwidth. There was an improvement when 8SPK modulation was implemented. The point being - everyone knows Bell over-compresses their signal, especially on SD.

Steve

[scrooloose]

Also worth mentioning is that Dish and Direct TV are using mostly MPEG4 for their HD. Bell is still using MPEG2. MPEG4 compresses better, so an apples-to-apples comparison is even more difficult.

-Mike

[JamesK]

Hmmm mixing resolution and frame rates????

And field rates. With interleaved (i) video, you still have 60 fields/second, but only 30 full frames, with each field containing half the lines. With progressive (p) video the field and frame rates are the same, with all lines presented in each frame (field).

[JamesK]

and DirectTV does it at 1080i or 1080p.

What broadcast content is available at 1080p? Unless they source their own content, they wouldn't have anything in 1080p to transmit.

[Deepdish]

Both Directv and Dishnetwork have offered 1080p VOD PPV for some time now although I think Dish may have pulled their VOD service recently so as to thwart IKS piracy of the VIP series that was accessing said service.

[Yaamon]

There is a difference with us satellite companies picture quality compared to bell.

I currenty have a dish vip622 and a coworker the bell vesrion.

I can tell you that the bell picture quality is soft and lacks contrast compared to what I watch on dish.. Im not sure if this is due to mpeg 2 or mpeg4

A few years dish after direct went HD lite(lower resolution) dish kept there signal at 1920x1080i and when they switched down to I think 1440x1080i you could see a difference a little softer and a slight loss in contrast. Now Im not sure what resolution they are broadcasting at.

I gave up the dish service and decide to get it back this summer and all I can say compared to ota its no bad.

My cowoker I installed his 4228 on his chimney and he loves it. Compared to bell locals a big difference. He mention last week I thought bell had crank up the bandwidth on the HD channels as the picture looked great as good as ota.

Then when he decided to change channels he realise he was watching ota.

[james99]

Originally Posted by JamesK

What broadcast content is available at 1080p? Unless they source their own content, they wouldn't have anything in 1080p to transmit.

This feature has been available for well over a year(existing threads exist)and is constantly part of the TV ads that are currently airing.

[scrooloose]

...but neither DirectTV or Dish broadcast 1080p. You essentially download a file (movie or show) and play it on your STB, which is capable of outputting 1080p.

-Mike