Bell TV HD Needs Improvement Fast

[markb]

Monday nights are the busy night for tv for me, and tonight I really noticed just how bad the so called HD is on Bell, or should we just call it HD Lite as that is all we are getting. Watching Heroes tonight and the HD feed only looked marginally better then the SD feed. The same observations were made for How I Met Your Mother and Big Bang Theory on CBS. The NFL game also just looked marginally better. Bell needs to get everything on the new satellite and switch over to MPEG 4 fast so us viewers can get some quality back. It is a disgrace to be calling what Bell customers see HD. The quality is horrible and not at all sharp. It's time Bell gets their act together fast.

[Shednblues]

Do you think Bell would listen if you/we were to complain to them? Maybe lots of complaints directly to them would finally get some action. Something has to be done about this.

[jumpy27]

I have both Bell and Shaw HD, and both look the same on my 119" screen--good but not great. As soon as Bell gets MPEG4 they will use the extra bandwidth to add more HD channels, so it will questionable if the HD will improve. The only way to overcome this is to live in a big city and make use of HD OTA channels.

[hugh]

Watching Heroes tonight and the HD feed only looked marginally better then the SD feed.

Well the question is was the horrible picture quality on Heroes from Bell or Global? My suspicion is the problem was the source.

[jb1]

Does Bell intend to use both 'birds' at 82? If so, then perhaps this opens up enough bandwidth to give us the 1080 feeds at mpeg2. Can mpeg4 compression give the customers good enough PQ to satisfy our 'give us real HD' demands, or would it actually have the opposite/nil effect for customers--but just allow Bell to jam more junk through the pipes?

Forgive me for my ignorance, it wasn't very smart, if it had come out the other end...

[granduncle]

Only 32 transponders with 30-40Mbps useful bandwidth (depending on modulation/FEC) can be handled by the receiving equipment. No point in keeping 2 birds when one will do.
1080/60p can't be handled real time by the receivers. Won't happen any time soon (with the possible exception of what Dish is doing).
Mpeg-4 is a much more efficient compression algorithm but it will take time to develop good real-time encoders and sort out how many channels per transponder BeV will actually use. Until that happens expect the picture to be of the same quality as now. At best.

[jwt873]

FWIW, It appears to me that that the HD quality varies quite a bit from channel to channel. Stations like HDnet, Equator and Oasis always look great. On the other hand, network programming from stations like ABC, CTV etc. can be good at times and then no better than SD at other times.

I'm thinking along the same lines as Hugh. The problem could lie with the source.

[dc1977]

Heroes looked good as usual in high def on my setup last night, no complaints here.

[markb]

HDNet always looks good? That's even questionable. I remember when HDNet first launched how much better it looks. Just look at all the jagged edges on the HDNet station ID in the corner. This used to look a lot sharper with no jagged edges at all. (especially noticeable on the H)

[spun14]

I don't watch a lot of sitcoms in HD for these reasons. I find i save myself the frustration of dealing with audio drop outs or pixilation or various other things that seem to be poping up with the HD feeds and just go and watch it on my 27" TV and be happy about it. I did watch Californication lastnight on the movie network HD and it did look pretty good. Although most of the time those channels seem to look fine compaired to the major networks. Last week it was a bit grainy this week it looked perfect so some of it could just be random.

And if the feed is only being delivered at 720 than of course most ppl are going to notice a difference compaired to upconverted DVD's or blu ray. Same complaints seem to be comming from every provider tho. They just can't get it right.

[scrooloose]

If you think there is only marginal difference between SD and HD on Bell, you really need either a new television or new eyes. That said, Global HD has had some serious issues this past few weeks, resulting in frequent, annoying video glitches.

-Mike

[markb]

Don't think I need a new tv. Just got one at the end of May (Pioneer 6010FD 1080p plasma), but maybe it is just the feeds. Like another poster said, I find the qulity seems to be different day by day. One day looks good then the next day like last night looks awful. By the way, I did notice the awful video glitches on Global HD last night and the thing I wonder is why can't Bell drop the simsub on NBC when there is obviously a problem with Global's feed.

[Paulo]

Ok guys, there are a few things here that all add up to the poor PQ on BEV. As mentioned before:

1)The fact that all 1080i broadcast are being changed to 720P by BEV. I think this is the biggest factor PERIOD!

2)The fact that I do believe that some of the problems do begin at the source (global, NBC, etc) so it may not always be BEV fault, but couple the bad source with #1 above and the PQ gets worst.

3) Yes, sometimes certain channels are better than others, HD Net and Oasis, even TMN are sharper (most of the time, NOT ALWAYS) than say ABC, CBS, NBC.

4) The fact that the Nimiq 4 is being moved into position may cause some PQ problems. (Not sure on this one just speculating)

5) I know for certain of how good the PQ USED TO BE two or so years ago, so BEV has been capable of delivering.... I just don't know why they are not doing so!!!

Another thing that BEV should be aware of, and I'll speak for myself here, is that I much prefer quality of HD picture over quantity of HD channels. Don't get me wrong, it is not like I want to do away with The Aboriginal channel or Oasis, Treasure, Rush...... but really, besides the first time they aired..... when we were all in AAHHHH with having these channels, who has watched these programs for 2-3hrs in any given day?

Enough said, BEV really has to do something about this and quick. OH, and to the person asking if complaining to BEV will help, I really don't think it will do much to call a CSR and complain to them. You have to contact a higher "power" in order to be remotely heard.

Thanks for listening


Paul

[Leaf Fan]

I think there needs to be an industry standard, with minimum, measurable audio/video rates, to be called HD, so there won't be variables like brand of tv, wiring, etc, that can be blamed for the poor picture/audio quality.
My 2 cents

[jumpy27]

Originally Posted by markb

By the way, I did notice the awful video glitches on Global HD last night and the thing I wonder is why can't Bell drop the simsub on NBC when there is obviously a problem with Global's feed.

I was watching Heroes last night on NBCHW and the first 5 minutes was simsubbed with GlobalHW (with good picture) and then Bell switched back to NBCHW. I guess the video glitches on GlobalHE forwarned Bell to not simsub the whole hour or the next hour either (Life).