European Digi Wide Screen shows on American DTV

Archived from groups: alt.tv.tech.hdtv (More info?)

I have seen three British and one German DTV wide screen programs up
converted to HD on DTV stations in Chicago. The British ones were on
the PBS channel and the German one was on ABC's DTV channel. PBS up
converts to 1080i and ABC to 720p.

I know that the European DTV line standard is a little higher than the
480 SDTV USA standard so the picture should look at least as good as
PAL analog converted NTSC, but it doesn't . It looks soft as if the
resolution has been reduced to the lever of NTSC VHS. It should at
least be as good a DVD.

Is that a problem with the conversion or in the amount of resolution
reduction from digital compression during the production?

The German program was a live ice skating event and standard PAL
converted to NTSC would have looked better.

The British shows were equally awful which was a shame since the BBC
production values were wonderful as they always are.

NTSC programs up converted to HD look fairly decent so why the
difference when one is starting out with European digital material?

Help me out European or British cousins. Does DTV broadcast material
look as good as DVD transfers in your countries?

I was hoping that DTV would enable the exchange of high quality
program material without quality loss.

Any American video engineers out there wan an answer to the conversion
question?

Thanks,
Garth

Archived from groups: alt.tv.tech.hdtv (More info?)

Yes, it is quite possible, even probable, that the 576/50hz is
converted to 480/60hz and then upconverted. That could explain the
degradation of the image.

Thanks. That hadn't even crossed my mind.

Unfortunately the cable system in my building doesn't carry the BBC
channel yet. I am looking forward to getting it in a couple of months.
I imagine that the channel will be 4x3 but perhaps the 16x9 material
will be letterboxed.

With one exception, the only 16x9 anamorphic programming in the US is
on terrestrial HDTV and cable and satellite HD channels. The FOX
network has some 480p 16x9 programs but it switching to 720p in the
Fall.

I have seen only one region 2 DVD. It played correctly on my computer
but didn't contain the best program material so I still have no idea
what good 576 can look like. It is only logical that it should look
better than 480.

Garth







On Mon, 3 May 2004 21:26:22 +0100, "Tony"
<tony.wardenNospam@dsl.pipex.com> wrote:

>Perhaps the programmes were delivered having been converted from 576/50Hz to
>480/60Hz then upconverted to HD.
>
>Here in the UK the technical quality of BBC programmes is usually very high
>but between the accounts and regulators there is not enough bandwidth on
>Digital satellite or digital terrestrial to see them at their best.
>
>The best picture quality is on BBC DVD's in their original region 2 release
>form.
>
>As a matter of interest, what's BBC America like for quality? Does it show
>programmes in 16x9 format?
>
>Tony.
>
>
>"Garth" <garth09@rcn.com> wrote in message
>news:3g7090he4odf31032jher08p7pq1sq2q8k@4ax.com...
>> I have seen three British and one German DTV wide screen programs up
>> converted to HD on DTV stations in Chicago. The British ones were on
>> the PBS channel and the German one was on ABC's DTV channel. PBS up
>> converts to 1080i and ABC to 720p.
>>
>> I know that the European DTV line standard is a little higher than the
>> 480 SDTV USA standard so the picture should look at least as good as
>> PAL analog converted NTSC, but it doesn't . It looks soft as if the
>> resolution has been reduced to the lever of NTSC VHS. It should at
>> least be as good a DVD.
>>
>> Is that a problem with the conversion or in the amount of resolution
>> reduction from digital compression during the production?
>>
>> The German program was a live ice skating event and standard PAL
>> converted to NTSC would have looked better.
>>
>> The British shows were equally awful which was a shame since the BBC
>> production values were wonderful as they always are.
>>
>> NTSC programs up converted to HD look fairly decent so why the
>> difference when one is starting out with European digital material?
>>
>> Help me out European or British cousins. Does DTV broadcast material
>> look as good as DVD transfers in your countries?
>>
>> I was hoping that DTV would enable the exchange of high quality
>> program material without quality loss.
>>
>> Any American video engineers out there wan an answer to the conversion
>> question?
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Garth
>