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Alan Whicker SD at HD Quality


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Old 15-04-2009, 22:47
LesU
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I've just been watching the Alan Whicker, Whicker's Journey of a Lifetime programme on BBC2. The old archive footage was obviously grainy, but when it switched to the latest footage I was absolutely amazed. I would have sworn I was watching HD. I noticed the same last week.
It presumably shows just how much influence the camera quality has on the end result. The Humax has then helped by upscaling it to create a picture with HD levels of sharpness.
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Old 15-04-2009, 23:17
c2r
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the other thing to notice, particularly when looking at digital satellite is that the main BBC channels have a fairly high bitrate, which helps reduce digital compression artefacts and blocking of colours...
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Old 15-04-2009, 23:51
jzee
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I've just been watching the Alan Whicker, Whicker's Journey of a Lifetime programme on BBC2. The old archive footage was obviously grainy, but when it switched to the latest footage I was absolutely amazed. I would have sworn I was watching HD.
I could have sworn I saw one of the Alan Whicker progs on BBC HD, so maybe it was actually made in HD and the rest of the series will be shown sometime later?
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Old 16-04-2009, 07:43
LesU
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I'm almost certain that the modern shots were taken using HD cameras. You can always tell when they have been used, especially on the BBC. I guess HD cameras are more uptodate and have better capabilities. If the lighting conditions are good then the effect is even more noticeable.
The Whicker series was only 4 programmes and last night was the last one, but I'll bet we will see it reshown on BBC HD in the future. It has a lot of old film footage in it, but then so did the Ford in Britain story shown a short while ago.
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Old 16-04-2009, 11:55
KevinMillican
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It is surprising how good some programs on BBC1 look in SD. Makes you realise just how much better everyone's standard definition Freeview/Freesat,Sky would look if bandwidth was not so tight.

However, if people were getting the sort of picture quality that their existing gear was capable of producing, maybe it would be a lot harder to sell HD services.

Don't get me wrong, I really love the quality on BBC HD, and ITV HD. It's just that the contrast between these and many of the SD channels is exaggerated by the low bandwidth currently being broadcast.
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Old 16-04-2009, 13:25
jzee
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It is surprising how good some programs on BBC1 look in SD. Makes you realise just how much better everyone's standard definition Freeview/Freesat,Sky would look if bandwidth was not so tight.
I don't think it is solely down to the bandwidth, it's also a lot to do with cameras used and processing quality (recorded content can probably be encoded better than live broadcasts for example).
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