DS Forums

 
 

Freeview Quality


Reply
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Old 27-11-2013, 18:11
CocaCola
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Posts: 279

Received my set top box yesterday and can't help but feel the quality of Freeview channels through the YouView box is much lesser quality than when I watch Freeview using the internal Freeview tuner in my TV.

Has anyone else noticed this?
CocaCola is offline   Reply With Quote
Please sign in or register to remove this advertisement.
Old 27-11-2013, 18:28
M_at
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Posts: 550
It will depend on how your box is connected to your TV and your TV.

I find its fine - especially as my TV's tuner is only DVB-T and can't access the HD content but the panel is 1080 capable.
M_at is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-12-2013, 19:38
garbageguy
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Thornton NW UK
Posts: 239
I got mine last week, and am very disapointed with some channels, itv 2 seems very fuzzy
garbageguy is offline Follow this poster on Twitter   Reply With Quote
Old 14-01-2014, 22:32
Darren.
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2013
Posts: 17
Received my set top box yesterday and can't help but feel the quality of Freeview channels through the YouView box is much lesser quality than when I watch Freeview using the internal Freeview tuner in my TV.

Has anyone else noticed this?
this was the very reason i sold my 'trial' you view box

my sony built in hd tuner is crystal clear! the you view box felt like i was going back a step,
Darren. is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 15-01-2014, 10:53
dms05
Forum Member
 
Join Date: May 2008
Posts: 324
I bought a 2nd user TalkTalk YouView PVR box about 6 months ago for £35. I now have HD via my Sony TV's terrestrial tuner, Sky+, TalkTalk You View and an older TVOnics HD PVR. All have HDMI connections and I find it difficult to spot any difference in quality on BBC HD, ITV HD but often the Sky HD channels appear superior on the Sky+ HD box. Having said that BBC have yet to add HD to all their terrestrial channels in my area so it's not a complete comparison.
dms05 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 15-01-2014, 17:25
David Waine
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2000
Location: UK
Posts: 2,270
Freeview picture quality is spot-on on my TalkTalk YV box. HD is consistently excellent. SD, of course, varies from channel to channel, but it is always watchable and programmes originally shot on HD cameras can come up looking almost as good as their HD equivalents. A few months ago, when Drama launched, I thought it looked very cramped in terms of bitrate, but it seems much better now. Presumably they have done something.
David Waine is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 16-01-2014, 23:17
robot
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Livingston, West Lothian.
Posts: 1,161
The picture quality on the SD channels is not as good as on our Panasonic Plasma TV, or our Panasonic DVD Recorder, or our Thomson DTI-6300 (ex Top-Up TV) box. The picture is softer and lacks crispness. It's really not as good as it should be.

However, the picture quality on all the HD channels live is truly excellent, and the HD recordings are just as good.

You wonder if the boffins at Humax were asked to lower the SD Channel quality, so that the HD quality would look even better!
robot is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 17-01-2014, 05:31
David Waine
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2000
Location: UK
Posts: 2,270
The TalkTalk box is from Huawei and the BT from Humax. In theory, the two should be more or less identical under the skin (apart from the size of the hard drive, which will not affect picture quality). In practice, they don't seem to be. Evidence for this is the Drama channel, which has been recordable on Humax boxes either from the channel's launch or shortly after (I forget which). Recording it on a Huawei box, however, is a much more recent development. That being the case, I suppose that it is entirely possible that the two perform differently in SD.

It also depends on the individual's perception. The judgement is always going to be subjective and another person may disagree. All I can say is that I am perfectly satisfied with the picture quality from my TalkTalk box. HD is obviously the best, but the better SD channels, such as the SD editions of BBC1, can look almost as good on occasion. Even the lower bitrate channels, such as Drama, are still acceptable.

I have watched some programmes on the TV's own tuner, usually when recording two other programmes, and I can honestly say that I noticed no significant difference in picture quality. All that proves, however, is that the tuner in my TV is as good as the two in the box.
David Waine is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 17-01-2014, 11:22
Dr.OliverTwich
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Easternmost England
Posts: 1,120
Most - if not all - TV's now apply picture processing and other settings on a 'per input' basis.

So, if you've set up everything just right on the internal tuners than go to an external source (YouView box, DVD-player, BluRay etc.,.) then some settings will be different.

This could explain why things are poorer than they need to be, perhaps?

In particular: often the TV scaler/de-interlacer processing is a superior chip-set to a set-top box's scaler... so (if possible) set the box to output the 'native video' of the broadcast and allow the TV to do the scaling to match the screen resolution.
Dr.OliverTwich is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 17-02-2014, 02:46
de525ma
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: Portsmouth
Posts: 787
Picture quality is lame on my YV box on SD channels, if I select 1080p output (TV's native resolution). The YV box doesn't de-interlace properly, so the picture constantly twitches. Migraine inducing.

If I set it to 1080i, (which makes the tv de-interlace the picture) it's fine.
de525ma is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 17-02-2014, 07:24
David Waine
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2000
Location: UK
Posts: 2,270
I agree. I originally set my YV box to 1080P, but switched to 1080i on the recommendation of somebody on these forums. There was a definite improvement all round. I can really have no complaints about Freeview picture quality. I watched a couple of episodes of 'Sharpe' on Drama yesterday. Obviously the channel has a restricted bitrate, not helped by the fact that it was shot on 16mm film twenty years ago and does not appear to have been digitally restored. Nevertheless, it remained perfectly watchable. Not anywhere near HD quality, of course, or even approaching BBC1 SD standards, but still more than acceptable, all things considered.

There is a lot of good old material coming out on Drama and I would like to see UKTV include it in their On Demand service, which might help to overcome the bitrate issue.
David Waine is offline   Reply With Quote
 
Reply



Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

 
Forum Jump


All times are GMT. The time now is 05:26.