NBC & TV Shows In HD!

[jaw04005]

After comparing both versions of "Wilson's Heart" from House (Season 4), I've decided that the quality is equivalent as long as your outputting to an Apple TV.

I encoded a full MPEG-2 encoding of "Wilson's Heart" at 1280x720, 5033.22 kbits and 24 FPS using QuickTime (2-pass) for playback on an Apple TV. The iTunes download was 1280x720, 4166.11 kbits and 23.98 FPS.

In this example, I thought both versions looked pretty much equal—maybe a slight edge to the iTunes encode.

When comparing the iTunes download with the original MPEG-2 recording—there's no comparison. The MPEG-2 recording has much more detail as you would expect.

If you don't have a dedicated recording device or wanted to ditch your Cable — I could see how purchasing HD episodes from the iTunes store would be appealing. For now, I think I'll stick to recording with EyeTV and playing back the recordings using my PlayStation 3 in native MPEG-2.

 

[Volante]

Life Itunes HD, notice noise in background (to the left).


Life - from the internets. No noise in the background. (around 3600 bitrate)

 

[northy124]

Hmmm I can't tell the difference between In Plain Sight iTunes HD vs Scene HD (For my own test) they are about the same, I don't mind paying as I don't have logos and I get an SD version as well.

For me this is a win win.

 

[megfilmworks]

Downloaded one episode of Battlestar Galactica last night... have to say I was very unimpressed with the quality for being HD. Seems very 'noisy' and full of static. Some of that is the low-light that Battlestar is shot in, and some is the camera, but the entire image just seemed way too soft to me.

I would have rather turned my 8 hour download into a 12 hour download if it meant I would end up with a quality file that looks good on my 50" plasma!

I see that the 720p files are around 4500 total kbps. That is similar to some other 720p files I got from the web, but this video doesn't look NEARLY as good as those! I hope it's just Battlestar, but not holding my breath.

I have directly compared the UHD bradcast of BSG in HD against the iTunes
HD download. The iTunes is better, especially with action scenes where there is virtually no macro blocking. Also better color saturation.
By the way, BSG is purposely filmed in doc style; grainy and jerky.

 

[hazmatzak]

With BSG, there's a big difference between the scenes in the CIC or Baltar's harem, which are very grainy and don't compress well, and the CG space stuff, which looks clean and sharp. Hangar deck scenes are in the middle. Much less of a quality range with the pilot of Life.

No noise in the background

It looks like there's slightly less detail overall. So they put a filter on it, or the encoder made that choice. It's neither right nor wrong necessarily, unless you go to far either way.

This chart below, expertly crafted by George Ou at ZDNet

I dunno; any chart that lists "QuickTime" as a "codec" says the opposite of "expert" to me.

 

[bbotte]

yeah BSG with all the low light scenes looks like ****, that is not HD. So much noise from being compressed. 2.99 a show, and so many shows, just taking up mass HD space. No thanks, if there was a $10 rental fee for the season and I get 3 months to watch, I will pay. I'll stick to my HD Cable for my HD TV.

 

[livingfortoday]

As far as I can see the BSG episode looks a lot sharper and brighter on any of the battle scenes and anything that's heavy on the CGI, but when they're in the dark it looks pretty much the exact same as the DVD. Hmm. Don't know if that's worth $2.99 a pop, though seeing as I don't have cable and Season 4 isn't out on DVD yet...

 

[Peace]

Not sure if this has been mentioned so sorry if it has. But.

Has anyone noticed that all the NBC or SciFi shows you buy when they are played there's an exact 10 second interval where the commercial should be. I timed it last night.

It used to be an almost instant transition. This is a subtle way for NBC to "get back" at Apple imho.

 

[megfilmworks]

I've watched at least one episode of all the HD free downloads.
In every case the quality is much better than the HD cable broadcast (TimeWarner)
Action scenes are way better than the HD boadcast.

 

[megfilmworks]

Not sure if this has been mentioned so sorry if it has. But.

Has anyone noticed that all the NBC or SciFi shows you buy when they are played there's an exact 10 second interval where the commercial should be. I timed it last night.

It used to be an almost instant transition. This is a subtle way for NBC to "get back" at Apple imho.

I strongly doubt that.