picture quality of TCM on X4/255

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.video.satellite.4dtv (More info?)

Like a lot of folks I was very disappointed when TCM (Turner Classic
Movies) left C-Band analog the end of last year. Like a lot of folks I
was very pleased when it became available as a 4DTV channel. I am not
pleased, however, with the quality of the picture -- it looks to be
heavily compressed (or something). It looks better on my neighbor's
DirecTv setup! FMC (Fox Movie Channel) on X4/251 isn't any better.
Why is this so and can it be better (not that I expect that it will
be)? At least it comes in nice and strong (unlike the HBO/Cinemax
feeds on G1).

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.video.satellite.4dtv (More info?)

In my particular case,I feel that the C-Band 4DTV feed of Turner Classic
Movies looks SUPERIOR to the DirecTV uplink (I have both).
This is rather subjective from viewer to viewer in my opinion.
Part of the issue probably is due to the source material.Some of it is
really old films,that have been graphically enhanced and redacted
because original parts were missing and the process that when they were
filmed with did not ever envision digital transmission when it was
created.So certain artifacts and detail is not likely to be evident when
it is uplinked.
For instance,I was watching the ORIGINAL movie,"Lost Horizon" (the one
made in 1932,the one with seven minutes missing due to degraded archival
source material) and I could detect "celluloid" scratches while watching
it that no amount editing and recompilation could fix.
They COULD be using a high compression ratio,but come on......some of
this stuff is really OLD.With this kind of material,I hardly think it
matters.In fact,I would hate to see this stuff converted into any kind
of high defintion conversion,because more detail errors would show up
and that would be even worse.

 

[user]

Archived from groups: alt.video.satellite.4dtv (More info?)

I also regret the loss of quality since it's move from analog. Especially
noticeable when they letter box movies which throws away quite a bit of the
vertical resolution. But I don't think it looks worse than the small dish.

Lee Richardson
Mech-Tech

<jschmuhl@aol.com> wrote in message
news:1118892838.383094.57860@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com...
> Like a lot of folks I was very disappointed when TCM (Turner Classic
> Movies) left C-Band analog the end of last year. Like a lot of folks I
> was very pleased when it became available as a 4DTV channel. I am not
> pleased, however, with the quality of the picture -- it looks to be
> heavily compressed (or something). It looks better on my neighbor's
> DirecTv setup! FMC (Fox Movie Channel) on X4/251 isn't any better.
> Why is this so and can it be better (not that I expect that it will
> be)? At least it comes in nice and strong (unlike the HBO/Cinemax
> feeds on G1).
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.video.satellite.4dtv (More info?)

Just not as good as the direct PowerVU received by cable systems--yes, there
is a noticable difference.

<-> wrote in message news:y_SdnX_fb6KLCizfRVn-tQ@sigecom.net...
>I also regret the loss of quality since it's move from analog. Especially
>noticeable when they letter box movies which throws away quite a bit of the
>vertical resolution. But I don't think it looks worse than the small dish.
>
> Lee Richardson
> Mech-Tech
>
> <jschmuhl@aol.com> wrote in message
> news:1118892838.383094.57860@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com...
>> Like a lot of folks I was very disappointed when TCM (Turner Classic
>> Movies) left C-Band analog the end of last year. Like a lot of folks I
>> was very pleased when it became available as a 4DTV channel. I am not
>> pleased, however, with the quality of the picture -- it looks to be
>> heavily compressed (or something). It looks better on my neighbor's
>> DirecTv setup! FMC (Fox Movie Channel) on X4/251 isn't any better.
>> Why is this so and can it be better (not that I expect that it will
>> be)? At least it comes in nice and strong (unlike the HBO/Cinemax
>> feeds on G1).
>>
>
>