[opendtv] Re: Olympics picture quality
- From: "John Willkie" <johnwillkie@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 19 Aug 2004 13:56:58 -0700
During the Olympics, NBC is being run out of Athens. Indeed, in the case of
o&o's, the local station is being switched out of Athens.
All the nets use 45Mb/sec contribution feeds, save Fox (when their stream
switcher goes on line) which will be using 19.29 Mb/sec transmission feed to
affiliates.
John Willkie
-----Original Message-----
From: opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of tjharvey@xxxxxxx
Sent: Thursday, August 19, 2004 10:58 AM
To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx; opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [opendtv] Re: Olympics picture quality
Doug,
I made mention of this last Sunday. I understand the pictures are incoming
to NBC affiliates at DS3 rate of 45Mb/s, so the origination encoding from
New York, or wherever else it is originating from in the US is sending it
out at 45Mb/s. Affiliates decode and re-encode to 18Mb/s for transmission
and so there is a generational loss but it should not be all that bad.
My question is how is NBC receiving it at New York? I suspect a third decode
is occurring before its US distribution to insert commercials. Or else is
the encode from Athens at a different rate from NBC's DS-3 distribution rate
which necessitates a third decode/ re-encode cycle?
Anyhow, I see the artifacts too. In future the viewer is regularly going to
have to put up with this as the broadcast 'bean-counters' force limited
bandwidth. So just live with it and treat it as an interesting special
effect.
Terry Harvey
>
> From: Doug McDonald <mcdonald@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Date: 2004/08/19 Thu PM 01:03:46 EDT
> To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [opendtv] Olympics picture quality
>
> Somebody here may well be able to answer my question
> on the picture quality of the HD Olympics.
>
> Sinclair only turned on their true HD here for the
> Olympics ... it was ready days earlier, but they absolutely
> refused to let us see some regular HD programming before the
> Olympics, so that's all I have seen.
>
> For static pictures, the quality (1080i) is certainly OK.
> There seems to be zero detail that my 720p TV can't handle:
> no change when I adjust the "sharpness" control, except for the
> local bug, and at CC It saw no more detail on 1080i sets, including
> the Sony XBR 950 set for "pro" mode, but it looks fine.
>
> However, when fast motion starts, such as the flying rings logo
> they use for replays, all Hell breaks loose: the logo itself
> breaks up into blocks, and is fuzzy to boot. I see no problem
> with flying logos on MNF (720p). When they show from-above
> distant shots of swimmers, the foam breaks up into total pixelated
> mud.
>
> When they show fast gymnastics, when they pan to follow a running
> gymnast, the background seems to move smoothly, so at least that
> part of the 50i->60i conversion is passable. BUT ... when the
> gymnasts have wailing arms or legs ... they actually disappear
> entirely! No, they don't get blurry ... there is no blur, just
> background behind where they should be. Well sometimes there is
> some faint trace or blurry stuff in front of the background,
> but not much.
>
> Clearly the broken up flying logos is a local encoder issue, but
> what about the foam breakup and the missing arms? Is this local,
> or due to the 50->60 problem? Has any of you people seen what the
> un-19.3'd network feed looks like?
>
> Overall I would say that both swimming and gymnastics has moments
> of simply unacceptably bad pictures.
>
> Mark Aitken: are you sure that the WICD people have got their
> encoder set right? Are you using the same brand of encoders
> at all your 1080i stations?
>
> Doug McDonald
>
>
>
>
>
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