100 IRE White Crosshatch with Circles 1920x1080 vs
"Example 8 Hour 23.976"
The test pattern on the left was created by dr1394 in 2005 (also included in the AVS HD 709 set), while the right is the highest resolution "Example" video offered by Netflix. I feel this proves my earlier point that something is wrong with the
vertical resolution on Netflix's 1080p streams while
horizontal is perfect.
The bottom line in the pattern, 1 pixel high, is missing from the Netflix version and replaced with a greyed average, and essentially all other vertical lines are blurred to include grey.
I've replicated the issue almost exactly by applying a half-pixel shift to the screenshot of dr1394's pattern. Frankly I don't fully understand the usage of this filter so I'm not sure what would be involved in trying to reproduce the exact edge-subsampling happening on the Netflix image. This is the AviSynth filter I used, lifted directly from the example file of GeneralConvolution.
Code:
# Displacement by half pixel up (auto scaling):
GeneralConvolution(0, "
0 1 0
0 1 0
0 0 0 ")
The result is this, which you can compare with the Netflix image above. Though don't strain yourself trying to find differences.
Trouble is... I don't know why anyone would deliberately do that to a 1080p source, or alternatively how it could happen accidentally. Perhaps it's not a problem with the stream itself but rather a longstanding bug in the PS3 app.
300% zoom of the bottom-right circle from each:
?
). It was also available in HD on Netflix, Amazon VOD (Prime Eligible), VUDU and Zune, so I could make apples-to-apples comparisons.
