[Jorgens]

in the last 18 months that i have been using a PAL SD digital tv decoder box ( on a good european PAL television), i have noticed that regularly certain specific braodcasts are of a better video quality then what i can get in my DVD movies.


my DVD player is a very good high-end dvd player, and i use a good RGB cable to connect it to my CRT tv (the same tv has the digital decoder box connected to it). the digital tv decoder is similarly connected via RGB.


i thought that DVD was "as good as it gets ", but even the couple of superbit movies i have do not match the video quality in some of these SD PAL digital broadcasts.


why is this ? why cant most/all recent DVD releases match this video quality level ?


i would expect HD recorded material, broadcast in HD , and viewed on a good HD tv to surpass DVD, but this is not the comparison here.


what makes some of these SD broadcasts of such high quality ?


i am able to record some of these good quality broadcasts on my PVR harddrive ( it directly streams it in mpeg-2 to the unit's hd, and stores about one hour of video as 2 gb). the replay quality is exactly the same high quality as the original broadcast.


some points,

- my tv is 576 PAL, but is not progressive scan

( both tv broadcasts and DVD are viewed in 576i)

- i viewed some IMAX dvd's (IMAX movies are high quality video, digitally mastered from the original 70mm film), and these are good, but still not as good.

- if i can store 1 hr of this good quality broadcast video on my PVR hard disk as 2 gb, why cant my DVD movie have the same quality for a 2.5 hr movie on a dvd disk ?


- are these higher quality digital broadcasts from from some type of higher quality video sources ? i notice they often are from the BBC (in the united kingdom) and are either documenteries, some movies, or a few specific "tv series type" programs. some american shows from the discovery channel or PBS are similar in their high quality.


i hope somebody can shine some light on this issue

 

[oferlaor]

It all depends on bit rate.


If you have a digital satellite and it streams video at a higher rate then DVD, then you get a better PQ then your DVD player. It's simple mathematics.


I dare say that:

1. your DVD player might not be as high quality as you think.


2. RGB (SCART) conversion on your TV or DVD player might not be high quality. Internally, DVDs are stored in YPbPr format, not RGB, so a conversion is required here. If the conversion is not that good, your picture quality will suffer.


3. Compare a good superbit DVD. Not all movies are high quality. Are you using a widescreen anamorphic DVD? Are you zooming?


4. Who says that DVD is the best there is? HDTV is better...


5. You should compare the same movie + tell us which movie your comparing. Comparing a TV show and a DVD movie is apples and oranges.


6. PAL transfers in your local country (which you list as "everywhere") might not be that good. I know that in my country, PAL transfers that are made locally are TERRIBLE. PAL transfers that are made by the studio and distributed here are MUCH MUCH better.

 

[Jorgens]

- the cause seems to be in the quality of the source material being better than DVD quality video, and the digital terrestrial broadcast being able to send it out without degrading the quality.


of the digital tv i receive, i would rate:

- 50% of all broadcasts as similar to dvd quality video

- 30% is significantly worse then dvd video. these are usually very obvious and are due to an lower grade original source (some older movies and tv series etc..)


but 20 % of broadcasts are above dvd quality.

- main difference that is noticed is that the image is more 3 dimensional, and has more depth to it.

- these are usually programs/movies that are created in the last couple of years.


the reason seems to be that the originally recorded program is made in exeptionally high quality video, and my question is :

- if they can broadcast this while maintaining such an high quality level, why cant all my dvd's of recent movies be as good ?


have any of you made a similar observation ?