On 4/18/2017 at 11:37 AM, daisycutter said:

a reason why you may see different "quality" of fhd broadcasts is that fta stations broadcast using data compression algorithms which they can vary from time to time. the fta stations now support multiple channels within a fixed bandwidth. depending on the sum of the required resolution total they will use either a heavy or light compression algorithm.

another variable is that some of what you think (and your tv info panel says) is fhd (1080i) is actually something that the tv station has just upscaled. upscaling doesn't give you the same quality as what you are upscaling to 

Guess that would explain why my TV doesn't play the HD channels.

On 18/04/2017 at 10:58 AM, praha said:

1080p is "Full HD". There are 4K televisions (Ultra HD) which are 2160p. There's not much 4K content around at the moment but there will be eventually. If you can find a good deal for a 4K television you should invest. 

All HD FTA networks broadcast in 1080i max, and we're a few years off Ultra HD (4K) FTA broadcasting.

Foxtel broadcasts in 1080i as well but it's a much crisper picture because of how it's delivered. If you had a 7HD and Foxtel HD feed side by side you'll notice a better picture on Foxtel. The EPL I suspect is just broadcasted at a different resolution than the tennis.

Foxtel Go is "HQ" which is high quality. It does not stream in HD, hence the relatively "low quality".

I signed up to the AFL International Pass (watchafl.com.au) using a VPN to make the website think I am in the US, as it's only available internationally. It's a website stream of the Foxtel Fox Footy broadcast, delivered at 5mb/s (1080p), meaning it's upscaled from 1080i to 1080p, making it probably the best quality of AFL you can get.

Nearly all new large high end TV's are now 4K. Best to wait until 4K content is mainstream and TV's cheaper.  Now there is virtually no decent 4K content. Who knows when footy will be broadcast in 4K. Maybe in 5 years time if lucky. Viewers will also appreciate little benefit or difference from 1080p to 4K if viewing from over 2.5 metres away. Who watches a 55in or larger TV's close up anyway? 

Edited April 19, 20178 yr by america de cali

26 minutes ago, america de cali said:

Nearly all new large high end TV's are now 4K. Best to wait until 4K content is mainstream and TV's cheaper.  Now there is virtually no decent 4K content. Who knows when footy will be broadcast in 4K. Maybe in 5 years time if lucky. Viewers will also appreciate little benefit or difference from 1080p to 4K if viewing from over 2.5 metres away. Who watches a 55in or larger TV's close up anyway? 

New 4K content being added monthly to Netflix. Plenty of great content online. Agree it's not fantastic but once Microsoft releases its Scorpio platform (the new Xbox) which plays games and streams in native 4K, you'll see it explode. And really, once an affordable, mainstream 4K media player arrives, the porn industry will jump on and the market will explode. This happens all the time.

I picked up a great 55inch HDR premium 4K TV for $1200 from The Good Guys. Samsung, not some cheap brand. They had an online sale, plus a further 20% discount for purchasing through eBay. Plenty of great sales.

A good TV also upscales at a higher refresh rate so there is definitely a difference. Gaming is probably the best gauge at the moment and playing NBA 2K, upscaled to 4K in HDR via my Xbox One S, it's the best looking game I've ever seen. Nothing comes close, including anything on Sony's PS4 Pro (which is technically -- literally -- only capable of upscaling to 4K).

We're only at the start of the 4K era but compared to when Full HD was making a push, 4K is fairly affordable. You can pick up a really solid 4K Smart TV for much less than a brand new Full HD TV was in 2006, about 4 years before full HD was mainstream. We're much closer to 4K. 

Edited April 19, 20178 yr by praha

22 minutes ago, america de cali said:

Nearly all new large high end TV's are now 4K. Best to wait until 4K content is mainstream and TV's cheaper.  Now there is virtually no decent 4K content. Who knows when footy will be broadcast in 4K. Maybe in 5 years time if lucky. Viewers will also appreciate little benefit or difference from 1080p to 4K if viewing from over 2.5 metres away. Who watches a 55in or larger TV close up anyway? 

Have heard this.... reminds me of dvd and blu rays ..... by the time they agreed on the new technology most people had moved onto streaming etc and moreover it was not a quantum leap in quality such as between VHS and DVD.

The other thing I notice is that the 80" tv's do not seem to be coming down in price and are still at a big premium to say the 65" with the same features. At present I have a 67" plasma and was holding off for a good deal on an 80" premium model.... Ah such first world problems

4 minutes ago, Diamond_Jim said:

Have heard this.... reminds me of dvd and blu rays ..... by the time they agreed on the new technology most people had moved onto streaming etc and moreover it was not a quantum leap in quality such as between VHS and DVD.

The other thing I notice is that the 80" tv's do not seem to be coming down in price and are still at a big premium to say the 65" with the same features. At present I have a 67" plasma and was holding off for a good deal on an 80" premium model.... Ah such first world problems

Stick to your plasma till it dies then buy an OLED. 80in TV's will always have a premium price because there is a limited market for them.

Channel 7 are 'flicking the switch' on 7mate so that the game will be in HD.

source

Apparently it's as easy as turning on the HD signal. One wonders why HD isn't always on for 7mate. Doesn't directly effect me since I rarely watch broadcast TV, but interesting nonetheless.

On Wednesday, April 19, 2017 at 1:23 PM, praha said:

New 4K content being added monthly to Netflix. Plenty of great content online. Agree it's not fantastic but once Microsoft releases its Scorpio platform (the new Xbox) which plays games and streams in native 4K, you'll see it explode. And really, once an affordable, mainstream 4K media player arrives, the porn industry will jump on and the market will explode. This happens all the time.

I picked up a great 55inch HDR premium 4K TV for $1200 from The Good Guys. Samsung, not some cheap brand. They had an online sale, plus a further 20% discount for purchasing through eBay. Plenty of great sales.

A good TV also upscales at a higher refresh rate so there is definitely a difference. Gaming is probably the best gauge at the moment and playing NBA 2K, upscaled to 4K in HDR via my Xbox One S, it's the best looking game I've ever seen. Nothing comes close, including anything on Sony's PS4 Pro (which is technically -- literally -- only capable of upscaling to 4K).

We're only at the start of the 4K era but compared to when Full HD was making a push, 4K is fairly affordable. You can pick up a really solid 4K Smart TV for much less than a brand new Full HD TV was in 2006, about 4 years before full HD was mainstream. We're much closer to 4K. 

Netflix are demanding all their productions are shot in 4K, even their docs. Shot my ABC series last year in 4K. The amount of hard drive space required is ridiculous, but it allows you to punch in on certain shots without losing much of the picture. 4K sport will be incredible. I still have SD Foxtel on an HD tv, so I never get this experience.

11 minutes ago, A F said:

Netflix are demanding all their productions are shot in 4K, even their docs. Shot my ABC series last year in 4K. The amount of hard drive space required is ridiculous, but it allows you to punch in on certain shots without losing much of the picture. 4K sport will be incredible. I still have SD Foxtel on an HD tv, so I never get this experience.

Some shows look amazing in it. House Of Cards is probably the best. Stranger Things looks good but the dark setting doesn't translate as well. Adam Sandler's movies also look good, but you'd have to sit through them...

10 minutes ago, A F said:

Netflix are demanding all their productions are shot in 4K, even their docs. Shot my ABC series last year in 4K. The amount of hard drive space required is ridiculous, but it allows you to punch in on certain shots without losing much of the picture. 4K sport will be incredible. I still have SD Foxtel on an HD tv, so I never get this experience.

Given how long it took Channel 7 to get on the HD bandwagon, I am not hopeful that we'll get 4k AFL any time soon. I'd love to see it.

Just now, praha said:

Some shows look amazing in it. House Of Cards is probably the best. Stranger Things looks good but the dark setting doesn't translate as well. Adam Sandler's movies also look good, but you'd have to sit through them...

I'm looking forward to the new Earth series by David Attenborough. It will apparently all be in 4k. The previous Earth series was breathtaking, as was Life of Birds, I imagine this next one will be even better.

I'll probably commandeer my brother's 4k TV to watch it

Apart from the fact that ch7 is making a god awful 'reality' tv show priority over the footy, I'm just happy the game's actually on free to air.

34 minutes ago, praha said:

Some shows look amazing in it. House Of Cards is probably the best. Stranger Things looks good but the dark setting doesn't translate as well. Adam Sandler's movies also look good, but you'd have to sit through them...

Adam Sandler is their most popular performer on Netflix. Crazy. Although Billy Madison and Happy Gilmore are masterpieces, I maintain.

47 minutes ago, Choke said:

Given how long it took Channel 7 to get on the HD bandwagon, I am not hopeful that we'll get 4k AFL any time soon. I'd love to see it.

not sure i'd like to see cam mccarthy in 4k definition, choke

7 minutes ago, daisycutter said:

not sure i'd like to see cam mccarthy in 4k definition, choke

Hmmm I see your point. Joe Daniher springs to mind also.

Might not be worth the trade-off after all.

1 hour ago, A F said:

Adam Sandler is their most popular performer on Netflix. Crazy. Although Billy Madison and Happy Gilmore are masterpieces, I maintain.

Half a BILLION hours wasted watching Sandlers latest Netflix exclusives, apparently!

http://www.theverge.com/2017/4/17/15331674/netflix-adam-sandler-movies-half-a-billion-hours

I have stumbled on to the tech forum. My head hurts.

By the by Praha i love NBA 2k and am amazed at the HD graphics. $K sounds awesome. Have you played FIFA on 4k?

51 minutes ago, DemonDave said:

Half a BILLION hours wasted watching Sandlers latest Netflix exclusives, apparently!

http://www.theverge.com/2017/4/17/15331674/netflix-adam-sandler-movies-half-a-billion-hours

 

On 4/17/2017 at 10:10 PM, Watts2Hogan said:

Disappointing to see our first prime time match of the season has been shafted to 7mate so that Channel 7 can have My Kitchen Rules on 7HD in Melbourne next Monday night. We can't take trick.

oh sob   i gotta flick over to 7 mate  to watch the dees   on anzac eve if i cant be there ? im devastated what the hell ?  i wanna die

On 4/17/2017 at 11:19 PM, Dr. Gonzo said:

Why do you think channel 7 elected to put MKR on 7 and Rich/Melb on 7Mate?

cos they can 

1 hour ago, BarnDee said:

cos they can 

Why not put MKR on 7mate and the footy on 7?

15 hours ago, Choke said:

Channel 7 are 'flicking the switch' on 7mate so that the game will be in HD.

source

Apparently it's as easy as turning on the HD signal. One wonders why HD isn't always on for 7mate. Doesn't directly effect me since I rarely watch broadcast TV, but interesting nonetheless.

They only have enough bandwidth for one HD channel per broadcaster so when they say they're flicking the switch on 7mate to switch HD on its at the expense of HD on 7 which will revert to SD for the duration of the broadcast.

8 hours ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

Why not put MKR on 7mate and the footy on 7?

Because of the overall national audience as opposed to the Victorian one. 7 will have 3million plus viewers, particularly int northern states watching Mkr as opposed to the 1/2 to 1 million watching the footy. Fair to say advertisers that pay 7 for the time slot wouldn't be thrilled about being shunted to the secondary channel.

18 minutes ago, Gipsy Danger said:

Because of the overall national audience as opposed to the Victorian one. 7 will have 3million plus viewers, particularly int northern states watching Mkr as opposed to the 1/2 to 1 million watching the footy. Fair to say advertisers that pay 7 for the time slot wouldn't be thrilled about being shunted to the secondary channel.

But they can put it on the main channel elsewhere and channel 7 here.

The answer of course is secondary channels get less viewers which was the whole point of the question in the first place

When Foxtel was in its early days the FTA channels were negotiating their product being shown on Foxtel.

The big sticking point was not whether the FTA wanted to give a leg up to Foxtel (the FTA's thought they had to be on pay to survive due to the method of cable/satellite delivery) but whether they would be positioned as 2, 7 , 9 etc on the Foxtel dial.

That main positioning on the Channel 7 position as Dr G points out is very important notwithstanding the additional channels now run by the FTA group.

For another pointer to how important "channel identification" is to the FTA players have a look at the fights over EPG (electronic program guides) which never really got off the ground in Oz due to objections by FTA.

On a separate note I have been watching the spin off from the Good Wife. It is called the Good Fight. It shows on CBS All Access which is a "normal pay channel." Will be interesting to see if other FTA's around the world go the pay route

The main issue i have with all this crap is that i have seen monday nights game advertised to be on both ch 7 and 7mate. 

Its just the usual ch7 shoddy presentation. 

The treated the motor racing the same way a few years ago

either cover the season properly or give it up 7