Eastern Arc SD Bitrates Up, PQ Down

[dgray9]

buckchow:

Where did you get the July 6, 2009 image ?

Was it from an older recording from your SD DVR ?

I'm trying to find out if this change happened because of a software upgrade, and if it affects previously recorded SD content on the DVR .

Are all of my previously recorded programs (even those from last summer) being filtered like this ?
?

[digiblur]

buckchow:

Where did you get the July 6, 2009 image ?

Was it from an older recording from your SD DVR ?

I'm trying to find out if this change happened because of a software upgrade, and if it affects previously recorded SD content on the DVR .

Are all of my previously recorded programs (even those from last summer) being filtered like this ?
?

I believe he is using something like this:

HD DVR and PVR Products - Home of the R5000-HD DVR

[cditty]

I would like to know more about the setup as well. How are you getting the bitrate, etc...

I'm just curious. I don't know too much about that side of things.

[Kirby Baker]

If you ask me, the pic on the bottom looks better, but that's just me.

Even the background, like the brick wall? Look at how the mortar lines are all but gone on the new picture vs. the old one (above piano and on back wall near drapes).

[jmccurrytech]

If they didn't have the bandwidth that's one thing, but when you have enough room and intentionally do things to make the picture worse, it just pisses me off!

[HDRoberts]

Even the background, like the brick wall? Look at how the mortar lines are all but gone on the new picture vs. the old one (above piano and on back wall near drapes).

Meh. When I'm watching that movie, I'm not looking at the bricks by the piano. I'm looking at the blond. In the second picture, things seem brighter. But otherwise, the difference is scarcely enough to notice, at least in the part of the picture where the action is.

[buckchow]

Meh. When I'm watching that movie, I'm not looking at the bricks by the piano. I'm looking at the blond. In the second picture, things seem brighter. But otherwise, the difference is scarcely enough to notice, at least in the part of the picture where the action is.

The point isn't that the difference will be scarce in some cases to some people, it is that the difference is there at all. In the end you are still getting less picture in more bits which is crazy. When bitrates go up, we all know very well that PQ should at least be the same as before and hopefully be better. It's inexcusable on the technical side of things, and it surely reduces the DVR capacity for many people as well, so it can lower the quality of a subscriber's experience in at least two ways.

[buckchow]

Where did you get the July 6, 2009 image ?

I believe he is using something like this:

HD DVR and PVR Products - Home of the R5000-HD DVR

Right.

How are you getting the bitrate, etc...

For the bitrate graphs, the stats are generated by a program that counts up the bits in the stream for every second on the reference clock (given in the stream), then the data points are just plotted in Excel.

Was it from an older recording from your SD DVR ?

No, so I doubt the software issue you mentioned would be a factor. The July image comes from a set of reference captures I have archived. I try to have a variety of things that are likely to air again so that when I want to do a new vs. old comparison like this one I just check the schedule for the next time something I have a reference of is airing. TCM is preferred for this since they have plenty of titles that get aired every few months. Get several of those, throw in some others for variety, and the wait to be able to do a comparison isn't very long.

[STL]

The point isn't that the difference will be scarce in some cases to some people, it is that the difference is there at all. In the end you are still getting less picture in more bits which is crazy. When bitrates go up, we all know very well that PQ should at least be the same as before and hopefully be better. It's inexcusable on the technical side of things, and it surely reduces the DVR capacity for many people as well, so it can lower the quality of a subscriber's experience in at least two ways.

x2

[Jim S.]

To the question of removing SD - some of us still have archos devices that do not do HD. I still record and use it on trips.

I thought that those didn't do MPEG4, period.