Quality of the new HD from DirectTV

[fxstsb]

If they don't downlink the programming how would they uplink it to the sats for distribution ?

Jimbo

Re phrased; Why would you go from a C band satellite to ground to a Ka band satellite via the ground? That C band picture originally came from the ground.

 

[Plywodstatebum]

Well I guess he told you. lol

 

[raoul5788]

Well I guess he told you. lol

Boy, do I feel schooled!

 

[raoul5788]

More:
Due to its simplicity, Motion JPEG is a good choice for use in many applications. It ensures inexpensive equipment at the cost of slightly higher bandwidth consumption. For more efficient bandwidth usage, some of the true motion picture compression standards are preferred.
MPEG–1 can be more effective than MJPEG. However, at a slightly higher cost, MPEG–2 offers some advantages that provide better image quality -- comprising of frame rate and resolution -- but requires more network bandwidth consumption. It is also a more complex technique. MPEG–4 is developed to offer a compression technique for applications demanding less image quality and bandwidth. It is also able to deliver video compression similar to MPEG–1 and MPEG–2, with higher image quality and higher bandwidth consumption.
Since the H.261/H.263 recommendations are neither international standards nor offers any compression enhancements compared to MPEG, they are not of any real interest. Some definitions:
Interlaced – A technique used in old television system where the picture is divided into two half pictures containing every other line each. When displayed, first the odd lines are displayed then the even lines followed by the odd lines of the next picture and so on. This is the opposite of Progressive Scan.
Progressive Scan – Each picture in the video sequence is the full picture displayed all in once. This is the opposite of Interlaced.
PAL – Phase Alternating Line. This is the standard for the analog television format used in Europe with 625 lines at 50 half-pictures per second, i.e. Interlaced video.
NTSC – National Television Standards Committee. This is the standard for the analog television format used in the US with 525 lines at near 60 pictures per second, i.e. Interlaced video.
HDTV – High-Definition Television. A standard for television of picture size 1920 ´ 1044 at 30 pictures per second.
MPEG – Motion Picture Experts Group. The committee responsible for developing the MPEG standards. Homepage at: www.mpeg.telecomitalialab.com
Interesting comparison:

MPEG

1
2
4
Max bit rate (Mbps)
1,86
15
15
Picture width (pixels)
352
720
720
Picture height (pixels)
288
576
576
Picture rate (fps)
30
30
30​

From this, there is an obvious question: See it?

WIDTH​

What is obvious to me is what I see with my own eyes. Mpeg4 looks better on D* than mpeg2. I know there are many factors involved, but the bottom line is I see what I see.

 

[vurbano]

Well I guess he told you. lol

:haha

 

[rjviola12]

Well done! That was a great explanation.

 

[Kb Cool]

Re phrased; Why would you go from a C band satellite to ground to a Ka band satellite via the ground? That C band picture originally came from the ground.

The programmers use the c-band satellites to distribute their product to program providers like DirectTV, DISHNET and CABLE. They also use fiber to get it to the providers also. Most likely a combination of both. But either way directtv is just a middleman in the process of how you ultimatly get your programming.

 

[bbrazil]

What confuses me is how fxstsb could use all those buzzwords, but not a single 1080p.

M-JPEG, MPEG-1/2, and MPEG-4 are just compression formats.
Generally speaking, they are listed in order of compression ratio. M-JPEG is fairly inefficient, MPEG-1/2 is more efficient, and MPEG-4 formats are most efficient.

Efficiency means that with MPEG-4 you can get the same picture quality in a smaller file size.

Picture quality has really nothing to do with the compression algorithm. All of those formats can create fantastic or crappy video. The biggest impact is the pipe. Say you currently have 12 MPEG-2 channels in a pipe; if you convert those to MPEG-4 channels, they're going to take up less space. This allows you to bring up the picture quality a bit.

There is a common misconception that MPEG-4 is lower quality than MPEG-2. I believe the basis of this is recompressing. Simply put, MPEG compression creates "artifacts" or crapifiation of the picture (mosquitos, noise, etc.). If you try to recompress a compressed video, you're going to add artifacts to artifacts, amplifying their effect. So if you recompress a DVD (MPEG-2) as MPEG-4, you'll amplify artifacts. If you had compressed the original into MPEG-4, you could get DVD quality with a smaller size.