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stormywhether
07-05-2006, 13:03
Just been watching a couple of the WMVs from the Microsoft site on my WUXGA laptop and to be honest, it's not all that.

Now I imagine that the stuff you download off that website is re-resed up to HD standard rather than filmed expressly in HD?

Objects have haloes round them in these movies. It's not pin sharp. It worries me, now I've dropped 300 quids on the new box!
cmgarrod
07-05-2006, 13:30
Have you tried the HD stuff at DIVX.com?

http://www.divx.com/hd/

I was quite impressed.
Grandmaster
07-05-2006, 13:48
Microsoft's WMV showcase is optimised for internet download and uses pretty conservative bitrates. Indeed, considering it's running material between 5 and 8 megabits per second, the quality is astounding.

As to whether Sky will look the same, it all depends on the amount of bandwidth Sky will be chucking at each channel.
hoggie
07-05-2006, 13:54
Have to say, I noticed a huge difference between watching the stuff from the MS site on my laptop and through the 360 ... quite a surprising difference, the 360 was much sharper and clearer.
Grandmaster
07-05-2006, 14:53
One thing to bear in mind is that the Sky material is compressed first into a mega high bitrate MPEG2 file, then compressed again into MPEG4, and the word is that there is a quality hit as a result.
cjb110
07-05-2006, 15:27
One thing to bear in mind is that the Sky material is compressed first into a mega high bitrate MPEG2 file, then compressed again into MPEG4, and the word is that there is a quality hit as a result.
any reasons for this? sounds odd
AndyWilson
07-05-2006, 16:33
How on earth can the experience of watching a content showcase on a laptop be compared to sitting down and watching, for example 24, on the TV in your living room?
DeadKenny
07-05-2006, 16:59
Doesn't exactly compare but it's a good way of trying it out. Watch a laptop on your lap and the field of view is actually larger than a typical widescreen telly. In my case my laptop's field of view is like watching a 50" screen :D

It's not the same I know but it gives you a clear idea of the quality of HD.

Watch a DVD on your laptop and compare it with an HD clip and you see how much HD blows away DVD. More so than on a TV I suspect because the small pixel size gives a sharper image.

Personally I've found the clips on Microsoft's showcase to be very good. They're definitely not upscalled from SD (again I point to the simple test, watch a DVD then one of those and see the difference, even if it's not the same film/clip). Though I'm not at this stage judging quality based on compression artefacts, I'm just looking at pure resolution and simple 'wow' factor.

The best I've seen so far though is the QT trailer for Disney's Cars on the Apple site.
Philc
07-05-2006, 18:16
One thing to bear in mind is that the Sky material is compressed first into a mega high bitrate MPEG2 file, then compressed again into MPEG4, and the word is that there is a quality hit as a result.

50Mbps is what it is stored at staright from the Memphis.

Then they playout (at a much lower bitrate as they have channel limits) and the STB box does the encoding afaik.