ITVDigital pic quality

[Confused]

I was watching the Worthington cup footy yesterday on ITVDigital and was really disappointed with the picture quality. Loads of artifacts/and pixelation. I had the option of putting up with a pixelated mess in WS or switching to terrestrial and viewing in 4:3. I eventually watched in 4:3 :rolleyes: .
Now, I know this is a bandwidth issue, but will the bandwidth ever increase?
Sky digital must suffer from the same sort of artifacting too?
I am willing to embrace new technology, but how are they going to convince Joe Shmoe to pay for a worse quality image? It just aint going to happen is it?

:confused:

[tezmo]

itv digital does look like crap - nothing that can be done about it :( it comes of them cramming too many digital channels into the space reserved for a single analog channel - sky dosent suffer from the same problems (as much) because theyve got all the bandwidth in the world to go at, so every channel has a higher bitrate - thats not to say its flawless, but its a damn sight better than itvdig :(

[Wayne Moule]

The football isn't that brill on NTL digital cable either,but on this occasion it was excellent.

It has improved alot since the begining of the season.

[Matt Hero]

I watched the same match on ITV Digital at home (only a 55% ish figure on Mux 2) and the game was free from artifacts and smearing.

I only watch on a 25" TV (set to W/S) via my Pioneer box set to composite - so maybe I'd see the apparent poor quality via a larger set, but given the low cost option that ITV Digital was to me, I've not been anything less than impressed with the quality of the picture (especially on the BBC Mux).

So, I guess that puts me in a minority of 1 :)

[pip&pop]

It definitely is much more noticeable on big screens.

I can't watch ITV digital footie games on the big screen as its too distracting.

FWIW Sky do up the bitrate and football is the program type with the highest rate. ITV digital work with a fixed bitrate and it shows.

Once my current ITV digital subscription goes I shall probably hop back to Sky (unless I find another <£100 ITV digital offer and then I'll just forgo sports and movies.)