Foxtel Digital Questions...

[zeta]

First off, at the moment, what is the difference in quality between what you get with foxtel channels, and what you get with a STB for free to air digital TV? Is the picture quality you get with standard definition digital "free to air" better quality than we have now on foxtel or worse?
Also, once this upgrade is done and we have foxtel digital, will it be the same quality as free to air digital TV? And lastly, will the foxtel digital signal being broadcast be a standard definition quality picture or will it be high definition as some of the more expensive STB's and TV's allow, I'm just totally lost understanding what kind of quality we can expect from this whole foxtel digital deal. I mean, if they transmit free to air channels on foxtel digital, will those channels be of the same quality that you get currently running a Digital STB?

[What The!]

SD Digital is MUCH better than foxtel. Foxtel's picture quality over cable
is terrible. so grainy.

"zeta" <zeta.xta2f@no-mx.forums.eyo.com.au> wrote in message
news:zeta.xta2f@no-mx.forums.eyo.com.au...
>
> First off, at the moment, what is the difference in quality between what
> you get with foxtel channels, and what you get with a STB for free to
> air digital TV? Is the picture quality you get with standard definition
> digital "free to air" better quality than we have now on foxtel or
> worse?
> Also, once this upgrade is done and we have foxtel digital, will it be
> the same quality as free to air digital TV? And lastly, will the foxtel
> digital signal being broadcast be a standard definition quality picture
> or will it be high definition as some of the more expensive STB's and
> TV's allow, I'm just totally lost understanding what kind of quality we
> can expect from this whole foxtel digital deal. I mean, if they
> transmit free to air channels on foxtel digital, will those channels be
> of the same quality that you get currently running a Digital STB?
>
>
> --
> zeta
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
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>

[Danny Rohr]

zeta <zeta.xta2f@no-mx.forums.eyo.com.au> wrote in message
news:zeta.xta2f@no-mx.forums.eyo.com.au...
>
> First off, at the moment, what is the difference in quality between what
> you get with foxtel channels, and what you get with a STB for free to
> air digital TV? Is the picture quality you get with standard definition
> digital "free to air" better quality than we have now on foxtel or
> worse?

Yes much better, simmilar to watching a DVD depending on the source
material. Think of Standard Definition as the same quality as DVD.

> Also, once this upgrade is done and we have foxtel digital, will it be
> the same quality as free to air digital TV? And lastly, will the foxtel

Yes, Standard Definition, DVD like.

> digital signal being broadcast be a standard definition quality picture
> or will it be high definition as some of the more expensive STB's and
> TV's allow, I'm just totally lost understanding what kind of quality we

No, Foxtel isn't doing High Definition. You will still need a FTA HD-STB to
receive high definition programming.

> can expect from this whole foxtel digital deal. I mean, if they
> transmit free to air channels on foxtel digital, will those channels be
> of the same quality that you get currently running a Digital STB?

Theoretically yes. Unless they try to recompress them a little to save
space. That would be highly unlikely however, especially on cable.

Danny.

[David Z]

"zeta" <zeta.xta2f@no-mx.forums.eyo.com.au> wrote in message
news:zeta.xta2f@no-mx.forums.eyo.com.au...
>
> First off, at the moment, what is the difference in quality between what
> you get with foxtel channels, and what you get with a STB for free to

What do you mean exactly ? An STB will provide you with a crystal clear,
widescreen image. With Foxtel digital there's no guarantee of widescreen -
they may simply re-transmit the analog free to air stations digitally...

[Peter Dewildt]

>And lastly, will the foxtel
> digital signal being broadcast be a standard definition quality picture
> or will it be high definition as some of the more expensive STB's and
> TV's allow, I'm just totally lost understanding what kind of quality we
> can expect from this whole foxtel digital deal. I mean, if they
> transmit free to air channels on foxtel digital, will those channels be
> of the same quality that you get currently running a Digital STB?
>

The quality will only be as good as the source material. Much of what we see
on Foxtel is produced overseas and transmitted to Australia by satellite and
is heavily compressed. While we won't get the 'noise' we currently see on
cable, the picture quality will be better but not necessarily as good as it
could be.

Anything produced in Australia should be great.

[The Guru]

I'll see if I can shed some light on the subject and hopefully your understanding will be clearer than the picture you get from your Foxtel.

Firstly, your old analogue Foxtel was great and offeres the same quality picture that the new 'digital' foxtel offers if not better. That applys to any of the new Foxtel digital boxes - yes including IQ.
Most people may 'see' a difference in picture quality because they have changed the connection from the Foxtel box to the TV (ie. S-video). On that, if you have a s-video connection on your TV, you should be using that connection for your foxtel...you'll get the best picture it has to offer.

Anyways, you will have a far better picture on Free To Air(FTA) digital TV than a Foxtel broadcast anyday ! The reason? how they send it.
What FTA TV and Foxtel used rely on was to send a modulated signal to the customer, which was then picked up with their tuner(built-in the TV or the tuner in the foxtel box). For FTA TV, the connection to the customer is wireless (reception now plays a part in the picture), for Foxtel the connection is hard-wired (no reception problems, YA!) or they use satellites and dishes (which broadcast the bandwith needed for cable TV).

Digital broadcasting leveled the playing field and now exposes the low quality picture that Foxtel digital is offering.
Digital broadcasting sends packets of information (ie. 100110101) which are the blueprints for the broadcast, the reciever (digital TV box or Foxtel box) simply take that information and recreate the broadcast. There is no drop in quality from the sending point to the receiving point, it's either there or not there. It's like relocating a house. If you ship the house, it gets damaged...ship the blueprints - the house gets rebuilt perfectly.

FINALLY, we get to the sending point. The reason why FTA digital TV has A BETTER QUALITY PICTURE THAN Foxtel. Because FTA and PAYTV are sending all this data and extra programs...we have a problem, it all doesn't fit in the transmission process. So they compress the format (ie. reduce the quality) to be able to send all of it to you - because every service offered is broadcast to you at the same time, though you only watch one at a time. It is like when you make an MP3 (low quality audio) from a CD (high quality) to fit more songs on a CD.
Question? who has more services ?
The answer is Foxtel. So if they have more stuff to send you, the quality must be lower, to fit it all in. What's it fitting into ?
BANDWIDTH !
...another conversation in itself. I will give a dummy answer. They can only send so much information per second from one spot to another. Because we need to see TV in realtime (as it happens), we need our info every second and need to play it right away. If we need to increase the quality of the picture we need more data...but our bandwith can't handle sending more data at the same speed....so we need to send it faster and we need a sender that can send it faster(broadcaster side) and a reciever that can recieve and decode it faster (our digital TV box or Foxtel box).

The Foxtel digital program offers only 'more features' NOT better quality picture. The picture is actually worse and so is the sound.

DO this test, use the same connection for a Digital TV box and Foxtel Digital box. Play the same program. Notice the FTA digital TV box has a better picture. Now, if you have one of those cheap digital boxes(meaning poorly made, NOT inexpensive) they may look the same. I suggest the Teac SD boxes it has the best picture ! I've installed them for 5 years now without a fault and they are $100. The cheaper boxes compress the already compressed picture and lowers the quality.
Again, the FTA TV on foxtel is compressed at the same rate as the rest of their channels, which is lower quality than FTA digital TV.

As for high definition on Foxtel ? YEAH RIGHT !! That will NOT happen for ages - I mean YEARS !!
The reason is this: If they don't have the equipment to broadcast their current broadcasting without compressing so it fits....then they are nowhere near broadcasting high definition programs. I'll try and explain how far away they are .... what we are watching right now is 576 lines of resolution and that is being compressed to around 300 lines so that it all fits. High definition has 2 main formats, but they mostly refer to the 1080 line version. ! 1080 LINES !!! that's like 3 times more information they need to send than what they are barely capeable of sending now .... we are YEARS away. with the current bandwith (speed) they use to send us stuff....it would be worse than downloading a full movie on a dial-up internet connection. Instead of the 7 second delay in digital broadcasting(the processing time for the box to download your show and play it) , it would be more like waiting 5 hours to watch what's on right now.
So if you see "available in High Definition"...well it may have been BEFORE they compressed it when they sent it to you.
As for FTA TV in high definition....don't expect any more than what you are seeing untill 2012 - that's when they will have a look at that technology. FTA is not using all of the bandwith up so they can either have better quality pictures or more channels at the same quality - which is being reviewed as we speak.

So, get the Foxtel digital upgrade because it offers more features - that is all it does.

Oh, to set the record straight, there is no garuntee of a widescreen picture on any digital TV box or foxtel box. That is determined by the format the show was originally filmed in. Most old stuff and American TV will be in square (4:3) aspect. Americans use the old NTSC picture system...we are far more advanced and have far better quality. I always said they were a bit slow to catch on.

Another error I see was that Standard Definition TV is DVD quality...it actually isn't - it's higher quality. DVD runs at a maximum of 525 lines of resolution , Standard Definition TV runs at a maximum of 576 lines of resolution. More data, better picture.

-Jason