Super Bowl data rate?

AmazinglySmooth · ‎03-29-2009

Is the Super Bowl offered at a higher data rate to reduce macroblocking? I am thinking of having a party, but don't want to "ruin" the game for people if it looks bad.

mibrnsurg · ‎07-15-2008

No, nothing will change from the normal broadcast, unluckily on NBC.

Chris

Please NO SD stretch-o-vision or 480 SD HD Channels
1-800-288-2020, After he gets acct info, press # a bunch of times, get a menu from Mr. Voice recognition
Your Results May Vary, In My Humble Opinion
I Call It Like I See It, Simply a U-verse user, nothing more

dhascall · ‎04-21-2008

You just got the service installed on Jan 14th, right? Have you seen enough macroblocking on NFL games to think that the game might "be ruined?"

I think that the NFL games in HD are great - I only see picture oddities in NASCAR races, where mesh fences will somtimes distort the picture.

As a back-up plan, you could always use an antenna aimed at your local NBC HD station.....

AmazinglySmooth · ‎03-29-2009

I am very picky, so I notice all the macroblocking. However, I am not into football, so I never watch it. I prefer movies and have Uverse for the "family" stuff. However, I have the biggest TV of all my friends, so I invite them over to watch the "big game". I just don't want to disappoint them.

I did turn the playoffs on for a bit to see how it would look. It wasn't great, but I doubt most people would be bothered by the level of macroblocking. I'm inviting them over.

I was just hoping that for the "big game" AT&T would offer a higher performance stream.

mibrnsurg · ‎07-15-2008

No they don't and NBC is a 1080i Network, that will not likely look as good as Fox, a 720p Network. 1080i Networks need an additional 10-20% bandwidth to look as good as a 720p Network on Uverse.

Chris

Please NO SD stretch-o-vision or 480 SD HD Channels
1-800-288-2020, After he gets acct info, press # a bunch of times, get a menu from Mr. Voice recognition
Your Results May Vary, In My Humble Opinion
I Call It Like I See It, Simply a U-verse user, nothing more

mtsindy · ‎03-11-2010

True, Chris. But that said, I was amazed by the PQ of the Giants-49ers game on Sunday (that was NBC, wasn't it?). Something(s) has been changing over the last several months, at least in the Indy metro area: Whether it is new encoders or other head-end changes or tweaks to the U-verse compression, both NBC and CBS games are significantly improved. So much so that I was finally able to turn off the digital noise reduction on my TVs and reduce the Tru-motion settings to low. When I backed off these compensations (which helped in the past), I actually got another level of improvement, as you might expect. ABC, Fox, and ESPN are crystal clear -- I cannot detect any artifacts at all. NBC and CBS still have some minor artifacts, but so low that no one but us picky folks would likely notice or object.

mibrnsurg · ‎07-15-2008

That was Fox for Giants/49ers as I watched the overtime before the American Idol I was recording (already had added 1 hour extra due to football). Will agree CBS looks better, but here in metro Detroit, NBC (all NBC channels) are the worst of the 1080i Networks, especially for football.

Chris

Please NO SD stretch-o-vision or 480 SD HD Channels
1-800-288-2020, After he gets acct info, press # a bunch of times, get a menu from Mr. Voice recognition
Your Results May Vary, In My Humble Opinion
I Call It Like I See It, Simply a U-verse user, nothing more

AmazinglySmooth · ‎03-29-2009

How do I know what format each station is sending through Uverse?

mibrnsurg · ‎07-15-2008

This will give you the info you want:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=164671

Chris

Please NO SD stretch-o-vision or 480 SD HD Channels
1-800-288-2020, After he gets acct info, press # a bunch of times, get a menu from Mr. Voice recognition
Your Results May Vary, In My Humble Opinion
I Call It Like I See It, Simply a U-verse user, nothing more

AmazinglySmooth · ‎03-29-2009

On my receiver, I only have the option to display 720p or 1080i regardless of the content. Does this affect the stream that is sent to my STB?

mtsindy · ‎03-11-2010

AmazinglySmooth wrote:
On my receiver, I only have the option to display 720p or 1080i regardless of the content. Does this affect the stream that is sent to my STB?

In short, no. It only affects the format which is sent to your TV. In order to avoid scaling the image (changing between 720p and 1080i) any more than necessary, your STB should be set to the native resolution of your TV. One of my TVs is 720p, and so its STB is set to 720p. My other 3 are 1080p, and so their STBs are set to 1080i (don't worry about the "i" versus "p").

Here's an example of how the setup would work:

You are watching ESPN, which is broadcast in 720p. Your TV has a native resolution of 1080p, and so your U-verse STB is set to 1080i. This means that the STB scales the 720p image up to 1080i and then passes it to your TV, which de-interlaces (again, don't worry about this part).
You are watching a documentary on Discovery, which is broadcast in 1080i. Your STB doesn't have to scale this image (i.e., change the image size); it sends the 1080i image straight on to your TV.

Scaling will cause slight losses in image quality, and so by matching the STB's output resolution to your TV's native resolution, you will never scale an image more than once. By not matching the STB and TV resolutions, you will always be scaling at least once and in some cases twice. For example: 720p broadcast -> 1080i STB -> 720p TV = scaling twice; same setup for a 1080i broadcast means no scaling by the STB, but the TV does have to scale from 1080i to 720p.

There are several in this forum who could elaborate much more on the details than I can, but in the end the advice will still be to match the STB's resolution to the native resolution of the TV.

AmazinglySmooth · ‎03-29-2009

I am aware of the details, but my Uverse STB only allows for 720p or 1080i for HD (there is no option for "native").

luke_ · ‎01-24-2012

I've wondered why, with a 1080p TV, the STB can't just send across a stream in its native 720p/1080i resolution. TVs handle differing OTA resolutions without a problem (at least my Panasonic does).

mtsindy · ‎03-11-2010

luke_ wrote:
I've wondered why, with a 1080p TV, the STB can't just send across a stream in its native 720p/1080i resolution. TVs handle differing OTA resolutions without a problem (at least my Panasonic does).

Kinda like setting your Blu-ray to bitstream for audio? I would rather let my HDTV handle the scaling than an STB (I say that realizing there's a good chance that they may use a common technology/component ).

mtsindy · ‎03-11-2010

AmazinglySmooth wrote:
I am aware of the details, but my Uverse STB only allows for 720p or 1080i for HD (there is no option for "native").

Sorry -- by "native", I meant to set the STB to either 1080 or 720, depending upon the specifications of the TV to which it is connected. As luke_ wrote, the best might be for the STB to have a setting which allows the signal to pass through, unmodified, to the TV.

SomeJoe7777 · ‎01-30-2008

Other receivers from companies like DirecTV and Dish Network have the option called "Native passthrough" or some other equivalent option. This means that they will not attempt to resize the picture at all, they will send the native stream to your TV.

Unfortunately, the U-Verse boxes do not have this option.