Cable TV bitrates

Is there a minimum quality level for Cable TV, or is it the lowest they can
get away with?

I've just started watching TCM on Virginmedia and the quality is absymal.
Most of the time I can clearly see the 8x8 compression blocks even when
there's no motion. It's like watching youtube. It completely ruins the
movies.

--
Bart

In message , Edster
writes
"Bartc" wrote:


Is there a minimum quality level for Cable TV, or is it the lowest they can
get away with?

I've just started watching TCM on Virginmedia and the quality is absymal.
Most of the time I can clearly see the 8x8 compression blocks even when
there's no motion. It's like watching youtube. It completely ruins the
movies.

They re-encode what they get from Sky, which is already low quality.

I thought that last night's DTT 'Hotel Babylon' (BBC1) was very jerky
(although not blocky). It took me a while to get used to it. Low bit
rate, or even transcoded from NTSC?
--
Ian

"Bartc" wrote in message
news
Is there a minimum quality level for Cable TV, or is it the lowest they
can
get away with?

Ding

--
Alex

"I laugh in the face of danger , then I hide until it goes away"

The unfortunte truth is that (pretty much) all UK channels broadcast
from MPEG2 streams rather than tape - and the stream is a rather lower
bitrate than most of us would accept given the choice. Once you add in
DTT or sat transmission and you have some highly unsatisfactory
pictures. Maybe they just want us all to upgrade to HD?...

"Dubba" wrote in message
...
The unfortunte truth is that (pretty much) all UK channels broadcast
from MPEG2 streams rather than tape - and the stream is a rather lower
bitrate than most of us would accept given the choice. Once you add in
DTT or sat transmission and you have some highly unsatisfactory
pictures. Maybe they just want us all to upgrade to HD?...

Will this be high resolution, low bitrate so about the "real" resolution as
analogue - or am I just too untrusting ;-).

Paul DS