Telewest HD

I do.
Rumour has it there'll be a lot of episodes of Planet Earth shown over the weekend, but then back to the preview loop after the bank hol is over.

I've only got a normal CRT at present, so the TVDrive is locally downscaling to an interlaced 16:9 image on the RGB scart, but still markedly the best pic my humble telly has ever shown... more to the point it's in 5.1!!!!!!!

hi guys,
dont know if this is relevant to your thread
but i just rang ntl cable network as im moving imminently and wanted some prices as they have some good packages.
they said that they arent expecting to have a hd box till around october about the same time that they will be launching a sky+ type box of tricks.
cheers, scotty
p.s. did you know that ntl and telewest are merging as one company.

Hi Scotty

I assume that NTL will be using the Telewest currently available. Obviously they need to do a few things are the back end to make it work on their network.

Hi Mike

We've a Panasonic ae700 which will display 720p natively and it looks bloody good!

Bring it on!

J

Telewest use a Scientific Atlanta 8300DVB box, and NTL will be using the 8450DVB from the same company.

Cosmetic differences aside the major issue the the MPEG codec used, the 8450 for NTL uses MPEG4, the Telewest 8300 uses MPEG2.

This isn't really an issue for quality, they just happen to be different.

Obviously Telewest have some level of on demand viewing from their Teleport system, but (as I understand it) NTL are developing their "On-Demand" option further before going HD... then the two wings of the company will each have made life easier for each other in sorting out teething troubles when each gets the others' tech and their services become unified.

I'm still toying with what display to go for, but the money's being spent on Salisbury sourced kit first and foremost. When my aged Panasonic TX29AD1 finally expires I guess I'll have no option but to make my mind up
I only opted for TVDrive for recording capabilities and so it can Toslink to my n-Vi when I take the plunge.

am at present using tv drive into my pwb6, via component to vga, not sure how mike gets 5.1, my tv-drive only outputs 2 channel pcm ? the pq is very good in hd even after downscaling, funny thing is even most sd broadcasts seem better, am using optical lead into my denon 3805 as i am still waiting for my n-vi ordered now over 3 months ago, perhaps it will arrive one day ?

quote:

Originally posted by john R1:
funny thing is even most sd broadcasts seem better

It's better at this end too John. The box is upscaling and outputting to the native res of the projector - 720p.

J

I'm only getting 5.1 on HD broadcasts, but it does do it.

I haven't changed anything in the audio setup, but will look at the settings tonight

mike excuse my ignorance but i thought hd could only be sent through component or hdmi ? how are you getting hd via a scart connection, also have read on many other forums that telewest tv drive does not out-put 5.1

John,

The TVDrive allows me to receive HD CONTENT on channel 108, what it then does is downscale the signal to 576i in RGB through the scart.

Converseley, if I had a 1080i screen attached via HDMI or Component the box would upscale non-hd material to the resolution of that screen.

In my humble opinion, HD content does look richer in 576i than even footage of the same program (like Planet earth) sent out in 576i
I reckon this is down to the fact that the downscaling to 576i is at the final link in the chain, and hence suffers fewer losses.

As for 5.1... all I can tell you is that my box does do it, on channel 108.
Different birds tweeting on the rear left and rear right of the room are proof of his even if I didn't believe the indicator lights on my processor.
All SD channels are PCM which I can then get prologic from, but HD on 108 IS DD 5.1

mike i can't comment on channel 108 i thought that was only running over the bank holiday, all i know is when i set up tv-drive on hd it only had an option to out-put via hdmi or component and no where did it mention hd via a scart out-put, also when using optical output there is no selection on sound out-put ie there is no 5.1 to select, if channel 108 is still broadcasting i will have a look tonight when i get in.

mike, just tried channel 108 and i do apologise but you are correct, not sure why i had to select optical out when thats the connection i am using anyway, but yes it shows up as out-putting 5.1 from the tv-drive

had a very nice time munch, going back for 2 weeks on the 24th july, what is the headline for munch not sure what it does ?

mike 1380, can you still get hd from the hd content on the teleport set up via the scart connection,or only on channel 108 ?, also the sound out-put on the teleport hd only seems to be in stereo

HD picture quality is ONLY available via component or HDMI with an HD ready screen.

Scart can only show you 576 line interlaced picture, with the best picture being RGB through the scart (instead of S-Video or component).


Although HD content through a scart does generally look noticeably better than Sd broadcasts, you're not actually seeing a higher resolution image, just a cleaner picture.

If you listen to vinyl, think of it in terms of the difference between a good and a bad pressing... it's still vinyl, but some is noticeably superior to others!

mike am using component to vga on pwb6, so my screen downscales the picture, all i know is the pq is far better via component than if was via the scart connection which was how telewest left it because there engineer did not know how to set it up via component

The engineer who put my box in left the scart output as S-Video.
I adjusted it to RGB and the difference was huge.

What you're doing though is potentially seeing a progressive scan picture, which should look better still.
Your box is probably uspscaling from 576i (on SD pics) to 720p, and I'm guessing your screen then scales back down to 576p (or the prog scan resolution that's native to your screen).

No point in taking a back-step to scart on RGB

Unfortunately for me my ancient TX29AD1 can only handle RGB scart and not a prog scan component input. Woe is me!

guess that sums it up mike, all i know is am very happy with pq, so don't see myself buying true hd screen in the near future

It's much better, usually, to have your source output to the native resolution of your display.

The picture will have to be processed somewhere usually source or display and at the lower end of the market the source usally performs better.

Since the TV Drive arrived we've got better SD (TV) and HD to boot! Looking forward to watching the opening WC game in HD...only prob is that it's 4pm and one's projector tends to wash out in bright sunlight. Damn this good weather!!!

i presume it will be on channel 108 on telewest, the only thing i don;t like is the logo that is constantly on the top left off the screen, not even any adverts on the bbc to take logo off now and again,

quote:

Originally posted by john R1:
i presume it will be on channel 108 on telewest,

not sure John. hadn't thought that far ahead!

I shall watch your learned input with great interest, as so far I find that 'Nature'/footie is just as good on RGB CRT 4:3 (any screen size you like - depends how far you want/need to sit ..).

Yesterday's IMO worst-of-10-Nations display of usual-knackered after-45 mins-England would have been I hypothesize no better on 16:9 Hi Def. M'LUDDITE.

disagree with you there chumpy, pq from bbc hd via component into pwb6 downscaled is far better than any crt i have ever seen, last crt tv i had dvd was fed via component by arcam dv89 and the bbc hd picture is almost as good as the better quality dvds i watched on it imho

noticed last night, itv channel 118 is hd, they had a old film on there " the big sleep " pq was very good for a film made in 1978