FranceBB
28th March 2021, 19:12
Hi there,
the reason for this post is that I was very surprised to see that there are some feeds in SD in 2021 as I thought nobody was airing natively in SD anymore and that all SD channels were just downscaled from FULL HD or 4K feeds, but apparently it's not this way...
Ok a bit of context: during the European Qualifiers there's no international feed in the sense that everything is handled by local crews who then create the satellite uplink which is delivered everywhere around the world. So, for instance, if it's in Deutschland, there are German TVs, if it's in England there are British TVs etc. Now, the feed that got my attention is "Albania vs England" shot and produced by the Albanian TV and then distributed to the world to anyone who has the rights to air it (like itv in UK). I was very surprised to see that it was indeed in SD...
I mean, I might be wrong, 'cause I don't really have the original feed as I was watching the game at home as a regular user who is watching the free tv, namely itv (which is a British TV Channel), however when I tuned in and watched the game, I was immediately able to spot that it was an SD and here is what I think happened:
1) The feed was recorded as SD 720x576 25i flagged as 16:9 in BT601 from the pitch in Albania
2) It was then probably upscaled by hardware using a fast bicubic (the ringing on edges and other things seem to suggest this) and the matrix was converted to BT709
3) Someone tried to "camouflage" it doing a pretty heavy color correction and levels correction ending up with a worse result than it would have been with a simple upscale. Especially 'cause blacks were crushed (see the surroundings), whites were clipped (see the white shirts) and the chroma was so exasperated that it only ended up producing combing in the background.
Here are a few screenshot of what people (like me) were seeing at home watching itv (which had no blame in this as it was just airing the feed from the pitch not produced by them): Img1 (https://i.imgur.com/fw5ChyU.png) - Img2 (https://i.imgur.com/9g4hZAy.png) - Img3 (https://i.imgur.com/a4oMDfb.png) - Img4 (https://i.imgur.com/OjYVCZN.png) - Img5 (https://i.imgur.com/dIIuX4y.png) - Img6 (https://i.imgur.com/oXuRn94.png) - Img7 (https://i.imgur.com/RMqu6WL.png) - Img8 (https://i.imgur.com/LU8xLtw.png) - Img9 (https://i.imgur.com/KXLzrb3.png) - Img10 (https://i.imgur.com/Rjn4PcL.png) - Img11 (https://i.imgur.com/avrQXqp.png) - Img12 (https://i.imgur.com/Pk5JGR6.png) - Img13 (https://i.imgur.com/IBq63Io.png) - Img14 (https://i.imgur.com/HkdIA3a.png) - Img15 (https://i.imgur.com/0Be75vl.png) - Img16 (https://i.imgur.com/2DCj23H.png) - Img17 (https://i.imgur.com/8m8KCAm.png)
If you look at Img12 (https://i.imgur.com/Pk5JGR6.png) for instance, you can clearly see what I mean with "crushed blacks" in the sense that luma is way too low and there are no details whatsoever in the blacks, like in the jacket or on the stands...
Anyway all this is actually sad...
You know, we're here on Doom9 all talking about 4K and getting ready for 8K, speculating about H.266 VVC and tweaking H.265 for years, complaining about the minimal artifact that pops around and trying to get banding-free completely sharp results out of everything, but it's actually pretty worrying that there are still some countries with TVs that have a totally MPEG-2 and SD BT601 workflow... I thought pretty much everyone around the world catch up with FULL HD and H.264, but apparently I was wrong... :(
the reason for this post is that I was very surprised to see that there are some feeds in SD in 2021 as I thought nobody was airing natively in SD anymore and that all SD channels were just downscaled from FULL HD or 4K feeds, but apparently it's not this way...
Ok a bit of context: during the European Qualifiers there's no international feed in the sense that everything is handled by local crews who then create the satellite uplink which is delivered everywhere around the world. So, for instance, if it's in Deutschland, there are German TVs, if it's in England there are British TVs etc. Now, the feed that got my attention is "Albania vs England" shot and produced by the Albanian TV and then distributed to the world to anyone who has the rights to air it (like itv in UK). I was very surprised to see that it was indeed in SD...
I mean, I might be wrong, 'cause I don't really have the original feed as I was watching the game at home as a regular user who is watching the free tv, namely itv (which is a British TV Channel), however when I tuned in and watched the game, I was immediately able to spot that it was an SD and here is what I think happened:
1) The feed was recorded as SD 720x576 25i flagged as 16:9 in BT601 from the pitch in Albania
2) It was then probably upscaled by hardware using a fast bicubic (the ringing on edges and other things seem to suggest this) and the matrix was converted to BT709
3) Someone tried to "camouflage" it doing a pretty heavy color correction and levels correction ending up with a worse result than it would have been with a simple upscale. Especially 'cause blacks were crushed (see the surroundings), whites were clipped (see the white shirts) and the chroma was so exasperated that it only ended up producing combing in the background.
Here are a few screenshot of what people (like me) were seeing at home watching itv (which had no blame in this as it was just airing the feed from the pitch not produced by them): Img1 (https://i.imgur.com/fw5ChyU.png) - Img2 (https://i.imgur.com/9g4hZAy.png) - Img3 (https://i.imgur.com/a4oMDfb.png) - Img4 (https://i.imgur.com/OjYVCZN.png) - Img5 (https://i.imgur.com/dIIuX4y.png) - Img6 (https://i.imgur.com/oXuRn94.png) - Img7 (https://i.imgur.com/RMqu6WL.png) - Img8 (https://i.imgur.com/LU8xLtw.png) - Img9 (https://i.imgur.com/KXLzrb3.png) - Img10 (https://i.imgur.com/Rjn4PcL.png) - Img11 (https://i.imgur.com/avrQXqp.png) - Img12 (https://i.imgur.com/Pk5JGR6.png) - Img13 (https://i.imgur.com/IBq63Io.png) - Img14 (https://i.imgur.com/HkdIA3a.png) - Img15 (https://i.imgur.com/0Be75vl.png) - Img16 (https://i.imgur.com/2DCj23H.png) - Img17 (https://i.imgur.com/8m8KCAm.png)
If you look at Img12 (https://i.imgur.com/Pk5JGR6.png) for instance, you can clearly see what I mean with "crushed blacks" in the sense that luma is way too low and there are no details whatsoever in the blacks, like in the jacket or on the stands...
Anyway all this is actually sad...
You know, we're here on Doom9 all talking about 4K and getting ready for 8K, speculating about H.266 VVC and tweaking H.265 for years, complaining about the minimal artifact that pops around and trying to get banding-free completely sharp results out of everything, but it's actually pretty worrying that there are still some countries with TVs that have a totally MPEG-2 and SD BT601 workflow... I thought pretty much everyone around the world catch up with FULL HD and H.264, but apparently I was wrong... :(