Upscaling - Local vs Broadcast
#1
Here's a question for you all, especially for anyone with a background in broadcast media.

Say I have an SD version of a programme, maybe a DVD rip. Along comes a friendly broadcaster and transmits an HD version of the same programme.

Which is better? I know 'it depends', because of bandwidth, compression level, CODEC, etc., but it seems to me that a 1080 H.264 OTA broadcast at maybe 10,000kb/s (i.e. about 4 to 5GB per hour filesize) feels like 'more information' than the original 2GB-per-hour MPEG-2 DVD rip.

Of course, where this really falls apart is if the original source material was SD. In that case, do the broadcasters upscale with a decent algorithm from a decent-quality source and then compress for broadcast? Which would theoretically look better, then - Kodi upscaling the DVD rip locally, or playing back an OTA recording of the same material via a decent HD channel?

(Lots of 'what ifs', I know... but my eyes tell me that OTA HD broadcast of SD material > Kodi SD upscaling > VLC SD upscaling).
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#2
Imho too many variables there to really make a good comparison. Unless you have a couple such broadcasts and corresponding DVDs to compare side by side.
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#3
I think the answer may be subjective and can depend on the media. Some movies for example, are NOT on Blu-Ray but have high def versions for television broadcast. Ghostbusters II was like that until a Blu-Ray release this fall. I think Wargames is unless the situation has changed. So the HDTV rip would be superior to the DVD.

On the other hand, your TV rip may come with a logo/bug in the corner, motion graphic about the show airing AFTER what you're watching, or a tornado warning for some county you've never heard of and a DVD would be devoid of these.
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#4
(2015-01-05, 23:37)wsnipex Wrote: Imho too many variables there to really make a good comparison.

Yes, I'm well aware of that. I suppose that I was wondering if there was any industry insight into how these things are upscaled at source... I presume that broadcasters start with a better-than-DVD quality SD source, scale it and then compress for broadcast. But it's ultimately down to your eyes.

(2015-01-05, 23:52)DJ_Izumi Wrote: ... your TV rip may come with a logo/bug in the corner, motion graphic about the show airing AFTER what you're watching, or a tornado warning for some county you've never heard of and a DVD would be devoid of these.

Ah, well, that's where the BBC comes in... no on-screen logo, no commercials, no "coming up/next Wednesday" stuff washing over the bottom of the screen, pretty much nothing. The worst you get is a voiceover on the credits (and a quicker watch, given 25 vs 24 fps Smile ).
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