network news is totally outdated

[zlfan]

on a 50 inch 4k tv, with a viewing distance of 3-5 meters, even on hd news channels, the image quality is just not as good as on iPad. 

I think the compression is the culprit. lossless or uncompressed 1080p should be fine. 

1080p 50 mbps mpeg2 so called network news standard is junk. 

[zlfan]

mine is through the air off the grid. maybe cable news is better due to wider bw. through the air, it is just not bearable. 

[Al Dolega]

OTA is actually generally better quality than streaming, at when comparing HD to HD.

[zlfan]

good to know. I thought of reconnecting cable news (I have cable internet, Comcast). if ota is better, then I will stay off the grid. 

I really doubt if the 100 inch tvs will sell like mainstream tv sizes in the next several years. the current network news quality cannot catch up to the 100 inch tv size. 

[zlfan]

maybe the final broadcasting compression is much higher than the 50 mpbs mpeg2 1080p. 50 mpbs mpeg2 1080p itself may be ok, as long as there is no panning or tilting, when I view on a 27 inch 4k monitor with a viewing distance of one and a half feet. 

I also notice that almost all of the scenes about the direct realtime local interviews transmitted through the satellite are even much worse (maybe sd level resolution) than the general scenes. 

anyways, my user experience on iPad is much better than large screen tv. 

[Ilkka Nissila]

7 hours ago, zlfan said:

good to know. I thought of reconnecting cable news (I have cable internet, Comcast). if ota is better, then I will stay off the grid. 

I really doubt if the 100 inch tvs will sell like mainstream tv sizes in the next several years. the current network news quality cannot catch up to the 100 inch tv size. 

I find that that image quality has been improving quite lot in all delivery systems; broadcast, cable, and streaming. Displays have also improved greatly. The bandwidth given to particular content can vary depending on various factors including network traffic (for streaming) and hardware used. My TV is a 48" 4K OLED Sony and it seems to render all content from different sources quite well. Although 4K looks better than FullHD which in turn looks better than SD, I don't have any problems watching network TV and enjoying it for the substance (when there is good content). I can see the differences between the different resolutions but it really doesn't bother me when the image quality, e.g., of older content is lower. To my eye, the Paris Olympics coverage seemed better technically than what I remember from previous Olympics, but it could be partly thanks to the new OLED panel. Although it was all HD, and nowadays a lot of content is available in 4K, I don't really find the HD content to be substantially worse. It's more like a higher level of aesthetic refinement is present in some of the newer content, but still the HD cable TV was quite fine and the substance was communicated well. I watched Equalizer 3 on Sony Core and that's a film made with the Arri Alexa 35 and one could really see the very fine image quality in high-contrast indoor scenes where the brightest part of the scenes (the windows) still had details. I think that's a nice touch but the contrast in the movie was used in a way which emphasized drama and didn't really feel like how things look when present in similar indoor locations: the brain really opens up those shadows and one can see a lot more than one could see in that movie. I think this is done mainly for dramatic effect, but I've felt quite a lot of content nowadays is excessively dramatized visually and TV news and similar content actually seems more realistic with natural contrast, more like "how one would see it" if viewing the scene in person than Hollywood productions which often go over the top.

I don't think it is necessary for news to go 4K, HDR, or anything like that; there is enough detail even in the 1080i/25 that we get (some content is now 50 fps, and during some sports events the national TV broadcasting company also streamed 4K content of certain events like football (soccer)).  I think for certain sports, higher resolution does have value, you can see the different athletes more clearly, but HD sports content already is very good. I think going for 4K would probably just necessitate greater attention to makeup and lighting, all-new equipment and wouldn't necessarily give that much added value to the viewer for news type content. I think a lot of people watch the news on smartphones which are so small that 4K is probably not that useful and it would tax the communications bandwidth unnecessarily. For carefully crafted movies and series, I do see the value in 4K, but even then I think it's the audio that is lacking rather than the image.

As for 100" TV sets, how do you even move it about in a home? I used to have a 55" and now a 48" and I greatly prefer the latter. It takes less space and yet because of the higher-quality (OLED) display I enjoy it more than the regular LCD tech from 2015, even though it was slightly bigger.

[zlfan]

I too think 1080p is good enough for news, as long as less compression. 

oled may beautify the news a lot. 

yeh, 100 inch tv is a wall. 

[zlfan]

the reason why sports news are good may be due to the use of the Alexa like Amira, a35, etc.

[zlfan]

amazon prime streaming movie looks much better. not sure why. my guess is that the camera used for movie is much better than for news, and this carries on in the final product.