HD Bitrate = Suckage

[neutrino15]

I just want to put in a little public complaint (and see if anybody else sees this as a problem). I have been subscribed to the HD versions of Revision3 shows for quite a while now, and in the past few weeks have noticed a sharp decline in their quality. Either someone at Rev3 got really cheap with the bandwidth, or they are just being mean. (I'd think it's to limit their bandwidth usage.)

"HD" Quicktime (native resolution w/default settings in VLC):
Definately a bit sharper, but the artifacts from compression are almost as bad as the blur of upscaling the sd picture.
http://img398.imageshack.us/img398/372/picture2au3.th.png (http://img398.imageshack.us/my.php?image=picture2au3.png)

"Large" XVID (upscaled w/default settings in VLC):
Blurry from the upscale, yet looks smooth compared to all the jagged artifacts in the hd picture.
http://img395.imageshack.us/img395/7928/sdcd5.th.png (http://img395.imageshack.us/my.php?image=sdcd5.png)


Now, I don't necessarily mind the fact that they are compressing their videos.. to an extent.. At this point in time, the large-xvid feeds (when scaled up in VLC) look almost the same as the HD feeds (and play smoother on my laptop!). Congrats Rev3, your HD looks just as good as your SD!
I will happily watch your shows in upscaled SD (and save you bandwidth), but dislike that you even advertise these shows as HD. Hell, a regular DVD upscaled on a large TV is technically "HD" resolution, but it sure isn't blu-ray!

Please consider either upping your bitrates, or not calling them HD.

[ericjosepi]

You do know that because of the size discrepancy in your screens I'm a little hesitant to believe what you say right?

[neutrino15]

You do know that because of the size discrepancy in your screens I'm a little hesitant to believe what you say right?

Both shots were taken with OSX's built in screenshot utility and were compressed the same ammount under the PNG format. The HD version is at native resolution (my screen size), and the standard def was scaled up to my screen size.

I would assume that the HD png is smaller because it's content is so blocky and compressed in the first place.

Those screenshots are for reference, and accurately depict the difference (or lack thereof) in quality on my machine, how I view them. Feel free to download both versions for yourself. I used the latest tekzilla daily in my example.