BBC High Definition service draws complaints
Written by marpada
Via Slashdot I found this interesting piece of news about an optimization in the encoding parameters in BBC HD stream, which reduced the bitrate around 40%, raised the claims of many viewers who noticed a significant drop in the video quality of the transmission. The Channel argued that the change had passed some intensive testing to make sure that not only the quality was not dropped but in fact increased, and Andy Quested, Principal Technologist of the HD BBC department, published a series of extremely interesting articles backing the move from the technical standpoint. These measures did not mitigate the complaints of the consumers, who still claim that the quality of the BBC HD stream is noticeably below its competitors. Once again, it looks like beauty is in the eye of the beholder!
What I find more interesting of this controversy is that how in a few years people seems to be more aware of the video quality to the point that even a "woman with cataracts" noticed the quality drop in the BBC HD stream, but at the same time the appreciation of audio quality seems to have gone down the drain, as most people are more that happy listening to music encoded at reduce bitrates trough cheap portable devices.
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