Watching the CA v. US icehockey final, I noticed - once again - that the BBC Sports online stream, at [1], is horribly deinterlaced. Image sample: [2]. However, TVCatchup's BBC2 stream, at [3], which sources from Freeview, looks fine. How come TVC can do a better job at progressive video than the Beeb can? ;)
With the impending F1 season almost upon us, I'd hate to see the same problems with blended deinterlaced footage as was frequently visible on the BBC streams last year. (and I don't want to have to use TVCatchup again.) It's bad enough with the fairly linear movement in motorsports, but with sports like ice hockey you can't even track the players, let alone the puck. [1] http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olympic_games/vancouver_2010/live_coverage/d efault.stm [2] http://imgur.com/6pZG9.png [3] http://www.tvcatchup.com/watch.html?c=2 > -----Original Message----- > From: Christopher Woods [mailto:chris...@infinitus.co.uk] > Sent: 09 February 2010 00:52 > To: 'backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk' > Subject: BBC Flash video and deinterlacing - is this really > the best we can get? > > I've noticed that for some reason blend deinterlacing is > still being used on all BBC Video footage (iPlayer, inline > footage on News/Sports sites, etc). It looks naff, causes > image doubling in areas of high movement and makes scrolling > credits harder to read. (Also don't think it looks as good > and halves the perceived framerate) As reference, the > doubling is very noticeable on a recent episode of Hustle in > the 'action areas': http://i46.tinypic.com/14jxctd.png (a > deck of cards is being fountained upwards, falling down onto > the camera - note the overlapping ghosts of the moving cards). > > I first wondered if this was a limitation of how Flash > renders interlaced-encoded video, but I happened to be > watching a particular sporting event via an unofficial > Justin.tv stream and the motion was fluid and crisp. From > that I can only assume all BBC videos are encoded as > progressive, and as such the Blend deinterlacing is burnt in, > with the same going for Live streams... If the content is > being deinterlaced from a broadcast source, why not use Bob > or Weave? Blend just looks awful, motorsports/action looks > dire and even regular stuff looks pants. > > So, in the absence of any known point of contact for the bods > in charge of digitisation across the BBC's online platforms, > can someone advise me as to whom I should be addressing my > angry letters and suggestions for improvement? ;) - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
