Upscaling Freeview/DVB live TV to HD

[Lovepeaceguru]

So it struck me tonight while watching the latest episode of the absolutely superb, gripping and enthralling "Spooks", Windows Media Centre plays the feed from my Cinergy 2400i through a Radeon 2600 Pro and an HDMI cable into my Hitachi 47" 1080p LCD panel. Obviously there's some sort of upscaling going on already in the LCD panel. I would guess that "Spooks" is probably shot in HD anyway but is there anything I can do to enhance the quality and then, perhaps even record the stream? The Radeon 2600 Pro has massive hardware processing power and my PC is a Core 2 Extreme 2.93Ghz so I should have the number crunching capability. Is there some sort of real time upscaling software that will give me more?

[Ansuer]

I'm not sure about real-time, but LanczosResize in Avisynth is pretty sweet.

[RabidDog]

Channel 501.. I think from 2 to 6 in the morning, BBC HD. (probably spooks at some time.) Set to lengthen their hours xmtd in the near future. h264 stream If I read rite.

[edDV]

Channel 501.. I think from 2 to 6 in the morning, BBC HD. (probably spooks at some time.) Set to lengthen their hours xmtd in the near future. h264 stream If I read rite.

BBC HD is using h.264 stream? How is that received?

[edDV]

I'm beginning to understand
http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/articles/BBC-HD-channel-to-launch---but-may-be-delay...n-Freeview.php

What is this about internet reception?

[Lovepeaceguru]

I took a look at LancosResize but that all seems far too esoteric to me. Maybe I'm just being lazy. I want a nice simple (alright I know the task is hugely complex) utility into which I can feed my MPG files and specify a upscale to 1280 x 720p or 1920 x 1080p. If I can convert to something viutually lossless but smaller as well then great and I dare say that there's a few other tweaks it might be useful to have. I store some "backed up" Blu-Ray movies of 25GB as TS files fo playback so I'm not over- concerned about size as long as the quality is delivered.

I've done some experiments with SUPER and MPEG Streamclip but they've all been unsuccessful.

On the UK HD front, are we saying that the BBC is to start HD broadcasts over Freeview or are still deciding? Do I need new hardware in the form a different DVB tuner/decoder or is it just a software upgrade?

I'd be very interested in the economics/realities of installing a satellite decoder card in my PC and watching/recording free-to-air HD broadcasts.

[KBeee]

You already have nice easy upscale happening now.
No doubt your Radeon 2400 Pro is set to output 1080 to your TV.
Any upscaling you can do in software is unlikely to be as good as your video card is already doing, or indeed as good as your TV's built in upscaling could do.

[Lovepeaceguru]

Thank you KBeee. That's the sort of answer I like. Precise! Can I push you a little further though? I'm not sure what the algowhatsits and the oojimaflips are but the way that the Radeon GPU does it must be subject to umpteen tweaks and preferences. For instance if I forced output to my screen at SD resolutions it would provide some sort of upscaling. I'm looking for that bit extra "at the edge" that I can do to my existing SD recordings prior to replay. I'm a complete sucker for that bright, crisp shininess of HDTV!

[edDV]

Your HDTV has internal upscaling that should perform fair to excellent depending on your choice of model. Your Hitachi 47" 1080p should fall into the very good category for deinterlace and upscale as should your ATI 2600 Pro.

If you output 1080p from your 2600 pro you are using the card to deinterlace and upscale. If you output 576i you are using the TV to deinterlace and upscale.

You should try both and use the path that looks best to you. Pay attention to motion behavior and edges.

Both should outperform anything you can do in software except maybe for VHS restoration.

The Cinergy 2400i DVB-T card appears to be a standard definition card.

[Lovepeaceguru]

Another great answer. Thx edDV. So , I'll try and perform some sort of sensible test on my subjective judgement of the two solutions. I'm still pushing this issue though, out of interest, I understand that the best deinterlacing/upscaling is going to be by the hardware components. Is there not something software can do at the (metaphoric) edges?

Yes, the Cinergy 2400i is SD DVB. So you are saying that for HD DVB I do need new hardware?

Incidentally, my Hitachi is a 47WLT66

[edDV]

Another great answer. Thx edDV. So , I'll try and perform some sort of sensible test on my subjective judgement of the two solutions. I'm still pushing this issue though, out of interest, I understand that the best deinterlacing/upscaling is going to be by the hardware components. Is there not something software can do at the (metaphoric) edges?

Yes, the Cinergy 2400i is SD DVB. So you are saying that for HD DVB I do need new hardware?

Incidentally, my Hitachi is a 47WLT66

My understanding is UK DVB-T is mostly 576i and 1080i.

Hardware processors are real time and use complex processing. The software equivalents would take many times real time. Problem would be getting this software at reasonable cost due to patent issues. Advanced deinterlace and scaling "free" software is going to require steep avisynth learning curves and is unlikely to match a good hardware deinterlacer.

I don't know much about UK HD DVB-T tuners.

[[_chef_]]

BBC HD is transmitted via DVB-S (not DVB-S2) and QPSK on Astra 2D 28.x degrees east in europe. Without an H.264 codec you cannot receive it, so standard DVB-S receivers cannot receive it too.
Only DVB-S2 receivers and DVB-S/2 cards with an appropriate codec like CoreAVC or PDVD7 H.264 installed.

The BBC has announced to transmit BBC HD also via DVB-T, but in mpeg4 which really means: DVB-T2!