BBC Trust Finally Respond to Appeal regarding HD Picture Quality

The BBC Trust have finally after many months responded to the appeal. (specific link to response to be added once posted on the BBC Trust website).

Well no great surprise that the BBC Trust came down in favour of the BBC!

BBC HD Campaign to Improve PQ - Visit to BBC

As a consequence of the complaints that many viewers made regarding what they saw as a deteriation in the picture quality (PQ) of BBC HD (including my own No 10 petition) , at the end of April I was amongst a group of people led by Paul Geaton who were invited to visit the BBC and discuss this with them.

A lengthy process followed to compile the group's feedback to the BBC, and I am pleased to say that is now finally published.

BBC HD Campaign to Improve PQ - No 10 Petition Comes to Nothing

Our new PM has temporarily let the BBC off the hook with my No. 10 Petition, as existing e-petitions will not be carried forward. Not surprising, but disappointing :(

From http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/

Existing e-petitions submitted to the previous administration, will not be carried forward to the new administration as part of this process. We will welcome resubmission on issues of concern to the improved e-petitions system when it is launched later in 2010.

I would like to think that the petition at least played a part alongside Paul Geaton's appeal to the BBC Trust in encouraging the BBC to improve PQ and introduce the recent changes such as VBR and the introduction of stat mux'ing.

Clearly if these do not have the desired effect, we can start the whole process off again.

Thanks to the 2385 people who signed it.

Comparing BBC HD Picture Quality. Too Many Variables?

The differences in HD PQ pre/post August are mainly subtle. Though there are occasional times when errors are more visible and hence the difference is claimed to be significant, on the whole I, and I think many others, are just reporting a more subtle degredation in quality that is relatively subjective - it's just not as good as it used to be in terms of overal sharpness, noise/artifacts etc.  BBC HD can still be good, but the wow factor has gone.

One challenge for the BBC and for viewers on this issue is that there still a wide number of variables that make it difficult to truely compare like with like.

BBC HD Viewing Equipment

Given the posts regarding BBC HD picture quality that I have made, I though it might be a good idea to identify the kit I am watching it on.

Main TV is a Panasonic TH-50PZ81B. This is a Full HD plasma display with built-in Freesat HD.
Connected to this is a Thomson Sky HD box (upgraded PSU and 1gb HDD)
The Sky HD box is switched through a Denon AVR-1910 receiver, along with a Panasonic DMP-BD60 Blu-ray player, and other source equipment.

In another room, we also have a Panasonic TH-42PX60. This is a HD-Ready plasma display.
Connected to this is also a Thomson Sky HD box (upgraded PSU)

We subscribe to the full Sky HD package, so have a wide choice of HD channels besides BBC HD, C4 HD and ITV HD. Hence with a Blu-ray player as well, we get to compare BBC HD with a lot of other HD material.

BBC HD Campaign to Improve PQ - Some Background Information

I thought it would be useful to add some background information - primarily by way of links to further reading - to help explain why I started the campaign

The BBC Internet HDTV Blog is the best place to read the BBC's own position on this issue, and to gauge the response it has bought from viewers.
Specifically, read the blogs by Danielle Nagler, Head of BBC HD

• Picture Quality on BBC HD: A response
• Points of View and HD Picture Quality: A response
• BBC HD Picture Quality: Some myths laid to rest

Also, the Hitchhikers Guide to Encoding, a series of more technical blogs by Andy Quested, Principal HD Technologist at BBC

As you can see, these blogs have drawn a big response from viewers.
You probably haven't got time to read them all, so I would like to single out Paul Geaton's comments as worth reading. Following some Freedom of Information (FOI) requests that Paul made, he has also escalated his own complaints about the BBC HD PQ up to the BBC Trust, and has created his own website to support this

For an interesting perspective from William Cooper, an ex-BBC executive, see BBC HD quality definition draws criticism from viewers

Meanwhile, the independent consumer body Which? claim to that it "proves no loss of quality in BBC HD signal" . Though no real detail in their testing methodology is given.

BBC HD - Campaign to Improve Picture Quality

Given the problems the world and UK has at the moment, petitioning the UK Prime Minister to request the BBC improves the picture quality (PQ) of its High Definition channel - BBC HD - ought to rank as a fairly low priority.

But that's what I found myself doing this week, creating an e-petition on the Official Site of the Prime Minister's Office. You can sign this at http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/BBCHDPQ/

Though it ought to be unimportant in the vast scheme of things, it is however interesting to note that over 500 people had taken the trouble to sign the petition in the first day - making it already the 3rd most signed petition in its category of "Information and Communications", moving it into the top 200 of all petitions, and the most signed of recent new petitions.

Clearly then I am not alone in noticing the degredation in the BBC HD PQ.