Sony Bravia iPlayer stream

[Andy Bircumshaw]

On 24/4/2011, at 9:12am, Russell Baldwin wrote:

> Tim, I maybe missing something here but I'm not sure where your Bravia is getting this superior HD stream? 
> Is it actually from iPlayer or a cable/satellite box or something else?


Russell:

http://www.sony.co.uk/hub/bravia-lcd-televisions/2/2/article/id/1237477951536
http://tinyurl.com/23wo7r4

Note that he didn't say the HD stream was better, he said that the high-quality SD stream appears better. 


Tim:

I have to confess that I'm a cynic, but I would take a look at other possible causes of the apparent image quality disparity. How do you display downloaded iPlayer shows to your TV? VGA or HDMI? Is it possible that your TV's input is set to over- or under-scan mode, causing resampling to take place? Is it simply that the scaling / resampling electronics or software on the Bravia is better than that of whatever you're using to display the other source? 

I'm sure if you're prepared to ship your TV or a similar one there will be someone who would be happy to packet sniff it and determine what iPlayer streams it's getting from where. ;)  

I was about to say that perhaps we could take a look at the streams available to the PS3, if Sony allow us to watch iPlayer on firmware 3.15, and assuming that the PS3 version of Sony's iPlayer software hasn't been updated since then. But then I recalled reading that the Sony's iPlayer software is just a shortcut to the BBC's website, and this fuels my cynicism - surely it's just the same on the Bravia? Surely your telly has basically only a built-in web-browser and an h264 decoding chip?

I sympathise with any frustration you may feel with receiving only half-baked conjecture regarding your observations, but unless there's a programmer here with access to a similar TV then there's not much anyone can say.

aB.