How good is HD supposed to be?

[Vangelis forthnet]

On Tue Apr 26 23:11:50 BST 2016, Budge wrote:

> Is there any way I can get better resolution?
> (snip)
> What is the best I can expect using GiP
> and do I have it already or not?

... As far as resolution itself goes, 720p
is the best that BBC iPlayer offers currently...
There was some talk last July (2015) in the BBC
R & D blog of a full HD 1920x1080i 25FPS encode,

http://www.bbc.co.uk/rd/blog/2015/07/the-development-of-new-video-factory-profiles-for-bbc-iplayer

> A series of new profiles were defined to cover representations for all 
> devices.
> They range from the low bit-rate (sub 64kbps), 192x108 at 6.25 frames per 
> second (fps)
> through to a HD 1280x720 50fps encode.
> In addition a high bit-rate (8000kbps) 1920x1080, interlaced at 25fps, 
> full HD encode is generated,
> but has not yet been made available.
> It can be enabled for TV devices in the future.

but it has not yet been released publicly...
At ca. 8Mps, those will be really huge files!

With GiP 2.94, flashhd1=hlshd1 is the best resolution/quality
you can get.
You may be interested in a recent list thread started by terry:

http://lists.infradead.org/pipermail/get_iplayer/2016-April/008893.html

notably my post here:

http://lists.infradead.org/pipermail/get_iplayer/2016-April/008899.html

and further down the thread Paul Phillips's reply:

http://lists.infradead.org/pipermail/get_iplayer/2016-April/008903.html

To test hvfhd tvmode (1280x720p, ca. 5Mbps @50FPS)
you'd need GiP 2.95dev and (should you wish for an MP4/MKV end file)
your FFmpeg copy should be >= 2.5
NB hvfhd DOES NOT OFFER HIGHER RESOLUTION (CLARITY),
only doubled framerate (25FPS x2), which results in smoother
scenes where motion is involved!

Best regards,
Vangelis.