Friday Night with Jonathan Ross made its high definition debut last week with guests that included Kelly Brook and The Mighty Boosh. Ross, a self-confessed technology junkie, opened the show by telling viewers that they can see everything in HD...
...and that would include everything that is currently wrong with the BBC’s HD output. Viewed at 1080i, throughout the entire programme there were invasive levels of video noise (similar in appearance to film grain) and as a result, clearly visible macroblocking whenever there was camera movement or a shot comprised large areas of the red studio set. While the video noise is the result of sub-standard production values, the macroblocking can be attributed to the BBC’s aged encoders, which once stood tall but are now patently struggling, especially in the face of such poor source material. Our WMV HD clip from the Kelly Brook interview has been resized to 720p in order to make the download more manageable, and yet the noise and compression artefacts are still fairly obvious.
Friday Night with Jonathan Ross is a studio-based show and as such shouldn’t pose anything of a challenge; the controlled environment should allow the BBC to produce pristine HD images and if they can’t, which is clearly the case, then that simply isn’t good enough.
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Kelly Brook in HD on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, complete with video noise and macroblocking, unfortunately.
Currently rated 3.3 by 3 people
- Currently 3.333333/5 Stars.
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