MovieBeam reviewed: worst high-def picture quality, evah!

If Uncle Walt’s lukewarm review to the revamped MovieBeam service left you wanting a more, let's say, definitive reaction to Disney’s over-the-air movie download service then try this on for size. The good folks at HDBeat received an evaluation box and concluded that the picture quality was “the worst HD [they] had ever seen.” Ouch. Now, keep in mind that only 7 of the 100 pre-loaded movies are available in high-definition. Still, those flicks are so compressed that they suffer from some hardcore artifacts, even scenes that were completely still suffered blocking (just check out the cheek in that pic). The other problem noted was that an HDMI equipped HDTV was required to view HD content – if you’re sportin’ DVI then no love. But then after a review like this, you won’t be signing-up for picture quality now will you?

[devilbliss @ Mar 16th 2006 7:20AM]

Is that europe on his face? (posted from http://www.ribix.com)

[Rus @ Mar 16th 2006 8:25AM]

I have to admit though ... that is a VERY rough image to digitally render ... That is a sunset scene with dark darks right next to flourescents like orange and yellow.

That was a poor scene to show ... just about any LCD or Plasma is going to have problems with that scene.

Adjusting the contrast and brightness would help significantly.

[wim @ Mar 16th 2006 8:39AM]

This is exactly the same quality as my ota subscribtion in europe. they simply compress too much, this way it is hard to see if you are whatching SD of HD.
for me, satellite is the only way to go.
and for the dvi thing, that's nonsense too, never heard of a HDMI to DVI cable?

[BolderX @ Mar 16th 2006 9:22AM]

Hey wim,
You might want to actually read the article as well as the comments before jumping to conclusions about the DVI HDMI cable thing. The HDMI to DVI converter WILL NOT WORK even if the DVI is HDCP enabled. Essentially Moviebeam is saying they don't care if you are are DRM compliant or not. Use their hardware setup or no HD for you! Movie Nazis

[Ben Drawbaugh @ Mar 16th 2006 9:31AM]

Rus,
That is an excelent point. The compression was bad in all the scenes, but that was the only one I felt I could capture with a digital camera. It was the best example of how bad it could look.

[Jeff @ Mar 16th 2006 10:21AM]

"The HDMI to DVI converter WILL NOT WORK even if the DVI is HDCP enabled."

Which makes no sense. For what reason would they be forcing people to use HDMI even if they have HDCP-compliant DVI? They're the *same thing*. The only difference is the chipset identifies the connector, but it is literally just a difference in cable pinout.

All that I can see this doing is locking out a whole bunch of potential customers. It would be like MS saying Windows Vista won't install on any PC with a DVD+R drive, only PC's with a DVD-R drive, even though the disc itself is just a regular old DVD. What the hell kind of point would there be to that?

[B. Minich, PI @ Mar 16th 2006 10:22AM]

AHHHH!!! Its a Cylon!

That seriously looks like one of the Cylons on Battlestar Galactica. Not only that, but the red glowing background centering around his eyes also makes me think Cylon.

[delvach @ Mar 16th 2006 10:55AM]

There's no such thing as Cylons. We haven't even been built yet. Go to sleep...

[oldschool @ Mar 16th 2006 11:00AM]

I have watched allot of OTA HDTV and know that it will look terrible without an antenna whose quality is relative to the distance of the broadcast location.

[BolderX @ Mar 16th 2006 11:40AM]

I completely agree Jeff, this makes no sense at all!

Oldschool, this isn't an OTA service. The antenna is strictly for downloading movies to the hard drive of the unit for storage. You only watch the movies once they have been downloaded and stored on the drive. The problem is the drive is small so they have to compress the movie as much as possible to make them fit. Hence, loss of quality.

[Thomas S Wrobel @ Mar 16th 2006 1:34PM]

Even divx compressed tv shows at 720pixals look better then that :-/
(700MB for 40mins or so)

They must have a seriously low bitrate or losely compression.


Either way, still better then the sacrifices needed for next gen dvd crap :p
Downloads all the way, but Id prefer to be legal.

[MannyV @ Mar 16th 2006 3:39PM]

Today's Jargon: Macroblocking.

[Ray Morris @ Mar 16th 2006 3:56PM]

The problem is, like with standard DVDs, you buy a "New Digitaly Remastered" DVD and its quality is worse than an old worn out VHS tape! I'm sure there will be plenty of the same type thing for HDTV and HD-DVD/BluRay.

[Ben Drawbaugh @ Mar 16th 2006 11:08PM]

They are using WMV to compress the movies.
It is not the codec it is simply way too compressed.

They say that they compress a 2 hour 720p movie to 5GB which is ~5.7Mb/s. I am sceptical because the HD Trailers at at Apple's site which use h.264 are aprox the same rate and they look fantastic. So either Moviebeam is lieing or h.264 is alot better than MMV.
Here is the article where they make those claims.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6308573.html

[Todd Lokken @ Mar 20th 2006 12:53PM]

Maybe they just don't have the funding to provide the quality expected (since they were spun off from Disney).

[Jackson Mowery @ Apr 20th 2006 7:12PM]

Looks like they may be supporting DVI after all. Here is a response I got on 4/18. I have no clue how to check what version of HDCP my TV supports though..

"....We will be broadcasting a fix this week that will allow DVI to show HD content under certain conditions. First off your TV and HDMI to DVI connector will have to be HDCP compliant. Also you�re the version of HDCP must be 1.03. Please give a week for you box to get the software update. If you are still unable to see HD content contact us and we will help you troubleshoot. "