The BBC has revamped its HD offerings after being accused by a lobbying group of providing a poor quality HD service.

The BBC HD Campaign Group visited Television Centre earlier this month to meet with Danielle Nagler who heads up BBC HD, as well as principal technologist Andy Quested and voiced its concerns.

As a result, the Beeb has now launched variable bit rate encoding which allows the HD broadcasts to keep the same average bandwidth, whilst increasing the bit rate for more challenging scenes such as the fast movement that you get with sporting action. (Or slow movement that you'll find when England play Heskey up front).

Previously the BBC used a reduced encoding of just 9.7Mbit/s, which is less than you get with Sky's HD content and less than the BBC itself was giving overseas viewers with its BBC Worldwide HD options.

There's also been improvements to other areas including a resolution to the mixing and fading issues which had caused problems with scene changes and there's no need for the BBC to add extra noise reduction, with configuration changes meaning there should now be an improved viewing experience.

Are you a BBC HD watcher? Have you noticed any change in the service? And do you think Capello will stick with big Emile tonight? Let us know below.

• See also - BBC HD to simulcast BBC One by autumn
• Guide - Watching the World Cup...in HD

Via: wotsat.techradar.com

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