Why differences in quality of HD TV EG Movies

dnpark38

My expensive large TV receives Freeview (aerial) and Freesat (dish) and comparing HD movies Freesat is slightly better picture quality.
Now I've just subscribed to Netflix basic £6.99 month and WOW the movie quality is fantastically better.
Can anyone give me a simple explanation ?

twopenny

The quality of the cameras, digital recording or output?

On-the-coast

Compression.  Different channels compress their video streams to a greater or lesser extent.  Heavily compressed HD can look worse than SD (for example).  

JSmithy45AD

Netflix doesn't come via your aerial on your TV, presumably your Freesat box gets it via the same internet connection so it's down to the quality of the App and the decoding electronics.

My Samsung TV has a vastly better picture & audio output on Netflix than the Sky Q box does.

Rodders53

Hmmm....

Freeview only has a very few HD channels LCNs 101 vs SD LCN 1.  Pretty much all Freesat channels are HD (and no single/double digit LCNs on that platform).

So possible one is comparing a film in SD (576i) on Freeview to the same in HD (1080i) on satellite?

Netflix film is likely downscaled from a UHD original and that often looks better PQ as a result.  (As seen on BBC iPlayer UHD-HD-SD programmes when played out).  Netflix can also (like BluRays) perform multi-pass scene by scene encoding to get the very best and play that out, which broadcast encoders can't do being real time / minimal delay.