On February 14, 2024 The blackout of SD channels on DTT came, which meant that all channels had to be turned off. Mandatory broadcast in high definition or HD, which offers better picture and sound quality.

This, as well as resetting the new dials to HD, to enjoy this new definition let’s touch on some adjustmentson our screen to adapt to the new resolution and features of the broadcasts.

Therefore, a few days ago in this article we saw how convenient it is to change the configuration menu. sharpness value There is another important factor to consider, as the usefulness of this feature we chose to avoid image defects changes completely.

What to do with noise reduction features?

Image: ‘Dune’ frame

I’m specifically talking about different ones digital noise reduction functions It has generally been included in most television models over the years under various names. “mpeg noise reducer”“Noise reduction”, “Spot noise reduction” etc.

This is a function whose mission is to reduce the perception of digital noise in images that are often created by noise. excessive pixelizationmainly due to such pixel clouds forming around logos, signs and similar static objects on the screen due to excessive compression in the video track.

This was a very common fault old SD channels This reached us via DTT (and also in the early hours of streaming services), given that stations retained all possible bandwidth to place more channels in the same radio space. But now with the DTT outage in SD, the situation has completely changed.

Image: LG

As we saw in this article, the power outage led to improved picture quality for many channels, not just those that switched to HD. Reason? First, by eliminating redundant channels broadcasting in both HD and SD, there is now more space for remaining channels in the frequency band. higher binary rate issue and better image quality.

But in addition, many of the channels broadcasting in SD Neox, Nova, Divinity, FDF, etc. They did this with an old video codec like MPEG2 and have now changed it to the more efficient MPEG 4. This allowed them to use the same bandwidth that was used. image quality is significantly betterwith fewer image artifacts.

What does all this mean? Current emissions quotes much less pixelation and digital noise there is no need to trim anymore, or at least not as often as before. Therefore, activating the TV’s noise reduction function(s) is not necessary and may even be counterproductive.

So if we turn them on or keep them at very high levels, the treatment algorithm may interpret small details in the image, like textures on suits or wrinkles on players’ faces, as noise that shouldn’t be there. and they’re trying to fix it by some sort of filtering result or general washing of the image This eliminates the feeling of sharpness sought in high resolution.

What can we do? The general recommendation is currently for image sources with minimum image quality such as DTT, It is not recommended to enable these functions or at most, if the TV gives us that option, we can leave them connected as little as possible.

Cover image | Trailer frame ‘Dune’

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