said by rodjames:All the provider's HD is 720p, that's broadcast standard.
Neither of you are correct.
Shaw Direct's HD is 1080i for the vast majority of their channels, though The Score HD for some reason is 720p. Set your receiver's resolution to "Native" and you can see for yourself.
720p is also not "broadcast standard" by any means. Fox, ABC, CBC (inc. Newsworld), The Score and A&E broadcast in 720p. Everyone else - NBC, CBS, Global, CTV, TSN, CNN, Sportsnet, etc etc etc - broadcast in 1080i. I am watching WUTV off-air right now in 720p. If I switch over to WGRZ or WIVB the signal coming in is 1080i. WKBW is 720p, being an ABC affil and all.
If you have a newer receiver (that is - not a DCT6xxx) on Cogeco you can set the output resolution to native. If you do this, you'll receive the native resolution each channel is sending. For the most part, it'll be exactly what I described above - ABC, Fox, CBC, The Score and A&E will be 720p, the rest will be 1080i.
Having said that, Bell TV does - and this is specific to Bell TV - broadcast exclusively in 720p. This was done years ago back when their boxes couldn't switch resolutions or something silly like that. As a result, they take an HD source (regardless of the resolution) and recompress it into 720p before sending it back out. You end up with a lot less macroblocking on Bell, but the image looks a lot softer and lacking obvious definition that you'll see on Shaw Direct. Overall PQ is a
lot better on Shaw Direct than on Bell as a result so long as you aren't sitting two feet in front of the TV.
Shaw Direct also broadcasts some of their channels in MPEG4, which is the exact same stuff Bell uses on Fibe. Nat Geo Wild is their first HD channel in MPEG4 (they've had a whole bunch in SD for a whole now), and every channel that will be carried on G1 will be in MPEG4 as well. Not only does MPEG4 use a lot less bandwidth, but there's a lot less macroblocking. The image quality on Nat Geo Wild is one of the best I've seen on Shaw Direct so far.