BBC fuzzy, viewers complain

The BBC's high-definition television service has lost its pin-sharp pictures, viewers are claiming.

Hundreds of complaints have been posted online saying broadcasts became fuzzy and grainy after the corporation lowered the bitrate of its HD encoding technology from 16 megabytes to 9.7MB.

The BBC has been accused of stifling the criticism by closing user forums on its websites that contained negative comments from viewers.

Viewers who claim they have been fobbed off have contacted the BBC Trust, demanding it investigates the problem.

Protests began in August after the BBC changed its encoding system, leading to claims that its HD service was little better than normal television.

The Corporation's main commercial rival Sky transmits HD programmes at a bitrate of between 1MB and 15MB.