How much longer must we wait for HD?

[Bruce D]

Our local TV station announced at the beginning of the Abu Dhabi race that next year they would be showing all the races in HD so I'm guessing Bernie has said yes in private and these guys let the cat out the bag.

Frankly I don't see what the issue is. Hasn't Indycar been in HD for 3 years now? Besides, I've also seen HD TVs and I don't think they are either worth the money or a significant improvement over SD.

[555-04Q2]

I'm still trying to work out what all the fuss is about HD for television. I cannot notice a significant difference when watching HD. HD is way overrated.

[555-04Q2]

Our local TV station announced at the beginning of the Abu Dhabi race that next year they would be showing all the races in HD so I'm guessing Bernie has said yes in private and these guys let the cat out the bag.

Frankly I don't see what the issue is. Hasn't Indycar been in HD for 3 years now? Besides, I've also seen HD TVs and I don't think they are either worth the money or a significant improvement over SD.

You are correct about the HD for F1 next year, Sasha mentioned that F1 in 2011 will be broadcast in HD.

[Dave B]

Besides, I've also seen HD TVs and I don't think they are either worth the money or a significant improvement over SD.

I'm still trying to work out what all the fuss is about HD for television. I cannot notice a significant difference when watching HD. HD is way overrated.

If it's done properly, HD is stunning. The trouble is a lot of stations either pump out upscaled SD and misdescribe it, or produce poor quality HD. Just because a picture happens to have more lines it doesn't automatically follow that it's top notch quality. You can buy an HD camcorder for £100, but a broadcast quality SD unit will knock it for six every time. Hell, I can even shoot 720p HD video on my mobile phone, but it would never be considered broadcast quality.

If you're ever in the UK, look at Sky News HD (don't listen to it, obviously, the rabid bias will melt your ears). They use the margins of the screen to display all manner of information pertinent to the story. HD allows them to shrink the font size and cram in a huge amount of detail - and the studio picture quality is staggeringly good.

Edit: have a look at this screenshot and now tell me you wouldn't want this for F1!
http://www.broadbandtvnews.com/wp-co...d-thompson.jpg


Imagine this for F1: as well as improved PQ the timing graphics could carry a lot more information without cluttering up the screen, or you could have inserts with different camera angles or even the full FOM timing screens.

[Mark]

I'm going to have to get a bigger TV! I'm off around J4MIE's house to rob his off him

[Robinho]

i tend to find the people who think HD "isn't all that" or is "no better than SD" have never seen proper HD on a decent screen, set up correctly and from the right distance.

There is no comparison to watching something like BBC's "Life" programme on an HD feed, or even better a blu-ray, than when watching on a SD feed. Flickiong between normal and HD channels showing the same football match or DTM or something the difference is massive, the detail is so much crisper, you can see individuals in the crowd.

but if you've seen on a poorly set up or crappy quality panel, or if your putting crap in, you'll get crap out. Some of the so called HD channels out there upscaling crap barely beat the well made SD stuff on other channels.

get proper HD on a decent channel on a decent telly (F1 through the BBC will be all this and more) and if you don't think it is a significant improvement i will personally pay for your eye tests

[Dave B]

i tend to find the people who think HD "isn't all that" or is "no better than SD" have never seen proper HD on a decent screen, set up correctly and from the right distance.

There is no comparison to watching something like BBC's "Life" programme on an HD feed, or even better a blu-ray, than when watching on a SD feed. Flickiong between normal and HD channels showing the same football match or DTM or something the difference is massive, the detail is so much crisper, you can see individuals in the crowd.

but if you've seen on a poorly set up or crappy quality panel, or if your putting crap in, you'll get crap out. Some of the so called HD channels out there upscaling crap barely beat the well made SD stuff on other channels.

Agree with all of the above

proper HD on a decent channel on a decent telly (F1 through the BBC will be all this and more)

You'd like to think so, wouldn't you? But BBC HD is nowhere near where it should be for picture quality. They run at 1440 horizontal pixels (rather than 1920) and use some very weird compression algorithms supposedly to save bandwidth. I've seen flagshihp programmes such as Dr Who and Top Gear with some bizarre compression artifacts. It's got better again recently with variable bitrates, but neither of their channels is a patch on what Sky or Eurosport are capable of on a good day.

[schmenke]

Robinho, Dave B...

There is a distinct difference b/w "True HD" and "upscaled" or "upconverted" HD. The latter is merely a SD image that has been converted to resemble HD by using a mathematical algorithm to extrapolate pixel images based on surrounding pixels. This can produce good results, but they are only as good as the algorithm used, some of which use fewer iterations to compile the extrapolation.
As an example, the North American audience can currently view the F1 races broadcast by Speed TV in "HD", however is merely an upscaled image from the BBC coverage. The result is only marginally better than SD.

Set up properly, True HD is stunning, as Dave said. I converted the schmenke house to HD about a year ago and now have a hard time viewing anything in SD

[Robinho]

Agree with all of the above


You'd like to think so, wouldn't you? But BBC HD is nowhere near where it should be for picture quality. They run at 1440 horizontal pixels (rather than 1920) and use some very weird compression algorithms supposedly to save bandwidth. I've seen flagshihp programmes such as Dr Who and Top Gear with some bizarre compression artifacts. It's got better again recently with variable bitrates, but neither of their channels is a patch on what Sky or Eurosport are capable of on a good day.

I know when the BBC HD channel first appeared the stuff they put on there was simply stunning, but more recently seemed to be downgraded. Not had the opportunity to see BBC1 HD yet since i'm in Sweden for another few months and am missing my HD. Have been very impressed bvy some of the stuff on Eurosport HD - Tennis is very impressive, and during the Winter Olympics the Ice Hockey was brilliant, i was actually able to follow the puck on TV for the first time!

I hope the BBC can do F1 justice in HD, as it will be filmed on fed to the BBC in HD i would hope they will optimise their output for what is coming in. should look excellent

[CNR]

I'm still trying to work out what all the fuss is about HD for television. I cannot notice a significant difference when watching HD. HD is way overrated.