The state of HD TV

[Chairboy]

Look into DLP.

[Wolf14]

I hate HDTV. To many danged formats and conversions. Some pieces of equipment will only accept this type of format and this one will only take this format and to get from here to there you have to go here.

People on the consumer end have an understanding of the headaches involed at times in getting them their shows. HDTV and Digital TV are just royal pains in the butt compared to analog and you the majority of people really dont care as long as the program they like airs.

[Drifter1234]

Wolf14,

Is that an endorsement of any particular TV or a general rant on the state of affairs in the TV market?

[Boroda]

Originally posted by Skuzzy
Curious.  What is happening outside of the U.S. with HD (High Defination) TV?

Here in Russia, I mean - in Msk, we got the best cellular telephony provider killed because the band they used, 800MHz, is "reserved for future digital TV". Damn, they had the best quality and prices. They used CDMA-2000 at 800MHz.

Now I had to switch to some weird CDMA-450 standard, invented in Romania (!!!) and suported by some "world-famous brands" like Huawei. My cellular turned into a "digital pager", instead of receiving calls I get SMS messages like "you have been called from number 123-4567".

Digital TV on the air, not cable or sat, is promised in 2008. We have a beautiful Russian/Soviet concept: "to assimilate funds" (освоить средства). I bet - the funds will be assimilated by 2008, and we'll not have anything. The problem is that our communications minister has a serious share in GSM cellular operator compamies. So - kill CDMA operators who provide better service and use "digital TV" as an excuse.

Damn. I hate capitalism.

[Wolf14]

Drifter I have worked in broadcast TV for going on 14 years now. Its more of a rant of the state of affairs of TV comming from one of many that make the magic happen for those at home to enjoy in a seamless and uninterupted fashion.

The decision to go to mandatory HD/Digitasl TV by a certain date seemed to be made by individuals who made the decision because it sounded good and great. They didnt have an understanding about how it all had to happen they just wanted it to happen now.

Kinda the reason the question of "When is everybody going HD going to happen?" and the dates keep changing. It wasnt as easy as they thought.

PBS stations by the way were operating fully digital broadcast before commercial. Partialy because the PBS stations had access to govermant grants that gave them the money to purchase the equipment needed. Commercial stations do not qualify for those grants and they had to raise the money on their own as well as paying for their own current operating costs.

[majic]

I have a widecreen hdtv (tube not flat).  DVD's look great and the hdtv signal from the cable company is awesome.  Problem is, there is hardly any programming right now.  In the last month, I have watched one thing in hdtv, the first half of game 7 last night.

ABC, PBS, and one other channel outside of the paid channels like HBO are all that's available here so far.

I can't wait until they settle on a high-def dvd format and get them on the market.

[1K3]

The FORMAT WARS is only half of the issue with Digital TVs. There's also an issue on which connection we should use. Currently there's Component cable (green, blue, red), DVI (Digital Visual Interface - similar to PC monitor cable), and HDMI cable (same dimensions as USB, but this also delivers video and sound)

[rpm]

I have a 65in HDTV. The local programming is pretty sparse and I'm on the outer fringe of reception with a 40ft antenna and a signal booster. Having said that, the picture is amazing. I also have Dishnetwork but not their HD package, yet. Waiting for them to add more programming before coughing up the extra bucks.

[kevykev56]

My family have had HDTV 16:9 now for almost 2 years. We have a 55in Widescreen. I rent my HDTV set top box from Cox cable in NW Florida. My programing consists of the 70 standard analog channels , 50 DTV channels, and 12 HDTV channels. I only have one channel that is local programming (NBC). My format is 1080i and there is no flicker at all noticable.

The reason some of the HDTV programing looks bad is because it was recorded prior to the HDTV format and then converted. The resolution is just not as good as newly recorded material.

Without a doubt, true HDTV format is far superior than analog or DTV. I describe it to my friends as, "watching the TV is more clear than looking at you now." The colors are much more vibrant and details just pop out at you. I find myself watching wierd stuff just to see the cool effects of HDTV. Tonight I was watching a Duran Duran concert, I hate Duran Duran. Sporting events are the coolest thing to watch. Discovery HD is my favorite channel. Almost all the programs are true HD format and look great!


The worst part of all this is.....$160 Monthly cable bill!!!!!!...includes internet.

[Dinger]

Yeah, true HDTV is quite impressive. Last year, I went to viist my brother and his girlfriend. Went to a place her grandfather rents out to watch the baseball game, and they happened to have the live HD feed from Japan on one of the TVs. Impressive resolution.
...
Of course, the best we can get for HDTV right now is to find someone who's managed to make a high-quality xvid recording of an HD television show.

[straffo]

Originally posted by Boroda
Here in Russia, I mean - in Msk, we got the best cellular telephony provider killed because the band they used, 800MHz, is "reserved for future digital TV". Damn, they had the best quality and prices. They used CDMA-2000 at 800MHz.

Now I had to switch to some weird CDMA-450 standard, invented in Romania (!!!) and suported by some "world-famous brands" like Huawei. My cellular turned into a "digital pager", instead of receiving calls I get SMS messages like "you have been called from number 123-4567".

Digital TV on the air, not cable or sat, is promised in 2008. We have a beautiful Russian/Soviet concept: "to assimilate funds" (освоить средства). I bet - the funds will be assimilated by 2008, and we'll not have anything. The problem is that our communications minister has a serious share in GSM cellular operator compamies. So - kill CDMA operators who provide better service and use "digital TV" as an excuse.

Damn. I hate capitalism.

that's  not capitalism
that's corruption and nepotism.

[Monk]

HD what?

[Wolf14]

Some Sony reps came and demo'd some stuff before we bought our HDcams. One of the things they did was show us that with a 4:3 aspect ratio, the viewer was an observer of the action. In the 16:9 format they are wanting the viewers to be apart of the action.

The rep even went as far as to measure the distance of a 4:3 aspect monitor from top to bottom. He then multiplied that by 4 (why 4 he didnt say) and then he did the same with a 16:9 aspect ratio.

The 16:9 format puts you closer to the TV and because of the clarity it puts you in a position to be a "part" of the action where as the 4:3 still has you far enough away to be just an on looker.

Alot of stuff that I air on HD and analog that happens to be the same program, the HD blows analog outta the water. Problem is like mentioned alot of the shows have been majorly compressed form the original 1:1 master. After a certain point the colors still look good but the clarity and sharpness take on that of an analog signal. The other thing that can happen with heavy compression is pixelization when there is alot of fast movement. Hopefully the majority of stations have gotten past that point and optimzed their output.

The quality of what you see at home (off air) will always depend on how the broadcaster is managing their bandwidth. Broadcasters are only given one liscence for one channel. Within that channel they may choose to run an HD only channel or they may run a DT channel and an HD channel. Hence the ##-# channel format.

The station I work at, we were orginaly were going to run 3 channels, one HD and two DT channels. Adding the third DT channel was making the others look like crap so we opted to run two. So keep in mind that your picture will always be only as good as the amount of bandwidth the broadcaster is alloting for that channel.

[-tronski-]

In Aus, tv channels broadcast SD, HD, and analogue signals...with a good slice of broadcasts (especially sport, and news) in digital 16:9 format

Digital tv on a widescreen tv (16:9) is far better than analogue anyday of the week...better still is like when the '04 rugby world cup was on, channel 7 which broadcast the rights, also had 2 dedicated HDTV channels..one with just running live stats and a smaller picture of the game in the corner...and another channel with just the crowd/game sounds - no commentators or adverts! Channel 10 which runs a heap of motoracing has been promising the same with it's racing coverage.

The current standard in aus is Standard Definition picture resolution of 576 lines x 720 pixels @ 50Hz interlaced (576i), and the minimum High Def picture resolution is 576 lines x 720 pixels @ 50Hz progressive (576p).
I use just a el-cheapo set top box with our LG widecreen tv  and it works great....

The date for switching off the analogue here has been pushed back a couple of years from 2008 to 2012.

 Tronsky

[Skuzzy]

I suspect our date will get moved again.

DVI versus HDMI is a non-issue.  The video portion of the two interfaces is identical.  The only difference between the two is HDMI carries audio and DVI does not, and the connectors are different, but adapters are available for either interface to allow any set top box to be plugged into either interface.

Rolex, that is damn interesting about what is going on in Japan.  Looking forward to hearing more about that.

Boroda, sounds like a bad situation, but really has little to do with capitalism.  Corruption can happen in any society or governmental platform.

Wolf, that is interesting stuff.  How does a station get thier content for HD broadcasts?  Is it still satellite fed?  Do you put it on tape for broadcasts?  Or it is a live feed these days?  I know local ads still need interjection into the stream, how is that handled for HD?  Any differences there or is it all the same just higher resolution and more data to deal with?

I have been looking into Verizon's FIOS service for getting my digital content, but they are using some cheesy Motorola set top box.  Shame, as over the fiber they have pretty much unlimited bandwidth available.  My neighbor works for them and was over talking about it one night.
They are looking at using, up to, 600Mhz for the broadcast bandwidth to each home.  He was saying the fiber stuff is moving so fast they have no idea what type of bandwidth they will have available in a year from now.