BBC HD

Or of course clear BBC 2 of the multiple repeats of Top Gear, James May, and Dragons Den, and absorb the best of BBC 3 and 4's original production onto BBC 2, giving it the indentity it used to have as the Beeb's experimental, and up market channel.

BBC 3 and 4 can still exist, 3 recycling ad-infinitum the run of the mill 'yoof' stuff, and BBC 4 the superb gems from the BBC's archive, Whistle Test, Alan Ayckbourn and Mike Leigh plays, TOTP, old Horizons, etc etc

Is 1920x1080i permenant then, if so that would be good news, now if only BBC One HD could do the same.

DVB Cornwall said further up the thread that there's another 3D broadcast on NYD, so presumably still in 1920 mode for that?

Indeed you are right I totally missed it oh well its good its lasted this long.

If you'd said that a few years ago you'd have been right. However these days HD is the standard production format for almost everything the BBC makes, and places like Salford and W1 don't/won't have provision for SD production (so it would cost more to produce in SD than HD)

Outside of daytime and news, HD really is the norm.

Producing in HD also has the by-product of improving quality in SD as well. (Comparing cheap self-shot Z1 with cheap self-shot EX3/XF305 is like night and day...)

It also future-proofs the show down the line. Not a very good example as it isn't a BBC production, but How I Met Your Mother was made in HD from the beginning. Back in 2005 you probably wouldn't care about that and especially in America, you'd probably be annoyed that you had to watch it in letterbox mode. But now HD is the norm and people are glad that it was made in HD so early on.

If the BBC had been wise enough to future-proof their shows by making them widescreen from 1998 onwards then we wouldn't have to watch, for example, Dinnerladies in 4:3 with black bars on the side. (It still makes me wonder why a sitcom by Victoria Wood of all people was not deemed important enough to be made in widescreen when shows like EastEnders Revealed were).

EastEnders revealed was produced for a digital channel (BBC Three was 16:9 from launch) and thus all the viewers were watching via a 16:9-capable digital platform. BBC One was still dominantly analogue - and thus most viewers were still watching on a platform only capable of 4:3 broadcasting.

Also EastEnders Revealed was a single-camera location-shot programme (so only needed a 16:9 PSC camera) whereas DinnerLadies was shot in a studio, and these took a bit longer to upgrade to 16:9 SDI (from 4:3 SDI or 4:3 PAL analogue)

Since the US launched HD digital OTA in 1998 when we launched 16:9 SD digital OTA it isn't surprising that a 2005 show was shot HD (No more surprising than a UK show being who 16:9 in 2005...). It was probably broadcast HD as well. By 2005 most new US scripted drama/comedy shows were commissioned in HD - with only legacy commissions still shot 4:3.

Rather random mix of bold and regular weights on this menu...

http://www.theidentgallery.com/misc/misc/bbchdmenubold.jpg

Looks more like wrong font than bold to me, those 'bold' letters look suspiciously like Arial.

Been happening for the last couple of weeks at least.

I've been hearing rumours that BBC HD has been reprieved - and will continue after the launch of BBC Two HD.

In the meantime, the slot (freed up by Channel 5 not using it) will be used during the Olympics for 301 HD.

Really ?

Perhaps for satellite, but surely there's not the bandwidth on DTT, (despite the modern miracle of improved MPEG coding, and T2) to accommodate six HD streams !!

Unless HD is to become the new SD ! (Some might say it already is)