BBC HD

Not sure about stating a fact- from what I remember reading they were repeating an internal / industry rumour that BBC HD had been reprieved and would continue. It appears that isn't happening.

I'm not doubting there was, but someone on this forum did state it as if it were definitely happening, which was the wrong thing to do.

Hello, it was me.

I had heard from two people (within the BBC) that it was likely to happen - I don't believe I've ever stated that it's a dead cert though.

Since then, the DQF conclusions have been published stating that the Trust are happy for BBC HD to close to make way for BBC Two HD. I'm not sure if that's solely a cost-cutting measure though; the DQF report goes on to say "providing the full range of channels and opt-out variations in HD is constrained by various factors, including spectrum capacity on Freeview and cost on Satellite and Cable."

Since then - and bear in mind how slowly the giant cogs of the BBC bureaucracy can turn - Dirty Des has decided not to bother with Channel 5 HD on Freeview, had the licence for the slot has reverted to the BBC. They're using it this summer for an HD interactive slot, and have "invited bids for the capacity from broadcasters and media companies."
If the BBC's desire to keep their HD slot is true, perhaps they're bidding to themselves to keep it. Stranger things have happened.

I don't intend to mislead by anything I post here, and if what I post is rubbish, I'm happy to be called on it. Views are my own and not necessarily those of my employer, etc.

Sounds like a statement of fact to me. Doubt you were trying to mislead people but perhaps be a little more careful with your language.

BBC One HD and BBC HD back at 1920x1080i presumably for this summers special events.

As I mentioned on the BBC One thread, ITV1 HD and Channel 4 HD are at the same resolution as well.

Yeah I should have said DSAT, sorry about that I just wish they would keep it that way, I'll do a recording later and tell you the bitrate for the geeks out there later

Interesting. BBC HD has switched from 1440 to 1920 in the past to cope with the side-by-side 3D broadcasts (to deliver 960x1080 rather than 720x1080 for each eye view)

Hadn't heard of BBC One HD going 1920 before.

There is a strong argument for this as most of the content on BBC One HD and BBC HD will be live - and thus 1920x1080 sources - whereas most of the time a lot of pre-recorded material has been shot 1440 (HD Cam, DVC Pro HD are both 1440x1080 originating formats)

BBC HD now transmitting a series of static captions, preumablu to improve bit rate on the other channels during the day's events.

And the other channels do look better for it.

Those captions:

http://www.theidentgallery.com/misc/misc/BBCHD-4PM-1.jpg

http://www.theidentgallery.com/misc/misc/BBCHD-4PM-2.jpg

http://www.theidentgallery.com/misc/misc/BBCHD-4PM-3.jpg

And some gentle background noise, presumably to stop alarms going off somewhere?
For the wedding last year they had some blades of grass gently moving with a caption telling people to switch over to BBC1HD - presumably they think awareness of the new channel is much higher now?

I'm surprised they aren't just using the testcard - BBC HD is the one reliable place where you can still often see it.