BBC HD1

It's because of the pixel aspect ratio on that, when it's converted to square (1.000) it becomes squashed

They are being broadcast in 1440x1080 not 1920x1080. They are still 16:9 images - but the pixels/samples are not 1:1 aspect ratio (i.e. they aren't square pixels)

These screen grabs are at the broadcast resolution - but because almost all PCs are based on 1:1 aspect ratio pixels, they don't appear the right shape when you display them on a PC screen. To see them the right shape scale them to 1920x1080 in a graphics package or similar.

Why 1440 not 1920?

1. It is a near equal scaling horizontally and vertically from 16:9 720x576 - whereas 1920 favours horizontal resolution over vertical - and 1920 will require more data to carry, or deliver poorer quality at a given data rate.

2. One of the most popular VTR formats for HD records internally at 1440x1080 anyway - so if most of your shows are using that format it is pointless to broadcast at a higher resolution.

3. It is a trial and they may chose a number of resolutions as part of this! (To see if people notice the quality issues.)

Are HD Ready CRT TVs going to be available here soon, or ever? The majority seem to be LCD or Plasma...

There was something on here that there is one either available now or is going to be n the near future

Did the BBC never film a High Definition copy of Q & A then? Alas, we'll never be able to see those windmills as the director intended...

The BBC HD channel has just this minute appeared on the Sky EPG at 145. The preview is only available to those with an HD box though.

What a suprise. Far too many channels on standard definiation are bring broadcast reduced resolution (544, 480 or 352x576- though only the former is used on SKY IIRC), so it's hardly a shock they're going down the same route with HD. I wonder how long it is before they reduce the bitrates like they have with SD with the appaling sub-analogue quality on far too many channels (especially if you're prepared to venture ouside the SKY Satellites- some appaling quality channels, on Astra 1 & Hot Bird (some are clearly below 1mbps and the audio sounds like it's underwater), though there's plenty of channels at 544x576, 2-3mbps video & 128k and below sound on Astra 2/Eurobird as well- Living TV+1 is appaling. At these bitrates, SD is crying out for the H.264 & AAC codecs). I just hope HD sticks to the quality its promising, and doesn't tumble to the poor quality far too many SD channels have.

Is it possible for me to just buy a DVB-S tv card and get the BBC HD channel on my PC? From what I've read elsewhere, I can't seem to find a definite answer.

Samsung are supposedly bringing out a ~£300 100Hz HD CRT, and it's flatter than a traditional CRT.

David

I've done a bit of digging around on this. It is now on sale in some places.

It is 100Hz. Boo. Not been able to find out if you can set it to 50Hz.

Some sets seem to have geometry problems, though some people report this can be adjusted in the service menu (though I'd ask why it wasn't properly adjusted before it left the factory).

I'll have to get a look at it, armed with Test Card W on DVD. They love me in electrical shops.

The Samsung HD Ready CRT is 100Hz for standard def video, and 50Hz for HD. (It wouldn't be feasible to make it 50Hz SD and 50Hz HD unless you converted the SD to progressive)

The set suffers from poor geometry and very poor edge focus on some models - a function of the slim design.

At the moment the BBC satellite HD1 test is on a transponder using DVB-S (it is the BBCi / BBC One CI / BBC One Cambridge transponder) However there is no guarantee they won't shift to DVB-S2 at some point (for which cards are becoming available)

However the MPEG4 H264/AVC encoding the BBC use is VERY processor intensive. The only people currently getting close to smooth decoding are using AMD Dual Core 4400 X2 processors and high end video cards.

Hopefully the CoreAVC (very efficient) codec will be released in Enterprise form soon. (The regular and Pro versions don't support the MBAFF extensions the Beeb are using - the enterprise version should)