No, BBC ONE SD is to be a Downscaled version of BBC ONE HD from late 2011. Any SD will be upscaled to HD at the start of the process.
I didn't know that.
However, with the current arrangements, it does seem odd that local news isn't broadcast on BBC One HD because it's made in SD, but Inside Out is made in SD and shown...
Local news isn't shown because BBC One HD isn't regionalised, not because it's made in SD - the national news is in SD. Showing a random local news programme at each opt would be even less useful than the slide at the moment.
No, BBC ONE SD is to be a Downscaled version of BBC ONE HD from late 2011. Any SD will be upscaled to HD at the start of the process.
I didn't know that.
However, with the current arrangements, it does seem odd that local news isn't broadcast on BBC One HD because it's made in SD, but Inside Out is made in SD and shown...
Local news isn't shown on BBC One HD because it's SD but because there are no national or regional variants of BBC One HD. You couldn't put HD local news out on it either. There is just a single feed of it, with no national/regional opting facilities.
Rather than show the wrong regional news for the majority of viewers they show a slide pointing people to the right service, or something else. I guess they've taken a different view when it comes to Inside Out.
All the DTT signals I recieve are from Winter Hill, and if I tune in to ITV1 HD at 6pm, I can watch Granada Reports,
albeit upscaled. If ITV can manage that, I don't see why the BBC can't show North West Tonight on BBC One HD.
It's gonna end up like the 'A few regions on the Red Button button service' a few years back!
I got fed up with the mucking about so I went back to analogue until the current regional service started.
I've tried putting all the stuff that we would normally watch on SD onto HD, but how the heck do you 'teach' a 75 year old pensioner the difference between SD & HD & what channels to use?
All I keep getting is the message for channel clashes as I've set the box on the HD channel & she's watching SD, then someone else is taping another channel!
I would imagine that at some point in the future (probably after the launches of BBC One HD Wales, Scotland and Ireland, and BBC Two HD), they will start to roll out regional variations of BBC One HD, but I expect this to take several years.
ITV invested in several regional variations from the start because it maximises the advertising revenue they can get from the channel.
I would imagine that at some point in the future (probably after the launches of BBC One HD Wales, Scotland and Ireland, and BBC Two HD), they will start to roll out regional variations of BBC One HD, but I expect this to take several years.
BBC Two HD is more unlikely unless they remove all HD content from BBC Three and BBC Four, as they would want to have all channels available on all platforms.
I think BBC HD works well at doing this at the moment.
I think it's likely that national variants of BBC One HD will appear long before English regional ones. In fact I'd be surpirsed if any regional versions will ever appear. There'd need to be enormous technical investment in the regions to get HD Ready (to use a consumer term). While some ER sites have some HD capable kit, I don't think there's one centre that can claim to be HD capable end-to-end. Lots of stuff these days in the regions is shot on Z1 cameras, which have an HD mode but I don't think the BBC considers it good enough to be classified as proper HD (noggin, you may have to help me on this!!). The predominant tape format in regions is DV and DVCam, again not proper HD. I believe there are plans to trial recording in HD onto flash memory cards, but they're still sorting out ingest problems - in other words, getting the stuff onto the SD editing systems In the right format to be edited and transmitted on the current systems. AIUI, there isn't such a thing as an HD card reader which will output SD video into the editing system...
Surely another reason ITV have got some regional HD variants is because of advertising! If they're being paid for a regional HD service, they'll provide it!
For the BBC it needs to be a clearly defined benefit to the viewer, and I'm sure in the current climate, regional news in HD isn't considered necessary. HD services to Scotland, Wales and NI however could be justified given that they produce more than news for their areas. For Scotland, having HD facilites on site this would probably be a relatively easy upgrade, and presuambly their (relatively new) presentation areas are HD capable. For Cardiff and Belfast, I suspect the journey to HD might be more painful. Does C1 at Llandaff have any HD capability?
I've tried putting all the stuff that we would normally watch on SD onto HD, but how the heck do you 'teach' a 75 year old pensioner the difference between SD & HD & what channels to use?
I don't know about other platforms, but with Sky a simple method is to 'pin protect' SD channels with simulcasts.
After a couple of weeks the HD channel numbers become second nature.
All the DTT signals I recieve are from Winter Hill, and if I tune in to ITV1 HD at 6pm, I can watch Granada Reports,
albeit upscaled. If ITV can manage that, I don't see why the BBC can't show North West Tonight on BBC One HD.
Yes, but not every ITV region is available, just a selection of them. The reason they bother at all is because of regional advertising, even if the regions are larger when it comes to the HD channel.
I think it's likely that national variants of BBC One HD will appear long before English regional ones.
There has been talk previously about BBC regions moving to the ITV model of sending their feed to London and then London sending it back to the transmitter rather than the existing system of direct local opts to the transmitters.
If this is implemented will it makes it easier to regionalise BBC One HD on DTT/Virgin (Sky uplink costs aside of course)?