BBC One HD This Autumn

Couldn't this be a roundabout way of saying that some SD shows won't be available on HD because of regional/national variations?

In other words we can't upscale your local programmes because we aren't regionalising BBC One HD?

My understanding is that there are at least two stages for BBC One HD.

1. A separate BBC One HD presentation operation simulcasting BBC One SD - but operationally separate. Thus SD content on BBC One SD won't have been upconverted and downconverted on its way, and if anything goes wrong with the HD operation, SD viewers should be blissfully unaware.

2. Once this has settled down, the BBC One SD playout operation will be discontinued, and BBC One SD WILL be a downconversion of BBC One HD. This will then mean that BBC One SD outlets showing SD content will be showing something that has been up AND downconverted. This is not always a good thing for graphics.

This is similar to how analogue and digital BBC One operated initially - and is a sensible route to avoid distruption to existing SD viewers as teething problems with a new service are experienced.

I hear rumblings that News may be looking at a temporary DIY SD upscaled video + HD on-screen graphics operation to avoid all of their graphics being upscaled and then downscaled for SD viewers.

The regional and national variations issue has to be cracked as well. Just as with digital TV in the early days - AIUI there won't be regional (and may not be national) variations on BBC One HD on DTT, DSat or DCab - so what to do during regional opts is having to be thought about.

(In the old days BBC One England had "UK Today" - a 'best of the nations and regions' service and during things like Children in Need, different regional contributions were networked for each 'opt')

Yes, it's almost exactly the way that the transition from analogue to digital worked... seperate simulcasts at first and then single playout with conversion. In that case, anything 4:3 got double converted (and probably still does) - ARCed to 16:9 and then ARCed back to 4:3 for analogue.

I'd have thought that they'll wait until analogue is done and dusted before integrating the HD and SD

It's just something I would recommend. Most TV channels have several idents - BBC One having one ident would now be considered bold and striking. And less costly.

Out of interest, does anyone know how C4HD / ITVHD operate and if its similar to this setup?

I think most channels, ITV1 HD included, work by seperate playout whereby they take the SD service and insert the HD output where required as Noggin described.

C4 I would be interested to know though as they do now use HD graphics regardless of the show, for example a HD ECP on an SD show.

Could it be that a clean feed is then 'layered up' with graphics relevant to the output?

Doesn't sound beyond the wit of man for one trigger to cause two different things to happen to two outputs...

I always thought the way the BBC went Digital was silly.

Yes, but of course they'd have no ability to do that with graphics within programmes


Not really, it was a long, complicated and expensive process but necessary to reliably keep 2 important channels on air.

They had to build a new playout area for digital as the existing one (which wasn't that old at the time) only had room for 2 channels and wasn't widescreen (I don't think it was component digital either). It was built in a bit of a rush to get the first digital services on air on time - it wasn't even ready for the soft launch of BBC digital which of was many months before either Sky or OnDigital launched to the public. It took a while to get the digital area stable and reliable enough and even then before some of the analogue airtime started coming from there a lot of work was needed to get it up to spec for the primary analogue service which gradually it took on full time. They didn't want BBC1 and 2 being put out by largely untested technology - I think everyone was wary of servers especially and, odd as it seems now, the Millennium Bug was an issue as well

Having two different services was a bit of a luxury but with the majority of viewers not having digital, they needed to put different promos onto analogue and digital. Sometimes different programmes too - digital had different versions of films and no regional programmes at the time

BBC One HD is now testing on DSat:
10.847V, SR: 22.0, FEC: 5/6

They were broadcasting 'Eggheads' instead of the regional news, but with programme information telling people to 'switch to BBC One for the latest news in your area'.

The idents are just those used on BBC HD, but there isn't a DOG.

Perhaps there won't be a 'UK Today' style replacement for the regional news.

What was the programme called? "Regional News"?

Did they show The One Show? What are they playing instead of the regional programme Inside Out?


Do the idents have a voice over?



The FAQ mentions that there will be no replacement programmes on BBC One HD so this makes sense. I wonder if there will be a caption or if everyone will just get London.

I don't see why BBC One HD can't take the BBC News channel when regional news is on BBC One (SD) but I'm guessing it will probably be London like ITV1 HD was when it started.

Maybe if the News Channel were available in HD, but otherwise what is the point?

I predict this...