ITV1 HD

The other ITV1 HD topic has been archived so I thought I should create a new one because I was wondering if anyone knew when the Yorkshire/Tyne Tees variation of the channel will be coming to our screens?

Or when there'll be more than just ITV1 London on Freeview HD?

I hope there isn't! I quite like having 3 regions on Freeview. Tyne Tees on ITV1 , Yorkshire on 1+1 and London on ITV 1 HD.

Freeview HD is broadcast by the BBC - as it's on their former-SD mux. I think that there is engineering in the distribution system to allow for regional variations - but presumably that would cost ITV1 more, as the BBC would have to have more encoding and statmuxing kit to cope.

AIUI the four Freeview HD channels in England are all statmuxed together - meaning that the content of the 4 channels is analysed continuously and the muxes pool of bitrate shared dynamically based on the needs of the various channels content at any given time (within limits). This is because talking heads need less bitrate than football matches and pop concerts to achieve a given picure quality (so if one channel is showing demanding content and another isn't, the bitrate is allocated more to the demanding stuff, rather than just set at a constant level.

However if you have regional variations you have to statmux for each regional variation - which means not just extra encoders for each ITV1 variant, but also matching encoders for BBC One HD, BBC HD and C4HD for every region as well for it to work. Not cheap.

I may - of course - be wrong!

(There are ITV1 HD variants on satellite - some FTA, some FTV AIUI - but these are either CBR or statmuxed with each other?)

Unless I'm completely misunderstandfing something here, there already is (at least one). I recieve ITV1 Granada on ITV1 HD.

Any news on STV HD coming to Sky? I would have thought we might see it soon, what with the ITV/STV legal dispute sorted.

On sky there are 4 regions for ITV 1 HD but on Freeview HD there is only the London region available.

Except on STV region transmitters, it's STV HD. Also Welsh transmitters carry S4C-HD (and not C4 HD), so that means the Beeb must be currently producing three separate stat mux versions of the mux ?

On my Sony KDL32EX403 with Freeview HD built in, I can see Granada Reports (upscaled) at 6:30pm on ITV1 HD.

So ashley b is correct to say there is more than just the London region available on ITV1 HD via Freeview HD,
especially bearing in mind that Winter Hill was one of the first transmitters to broadcast Freeview HD signals.

Indeed. Sorry, I forgot to add that I watch on Freeview, so there are at least two versions of ITV1 HD on freeview.

I have the same Sony 32EX403, and I receive the London region on ITV1HD here in Yorkshire. I would've thought that the Granada region would be more appropriate.