ITV1HD

FINALLY ITV1HD is launching on the 2nd April as a standalone channel on all the major platforms.

Does anyone know how this will work with the regional variations??

Here is the link to the Sky Press Release: http://corporate.sky.com/investors/press_releases/2010/HD_channel_milestone

There won't be any regionalisation on ITV1 hd, it will be a simulcast of either the London or Granada regions.

Also it appears from the Sky press release that it will only be available in English and Welsh regions. Scotland and Northern Ireland will miss out, but should be able to tune it in, on DSAT anyway, through the Add Channels functionality.

Does this mean Freesat will get a full time ITV1 HD channel with SD upscaled?

Yes, sorry, I forgot to mention that in my original post.

Its already on Sky+HD just tune it in.

Its just rubbish, only in BBC HD resolution.

How awful. 1440 x 1080 is simply unwatchable compared to 720x 576.

I read that comment as "it's just ITV's usual rubbishprogramming, however at the picture quality of BBC HD"

1440x1080 isn't a major issue though - since most of the current production technology used is not 1920x1080.

HDCam is 1440x1080, DVC Pro HD is 1440x1080 at 50Hz (both intra-frame compressed) - and these are still the two main production formats for HD. (Quite a few shows also use DVC Pro HD codecs on their EVS servers - so inserts on live shows or replays on sport shows are also 1440x1080)

Sure some live stuff is 1920x1080, as is very high-end drama shot to HD Cam SR. Equally some of the low-end XD Cam HD and XD Cam EX (borderline for HD) is 1920x1080 Long GOP MPEG2 (inter-frame compressed) though the compression used may have more of an effect than the resolution. Final transmission encoding at 1440x1080 vs 1920x1080 is less of an issue than a lot of other processes in the production chain upstream.

Comparing 1920x1080 Eurosport HD and 1440x1080 BBC HD carrying the Winter Olympics, watching on a Full HD 1920x1080 display, there wasn't a massively noticable difference in resolution IMHO.

My understanding is that ITV plc had to wait for the result of the CRR (advertising regulation) renegotiations before they could launch ITV1HD as a standalone channel, with its own advertising (which would have pushed ITV plc past its CRR limit of the market?), so I guess they are launching ITV1 HD on Freesat to co-incide with the Freeview HD consumer launch?

AIUI ITV1 HD will carry ITV1 SD content upscaled (rather than the "This programme is unavailable" caption we get now if we watch independently of the Press Red access method) - though on Freeview HD, at least, they have the option of leasing their capacity to other broadcasters during daytime (when ITV won't have much HD content to show). Suspect this will be mirrored on Freesat HD - though who knows.

That's not what I said, what I said is the regular poop programming only upscaled to HD! The only good thing about this however is World Cup in HD, but that's it.

AIUI both Corrie and Emmerdale have recently bought HD kit. Not sure if that means they are making the switch yet - but it means that they are getting closer...

I think most of us read this as :

"It's rubbish; it is only in BBC HD resolution" (i.e. taking the comma as more of a semicolon+it is, and suggesting that BBC HD is in rubbish resolution)