UKtv widescreen

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  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 3,008
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    I asked the UKTV Press Department and after a couple of days was told that this was being looked at on a channel by channel basis but that no decisions had currently been made.

    If you look at the programmes that ave W in the Information screen they are ones that were originally widescreen and I think all that is happening is that the same EPG data is being used as was used for the original BBC broadcast.

    As far as ARC systems are concerned is is possible to do this on the fly but that doesn't mean that broadcasters do it that way. For some movies you may well find they are broadcasting from two separate sources one a 16x9 master and the other a pan and scaned version. In theory this shouldn't be nedded for materianl made 14x9 safe but I don't know how the systems actually work so can't say for sure.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 18,062
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    Originally posted by s.castle
    Any platform can launch but they won't at the moment because

    a) It would cost too much to upgrade their equipment, and remaster the programs (I read somewhere it would cost the BBC £60 - £70 million pounds to remaster their back catalogue).

    b) Sky, NTL & Telewest make a huge amount of money from shopping channels. They would lose bandwidth available to other channels (They can fit two or three channels into the bandwidth required for one HD channel).

    c) I don't think HDTV has been that successful elsewhere.

    Having said that, I personally would love to see HDTV in this country.

    a) The BBC have plenty of programmes in HDTV as international broadcasters demand the BBC film it in 35mm other wise BBC World will make less sales.

    b) Actually most shopping channel only pay £75K a year to Sky (some pay more as they have interactive services).
    So isn't quality meant to be better than quanity?

    c) Actually you are quite wrong there :) In Canada one satellite boradcaster has luanched 15 , YES FIFTHTEEN HDTV channels!

    ''Canada's Bell ExpressVu is looking to maintain its dominant position as the largest satellite channel provider in the country, after adding 26 new channels''

    ''The new programming line-up includes 15 high-definition channels''

    http://www.c21media.net/news/news_dtl.asp?id=6697&v=hline

    I wish we had HDTV to!
  • s.castles.castle Posts: 461
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    Originally posted by andyk22
    a) The BBC have plenty of programmes in HDTV as international broadcasters demand the BBC film it in 35mm other wise BBC World will make less sales.
    As far as I am aware, only the big budget mini series and films get made on 35mm. The rest of the programmes are made on one of several types of digital video (ranging from Mini DV through to D9).

    b) Actually most shopping channel only pay £75K a year to Sky (some pay more as they have interactive services).
    So isn't quality meant to be better than quanity?
    True, quality is better than quantity. Unfortunately, our government, and Sky prefer the latter. If I remember correctly, the reason the Government went for the digital system we have today instead of HD is that the broadcasters (apart from the BBC) and Sky objected to HD on cost grounds. Also, look at it this way: What would Sky rather do? Earn 3x£75K a year (about £225K a year), or spend millions upgrading their equipment for HD for possibly 1 channel, who may also have to spend millions installing new equipment.

    c) Actually you are quite wrong there :) In Canada one satellite boradcaster has luanched 15 , YES FIFTHTEEN HDTV channels!

    ''Canada's Bell ExpressVu is looking to maintain its dominant position as the largest satellite channel provider in the country, after adding 26 new channels''

    ''The new programming line-up includes 15 high-definition channels''

    http://www.c21media.net/news/news_dtl.asp?id=6697&v=hline

    I wish we had HDTV to!

    Actually, the take up of digital TV (all forms, not just HDTV) in the US has been relatively low. Far lower than this country. Somewhere around 65% of the people who said they wanted digital wanted HD in the US though. I think we would have got the same results here.

    However, I do think our Government have cocked it up. They should have gone for HD when considering the change to Digital TV.

    Anyway, maybe when High Definition DVD comes along, and people start buy HDTVs to play them on, the broadcasters will gradually change their mind.

    There would have to be a large market for it though. The bandwidth requirements are huge (Sky normally allocates around 1.5 - 2Mbps for each channel, DVD uses 5-9MBs, HDTV would need around 9-11MBps or higher), so the amount of channels that coule be transmitted would go down massively.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 2,215
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    Originally posted by ALanJ
    If you look at the programmes that ave W in the Information screen they are ones that were originally widescreen and I think all that is happening is that the same EPG data is being used as was used for the original BBC broadcast.

    that wouldn't explain why non BBC programmes like Home And Away, Emmerdale and Coronation Street have the W symbol on the Irish channels even though they are 14:9
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 229
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    What is the percentage of people with HDTV compatible televisions in the UK?

    Perhaps when it reaches the same levels as Widescreen TVs the BBC and other broadcasters may consider it...
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 18,062
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    Originally posted by mdta-uk
    What is the percentage of people with HDTV compatible televisions in the UK?


    I think the only HDTV compatable screens are Plasma TV's and LCDs(???)

    Samsung recently has invested some $10 Billion + in producing Plasams so in a few years they will become common place so HDTV could happen by defacto
  • bayardsbayards Posts: 1,993
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    Looking through this old thread in Jan 2004, at least we now have an actual European HDTV channel running at www.euro1080.com - watched it on my PC with a sat card and some software and it's amazing on the PC screen. The set top boxes should appear in March from Zinwell in Holland.

    I was surprised that new channel FX is not in widescreen with all the WS imports - The Shield season 2 was w/s when on Five recently.

    HDTV is now big in the US - so lots of w/s and DD 5.1 stuff coming out.

    Hopefully C4 will take an early lead with DD 5.1 - as they did with analogue widescreen years ago - someone in the big 5 should dip their toes. Heck, now that Sky One and Mix have widescreen, 3 of the Movie channels have DD 5.1 perhaps Sky One could show some DD 5.1 imports this year...

    Aitch :p
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