Talk to the BBC HD boss Danielle Nagler!

On that blog, you complain that BBC HD Freeview will be 'only' 720 lines. But surely we are talking about 720p progressive, which IMHO would be a much better standard than 1080i interlaced. The DTG in their submission about the proposed Freeview HD, mentioned experiments showing that progressive pictures can be compressed with better quality even at the SAME bitrate. Admittedly the programmes will be mostly made in interlaced at first, so will still have the 1080i 'footprint', but if this is the first stage in confining the archaic compression system of interlace to history then I for one am all for it. (map)

BBC-HD is the prime reason I recently installed a Humax Foxsat receiver and some of the new documentaries are simply awesome. However, I have no luck in bring up the subtitles even though the programme is billed as such. When I press 'sub' on the remote, the OSD message simply says 'No data'. Is that so or what have I missed in the set up?

BBC-HD is a great channel with lots good subjects to see in glorious HD and as it is the only prime time HD channel on air on freesat it should be broadcast for more hours during the day don't you think 24...?
How about More HD movies ...? and more Hd SCFI, ilove Heroes it looks fantastic in HD Keep up the good work and bring on some more free Hd channels real soon :-)

BBC HD is great but could we have more progs.
The Preview seems to be on all the time and we get a lot of repeats.

Regards

Brian Richards

BBC HD IS GOOD BUT AS SOMEONE ELSE SAID, THERE NEEDS TO BE MORE PROGRAMMES AS THE SAME OLD REPEAT IS GETTING BORING! THANKs

David Robinson: "Progressive" and "Interlaced" simply refer to the scan types and are independent of the resolution. "Progrssive" means that the picture is like that taken by a motion-picture camera, where each frame is exposed for a fraction of a milisecond however-many-times-a-second (24 for film, 25 for UKTV, 30 for USTV). An interlaced picture is taken from the top, to the bottom and back up again over the interval of frame period. The former is great for anything still or sourced on movie film, the latter is great for anything with much movement (camera or subject). This does not effect the resolution which is 1280x720, 16:9, 0.87 megapixels, 2.2 times SD resolution for 720-line and 1920x1080, 16:9, 1.97 megapixels, 5 times SD resolution for 1080-line. See A comparison of TV, HDTV and computer monitors | ukfree.tv - independent digital television and switchover advice, since 2002

Tony: Great point. I added this to the list of questions to Danielle Nagler.

Christopher: The Olympics will take the BBC HD channel 24-hours a day in just a few days.

Brian Richards: The Preview is useful for shops selling HDTV televisions, I guess. The channel seems to be mainly repeats, which is useful if you don't have a PVR I guess, as it adds choice.

Hey thanks ever so much for getting back Briantist
thats realy good news to hear that the BBC will be showing the Olympics on the BBC HD channel 24-hours a day however when its over it will more than likely go back to only a few hours each day again, :-(and we all want more to view on here and more hours as well,
we also need more free to air Hd channels soon !!! as sky will have 30 + by the end of the year .......

christopher: ITV HD will be a full service later in the year and we can expect Channel 4 HD too!

Briantist: Sorry, but you are wrong about the frame rate for 720p. It is 50 FRAMES for Europe, 60 FRAMES for USA, not 25 or 30 - that's the whole point. Otherwise you would be getting something for nothing by using 1080i, which you don't. The resolution of 1080i is only 1080 if either (a) the picture is perfectly still or (b) the source is film and it is converted to 1080p25. For normal video the resolution of 1080i drops to 540 when there is any movement, however slight. This is why I believe 720p is a superior standard. (map)

David Robinson: Sorry, I'm not wrong. Check the specifications. You have got it all mixed up. The frame rate for US TV is 29.97Hz, and 25Hz in the Europe.

wow i cant wait for the full itv HD service,to start and Channel 4 HD, do you think there will be any more channels joining them soon like channel 5 HD or fox news HD...? or how about eurosport HD.... anyway the more there are the better the service will be dont you think....? bring it on...:-)

Briantist: OK, it is true that 25 or 30 frames is allowed for in the 720p standard. However I do not believe this is what is proposed for Freeview - surely it is 720p50. No-one would seriously suggest broadcasting all HDTV at 25Hz i.e. filmic motion. Remember, for progressive, field rate and frame rate are equal. In any case, the 720p standard supported by HD ready sets that you can buy right now is 720p50 / 720p60. I actually use my Sony TV at 720p50 all the time, fed from an external scaler. It will not accept 720p25 or 720p30. The frame rates you quote are for interlaced TV. (map)

Would it be possible to get advanc and daily updates on " What's on " HD daily by E'Mail? A Hero's repeat would be great Love HD. but preview is now boring All my friends have seen it too many times ! ! Could we also have complete transponder and Sat. details for existing and new stations - - please Regards keep up the good work (map)

Edmund: I'll see what I can do about a daily "What's on" email, seems like a good idea. There will be full details of all and any free-to-air HD channels as they occur - Channel 4 HD is expected on Freesat very soon and perhaps five HD... there is always Luxe TV HD on 12643Mhz Horizontal (27.5 2/3)...

Sirs Thank you for the very prompt reply. I tried looking for Luxe TV. on the transponder you recommended but there's no signal there Which sat. is it on? is it H or V. I am using a Humax box with a steerable dish again though another humax box as driver.I get all the free to air stations such as Russia China Al Jazera all English versions but not the Luxe station you mentioned. again Many thanks (map)

Edmund: Luxe TV HD is on 12643Mhz Horizontal.

wow i just want to say the coverage of the 2008 Beijing Olympics on the BBC HD channel where absolutely fantastic the picture and sound were awsome, i cant wait for more hours on the
BBc HD channel soon as we are now back to just the preview during the days again :-( oh well lets hope we get more HD channels soon on freesat,

christopher woodhouse: The BBC will carry non-peaktime live sport in HD in the future, they assure us.

i just found this on the web and i am absolutely discusted with sky, and i wanted to know what can be done about this if it is true........ sky should not be allowed to pull stunts like this its not fair on the consumer who want to recive free Hd via BBC freesat.
Is RDM an attempt by Sky to stop Freesat?
It also appears, if the information is correct, that BSkyB is getting a little worried about Freesat. UK Free TV has been told that a "front company" for the satellite-subscription broadcaster called RDM has been offering "lucrative commercial contracts" to satellite installation companies "for the non promotion of Freesat and the non installation of Freesat on customer's sites."
The deal is reported to offer equipment subsidy, interest free loans and a continuous amount of Sky work instead. The deal is said to have been offered to companies in Glasgow and Newcastle. The company has contacted a number of private installation companies this deal by telephone.

GAZ: The more people that use it, the more content there will be!

christopher: I would have thought that Film4HD would be a good choice. C4HD, Five HD and Five US HD might come too!

David Robinson: Freeview HD will be 25 frames per second, this is the standard for UK (and all European TV). Interlaced TV under digital TV is done by altering the order of adding the data to the 576, 720 or 1080 lines, it does not increase the frame rate. This is also true for analogue.

Hey thats realy good news to here Brian that we may get C4HD, Five HD, Five US HD :-) sky must be quaking in their boots lol
i can see that there not going to like these channel additions to BBC Freesat because as BBC Freesat grows it can only get stronger ..

christopher: C4HD and five HD are certain as they have applied to be on Freeview HD. Five US was suggested by Michael Grade of all people.

Hi, At a freesat roadshow, it was said that freesat only want real hd channels not ones that upscale some & only broadcast very few hd programs, im not sure what the freeview definition of a hd channel is, as this may be a barrier to chan 4hd. Mark Aberfan Aerials

Mark Aberfan Aerials: However, the submissions made to Ofcom for Freeview HD seem to suggest this is exactly what they will get! Applications received | Ofcom

Why is there such a variation in picture quality on hdtv? I read somewhere that BBCHD channel only shows programs shot on HD cameras. Why then is there such a significant difference in picture quality between say Little Dorrit and the live music programmes shown on HD. (eg concerts from St Lukes) Incidentaly Bleak House had a technically better HD picture than Little Dorrit

alan hird: Everything on the BBC HD channel is sourced in HD (ie, shot on film or HD camera) and produced in HD.

This is unlike C4HD where the content can have many sources.

However, HD is only a description of the picture resolution (1920x1080 for example), there are many manufacturers and equipment makers.

Things shot for "film effect" for drama will look different to those for live broadcast.

Hi Briantist,

Thank you for that but as always, like the good politician, you never get an answer to the question! If all the programmes on BBCHD are slourced in HD then ther should be more monitoring of the actual technical quality of the material because, frankly,
some of it is no better than SDTV.

There is still a huge difference in HD picture quality when comparing Bleak House with Little Dorrit. Why?

Having watched various HD programmes over the past two years I am sadly disillusioned with mostHD picture quality. The only exceptions are the superb Jools holland and concerts from St Lukes. They are my benchmarks for HDTV.

I guess for the ultimate HD experience I just have to use Blue Ray!

cheers


alan

alan hird: Can you please be a bit more specific about "comparing Bleak House with Little Dorrit" and "actual technical quality".

I presume you are watching on Freesat, and not Virgin by the way.

There is NO difference WHATSOEVER between the MPEG4 employed in Freesat and that used on BluRay - aside from the former being "realtime" and the latter not, which means there are no "backward reference" frames...

Briantist

I watch on SkyHD. The overall sharpness of the picture images was better in Bleak House

Clearly there is a wide variation in HD broadcasts - from the highs of Jools Holland/St Lukes, where the picture definition just jumps out at you - to all the rest!

When HD is good it is very, very good BUT.....

May thanks for indulging my disillusionment!


best

Alan

alan hird: We will have to see how things develop I suppose.

When is the bbc going to have a proper service on the HD service you must have got the testing done by now and why are the proggrames not published in all of the tv mags (map)

There are now 9 hours of programmes each day.