[mythtvnz] HD

[Mike Dilger]

Back in San Francisco, I had a rear-projection 42" wide HDTV.  There was 
a free-to-air HD channel that was 1920x1080i (which, IMHO, is 'true' 
HD).  It was nothing short of spectacular - bright vibrant colors, 
super-crystal-clear detail.   Only thing was... they played mostly 
boring stuff, and a lot of time was taken up by looping scenery shots 
instead of real content of interest.  Satellite (DirecTV) also had some 
HD content, about 4 channels.  That included HDNet (which occasionally 
had girls in bikinis), DiscoveryHD (my absolute favorite), and HBO in 
HD.  HBO showed movies, and when you transfer a 24fps movie from film to 
HD to 1080i at 30fps (USA), it actually looks really really good... you 
can see the graininess of the film, and the wrinkles on peoples faces, 
which gave it a theatre feel.  They were also moving in an HD adult 
channel, just at the time that I was leaving.

I miss HD.  ;-(    I built my MythTV system to be HD-ready, as far as 
possible.   I can watch some HD content from the web, but download times 
are quite limiting.

HD is taking a long time, because of the chicken-and-egg problem ("well 
no one has HD ready hardware".... "well no one has HD media to show 
us").   That doesn't mean HD won't happen, but just that it won't switch 
over as quickly as you might think.


Steven Ellis wrote:

>1. Most local production companies have international owners and are
>moving over to HD as they can afford it. Shooting on HD video is usually
>cheaper than film.
>
>2. Some local content is produced on film which if it is Super16 or
>better can be turned into HD.
>
>3. TVNZ's new equipment is all HD. They can't buy SD kit even if they
>wanted to.
>
>4. Maddigan's Quest was shot in HD.
>
>5. Most US and a lot of UK/AU imported is in HD.
>
>6. One H264 HD Channel takes the same bandwidth as One SD MPEG2 channel.
>  
>
This is all awesome news.  I'm still psyched... but just not expecting 
anything "real soon now".

>and I'm testing HD H264 DVB-T/S patches.
>  
>
Lovin' it.  Can't wait.

-Mike