[mythtvnz] HD

[Steven Ellis]

Mike Dilger wrote:
> 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".

Yeah don't expect too much and you won't be disappointed :)

I'd like to see some HD from day one but I doubt it. One thing of interest
is the bitrate on the widescreen TVNZ channel is serously high and
upscales to HD very very well.

Steve