F1 GP should be 16:9 sometime mid year

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cyril7

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#18916 29-Jan-2008 14:28

Just to pull this old thread back to the limelight. today I once again emailed Sky regarding the showing of the F1 GP in 16:9 (which was shot in 16:9 for the first time last season but not shown as such for us here).

The answer is that they hope to bring the F1 to us in 16:9 mid year at the sametime they launch HD services. So it sounds that the delay to move to more 16:9 programming on the SD service is tied up with the HD rollout.

At least we get to see some of the season widened up.

Cyril

sbiddle

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#107402 29-Jan-2008 14:36

Any word on whether they will be transmitting it in HD or just 16:9 SD?

cyril7

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#107403 29-Jan-2008 14:43

The emails wording indicated that 16:9 on SD. My guess is that the sports channels have not seen any 16:9 as they are a prime HD target, so I presume they have held off as the Sports suites are being upgraded to HD and will deliver HD and SD feeds (obviously the latter a downconvert).

Cyril

allstarnz

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#107413 29-Jan-2008 15:58

cyril7: Just to pull this old thread back to the limelight. today I once again emailed Sky regarding the showing of the F1 GP in 16:9 (which was shot in 16:9 for the first time last season but not shown as such for us here).

The answer is that they hope to bring the F1 to us in 16:9 mid year at the sametime they launch HD services. So it sounds that the delay to move to more 16:9 programming on the SD service is tied up with the HD rollout.

At least we get to see some of the season widened up.

Cyril

It really sh_ts me that Sky have been mucking about with their sports broadcasting. I had a sneaking suspicion that Sky were deliberately holding back sport in widescreen so as to maintain a point of difference with the Rugby Channel. Particularly as I guess rugby will be one of the first sports shot locally in HD.

At least you got a better answer than the total cop out I received last year when I asked the same question...
"At this stage we have no plans into considering having Widescreen in place in all our channels as not all our Subscribers have a Widescreen Television within their dwelling." (sent to me in Sept 07)
That is the biggest load of tripe i've heard in quite some time.

It's not as if Sky can't source 16:9 material easily enough. All sport from Seven, Nine, and Foxtel in Australia, as well as stuff shot by Sky Sports UK and ITV in the UK is delivered to Sky in 16:9 already. This is proven by the fact that Sky have stuffed up a number of times accidentally broadcasting the F1 in WS. Sky even shoot most sport in 16:9 themselves (eg all NRL and international league tests are shot in 16:9 then cropped for us) The only country that aren't on the 8 ball is the US, a lot of stuff is still broadcast to the world in 4:3

:edit: Despite being 'the most technological motorsport in the world' F1 is still not broadcast in HD. I understand FOM have now got the equipment to do it (they do all their own broadcasting), so it may well be that this starts this season for those not in the dark ages.

sbiddle

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#107429 29-Jan-2008 17:07

allstarnz: Despite being 'the most technological motorsport in the world' F1 is still not broadcast in HD. I understand FOM have now got the equipment to do it (they do all their own broadcasting), so it may well be that this starts this season for those not in the dark ages.

My understanding was all their cameras and OB equipment was upgraded for the start of last season however there was no actual HD feed of the races. There were a couple of special broadcasts that were in HD including the British GP that was shown in HD at a cinema chain in the UK.

There has been talk that Melbourne will be broadcast in HD on CH10 but I haven't read anything official yet.

DS9

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#107440 29-Jan-2008 20:05

Hi,

I see in the channel guide of this months mag. that Sky Sport is rebranding, maybe this is a prelude to the upgraded broadcast centre. I read that once complete (in last months mag). They will be able to broadcast all channels in WS and have the HD offering.

I aim to misbehave.

allstarnz

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#107455 29-Jan-2008 21:19

sbiddle:

My understanding was all their cameras and OB equipment was upgraded for the start of last season however there was no actual HD feed of the races. There were a couple of special broadcasts that were in HD including the British GP that was shown in HD at a cinema chain in the UK.

Ah yes, there has been a fair bit of discussion about that 'HD' F1 from last season. The popular opinion was that it was just an upscaled SD feed rather than true HD. It certainly looked nice all the same. It has been said that a couple of the Japan GP's have been in true HD, thanks to Fuji TV, still only rumour though.

Ten certainly have the equipment to broadcast the race in HD, so I'll be interested to see what transpires.

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richms

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#107579 30-Jan-2008 16:31

I know that the arts channel are scheduled to go WS (FINALLY) on may 1 since thats what they answered when I emailed.

Richard rich.ms

sjadd

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#107597 30-Jan-2008 18:20

Does anyone know if the picture quality of Standard Def broadcasts will improve once all this upgrading is done? When watching some sports (A-League springs to mind) the picture doesn't look much better than something from youtube (ok slight exaggeration but you get my drift).

HD will be nice and everything, but a SD 4:3 picture that isn't obviously compressed wouldn't go amiss either.

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#107617 30-Jan-2008 20:07

sjadd:
Does anyone know if the picture quality of Standard Def broadcasts will improve once all this upgrading is done? When watching some sports (A-League springs to mind) the picture doesn't look much better than something from youtube (ok slight exaggeration but you get my drift).

HD will be nice and everything, but a SD 4:3 picture that isn't obviously compressed wouldn't go amiss either.

Last week I was watching here in in Ozz Foxtel sports chanel showing a replay of the tenis. It was SD but the pix quality was way better than the crappy low bitrate that Sky NZ shows. Don't hold your breath over better PQ. Sky will mostly use that low bitrate as a lever to get people to go the HD..

Regards,

Old3eyes

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#107665 31-Jan-2008 01:12

I was watching the tennis when I was over there on Austar and FTA 7 on terrestrial. 7 was insanely better.

richms

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#107671 31-Jan-2008 03:12

Now I have finally run a VHF antenna cable to the TV, I am amazed at how good FTA TV2 looks compared to what we were getting when we had sky - there seems to actually be more resolution on the analog then off of sky, at least on movies and stuff that have a good source (was harry potter on when I was looking). I dont recall FTA TV looking that good last time I had the antenna hooked up. Prime looks like pixelated garbage compared with tv2 off analog. Funny that, sky wouldnt want to set the expectations too high with people able to compare uhf fta with their sat product.

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openmedia

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#107761 31-Jan-2008 12:59

Sky's versions of TVNZ channels run at quite a low bitrate, hence VHF will often look a lot better.

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Zippity

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#108131 2-Feb-2008 10:46

Cyril - that is great news.

Buying my Bravia 40" wasn't such a waste afterall.

All we need now is full surround sound

cyril7

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#108150 2-Feb-2008 14:23

Ohhh, yeah!!!!

Cyril