F1 goes HD in 2011!

[Sodemo]

Much has been rumoured, but its now confirmed.

FOM will send out HD feeds to broadcasters in 2011. BBC will almost certainly have it, amongst others.

For such a technological sport, its about time in my view. I also don't understand Bernies previous comments about "are the TV stations ready"? Any broadcaster can downscale the HD transmission anyway, much in the same way that the BBC "ARC" the 16:9 image for regular terrestrial viewers.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/88873

[jab]

About time

Won't be watching on HD but the picture for the rest of us will improve anyway, so fine by me

[E.B]

Better late than never.
But still its good news.

[Ultimo]

Yeah, many years too late. Isn't it time for them to be looking into 3D by now?

I can only echo the previous posters comments - this is a technological sport, I am sure many wealthy fans watch, many other sports have been HD for 5+ years now.

The feed is not going to be 1080p, only 1080i. A day late and a dollar short...

Still, will look real nice.

[ECW Dan Selby]

What's the difference between 1080i and 1080p?

Cheers

Selby

[ScotsBrutesFan]

Originally Posted by Ultimo

Yeah, many years too late. Isn't it time for them to be looking into 3D by now?

I can only echo the previous posters comments - this is a technological sport, I am sure many wealthy fans watch, many other sports have been HD for 5+ years now.

The feed is not going to be 1080p, only 1080i. A day late and a dollar short...

Still, will look real nice.

3 points...

1. The BBC don't have a 3D channels and aren't likely to have in the near future due to them having to be Platform Neutral. DTT can't handle 3D at the moment. How many of the other F1 broadcasters around the world have a 3D channel?

2 it wouldn't matter if the feed was in 1080p, as current HD satellite receivers are at best 1080i. Only Blu-ray season reviews would be able to utilise a 1080p feed.

3. The BBC could still be faced with a major dilemma, if FOM's HD feed uses 16:9 graphics (and really it should IMHO), that BBC Platform neutrality rears it's head again.
For as long as the BBC is broadcasting in analogue, they have to provide a 4:3 or letterboxed 4:3 feed.
That means 4:3 safe graphics most likely only available on the FOM's SD feed, of trying to talk the FOM into producing the HD feed in 14:9 graphics which would fit in letterbox format.

If the FOM say 16:9 then the BBC may not be able to take the HD feed and have to upscale the SD until Digital Switch over is complete and Analogue is switched off.

[strider]

I moved up to HD over Christmas, so I'm happy with that.

To be honest, the most important thing is to have a decent TV. If you have that, you'll be fine, HD or not.

[ECW Dan Selby]

/\ That's pretty much true............ But then after a year or two having a good TV, you get more greedy and want more HD!

Selby

[fieldodreams79]

Good news, as I have just upgrade from tube to plasma, and will be heading today to get the HD box.

Looking forward to the racing season!

[Jon Lincoln]

Yay! BBC will have it. Here's my take on it all http://motorsportviewersandlisteners...irm-hd-for-f1/

[ECW Dan Selby]

Yep, you're right - BBC confirm HD for 2011:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/moto...ne/default.stm

Great news

Also, Jordan confirmed alongside Jake Humphrey presenting.

Can't really knock any of this tbh. Great stuff.

Selby

[chillibowl]

Originally Posted by ScotsBrutesFan

1. The BBC don't have a 3D channels and aren't likely to have in the near future due to them having to be Platform Neutral. DTT can't handle 3D at the moment. How many of the other F1 broadcasters around the world have a 3D channel?

i know a few of sports in N.America are advertising that games/matches are being filmed in 3D. the college football championship was, some golf tourneys are, and im sure the Superbowl will be as well.

so i am assuming that if they are filming sports in 3D then there has to be some broadcasters/cable companies here capable of sending that feed to my home...provided i had a 3D tv.

personally i dont care much for the TV experience anymore and am more interested in high quality feeds over the internet. this is an area i have heard the BBC excel at and is sadly underused platform in n.america.

[Sodemo]

Originally Posted by ECW Dan Selby

What's the difference between 1080i and 1080p?

Cheers

Selby

i means "interlaced" p means "progressive". p is better, but requires more bandwidth. Basically with an i signal, your display will do the deinterlacing, so depending on the quality of your scaler, the deinterlacing could be good, or bad. You can get external scalers, or simply just rely upon the one in your display (all LCD / Plasma screens have scalers built in).

[Adam43]

I don't think that they should do this. I don't have HD and until I do it will remain overrated and for losers.

In fact I don't have a telly, I sold it after the 2008 debacle. It should be on the radio only. In Mono

[GolddustMini]

I shall invest in a freeviewHD box for this reason only

[alan1302]

Originally Posted by Ultimo

The feed is not going to be 1080p, only 1080i. A day late and a dollar short...

Still, will look real nice.

Seeing as no broadcaster in the UK broadcasts in 1080i what would the point of a 1080p feed be?

[GolddustMini]

Originally Posted by alan1302

Seeing as no broadcaster in the UK broadcasts in 1080i what would the point of a 1080p feed be?

most HD broadcasting in the UK is 720p anyway I believe

[ECW Dan Selby]

I think you're right.

Why is it that we don't get more 1080?

Selby

[GolddustMini]

Probably to do with available bandwidth, lower quality broadcast allow them to transmit more channels in a given amount of bandwidth meaning we can continue to recieve channels such as JML, QVC, PricedropTV and all the other channels we need.....

[Kempi]

Why is it that we don't get more 1080?

To my knowledge, BBC was one of the first broadcasters in Europe to do HD. At the same time, they are a member of the EBU who originally discussed using 720p as standard since supposedly it gives better picture quality with sports and other fast moving pictures content. Public broadcasters in Germany for this reason also use 720p.

Bandwidth shouldn't be too much of a difference since 720p has 50 full pictures of 720 vertical pixels and 1080i only has 25.

[Knowlesy]

About time too!

Yay!

[JohnSSC]

Seems to have taken them awhile to get to HD broadcasts, but I am really looking forward to it this season!

[nkh]

Originally Posted by Kempi

To my knowledge, BBC was one of the first broadcasters in Europe to do HD. At the same time, they are a member of the EBU who originally discussed using 720p as standard since supposedly it gives better picture quality with sports and other fast moving pictures content. Public broadcasters in Germany for this reason also use 720p.

Bandwidth shouldn't be too much of a difference since 720p has 50 full pictures of 720 vertical pixels and 1080i only has 25.

Which rises the question of why they choose 1080i over 720p?

[phoenix]

Of 1080i, according to Wikipedia:

"1080i is directly compatible with CRT-based HDTV sets and is displayed natively in interlaced form, but must be deinterlaced and often scaled for display on modern progressive-scan LCD and plasma TV sets. Depending on the television's video processor the resulting video quality may vary.

All UK HD channels on satellite, cable and terrestrial platforms including BBC HD and ITV1 HD broadcast in this format."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1080i

Wikipedia has been known to be innacurate, however.

[Kempi]

Which rises the question of why they choose 1080i over 720p?

Two reasons:

1. Still images and quiet camera moves look better in 1080

2. People want to use the "full" display capability and don't want to be limited to a "lower" standard if they have a 1080i/p capable TV. This is more a marketing/psychological issue than really a technical one.