tvboy Posted May 4, 2007 Posted May 4, 2007 For more than two years I’ve observed many occasions in Melbourne where Channel Nine has upconverted native HD programs like Today and Mornings, and I don’t mean those OB editions where they’re not broadcasting HD. I can only guess they have experienced localised difficulties, switched to upconverting the SD feed, and switched back whenever possible. Yesterday (3/5/07) I believe the entire 6am to 2pm lineup on Nine was upconverted, spoiling 7 hours of native HD programming. It looked to be going the same way today as well until I noticed the HD logo appear at 10:30am. Over on Ten things have been very reliable in the 9-11am slot in the last couple of years. I’ve also been recording Letterman on Ten since the start of the year, and everything's been fine until the last few weeks, when Ten started turning off the HD channel soon after the start of the show on Monday night. The dates and times this has happened so far are as follows: Tuesday 27/3/2007 12:02:00 am Tuesday 3/4/2007 12:06:00 am Tuesday 24/4/2007 1:55:00 am Tuesday 1/5/2007 ~1:50:00 am At the same time as the HD switch-off, the SD broadcast has changed resolution from 720x576 to 704x576, which has caused some problems viewing and editing the files. So it begs the question, why can’t the HD channels be as reliable as the SD channels? I record 10 times as much in SD as HD, and rarely experience any offline channels.
digitalj Posted May 4, 2007 Posted May 4, 2007 Just because a channel is Known as a HD Channel, doesn't mean it's always native HD!
tvboy Posted May 4, 2007 Author Posted May 4, 2007 Just because a channel is Known as a HD Channel, doesn't mean it's always native HD! Well I know that The only programs not native HD in the eight hour 6am-2pm block now are the news and The Nanny.
pietro1503559499 Posted May 4, 2007 Posted May 4, 2007 Maybe there is an advantage to regional HD after all. Both SC10 and WIN virtually never upscale. I think I've seen it happen once. But you do get sick of those eternal loops.
dunnas Posted May 4, 2007 Posted May 4, 2007 Maybe there is an advantage to regional HD after all. Both SC10 and WIN virtually never upscale. I think I've seen it happen once. But you do get sick of those eternal loops. Er, how hell is that an advantage? Upscaled SD is still better than nothing and I certainly wouldn't want to have to change back and forward between SD and HD all the time when instead I could be watching everything on the HD channel.
BribieG Posted May 4, 2007 Posted May 4, 2007 BRISBANE: Rang the engineers at 9 a couple of months ago when Kerri Anne went SD for a few days (Mrs likes the show but I can't hack the vacuum cleaner and funeral plan ads). He said "just temporary, changing satellite". Who knows. Here's the crunch question: stations are required by law to broadcast a minimum of x hours of HD, whatever x is (I forget), but does this refer to native HD, or any so called HD including upconverted??? If so we don't have a leg to stand on, hey.
GoForMoe Posted May 4, 2007 Posted May 4, 2007 1040 hours of NATIVE hd. ABC and SBS are allowed to count upscaled content as part of the HD quota.
anthonysimilion Posted May 4, 2007 Posted May 4, 2007 1040 hours of NATIVE hd. Which they will meet easily, with morning programs alone almost meeting the target.
tvboy Posted May 9, 2007 Author Posted May 9, 2007 Monday was another SD upconvert from 6–11am on Nine HD, obviously because the shows were in Melbourne for the Logies. Ten HD cut out again at the start of Letterman that night, here’s the track record so far: Tuesday 27/3/2007 12:02:00 am Tuesday 3/4/2007 12:06:00 am Tuesday 24/4/2007 1:55:00 am Tuesday 1/5/2007 ~1:50:00 am Tuesday 8/5/2007 1:30:00 am This time the resolution didn’t change on the SD broadcast, but something changed enough to cause a glitch and momentary loss 30 seconds after Dave sat down. The quality of the video was noticeably different, slightly inferior. At this moment the Ten logo also switched from near the bottom right corner to a different logo near the top right. It disappeared after the break and stayed off for the rest of the show, except for a minute during the Top Ten.
LBM Posted May 9, 2007 Posted May 9, 2007 I am sick and tired of the mess that Ten is making with HD Letterman these days. Solution - throw away that new hardware and watermark and go back to when it was actual worth watching HD.
SimonB1503560073 Posted May 9, 2007 Posted May 9, 2007 I noticed last night, on Supernatural, that the first few seconds of picture and audio of ad breaks were lost (blank screen) and there was also a pause in getting back to the program. Someone (or more likely, something) is screwing things up lately. Simon....
alanh Posted May 9, 2007 Posted May 9, 2007 All, Before complaining, check out the SD version of the same program at the same time. If the HD version is the only one affected complain, if not Read Get the Best Reception, Melbourne and read the links. Post further posts in the Melbourne Viewers' Forum. AlanH
LBM Posted May 9, 2007 Posted May 9, 2007 Alan, when Letterman does off HD there is nothing but SD to see. The high definition channel goes away completely and left is the 704px wide SD version alone. That in itself is more than enough to say that something is not right at Ten.
BribieG Posted May 13, 2007 Posted May 13, 2007 9 am on Channel Nine was SD today. Noticed that it looked great in HD last week so tuned in to watch and it's SD only. They sometimes do it to Kerri Anne as well, maybe they have a slack attack that time of day.
anthonysimilion Posted May 13, 2007 Posted May 13, 2007 9 am on Channel Nine was SD today. Noticed that it looked great in HD last week so tuned in to watch and it's SD only. They sometimes do it to Kerri Anne as well, maybe they have a slack attack that time of day. Do you mean 'Sunday'? It is HD here in Perth.
Adam-O Posted May 13, 2007 Posted May 13, 2007 At the same time as the HD switch-off, the SD broadcast has changed resolution from 720x576 to 704x576, which has caused some problems viewing and editing the files. I realise this isn't the main point of your post, but for what it's worth... both 704 and 720 are valid and allowed and there is NO pixel aspect ratio difference between the two, despite what may seem intuitive. The easiest way to deal with 720-wide stuff before processing on a PC is to first crop 8 pixels from each side, leaving 704. As an example, if you are converting a 720 x 576 raster to "square pixel" for display on a PC, then scaling the whole 720 x 576 raster to 1024 x 576 is WRONG! (you'll introduce a small aspect ratio error). First crop the 720 to 704, then scale that to 1024 x 576. It's amazing how many people (and software programs) get this wrong. The extra width in each line does NOT form part of the "clean aperture" region and is NOT subject to the display aspect ratio. The real active region / clean aperture of a PAL broadcast is 702 x 575. Approximating this to 704 x 576 maintains correct aspect and is easy to deal with digitally due to 704 being evenly divisible by 16. And please, don't anyone say... "but sometimes there's real image data in those pixels along the side -- why would I want to crop them off?" </end of side topic> Cheers, Adam
BribieG Posted May 13, 2007 Posted May 13, 2007 Do you mean 'Sunday'? It is HD here in Perth. Sorry, I meant Sunday. Yup SD in Brisbane although Laurie Oaks actually looks better in SD
LBM Posted May 14, 2007 Posted May 14, 2007 ...and again there is no high definition during Letterman. Why can't Ten remove it during those commercials or religious shows rather than an actual HD broadcast?
BribieG Posted May 20, 2007 Posted May 20, 2007 Yet again, Sunday on 9 is SD in Brisbane. What's wrong with 9? Sunday is their weekend current affairs flagship - they apparently broadcast it in HD everywhere else. Probably (as with 7) it's an indication that the TV networks, outside Sydney and Melbourne, couldn't give a stuff.
anthonysimilion Posted May 20, 2007 Posted May 20, 2007 Yet again, Sunday on 9 is SD in Brisbane. What's wrong with 9? Sunday is their weekend current affairs flagship - they apparently broadcast it in HD everywhere else. Probably (as with 7) it's an indication that the TV networks, outside Sydney and Melbourne, couldn't give a stuff. It would be up to your local station to monitor the HD. In Perth we usually get it as HD.
mackie Posted May 20, 2007 Posted May 20, 2007 It would be up to your local station to monitor the HD. In Perth we usually get it as HD. Not in Hd in regional Aust
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