BBC4 HD et al due in time for Christmas

[Nick Armstrong]

This is good news. BBC Four (along with Three, News and childrens' channels) is launching in HD on Freeview within a matter of weeks.

There are already 'placeholder' cards announcing it on Channels 105 (BBC Three HD), 106 (BBC Four HD) and 107 (BBC News HD)

It will be very good to have BBC Four programmes in HD, especially the music ones - if only it had come in time for the Britten documentaries...

But the Proms will be sorted, it seems

Progress.....

(As confirmed on the BBC Blog last week: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/abouttheb...next-dimension

"Last July we were very pleased to announce that the BBC is to launch five new HD channels by early 2014. These will be HD simulcasts of BBC News, BBC Three, BBC Four, CBBC and CBeebies.

I’m sure you’re keen to know when the launch will be but I’m afraid you’ll have to wait a little longer to find out. I’ll post again with an update towards the end of the year. However, in the meantime, I can let you know that the capacity vacated by BBC Red Button HD will be used to broadcast BBC News HD on satellite and BBC Three HD and CBBC HD on Freeview HD/Youview.")

[mangerton]

Agreed. It's great news for those of you lucky enough to live in one of the planned transmission areas.

As I'm "served" by a relay transmitter, I won't get it*. Relay transmitters transmit only three multiplexes, containing a wide variety of drivel which is apparently commercially important, but is of no interest to people with IQs in double figures.

Main transmitters currently broadcast six multiplexes, and this will be increased to seven next year to accommodate the new HD channels. We all, of course, pay the same licence fee.

*Unless Virgin send it down the fibre, which they probably will, but that's hardly the point.

[Nick Armstrong]

Point taken, mangers... S'not fair, indeed.

(But, I'm in a similar position with t'internet: most people in the country seem to be able to get fibreoptic fast broadband: not here, this part of London in stuck in a previous era...)

[Bryn]

Point taken, mangers... S'not fair, indeed.

(But, I'm in a similar position with t'internet: most people in the country seem to be able to get fibreoptic fast broadband: not here, this part of London in stuck in a previous era...)

Too posh for fibre, eh?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

A welcome development indeed, unlike 3D TV, which is a waste of time and money. Not many people want to see cardboard cut-out Professor Snapes galavanting across the screen, and having to wear funny glasses for the privilege.

[Dave2002]

Is there any chance that this move to HD will be matched on Freesat? Maybe not in the short term, though I suspect it's just a matter of money.

Re HD, although we prefer to watch HD, we watch so few things "live", and HD takes up a lot more space on our PVR, the result is that we often tend to watch in SD anyway. For many programmes it doesn't really make that much difference - plotlines don't change in migrating from SD to HD, and some programmes are banal and SD is good enough, and some are technically not that challenging, so again SD is good enough.

OTOH there are programmes where HD makes a significant difference - perhaps nature programmes, Gardener's World etc.

[Sir Velo]

I share the general enthusiasm for BBC4 HD, but still think it was extremely poor planning to close BBC HD before the new channel was ready to broadcast. As it is, many programmes which would have been aired in HD have slipped through the net. BBC2 HD has been a poor substitute for the old channel. Although as Lady V has remarked, BBC 4's schedule is so dominated by repeats that most of those programmes are bound to be shown on the new channel again before long!

[Sir Velo]

Re HD, although we prefer to watch HD, we watch so few things "live", and HD takes up a lot more space on our PVR, the result is that we often tend to watch in SD anyway. For many programmes it doesn't really make that much difference - plotlines don't change in migrating from SD to HD.

HD only really comes into its own with a larger screen - at least 42" I would say. Moreover, HD benefits programmes where the visual element is paramount (e.g. architecture, nature or travelogue). Some of the close ups from the Proms allowed one to see every bead of sweat - not sure one always wants that.

[Nick Armstrong]

Too posh for fibre, eh?

So it would appear....

[muzzer]

How ironic this is happening just as Beeb 4 has stopped making new drama. What, prey, apart from the Proms, will Auntie be bestowing upon us in HD?

[Bryn]

How ironic this is happening just as Beeb 4 has stopped making new drama. What, prey, apart from the Proms, will Auntie be bestowing upon us in HD?

Why, old Beeb 1, 2 and 4 dramas, of course.

[mangerton]

Point taken, mangers... S'not fair, indeed.

(But, I'm in a similar position with t'internet: most people in the country seem to be able to get fibreoptic fast broadband: not here, this part of London in stuck in a previous era...)

Thank you for your sympathy. Sorry to hear about your broadband situation. I believe parts of Dundee and Glasgow have similar problems. Most frustrating.

[Dave2002]

HD only really comes into its own with a larger screen - at least 42" I would say. Moreover, HD benefits programmes where the visual element is paramount (e.g. architecture, nature or travelogue). Some of the close ups from the Proms allowed one to see every bead of sweat - not sure one always wants that.

Indeed. We do have a 42 inch TV - had it for years. Perils of early adoption - it was very good at the time, but now LED TVs are more compact and have a better picture. I don't know what has happened to plasma TVs - they used to be the best if one didn't mind having an extra 300W heater in the room. Now I think there's hardly anything to choose between them picture wise, and possibly there's a limited market for them now.

Just checked - and there are still plasma TVs listed at amazon. I don't know if they still have any advantages, and if the energy disadvantage still applies - I'd expect it to. I've not found any specs with weights of plasma TVs. Perhaps the manufacturers and suppliers don't want us to know. Our LCD TV weighs 35 kg (or so it says in the box) - a monster by modern standards. It is indeed heavy. Modern LED ones are much lighter. See http://www.rtings.com/info/lcd-vs-le...ess-and-weight

Regarding 3D, I don't know enough about the technology used to make a judgement for domestic use. I think a lot of the material may have the cardboard cut out appearance already mentioned. Can 3D work? Probably yes. I was very surprised at the effects of the 3D imaging in the recent Leonardo da Vinci exhibition in Edinburgh. It really worked for me, and I didn't expect it to. Having an additional pair of glasses over my own wasn't a problem either. Not all 3D TVs are the same though, and they are sold to Joe Public as though they are. Some use active technology in the glasses, to synchronise the glasses with the TV, while others use different techniques. JP doesn't know this, and perhaps doesn't care. However, there are probably going to be differences due to the different technologies used by different manufacturers, and I'm not sure if they all use exactly the same input data when showing 3D programmes. There may be some form of composite 3D standard for TV, which allows the manufacturers to extract the data they need for their own sets. I'm not suggesting that the standards are completely different and distinct, but simply that there may be some slight differences which manufacturers need to be aware of and exploit or ignore in their designs.

Re "broadband" - I notice that some parts of the UK still have relatively poor data rates. Round Inverness, for example, rates quoted are around 2-2.5 Mbps, which is faster than we had a decade ago, but now is at the bottom end for performance. Perhaps infrastructure managers should be forced to live in such places, and also made to use commercial services. Then there might be an improvement. A bit like forcing Margaret Thatcher to go on trains - I gather she hardly ever did. Would it have made a difference to rail services if she had done? However we do know that George Osborne sometimes goes on trains

[Mr Pee]

Five new BBC HD Channels to launch in time for Christmas

Excellent news for those who have been waiting for the BBC to launch their new HD Channels:-

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-25298109

Let's hope there's some good music and arts programming to watch in lovely HD!!

(And perhaps they could repeat Borgen 3 in HD as well..)

[teamsaint]

Exellent news for those who have been waiting for the BBC to launch their new HD Channels:-

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-25298109

Let's hope there's some good music and arts programming to watch in lovely HD!!

(And perhaps they could repeat Borgen 3 in HD as well..)

its really 2 channels, plus the news in HD.
Who on earth need the news in HD? Dear god in heaven, what an awful thought.......

A pity they don't spend some of the money on some live footy rights, since that would actually be popular.