Digital UK on Freeview HD channel numbers: "we can not do that, sorry"
Brian Butterworth published on UK Free TV As I am sure you will know, if you have purchased yourself a Freeview HD box or TV, the actual HD channels are all sat together at the end of the guide, starting on channel 101.
This compares somewhat favourably to the seemingly random numbers provided on some other digital platforms.
However, when the public were asked "where would you like to find HD channels", the answer came back a resounding "on the normal channel numbers please".
So, is Digital UK going to do this? No.
The problem is that the existing Freeview HD services are not directly replacements for the standard definition channels, as I covered recently in I've got an HD TV ... why can't we have high definition channels in place?.
BBC One HD currently existing in three versions that are suitable for "substitution", the versions for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
BBC Two HD is currently the English version, so can be substituted only in England.
ITV has 17 standard definition versions, only four of which are in HD: Granada, Central West, Meridian East and London. Outside these areas in England, no substitution could be made.
STV has 4 standard definition variants, but one HD service: Central West, so only Glasgow could be switched automatically.
UTV is OK; it has one SD version and one HD version.
Channel 4 has 6 SD versions, but one HD version: the London (advertisements) service.
Digital UK will reconsider the introduction of substitution late 2014 or early
2015.
For more, see Statement on proposals for the Freeview HD genre and on amendments to Digital UK's LCN Policy Published: 7 August 2013.
| Whenever i watch moving sport especially football I experience much poorer pictu | 1 |
1:32 PM
Nottingham
David- cheers for getting the sarcasm ha ha
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Ian's: mapI's Freeview map terrainI's terrain plot wavesI's frequency data I's Freeview Detailed Coverage
1:37 PM
Nottingham
Rob, David- the general idea of HD is for the best picture quality, To get that an then stretch it so it fits the screen defeats the object?
Also, You can put HD on as often as you wish but, If it was filmed in SD (or black n white)It will be screened in SD (or black n white)
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Ian's: mapI's Freeview map terrainI's terrain plot wavesI's frequency data I's Freeview Detailed Coverage
2:41 PM
Ian not understanding, movie film is HD quality I would have thought.
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7:29 AM
Nottingham
David- I don't know the film "the French line" or how old it is but if it wasn't in widescreen for TV showing then HD should revert it to 4/3 scope. BBC2 SD should do the same if the TV picture settings are set at "auto" rather than 16/9
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Ian's: mapI's Freeview map terrainI's terrain plot wavesI's frequency data I's Freeview Detailed Coverage
7:39 AM
Ian ,not quite.
Any quality transmitted on the HD system will be better quality than the transmitted poor bit rate on Freeview SD. The motion smoothness and the edges when panning shots are present is so much better especially human faces.
Older Film & VT programs recorded the last 20 years which are classified as SD when it leaves the studio will look great when transmitted on HD but when viewed on Freeview SD large screen TV quite poor.
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9:12 PM
Bangor
Can BT sports chns 58/59 be transmitted with a youview box without BT infinity,but with copper wired broadband. Thanks
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Drew's: mapD's Freeview map terrainD's terrain plot wavesD's frequency data D's Freeview Detailed Coverage
1:46 PM
Drew: No. BT are only offering it to Infinity subscribers on YouView. Infinity still uses copper cables from the roadside cabinet to the home, but the fibre connection is extended from the phone exchange to the roadside cabinet. This means that the run of copper is much shorter, so much higher speeds can be offered.
The channels are being broadcast over-the-air for old BT Vision boxes, for those who aren't in an Infinity-enabled area. Those boxes have a slot for a decoder card that decrypts the transmissions. YouView deliberately left the decoder card slot out of the specifications - the intention is that over-the-top pay services will all be delivered over the Internet.
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5:26 PM
Whitley Bay
Woodface: Sorry for the delay been on nights.
I have a Panasonic DMR-HW100 Freeview+HD box.
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Stoddy75's: mapS's Freeview map terrainS's terrain plot wavesS's frequency data S's Freeview Detailed Coverage
11:08 PM
Sorry I'm late in finding this thread, going back to David's post regarding the film "The French Line", according to IMDB this film was released in a ratio of 1.66:1 or, in figures we might use for TV these days, 15:9.
Freeview SD despite being nominally Widescreen format is in fact a 4:3 (or 12:9) ratio picture stretched to 16:9 (rectangular pixels), the Freeview system was designed to accomplish automatic switching of ratios within your TV or set-top box in response to a flag in the digital transmission nominating the signal as either 4:3 or 16:9 as appropriate.
The HD specification, however, is a native 16:9 format (with square pixels) and only ever intended to be shown on a 16:9 screen, any source material not in 16:9 would need to have curtain bars (usually black) added before transmission.
The end result might be subtly different pictures being transmitted.
I've had a look using a BBC internal resource and compared the two transmissions made on 8/8/2013 (SD and HD) and I have to say both appeared to be transmitted in 4:3 ratio.
One possible explanation for the difference David saw might be how David's SD receiver was set to switch aspect ratios on that day such as to overscan a 4:3 picture, the HD receiver would simply show what was transmitted on the HD channel.
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5:57 PM
Preston
I have just bought a Freeview HD receiver which I have connected to my computer monitor.My monitor is full HD 1080p and I can now receive all the Freeview HD channels.All well and good. But can anyone tell me why I cannot watch, for instance, Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid which is currently showing on Film4, in HD? It is advertised in my TV guide as being braodcast in HD yet my receiver is only showing SD.
Forgive me if this is a naive question as I am totally new to this HD/SD business.
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David's: mapD's Freeview map terrainD's terrain plot wavesD's frequency data D's Freeview Detailed Coverage