[Hades]

Made my day has this

Cult - News - 'Doctor Who' to film in high definition - Digital Spy

Doctor Who is to be filmed in high definition (HD) for the first time, it has been confirmed.

The upcoming Easter special, 'Planet of the Dead', will be the first episode to be broadcast in the high quality format. Time and budgetary constraints have thusfar prevented Doctor Who from going HD, although spinoff series Torchwood has been shot in the format from the start.

"I'm delighted that the Doctor Who specials are going to be shot in HD," Danielle Nagler, head of BBC HD, told Doctor Who Magazine. "The programme team has consistently tried to push at television boundaries, and to raise the quality bar for our audiences, and I'm glad we've been able to work with them to do so again."

'Planet of the Dead' features guest appearances from Michelle Ryan and Lee Evans.

[DeadKenny]

It's good news, although the argument against it before was that it was too costly and show quality would suffer if they did it.

Although maybe the rumoured bargain salary that Matt Smith is getting helps towards paying for it. And of course they aren't doing a full series for the last few Tenant episodes.

Does mean I have to make up my mind about Blu-Ray though when they issue the boxed sets, and actually get a player. Still feel that Blu-Ray will be short lived and HD downloads will take over. Oh well.

[brian s]

Originally Posted by DeadKenny

Does mean I have to make up my mind about Blu-Ray though when they issue the boxed sets, and actually get a player. Still feel that Blu-Ray will be short lived and HD downloads will take over. Oh well.

I think Blu-Ray will be here for quite awhile. It's far bigger than Laserdisc ever was. I think it was launched in the USA in 1978 and they've only just ceased production of the players. I think you can buy a Blu-Ray player and not worry too much about it.

All the best
Bri

[Trollslayer]

Originally Posted by DeadKenny

It's good news, although the argument against it before was that it was too costly and show quality would suffer if they did it.

Although maybe the rumoured bargain salary that Matt Smith is getting helps towards paying for it. And of course they aren't doing a full series for the last few Tenant episodes.

Does mean I have to make up my mind about Blu-Ray though when they issue the boxed sets, and actually get a player. Still feel that Blu-Ray will be short lived and HD downloads will take over. Oh well.

Downloads will be lower bitrate, probably the same as Sky use or perhaps even less. Of course, this assumes customers will wait and don't get their bandwidth throttled...

[Hades]

What's all this download crap

I would sooner have a nice shiny disc in a blue case thank you very much.

[DeadKenny]

Originally Posted by Trollslayer

Downloads will be lower bitrate, probably the same as Sky use or perhaps even less. Of course, this assumes customers will wait and don't get their bandwidth throttled...

Yeah, but consider how the net has changed in 10 years. I'm looking at the long term really. Already got burnt with HD DVD amongst other things and don't want yet another thing that's got a short life span

Besides I think optical discs may have had their day, even though I'd prefer them to stay and I agree that quality may suffer. Just look at the quality of CDs vs music downloads! I much prefer a CD (even then it's not perfect quality), although I then go and rip it to a archivable format that I can use over my network or transfer to portable devices.

Much as I'd like a quality format like Blu-Ray to stick around, my concern is that it will be swept aside in preference for downloads. If Blu-Ray was dirt cheap, I wouldn't be so bothered.


But it's stuff like this that will of course force me to go Blu

[brian s]

DeadKenny

Are you into Torchwood as well? The first series is available on both Blu-Ray and HD DVD.

Cheers
Bri

[DeadKenny]

Yeah, already got an order in for Torchwood on HD DVD . I missed some of the earlier bargains unfortunately, but got one for around £25 through Amazon Marketplace (brand new). Does of course mean Blu-Ray for series 2, d'oh! Oh well .

Still, not in that much of a rush for a player, and still waiting for disc prices to become more sensible. Then again, if the Beeb started doing HD downloads... . Already quite impressed by the SD quality of iPlayer (both download and the HQ stream).

[brian s]

I bought the Blu-Ray of Torchwood not knowing I had a choice of the HD DVD as well. I enjoyed it much more on second viewing. No sign of the much better second series on Blu-Ray yet.

Regards
Bri

[DeadKenny]

Just got my Torchwood HD DVD set, and watching the first episode I have to say I'm pretty blown away by the quality!

The detail on faces and stuff like rain drops is frankly stunning. It looks a hell of a lot sharper than a lot of films too, but that may be the 'TV' nature of it.

Also happy so far that I haven't noticed any motion judder or audio glitches, unlike on Planet Earth HD DVD, despite the fact that the Torchwood HD DVD is a conversion from the broadcast 1080i/50 to 1080i/60. Somehow they screwed it up on Planet Earth and it suffers the same kind of glitches as you get with pitch correction on some PAL DVDs.

Oh, and yeah, so far the first episode seems better than I remember it.