BBC - Stephen Fry in America - HD showing ?

tmurphy

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Digiguide is now showing Mr Fry's new TV documentary scheduled for 9pm on Oct 12 BBC1.

Does anybody know if this will be simulcast in HD? The BBC HD slot for the same time is still showing "to be announced"

I'm thinking it has been filmed in HD as he's mentioned in 2 interviews about it being available on Blu-ray in November and knowing Fry's love of new technology I cannot believe he would have not insisted on HD !

tony
 
BBCHD now showing 'sunshine' (no, not the movie).

I hope they do show it in HD sometime soon. I'll start recording it on BBC1 but hold off watching it for a few weeks in case they start on HD later on.

Shame its so random like this.
 
Agree. I have asked the Head of BBC HD on her blog why they will not give an indication that a program will be show later in HD. So far no response!

BBC Internet Blog
 
Gotta love stephen fry, i hope this is in HD, not that it'd look any different from sd bbc. Please take the time to read the bbc hd quality thread. Cheers ! Oz
 
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Still no sign of this on BBCHD, even though you can pre-order the series on Blu-ray from amazon.co.uk We do pay for the BBC don't we:confused:
 
Such a shame this has not been broadcast in HD so far. There has been some spectacular scenery so far, especially in the balloon ride he took.
Dave
 
With the shocking low birate and quality of BBC HD at the moment, they wont be much differece in the HD or SD version. If BBc were to increase Birate levels to what they once were then this is an entirely different story.
 
just spotted this in hmv on bluray, and still no sign on bbchd :/
 
just spotted this in hmv on bluray, and still no sign on bbchd :/

Yep - spotted it on Blu-ray as well.

I suspect it is an independent production and thus could have been shot and edited in HD (for future sales reasons - particularly for US broadcast outlets), but not co-commissioned (and thus co-funded) by BBC HD?

If the BBC only commissioned it in SD and only paid for the SD version, then they will only have SD broadcast rights presumably?

This is where independent productions for the BBC differ from BBC in-house productions. An indy can chose to invest their own money in a production to cover the HD costs (as was the case with Life on Mars (*)) - but this doesn't mean the BBC get the HD version... (Even though they've funded the series)

Also - these days indies retain full rights after a relatively short period of time - though in some cases the BBC don't pay the full production cost in return AIUI.

(*) Though Life on Mars was shot on Super 16 film so wouldn't be broadcast on BBC HD anyway...
 
(*) Though Life on Mars was shot on Super 16 film so wouldn't be broadcast on BBC HD anyway...

Does that make the bluray release of Life on Mars rubbish quality, or the BBC's decision to not allow super 16 ridiculous?
 
Does that make the bluray release of Life on Mars rubbish quality, or the BBC's decision to not allow super 16 ridiculous?

Apparantly, the decision not to show super16 material on BBC-HD was down to tests which showed that when subjected broadcast-grade compression, this didn't look good enough.

However, the massive bitrate afforded to blu-ray would essentially mean that this is not an issue.

That's the theory, anyway! Not seen any reports on how good the blurays look.
 

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