Do you think we will ever see US Sports in HD?

si2k2000

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As the title suggests, what do you think are the chances? There is lots of coverage of US sports and most are broadcast in the states in HD so whats to stop us receieving them once we have HD boxes?
 
True that most US sports is show in HD.
Unfortunately we can't directly see their satellite (or OTA) transmissions.
The screening rights would have to be purchased by a European channel or channels with HD capability - but I am sure that , in time, this will happen.

Chris Muriel, Manchester
 
Some unscrupulous people can see US sports in hd at the moment.
 
si2k2000 said:
As the title suggests, what do you think are the chances? There is lots of coverage of US sports and most are broadcast in the states in HD so whats to stop us receieving them once we have HD boxes?

I think a lot might be a better way of phrasing it rather than most. There is still a significant amount of SD sports (though more HD than in Europe). In particular Golf is still quite SD heavy - as HD radio cameras are more of a challenge, and Golf coverage uses more rad cams than most other sports.

If Sky Sports show some of the US sporting events then they may decide to backhaul in HD - but I doubt Five will be interested in doing so for the short term. There is also the issue of whether the international, rather than domestic feed, is available in HD. If the only HD feed is covered with sponsors stings etc., then you wouldn't be able to show it in the UK without potting out of the stings (as the laws on product placement and sponsorship are different)
 
if your thinking of sky HD and stuff like wrestlemania in HD then yes it will happen, only problem is sky will transcode the footage on the fly from 60hz to 50hz. they will never broadcast hd in 60hz they said EVEN THO A HDMI TV WILL TAKE 60HZ

stupid i know, inferior quality and more work, but thats how its gonna be :rolleyes:
 
stefmcd said:
Some unscrupulous people can see US sports in hd at the moment.

Is unscrupulous the right description I wonder ?! So are you saying there are some FTA HD sports feeds in KU band ? Come on spill the beans, what sat etc ?!
 
News to me.
I very rarely see (or hear of through feed hunting groups) any HD sports feeds from the USA.
There may be a transitory one spotted about once every 2 months.
Also some appear during trade shows like IBC every autumn.

Chris Muriel, Manchester
 
Actually I did get for a while the HD 'feed' on 5 east for Torino, only mangaed to record 35mins of it before Alt DVB 2.0 crashed

Jay Leno and Letterman are in HD so perhaps we'll see the HD feeds instead of the SD ones eventually...
 
Since Sky are going to launch a specific "Sky Sports HD" channel, according to a link in this forum, it is logical that hey will want to have a high proprtion of stuff in proper HD on this channel.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that since SS have the rights to NFL, which re-starts in September, they will have it on the new HD channel. As many have noted, it will require a seperate contract, but hopefully they will push this to fill the HD channel with content. Otherwise why would they bother with HD at all ?

Has anyone found out if the new Sky HD channels will actually be available to Telewest subscribers ? There are Sky channels currently (sky 2 and 3) that i don't think TW broadcast. Would be gutted if Sky didnt sell the HD ones to TW to try to get more poeple to have dishes :eek:
 
There is a precedent for SKY channels to take a long time to filter down to cable and I can not see SKY damaging their own HD product by supplying HD content to a competitor who loans HD boxes:)

Long term yes but SKY will want to establish themselves first.
TW of course will have BBC HD content, PPV movies and have contracts with Pathe and other third parties which will support their Teleport/OndDemand service.
 
It would be nice to get US sports widescreen from sky, let alone in HD!
 
JagoPlasma said:
if your thinking of sky HD and stuff like wrestlemania in HD then yes it will happen, only problem is sky will transcode the footage on the fly from 60hz to 50hz. they will never broadcast hd in 60hz they said EVEN THO A HDMI TV WILL TAKE 60HZ

stupid i know, inferior quality and more work, but thats how its gonna be :rolleyes:

Not at all stupid - you try building a transmission / presentation area that can cope with multiple frame rates... You'd end up with a horrendous mess on transmission, with no slick presentation. The complaints from people as their displays froze whilst they re-locked and brought up a mess of on-screen text telling you the new input format would be significant.

Europe is 50Hz for TV. That isn't going to change. Standards conversion continues to improve though.
 
i dont see how it would be a problem, if the sky box uses HDMI and is supposed to be for hi def then i dont see why they cant transmit in 60hz. component and scart also support 60hz but at the end of the day this is about hdmi and the people buying HD will want it for HD.

i see it as a great oppertunity to bring in what id consider a "very cool" feature. if peoples displays flicker from switching 50hz to 60hz just because ad break come on im sure they wont mind. either that or during the ad's they could broadcast 60hz versions.

yes there are timing issues like a ntsc film will finish faster than a PAL film, but we are not talking about films here we are talking about live sporting events which will always last the same length of time nomatter what hz they are being broadcast in.

id imagine its a damn site easier AND cheaper to plug one socket to another than it is to add a very expensive 60 to 50hz transcoder in there, which will alter the viewing experience for the worse anyway...
 
Starburst said:
There is a precedent for SKY channels to take a long time to filter down to cable and I can not see SKY damaging their own HD product by supplying HD content to a competitor who loans HD boxes:)

Long term yes but SKY will want to establish themselves first.
TW of course will have BBC HD content, PPV movies and have contracts with Pathe and other third parties which will support their Teleport/OndDemand service.

Bugger - i didn't think of that when i ordered the TV drive. Although we can't have disches pn our block, so i have no choice really.

If i have to buy a "house" in London rather than a flat to have Sky HD rather than cable, thats going to add about half a mill to the cost of HD :rotfl: :rotfl:
 
meltonboy said:
Bugger - i didn't think of that when i ordered the TV drive. Although we can't have disches pn our block, so i have no choice really.

If i have to buy a "house" in London rather than a flat to have Sky HD rather than cable, thats going to add about half a mill to the cost of HD :rotfl: :rotfl:

do you have a window pointing in the right direction? ;)
 
JagoPlasma said:
i dont see how it would be a problem, if the sky box uses HDMI and is supposed to be for hi def then i dont see why they cant transmit in 60hz. component and scart also support 60hz but at the end of the day this is about hdmi and the people buying HD will want it for HD.

It wouldn't be a problem technically if you ONLY showed 60Hz material on a channel - though it would mean that you'd have to standards convert to 50Hz SD to guarantee compatibility with all TV sets or if the channel were simulcast in SD, which is expensive to do well and would cause a quality loss in SD.

However the real problem, and the reason nobody in the world has done this, is because it is impossible (with current technology) to run a real network natively in more than one frame rate or resolution standard. Believe me It is still not easy to do it in two aspect ratios at the same resolution and frame rate.

If you were showing 50Hz football and then 60Hz basketball, you'd have to do the frame rate/field rate switch somehow - and the whole way broadcast areas are built is based around a single, frame rate. Whilst modern gear may be multi-standard - the switching between standards is not something you can do whilst the gear is on-air. You end up with all sorts of issues - mostly engineering. However you'd also have to significantly compromise the "presentation" of your channel - you wouldn't be able to do any transition between 50Hz and 60Hz material other than a fade to/from black or a cut. Not acceptable in a modern transmission environment.

Sure - receivers and displays may cope with 60Hz (though SCART doesn't guarantee 60Hz compatibility - I have at least one SCART display that is 50Hz only) that doesn't mean it is possible to broadcast a mixed 50 / 60Hz network...

i see it as a great oppertunity to bring in what id consider a "very cool" feature. if peoples displays flicker from switching 50hz to 60hz just because ad break come on im sure they wont mind. either that or during the ad's they could broadcast 60hz versions.
I don't think many broadcasters would be happy to accept a channel that jumps and flickers / freezes for a couple of seconds - and I don't think many advertisers would want to have their commercials quality reduced by standards conversion.
yes there are timing issues like a ntsc film will finish faster than a PAL film, but we are not talking about films here we are talking about live sporting events which will always last the same length of time nomatter what hz they are being broadcast in.

Yep - the issues aren't timing and duration - they are basic broadcast engineering issues. Broadcast gear is locked to a frame rate specific timing signal. When you change the frame rate, you have to change this, and most gear will take a while to re-lock, and some requires a power-down...

id imagine its a damn site easier AND cheaper to plug one socket to another than it is to add a very expensive 60 to 50hz transcoder in there, which will alter the viewing experience for the worse anyway...

A standards converter that is used for the odd 60Hz game will be a LOT cheaper than building a multi-standard transmission area, that can't actually be built using current technology. It isn't just a "plug and socket" thing believe me. Building an HD playout area for one frame rate isn't entirely trivial.

Afraid it is easier to imagine it than build it.
 
hi,
to answer the original question.
yes, we will get hd american sports.
when ?
not sure.
but as espn is soon to launch a channel on sky soon , it is hoped that they will go the hd route sooner rather than later as they already have the content.
 
mo said:
hi,
to answer the original question.
yes, we will get hd american sports.
when ?
not sure.
but as espn is soon to launch a channel on sky soon , it is hoped that they will go the hd route sooner rather than later as they already have the content.

I suspect that the ESPN we get in the UK will be similar to the ESPN that has been broadcast in the rest of Europe for quite a while. It isn't actually broadcast from the US - but is instead played-out from White City by Red Bee (who until very recently were BBC Broadcast, and also handle all the BBC and UKTV playout) Red Bee are able to cope with HD I believe - but I would be surprised if ESPN went to the expense of launching in HD initially. (Isn't the European channel more a "classic sport" service? ISTR that NASN have quite a lot of the live US sports?)
 
meltonboy said:
Interesting point. How big are sky dishes these days ?

quite small, look on peoples houses for an oval shape dish (also will help you know if your window is pointing in the right derection ;) )

id say its smaller than an 18" tft monitor
 
meltonboy said:
Interesting point. How big are sky dishes these days ?




The majority of the UK use a Zone 1 (45cm dish) with a Zone 2 (60cm) for some western and northen locations.
 

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