Pssst - wanna know more about the Freeview HD trial? We persuaded one of the triallists to tell us what they think of HD through an aerial so far.
"Well I'm one of the lucky 450 on the trial and I'm enjoying it immensely. I don't have any reception problems whatsoever, although from other people on the trial it sounds like ITV, C4 & Five are slightly more sensitive and difficult to pick up. I imagine this is purely down to the low power transmission as part of the trial. So far Five is the only channel yet to have broadcast in HD, they start on the 13th July. They will be showing (amongst other things) House, Everybody Hates Chris & CSI in HD. They've also got the movies Cocktail and Cable Guy coming up.
Channel 4 have shown a few episodes from both Season 1 & 2 of Lost and Desperate Housewives. They have also shown 'Totally Frank' a rather poor T4 girl band program, although the picture quality is nice! They're also showing some filmfour produced films. So far 'The Woodlanders', 'Gregory's Two Girls' & 'The Debt Collector' have been shown. 'Late Night Shopping' and 'Trainspotting' are coming up soon. So far the films and TV progs have been shown OAR (original aspect ratio) and ad free! ITV & the Beeb have been showing World Cup matches in HD, boy, do they look great! ITV's studio chat is only in SD, whereas the Beeb's is all HD which, again, looks great.
Overall everything so far has been 1080i (and I imagine this is the way it will stay). Quality varies depending upon the source material. Desperate Housewives (35mm film), The Debt Collector (35mm film) and clips of Planet Earth (HD video? on the looping BBC HD promo) have been the most impressive to me so far. Can't wait to see the whole of Planet Earth and Lost (missed the few they've shown so far!). I can't say how it compares to SkyHD or TelewestHD as I haven't been able to see these for myself. I'm watching on a Toshiba 32WLT66, for anyone who's interested!
I must say the only disappointment is missing my PVR! I'm so used to being able to pause, rewind etc it's something I quite miss on HD. Also ITV's coverage of the World Cup is atrocious - too many ads! Another thing you guys might be interested in is the use of on-screen logos (or DOGS). This has caused a bit of debate on the trial forum and I'm trying to get everyone to make sure their opinion is heard - after all this trial could affect how everyone else eventually gets to see Freeview HD! ITV's & C4's logos are very distracting, too bright and not see-through enough. The Beeb's is less distracting, although I would like to see all of them banished. I'm sure they debate will continue!
Finally, everyone who's come round to see it has been very impressed and can clearly see the difference between HD and SD. There is definitely a great sense of depth to the image. Sometimes you do actually feel as if you can reach out and touch it! God, I must be a marketing departments dream! Ha!"
Desperate Housewives? 35mm? Are you sure?
Hmm, you may have got me there. Just checked on IMDB and it states 16mm. Although I wouldn't be surprised if they went to 35mm for the second season (bigger budget and all).
Lost is definitely 35mm however and I can't wait to see it!
Ads during the world cup? I don't remember seeing any ads during the 90 minutes of playing time, unlike say the grand prix where we get ads every 5 mins during the race!
By ads I mean during their pre/during/post match chats.
There seems to be more ads than anything else (except during the 90mins of course).
I know they can't really compete with the Beeb, but it really is a real distraction none theless.
Still, we all get the ITV ads (I can't believe they even squeezed them in between the national anthems and the kickoff - argh!)
Again, the logos are something we all have to put up with to some degree on digital, but maybe it's worse on the trial - and also because they cater for people on 4:3 ratio, on widescreen the logos are far from left of screen. Still, at least there's no burn-in problem on my LCD screen! :)
Glad the trial is working well for you.
I understand the ITV ads thing is not specific to HD, just wanted to moan about it in general!
The logos on ITV, C4 are especially annoying because they aren't all that transparent. So they stand out more and really are obvious on darker shots. The beebs isn't so noticable, but I'd really like to see them banished whatever the case. Too much dumbing down! We know which channel we're on! Multi-channel TV is no excuse either. STB often display the channel on their front display and you can always bring up the channel info with a simple button press!
Looking forward to wimbledon today. Although something makes me think all we'll see today is some lovely green covers keeping the rain away! Ha! Love this timing for the rain!
I too am on the trial and have to say that the footie does indeed look fantastic. I can still watch the games in non-HD without getting too annoyed by the lack of clarity, but you notice how in SD transmissions they seem to really turn up the colour to give the picture a more vivid look when compared to the HD picture which looks a whole lot more real. One of my flat mates does not like this and I agree that the pictures can look artificially bright.
Yet to see a Planet Earth ep in HD, can't wait. C4 has been disappointing thus far really, I hope they ramp it up. C5 stuff could be promising. The new trailer the BBC have added for the Proms is very impressive in both picture and sound.
what the frequency of the hd trailers on freeview? i have an hauppauge dvb card and want to check it out.
You might want to take a look at this forum:
http://forum.digitalspy.co.uk/board/showthread.php?p=9187007#post9187007
It has lots of info trying to view/recieve the HD broadcasts on a PC. It's not a simple task as you will see. Good luck though!
P.S The bits of wimbledon I've caught so far look great!
Let's get the channel broadcasters, to bannish the channel idents. By letting them know we dislike like them, the way they intrude our viewing pleasure. It has been a long time coming for this to happen. We all have the power of word, being trialists more so, to get rid of them for everyone. We can control the future of this, if we speak out together.
Did you have dogs on analogue No, so why would you accept them on digital. Whether they are transparent or not. They spoil the program showing, being always in your eyeline. I know the channel i'm i tuned into it, i'm not dumb. If i was dumb i could look at the info or the digital box.
You have the power now, that will affect the future digital viewing in the uk. Use it to your advantage, to get rid of these.
Below are all similar terms, they mean the same.
Channel Logo
Logo
Dog
Ident
Channel Ident
Make again tv viewing, an enjoyable experience again, without these to distract our viewing.
I've read that signal acquisition in 1080i is not a good idea, that it leads to shearing etc. 720p or perhaps even 1080p is a better way to go apparently (especially for sports). Here's hoping they might consider this as part of the trial / rollout.
Maybe I'm confused though, are the signals ACQUIRED in 1080p or 720p? (And just transmitted in 1080i?)
What cameras equipment and so on do the beeb and itv etc have?
Here's the article:
http://www.projectorcentral.com/hd-dvd.htm
"Unfortunately many folks are confusing 1080i acquisition with 1080i transmission. The primary reason we get interlacing artifacts in a 480i, 576i, or 1080i signal is that the frame was originally captured in interlaced format, with the odd scan lines and even scan lines being recorded at two different moments in time."
I have a Sony Bravia HD-Ready 32" kdl-32V2000. in the channel listings there is BBC HD 1, ITV trial, C4 trial and five trial, although if i try to view these channels i can only hear the sound. apparently it's because it's broadcast as mpeg-4, instead of the usual mpeg-2. if i buy a Neotion MPEG-4 Conditional Access Module, http://www.neotion.com/products/modules.php , will i then be able to view these channels? and if so, when does the hd freeview trial end? will i then be able to view bbc hd 1 after the trial?
let me know if you have any ideas