HD Fiasco

[Woebot]

One for the TV tech nerds out there, though this will affect everyone.

I'd paraphrase it, but this man says it extremely well:

http://www.hdtvexpert.com/pages_b/reality.html

Oh, well, I paraphrase it any way! (badly)

The long and short of it is that HD (as it's currently heading to your TV sets) is atrociously compromised.

You're being promised frames 1080 pixels wide by 1920 wide (massively larger than what we get in the UK and US at the moment at 720 x 576 and 720 x 480) at 24 fps.

However TVs wont be able to handle either the frame rate (theyd have to double the hz refresh rate for it to be watchable, and they can't cope with that, even though some PC monitors can handle it) also they wont be able to handle the image size, they'll probably have to (GET THIS) quarter its size to 540 x 960.

Also the TV stations will have to compress it so much to fit through their tiny pipes (bandwidth....) that it'll look crap. On a HD TV it'll look like shit!!!! Even the new BluRay DVDs don't have a big enough bandwidth to play it. It's chaos in short!

End of the world innit Anyway, check the link..... and don't buy any HD hardware *yet*

 

[zhao]

well I hope you're right on this one and HD never comes to pass because rendering for a HD project is a friggin BITCH and a half. (I suppose eventually the processors in our computers will catch up... IF we are all still around by then)

 

[seahorsegenius]

Oh well. It just seems too soon for the whole HD-era (HD-DVD and Bluray). People are just now converting all of their VHS' to dvd and dvd burners are just now going mainstream. As much as I would like better video experiences, I could easily see HD-DVD and Bluray slowly slipping into obscurity (except for the techheads) just like SACD, Minidisc, or whatever new format is being released this month.

 

[bruno]

that article is depressing! you have to wonder why anyone would waste resources (both consumers and their own) over an old spec like HD-TV. whatever happened to the goal of 4096x2060? and the 7680x4320@60fps demoed by the NHK? (well that's a bit too much!)

as for storage, this blu-ray/hd-dvd thing is nonsense. 50GB? i'll wait for holgraphic discs, thank you.

 

[bassnation]

i've got a plasma that is capable of 1024 x 768 res - whats that, 720p in HD terms?

the only device i've got which is capable of displaying at that res is an xbox 360 - and even then, dvds are not upscaled. i also heard that the broadcasters want end to end encryption for high def and that in itself will render things like my tv obselete.