Comments on: Daily Blog - Ross Jones - May 1, 2008: FEELING THE HD PROGRAMMING BANDWIDTH SQUEEZE. http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/blog/2008/05/01/daily-blog-ross-jones-may-1-2008-feeling-the-hd-squeeze/ Secrets of Home Theater and Hi Fi Tue, 07 Oct 2008 22:50:29 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 By: ovation http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/blog/2008/05/01/daily-blog-ross-jones-may-1-2008-feeling-the-hd-squeeze/#comment-642 ovation Fri, 02 May 2008 13:24:34 +0000 http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/blog/2008/05/01/daily-blog-ross-jones-may-1-2008-feeling-the-hd-squeeze/#comment-642 I suspect HD television broadcasts (however you get them--OTA, sat, cable, other) will go the way of music downloads--less quality for more quantity. Outside enthusiast sites like here, my conversations with people about HD are either "what's the big deal", "check out how good my TV looks (withOUT an HD signal)" or "this looks FANTASTIC (with a poorer HD signal or SD DVD scaled by the player or display). When people see my setup (a modest one, in terms of video especially--720p projector on 64 inch homemade 16x9 screen, calibrated with an SD copy of DVE), they are impressed with the PQ but assume it takes "too much work" for them to get the same or better picture. With a general attitude like that, and a continual flow of cheaper and inferior displays hitting the market (leaving aside any proper calibration)--HD-Lite will appear "good enough" for the masses--and "the masses" is where broadcasters aim. I'm sure audiophiles feel the same about the general state of affairs regarding music options. I would love for hi-res MCH to be the new standard--but it will never be (sadly). Others who favour 2 channel would still rather see full-res/properly mastered music to be the norm. That ship has sailed as well. For any A/V experience, like in many other hobbies, enthusiasts will do what they can to get the best they can within their means, but they will always be wanting for more because "the masses" (for entirely legitimate reasons--people are free to have different priorities in life) will always settle for "good enough". I settle for "good enough" with computers while my nephew would NEVER do so. However, he's more than happy with his iPod with lossy music tracks (he can carry TEN THOUSAND songs, don'tcha know) and cannot fathom the idea of sitting in a chair just to listen to music. So, I wish you luck with getting the best HD programming you can, but I've resigned myself to accepting that broadcast HD will never be as good as possible, but merely good enough. That said, at the moment, the HD I DO get from Canadian cable (especially from Canadian channels as they don't yet have to compete for "bandwidth" the same way as US channels do) is quite good. But I don't expect it to stay that way (the cynic in me comes out). I suspect HD television broadcasts (however you get them–OTA, sat, cable, other) will go the way of music downloads–less quality for more quantity. Outside enthusiast sites like here, my conversations with people about HD are either “what’s the big deal”, “check out how good my TV looks (withOUT an HD signal)” or “this looks FANTASTIC (with a poorer HD signal or SD DVD scaled by the player or display). When people see my setup (a modest one, in terms of video especially–720p projector on 64 inch homemade 16×9 screen, calibrated with an SD copy of DVE), they are impressed with the PQ but assume it takes “too much work” for them to get the same or better picture. With a general attitude like that, and a continual flow of cheaper and inferior displays hitting the market (leaving aside any proper calibration)–HD-Lite will appear “good enough” for the masses–and “the masses” is where broadcasters aim.

I’m sure audiophiles feel the same about the general state of affairs regarding music options. I would love for hi-res MCH to be the new standard–but it will never be (sadly). Others who favour 2 channel would still rather see full-res/properly mastered music to be the norm. That ship has sailed as well.

For any A/V experience, like in many other hobbies, enthusiasts will do what they can to get the best they can within their means, but they will always be wanting for more because “the masses” (for entirely legitimate reasons–people are free to have different priorities in life) will always settle for “good enough”. I settle for “good enough” with computers while my nephew would NEVER do so. However, he’s more than happy with his iPod with lossy music tracks (he can carry TEN THOUSAND songs, don’tcha know) and cannot fathom the idea of sitting in a chair just to listen to music.

So, I wish you luck with getting the best HD programming you can, but I’ve resigned myself to accepting that broadcast HD will never be as good as possible, but merely good enough. That said, at the moment, the HD I DO get from Canadian cable (especially from Canadian channels as they don’t yet have to compete for “bandwidth” the same way as US channels do) is quite good. But I don’t expect it to stay that way (the cynic in me comes out).

]]> By: Tyler http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/blog/2008/05/01/daily-blog-ross-jones-may-1-2008-feeling-the-hd-squeeze/#comment-636 Tyler Thu, 01 May 2008 21:19:24 +0000 http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/blog/2008/05/01/daily-blog-ross-jones-may-1-2008-feeling-the-hd-squeeze/#comment-636 Satellite providers have their own picture quality issues? Have you seen Directv's MPEG-4 HD channels? There are no picture issues. :) Yes, the old original HD channels in MPEG-2 definitely suffer from all kinds of compression artifacts but it is only a short matter of time before they are transferred over to MPEG-4. All HD locals are in MPEG-4 already also. Did I mention that D*TV is cheaper per month than cable (at least it is in my area) and has more channels? Satellite providers have their own picture quality issues? Have you seen Directv’s MPEG-4 HD channels? There are no picture issues. :) Yes, the old original HD channels in MPEG-2 definitely suffer from all kinds of compression artifacts but it is only a short matter of time before they are transferred over to MPEG-4.

All HD locals are in MPEG-4 already also. Did I mention that D*TV is cheaper per month than cable (at least it is in my area) and has more channels?

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